Download or read book Between Rashi and Maimonides written by Ephraim Kanarfogel and published by Ktav Publishing House. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The genesis of this volume was an international conference held at Yeshiva University in late 2004, to mark both the 900th anniversary of the passing of Rashi (1040-1105) and the 800th anniversary of the passing of Maimonides (d. 1204).
Download or read book Maimonides Confrontation with Mysticism written by Menachem Kellner and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2006-09-21 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maimonides’ vision of Judaism was deeply elitist, but at the same time profoundly universalistic. He was highly critical of the regnant Jewish culture of his day, which he perceived as so heavily influenced by ancient Jewish mysticism as to be debased. While focusing on that critique, Menachem Kellner skilfully and accessibly demonstrates how Maimonides used philosophy to purify a corrupted and paganized religion, and to present distinctions fundamental to Judaism as institutional, sociological, and historical, rather than ontological. In Maimonides’ hands, metaphysical distinctions are translated into moral challenges.
Download or read book Maimonides written by Israel Drazin and published by Gefen Publishing House Ltd. This book was released on 2008 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the remarkable penetrating mind of Moses Maimonides and to his rational eye-opening thoughts on many subjects. It includes ideas that are not incorporated in the usual books about this great philosopher because they are so different than the traditional thinking of the vast majority of people. It contrasts the notions of other Jewish thinkers, somewhat rational and others not rational at all. The reader will be surprised, if not shocked, to learn that a host of beliefs that are prevalent among the Jewish masses have no rational basis. This does not suggest that Judaism itself is irrational and absurd. Just the opposite. But many Jews have opted to believe the unreasonable and illogical conventional ideas what Maimonides would label non-Jewish sabian notions because they have not been acquainted with Maimonides correct rational alternatives and taken the time to reflect upon it.
Download or read book Maimonides written by Moshe Halbertal and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-11-24 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive and accessible account of the life and thought of Judaism's most celebrated philosopher Maimonides was the greatest Jewish philosopher and legal scholar of the medieval period, a towering figure who has had a profound and lasting influence on Jewish law, philosophy, and religious consciousness. This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to his life and work, revealing how his philosophical sensibility and outlook informed his interpretation of Jewish tradition. Moshe Halbertal vividly describes Maimonides's childhood in Muslim Spain, his family's flight to North Africa to escape persecution, and their eventual resettling in Egypt. He draws on Maimonides's letters and the testimonies of his contemporaries, both Muslims and Jews, to offer new insights into his personality and the circumstances that shaped his thinking. Halbertal then turns to Maimonides's legal and philosophical work, analyzing his three great books—Commentary on the Mishnah, the Mishneh Torah, and the Guide of the Perplexed. He discusses Maimonides's battle against all attempts to personify God, his conviction that God's presence in the world is mediated through the natural order rather than through miracles, and his locating of philosophy and science at the summit of the religious life of Torah. Halbertal examines Maimonides's philosophical positions on fundamental questions such as the nature and limits of religious language, creation and nature, prophecy, providence, the problem of evil, and the meaning of the commandments. A stunning achievement, Maimonides offers an unparalleled look at the life and thought of this important Jewish philosopher, scholar, and theologian.
Download or read book Rashi s Commentary on the Torah written by Eric Lawee and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Jewish Book Council Nahum M. Sarna Memorial Award in Scholarship This book explores the reception history of the most important Jewish Bible commentary ever composed, the Commentary on the Torah of Rashi (Shlomo Yitzhaki; 1040-1105). Though the Commentary has benefited from enormous scholarly attention, analysis of diverse reactions to it has been surprisingly scant. Viewing its path to preeminence through a diverse array of religious, intellectual, literary, and sociocultural lenses, Eric Lawee focuses on processes of the Commentary's canonization and on a hitherto unexamined--and wholly unexpected--feature of its reception: critical, and at times astonishingly harsh, resistance to it. Lawee shows how and why, despite such resistance, Rashi's interpretation of the Torah became an exegetical classic, a staple in the curriculum, a source of shared religious vocabulary for Jews across time and place, and a foundational text that shaped the Jewish nation's collective identity. The book takes as its larger integrating perspective processes of canonicity as they shape how traditions flourish, disintegrate, or evolve. Rashi's scriptural magnum opus, the foremost work of Franco-German (Ashkenazic) biblical scholarship, faced stiff competition for canonical supremacy in the form of rationalist reconfigurations of Judaism as they developed in Mediterranean seats of learning. It nevertheless emerged triumphant in an intense battle for Judaism's future that unfolded in late medieval and early modern times. Investigation of the reception of the Commentary throws light on issues in Jewish scholarship and spirituality that continue to stir reflection, and even passionate debate, in the Jewish world today.
Download or read book Maimonidean studies 2 1991 1992 written by Arthur Hyman and published by KTAV Publishing House, Inc.. This book was released on 1992 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rashi written by Avraham Grossman and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-27 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The influence on Jewish thinking of Rashi’s commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud remains unsurpassed. This biographical study presents a masterly survey of the social and cultural background of Rashi’s work, his personality, his reputation, and his influence, while also considering his sources, his interpretative method, his innovations, and his style and language. The central contribution, however, is the in-depth analysis of Rashi’s world-view, which leads to conclusions that are likely to stimulate much debate.
Download or read book Maimonides Hidden Torah Commentary Volume I Genesis 1 21 written by Michael Leo Samuel and published by First Edition Design Pub.. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The epitaph on Maimonides’s tombstone reads, “From Moses (the prophet) to Moses, there was none like Moses (Maimonides).” The name, “Moses Maimonides” (1138-1204) is an acronym for his Hebraic name Moses ben Maimon). For centuries, yeshiva scholars and students alike affectionately refer to him by the epithet, “the Rambam.” Just as the original Moses became the founder of the religion of ancient Israel, Moses Maimonides redefined Judaism for the future generations—more so than any other Judaic thinker or Halakhic scholar who came before or after him. Modern Judaism owes its conceptual and legal foundations to this remarkable thinker. This remarkable person occupies a rare position in the annals of Jewish history and is widely considered as one of the greatest Jewish thinkers and philosophers who ever lived. Maimonides stature reached almost mythic proportions. Jews of all modern religious persuasions—from the ultra-liberal to the Haredi branches of Orthodoxy each claim Maimonides as their patron hero. Both Christian and Islamic thinkers held Maimonides (who refer to him as Musa ibn Maymun in Arabic writings) in high regard. I have been impressed with the writings of Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel ever since I read his first book on Philo. I enjoyed the comprehensive nature of his writings and the many insights in his books. I liked that he described Philo’s views in an easy to read manner and compared Philo views with those of many ancient and modern writers. Since that time, I wrote six reviews of his Philo books and praised them all. There is much in them that will interest and teach both scholars and readers who had no idea beforehand about this first century philosopher, or just a little information about him. Reading Rabbi Samuel’s books will introduce readers to a large number of Philo ideas, those of other thinkers on the ideas, including the Talmuds and Midrashim, and about philosophy and Judaism generally. Thus, when Rabbi Samuel asked me to write the Foreword to his first book on Maimonides, I was very pleased to accept his offer, both out of respect for his scholarship and because I wrote many books and articles on Maimonides myself. – Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin
Download or read book Rashi written by Elie Wiesel and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the Jewish Encounter series From Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, comes a magical book that introduces us to the towering figure of Rashi—Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki—the great biblical and Talmudic commentator of the Middle Ages. Wiesel brilliantly evokes the world of medieval European Jewry, a world of profound scholars and closed communities ravaged by outbursts of anti-Semitism and decimated by the Crusades. The incomparable scholar Rashi, whose phrase-by-phrase explication of the oral law has been included in every printing of the Talmud since the fifteenth century, was also a spiritual and religious leader: His perspective, encompassing both the mundane and the profound, is timeless. Wiesel’s Rashi is a heartbroken witness to the suffering of his people, and through his responses to major religious questions of the day we see still another side of this greatest of all interpreters of the sacred writings. Both beginners and advanced students of the Bible rely on Rashi’s groundbreaking commentary for simple text explanations and Midrashic interpretations. Wiesel, a descendant of Rashi, proves an incomparable guide who enables us to appreciate both the lucidity of Rashi’s writings and the milieu in which they were formed.
Download or read book Religious Zionism Jewish Law and the Morality of War written by Robert Eisen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the state of Israel was established in 1948, it has been plagued by war, and that has presented religious Zionists with an immense challenge. Jewish law prior to 1948 includes little material on war because it developed during centuries when Jews had neither a state nor an army. The leading rabbis of the religious Zionist community have therefore had to create an entire body of laws on this subject where practically none had existed beforehand. These rabbis have responded to the challenge with remarkable energy and ingenuity. Religious Zionist rabbis have produced a corpus of laws on war that is both comprehensive and nuanced, and these laws now serve as a critical source of guidance for Orthodox Israelis serving in their country's military. The present study is a pioneering work on this fascinating chapter in the history of Jewish law, a chapter that, up to now, has received relatively little attention from academic scholars. Robert Eisen examines how five of the most prominent rabbis in the religious Zionist community have dealt with key moral issues in war. The figures include R. Abraham Isaac Kook, R. Isaac Halevi Herzog, R. Eliezer Waldenberg, R. Sha'ul Yisraeli, and R. Shlomo Goren. Eisen also examines how the positions of these rabbis compare with those of international law. These explorations provide critical insight into the worldview of religious Zionism, which in recent years has become increasingly influential in Israeli politics.
Download or read book Studies in Maimonides and His Interpreters written by Marc B. Shapiro and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 800 years after his death, the figure of Moses Maimonides--rabbi, philosopher, doctor, and communal leader--continues to fascinate. Studies in Maimonides and His Interpreters unites the traditional rabbinic approach and the modern academic perspective to forge a new understanding of this iconic teacher. This groundbreaking work by Marc B. Shapiro, which includes an essay on Maimonides' approach to superstition in rabbinic literature and features three previously unpublished letters by Rabbi Joseph Kafih, will be essential reading for scholars and students of Jewish studies.
Download or read book Maimonides the Rationalist written by Herbert A. Davidson and published by . This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maimonides was not the first rabbinic scholar to take an interest in philosophy, but he was unique in being a towering figure in both areas. His law code, the Mishneh torah, stands with Rashi's commentary on the Babylonian Talmud as one of the two most intensely studied works of medieval rabbinic scholarship, while his Guide for the Perplexed is the most influential and widely read Jewish philosophical work ever written. Admirers and critics have arrived at wildly divergent perceptions of the man. We have Maimonides the atheist or agnostic, Maimonides the skeptic, Maimonides the deist, Maimonides the Aristotelian, the Averroist, or proto-Kantian. We have a Maimonides seduced by the blandishments of 'accursed philosophy;' a Maimonides who sowed the seeds that led to Spanish Jews' loss of faith and mass apostasy and who was therefore responsible for the demise of Spanish Jewry; a Maimonides who incorporated philosophical elements into his rabbinic works and wrote the Guide for the Perplexed, not to propagate doctrines to which he was personally committed, but in order to rescue errant souls seduced by philosophy; a Maimonides who was the defender of the faith and defined the articles of Jewish belief for all time. In his own estimation, Maimonides was neither exclusively a dedicated philosopher nor exclusively a devoted rabbinist: he saw philosophy and the Written and Oral Torahs as a single, harmonious domain, and he believed that this view was similarly fundamental to the lives of the prophets and rabbis of old. In this book, Herbert Davidson examines Maimonides' efforts to reconstitute this all-embracing, rationalist worldview that he felt had been lost during the millennium-long exile.
Download or read book Rethinking the Messianic Idea in Judaism written by Michael L. Morgan and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-28 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the centuries, the messianic tradition has provided the language through which modern Jewish philosophers, socialists, and Zionists envisioned a utopian future. Michael L. Morgan, Steven Weitzman, and an international group of leading scholars ask new questions and provide new ways of thinking about this enduring Jewish idea. Using the writings of Gershom Scholem, which ranged over the history of messianic belief and its conflicted role in the Jewish imagination, these essays put aside the boundaries that divide history from philosophy and religion to offer new perspectives on the role and relevance of messianism today.
Download or read book Zohar the Book of Enlightenment written by Daniel Chanan Matt and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first translation with commentary of selections from The Zohar, the major text of the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. This work was written in 13th-century Spain by Moses de Leon, a Spanish scholar.
Download or read book Ethical Writings of Maimonides written by Maimonides and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-06-07 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosopher, physician, and master of rabbinical literature, Moses ben Maimon (1135-1204) strove to reconcile biblical revelation with medieval Aristotelianism. His writings, especially the celebrated Guide for the Perplexed, exercised considerable influence on both Jewish and Christian scholasticism and brought him lasting renown as one of the greatest medieval thinkers. This volume contains his most significant ethical works, newly translated from the original sources by Professors Raymond L. Weiss and Charles E. Butterworth, well-known Maimonides scholars. Previous translations have often been inadequate — either because they were not based on the best possible texts or from a lack of precision. That deficiency has been remedied in this text; the translations are based on the latest scholarship and have been made with a view toward maximum accuracy and readability. Moreover, the long "Letter to Joseph" has been translated into English for the first time. This edition includes the following selections: I. Laws Concerning Character Traits (complete) II. Eight Chapters (complete) III. On the Management of Health IV. Letter to Joseph V. Guide of the Perplexed VII. The Days of the Messiah Taken as a whole, this collection presents a comprehensive and revealing overview of Maimonides' thought regarding the relationship of revelation and reason in the sphere of ethics. Here are his teachings concerning "natural law," secular versus religious authority, the goals of moral conduct, diseases of the soul, the application of logic to ethical matters, and the messianic era. Throughout, the great sage is concerned to reconcile the apparent divergence between biblical teachings and Greek philosophy.
Download or read book Epistles of Maimonides written by Moses Maimonides and published by Jewish Publication Society. This book was released on 1993 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Features letters that represent Maimonide's response to three issues critical to Jews in his day and ours: religious persecution, the claims of Christianity and Islam and rational philosophy's challenge to faith.
Download or read book And They Shall Be One Flesh On The Language of Mystical Union in Judaism written by Adam Afterman and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-08-29 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism, Adam Afterman offers an extensive study of mystical union and embodiment in Judaism. Afterman argues that Philo was the first to articulate the notion of unio mystica in Judaism and is the source of the henōsis mysticism in the later Neoplatonic tradition. The study provides a detailed analysis of the Jewish medieval trends that developed different forms of mystical union and mystical embodiment through the divine name and spirit. The book argues that the development of unitive mysticism in Judaism is the fruit of the creative synthesis of rabbinic Judaism and Hellenistic and Arab philosophy, and a natural outcome of the theological articulation of the idea of monotheism itself.
