Author: Stephen L. Rhodes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 182

View

Book Description

Author: Moses Maimonides
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jewish philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 368

View

Book Description

Author: Moses Maimonides
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jewish philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 498

View

Book Description

Author: Moses Maimonides
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465557202
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 982

View

Book Description
“Before the sun of Eli had set the sun of Samuel had risen.” Before the voice of the prophets had ceased to guide the people, the Interpreters of the Law, the Doctors of the Talmud, had commenced their labours, and before the Academies of Sura and of Pumbadita were closed, centres of Jewish thought and learning were already flourishing in the far West. The circumstances which led to the transference of the head-quarters of Jewish learning from the East to the West in the tenth century are thus narrated in the Sefer ha-kabbalah of Rabbi Abraham ben David: “After the death of Hezekiah, the head of the Academy and Prince of the Exile, the academies were closed and no new Geonim were appointed. But long before that time Heaven had willed that there should be a discontinuance of the pecuniary gifts which used to be sent from Palestine, North Africa and Europe. Heaven had also decreed that a ship sailing from Bari should be captured by Ibn Romahis, commander of the naval forces of Abd-er-rahman al-nasr. Four distinguished Rabbis were thus made prisoners—Rabbi Ḥushiel, father of Rabbi Ḥananel, Rabbi Moses, father of Rabbi Ḥanok, Rabbi Shemarjahu, son of Rabbi Elḥanan, and a fourth whose name has not been recorded. They were engaged in a mission to collect subsidies in aid of the Academy in Sura. The captor sold them as slaves; Rabbi Ḥushiel was carried to Kairuan, R. Shemarjahu was left in Alexandria, and R. Moses was brought to Cordova. These slaves were ransomed by their brethren and were soon placed in important positions. When Rabbi Moses was brought to Cordova, it was supposed that he was uneducated. In that city there was a synagogue known at that time by the name of Keneset ha-midrash, and Rabbi Nathan, renowned for his great piety, was the head of the congregation. The members of the community used to hold meetings at which the Talmud was read and discussed. One day when Rabbi Nathan was expounding the Talmud and was unable to give a satisfactory explanation of the passage under discussion, Rabbi Moses promptly removed the difficulty and at the same time answered several questions which were submitted to him. Thereupon R. Nathan thus addressed the assembly:—‘I am no longer your leader; that stranger in sackcloth shall henceforth be my teacher, and you shall appoint him to be your chief.’ The admiral, on hearing of the high attainments of his prisoner, desired to revoke the sale, but the king would not permit this retraction, being pleased to learn that his Jewish subjects were no longer dependent for their religious instruction on the schools in the East.” Henceforth the schools in the West asserted their independence, and even surpassed the parent institutions. The Caliphs, mostly opulent, gave every encouragement to philosophy and poetry; and, being generally liberal in sentiment, they entertained kindly feelings towards their Jewish subjects. These were allowed to compete for the acquisition of wealth and honour on equal terms with their Mohammedan fellow-citizens. Philosophy and poetry were consequently cultivated by the Jews with the same zest as by the Arabs. Ibn Gabirol, Ibn Ḥasdai, Judah ha-levi, Ḥananel, Alfasi, the Ibn Ezras, and others who flourished in that period were the ornament of their age, and the pride of the Jews at all times. The same favourable condition was maintained during the reign of the Omeyades; but when the Moravides and the Almohades came into power, the horizon darkened once more, and misfortunes threatened to destroy the fruit of several centuries. Amidst this gloom there appeared a brilliant luminary which sent forth rays of light and comfort: this was Moses Maimonides.

Author: Moses Maimonides
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jewish philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 516

View

Book Description

Author: Moses Maimonides
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 9780872203242
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 260

View

Book Description
This superb abridgement and annotated translation of Maimonides' monumental work includes discussions of divine language, the scope and limits of human knowledge, cosmological doctrines concerning the creation or eternity of the world, prophecy and providence, the nature and purpose of divine law, and moral and political philosophy.

Author: Moses Maimonides
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
ISBN: 1624660754
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 251

View

Book Description
"The reissue of Guttmann's edition of Rabin's translation is a welcome event. There has long been a need for a readable, judicious edition, for classroom use, of this large and complex work." --Michael L. Morgan, Indiana University

Author: Modestus Anyaegbu
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1503512444
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 415

View

Book Description
Maimonidess rationalist rejection and interpretation of anthropomorphism play a major part in his reading of the problem of evil and providence in the guide of the perplexed. The debate has been on finding an explanation as to why the righteous suffer and the vicious prosper in a world under the providence of a divine Creator. The anthropomorphic bent given to the legendary case of the biblical Job has given us the concept of God as a personal agent. But confronted with the reality of his innocent suffering, this image of God leaves much to be desired. We shall argue that Maimonidess theory of providence as consequent upon the intellect and evil as consequent upon the absence of intellectual perfection are based on the concept of God as existence. It is the absence of intellectual perfection that marks man qua animal and leaves him open to chance occurrences and evil. A Promotional Write-Up: The present work places before us the strange position and it must be saida little bit shocking to us, of the great Jewish thinker on the question of providence. Only the intelligent, that is to say, the human beings who have effectively actualized their intellects and have come to an accomplished knowledge, are considered and personally protected by the Eternal. In other words, the traditional piety that is usually asked of the believers by religious authorities is not sufficient. This piety is still marked by illusion and does not procure for man the true knowledge of God which is worthy of him. The individual ought to overcome pietistic representations in order to open himself to divine truth which is accessible only through knowledge. This is what the Book of Job illustrates . . . At the time when the actuality does not cease to present before us the question of the status of religion and the religious within modernity, the attempt by Maimonides to articulate these two styles carries an indisputable force of conviction as shown with abundant evidence in the work presented by Modestus Anyaegbu. Jean-Michel Counet, president of the Institut Suprieur de Philosophie, Universit Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

Author: Daniel Frank
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108480519
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 327

View

Book Description
This is the first scholarly collection in English devoted to Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed.

Author: Micah Goodman
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0827611986
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 341

View

Book Description
A publishing sensation long at the top of the best-seller lists in Israel, the original Hebrew edition of Maimonides and the Book That Changed Judaism has been called the most successful book ever published in Israel on the preeminent medieval Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides. The works of Maimonides, particularly The Guide for the Perplexed, are reckoned among the fundamental texts that influenced all subsequent Jewish philosophy and also proved to be highly influential in Christian and Islamic thought. Spanning subjects ranging from God, prophecy, miracles, revelation, and evil, to politics, messianism, reason in religion, and the therapeutic role of doubt, Maimonides and the Book That Changed Judaism elucidates the complex ideas of The Guide in remarkably clear and engaging prose. Drawing on his own experience as a central figure in the current Israeli renaissance of Jewish culture and spirituality, Micah Goodman brings Maimonides's masterwork into dialogue with the intellectual and spiritual worlds of twenty-first-century readers. Goodman contends that in Maimonides's view, the Torah's purpose is not to bring clarity about God but rather to make us realize that we do not understand God at all; not to resolve inscrutable religious issues but to give us insight into the true nature and purpose of our lives.