Maimonides and the shaping of the Jewish Canon / James A. Diamond, University of Waterloo, Ontario.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Diamond, James Arthur, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Maimonides, Moses, 1135-1204--Philosophy.

Maimonides, Moses.

Maimonides, Moses, 1135-1204--Influence.

Jewish philosophy.

Philosophy, Medieval.

Jewish philosophers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 319 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Maimonides & the Shaping of the Jewish Canon

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Summary:

Jewish thought since the Middle Ages can be regarded as a sustained dialogue with Moses Maimonides, regardless of the different social, cultural, and intellectual environments in which it was conducted. Much of Jewish intellectual history can be viewed as a series of engagements with him, fueled by the kind of 'Jewish' rabbinic and esoteric writing Maimonides practiced. This book examines a wide range of theologians, philosophers, and exegetes who share a passionate engagement with Maimonides, assaulting, adopting, subverting, or adapting his philosophical and jurisprudential thought. This ongoing enterprise is critical to any appreciation of the broader scope of Jewish law, philosophy, biblical interpretation, and Kabbalah. Maimonides's legal, philosophical, and exegetical corpus became canonical in the sense that many subsequent Jewish thinkers were compelled to struggle with it in order to advance their own thought. As such, Maimonides joins fundamental Jewish canon alongside the Bible, the Talmud, and the Zohar.

Contents:

Introduction: Moses Maimonides: anchoring Jewish intellectual history

Setting the stage for the future of Jewish thought

Maimonides on Maimonides: loving God rabbinically and philosophically

Nahmanides on Jewish identity (13th century): launching the Kabbalistic assault

R. Yom Tov ben Abraham Ishbili (13th-14th century): pushing back the assault

Isaac Abarbanel (15th century): the Akedah of faith vs. the Akedah of reason

Meir ibn Gabbai (16th century): the aimlessness of philosophy

Spinoza (17th century) and a Buberian afterword (20th century): reorienting Maimonides' scriptural hermeneutic

Hermann Cohen (19th century): a new religion of reason out of the sources of Maimonides

R. Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (19th century): loving God strictly rabbinically

R. Abraham Isaac Kook (20th century): a Kabbalistic reinvention of Maimonides' legal code

Conclusion: the Maimonidean filigree of Jewish thought: Kafka, Scholem, and beyond.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-139-89975-9

1-139-91532-0

1-139-90560-0

1-139-90363-2

1-139-90753-0

1-107-63637-X

1-107-47803-0

1-139-91924-5

1-139-91138-4

1-139-92312-9