Podcast: Yehuda Halper on Where to Begin With Maimonides

An expert introduces the life and mind of the rabbi and great Jewish philosopher.

A purported portrait of Maimonides from the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum, c. 1744. Wikipedia.

A purported portrait of Maimonides from the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Sacrarum, c. 1744. Wikipedia.

Observation
Jan. 12 2024
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A weekly podcast, produced in partnership with the Tikvah Fund, offering up the best thinking on Jewish thought and culture.

Podcast: Yehuda Halper

 

2024 marks 820 years since the death of Maimonides in the Egyptian city of Fustat. The main focus of his writing falls in three categories. There’s his commentary on the Mishnah and his code of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah, a monumental contribution to Jewish jurisprudence. His Guide of the Perplexed is a magnum opus of theological and philosophical puzzles and reflection. And his writings about science, health, and medicine are an expression of the expertise he developed in his career as a court physician in Egypt.

Today’s episode is the first of a multi-episode mini-series on Maimonides featuring Yehuda Halper of Bar-Ilan University, among the most distinguished scholars today of medieval Jewish philosophy and medieval Islamic philosophy, in conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver. This week, they begin the series by looking at passages from the Mishneh Torah which describe the purview of Torah study.

More about: History & Ideas, Maimonides