AI09 Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed

The Guide of the Perplexed (composed in Arabic under the title: Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn) by the “Great Eagle,” Rabbi Moses Maimonides (1138–1204), has been a philosophical tour de force in the Jewish intellectual tradition since it first appeared. And while Jewish philosophy has taken different directions over the past millennium, this extraordinary work arguably remains the single greatest text of Jewish philosophy. In this seminar, we will engage in close readings of the text on some of its key topics: the nature of biblical language, the meaning of the Garden of Eden, the significance of the account of Creation, the reality of angels, Negative Theology, the nature of prophecy and of divine providence, and the meaning of the mitzvot.