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Title: Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed by Kenneth Seeskin ISBN: 0-87441-509-8 Publisher: Behrman House Pub. Date: October, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best introductory guide to the writer
Comment: While I agree that this is a wonderful book, I find the previous reviews on this book incomprehensible. Maimonides's writings are not at all obvious, and Maimonides himself repeatedly claimed that his philosophical writings must never be taken at face value. Rather, Maimonides continues, he is fearful of how the ignorant will not be able to understand certain philosophical concepts, and he is afraid that a straightforward discussion of certain religious/philosophical truths will cause many people to lose faith altogether. Also, Maimonides was fearful of repression by the "orthodox" Jews of his day. Then, as now, theological innovation was condidered heresy by them. Therefore Maimonides explicitly states that several of his controversial positions will only be alluded to, and "the wise will understand". Now - as then - many people are totally unable to understand Maimonides views on this subject, as they assume that his views were more or less "orthodox." (They were not).
This book by Prof. Seeskin is a good introduction to Maimonides thought. For a good introduction to why Maimonides was so controversial (both then and now), see the entry under "Maimonodean Controversy" in the Encyclopaedia Judaica. For another important discussion of the implications of Maimonide's views, see "Must a Jew Believe Anything?" by Menachem Kellner.
Rating: 5
Summary: A straightforward introduction to Moses Maimonides.
Comment: This volume is an excellent introduction to the philosophy/theology of Moses Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, or the "Rambam"). Seeskin's presentation is lucidly clear, accessible to the layperson, and blessedly free of Straussian persecution-and-the-art-of-writing searches for "hidden meanings." Seeskin levels some pointed critiques against this entire mode of interpretation and quite sensibly treats the Rambam as though he meant what he wrote. The result is a fairly short, not-overly-technical overview of the thought of the man who was undeniably far and away the greatest philosopher in Jewish history -- and, moreover, a readable introduction to systematic theology in general. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5
Summary: Straightforward and clear.
Comment: Kenneth Seeskin here presents a clear and straightforward reading of Moses Maimonides that can serve as an accessible (if not terribly deep) introduction to the thought of Judaism's greatest philosopher. Seeskin intentionally distances himself from the Straussian persecution-and-the-art-of-writing school of interpretation and wastes no time looking for "hidden meanings" buried several levels below the explicit text. The Rambam meant what he said and said what he meant; Seeskin's exposition of that meaning is lucid and intelligible.
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Title: The Guide of the Perplexed, Vol. 1 by Moses Maimonides, Shlomo Pines, Leo Strauss ISBN: 0226502309 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: June, 1963 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Maimonides Reader by Isadore Twersky ISBN: 0874412064 Publisher: Behrman House Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Introduction to the Code of Maimonides by Isadore Twersky, Isadoree Twersky, Moses Maimonides ISBN: 0300028466 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: February, 1982 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
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Title: A Guide to the Zohar by Arthur Green ISBN: 0804749086 Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr (T) Pub. Date: January, 2004 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Maimonides: A Spiritual Biography (Lives and Legacies.) by Ilil Arbel ISBN: 0824523598 Publisher: Crossroad/Herder & Herder Pub. Date: September, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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