Come behind the scenes with Zevi as he tries to figure out what is going on in Maimonides’ Guide with the help of a new friend, the young and brilliant scholar David Fried.
David Fried teaches Talmud, Halakha, and Jewish Thought at the Ramaz Upper School in New York City. He is also an editor and frequent contributor at thelehrhaus.com David’s articles can be found here: https://thelehrhaus.com/author/davidfried/
These are David's two articles referenced in the conversation:
https://thelehrhaus.com/scholarship/mysticism-and-its-alternatives-rethinking-maimonides/
https://thelehrhaus.com/scholarship/revisiting-maimonidess-merkavah-chapters/
Full “Maimonides and Mysticism” Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_7jcKJs6iwXUKaVOvNJWr5DSLPTYV0j9
00:00 Excerpts
01:38 About David and how he got into Maimonides and Mysticism
04:41 Synthesizing Maimonides and Mysticism
06:32 The Article and Beyond
08:00 David's New Thinking - Negative Theology
09:00 Maimonides shift away from Aristotelianism
10:38 Why Negative Theology?
12:46 Away from Aristotle
14:55 The Goal of Prophecy
17:26 Questioning Motivations
19:24 What’s Maimonides moving towards?
23:09 Into the Contradictions
25:52 David’s take on Hakham Jose Faur
27:48 What about Emanationism?
28:53 Some other Scholars
30:26 Mysticism and (Muslim) Philosophy
32:37 Maimonides
33:29 Critical Feedback on the Series
34:54 Was Maimonides a Pantheist?
39:49 Maimonides’ Two Gods
43:28 Does Union ever happen with God?
47:23 The Theological Irony of it All
49:49 Whom does Maimonides speak of in 3.51?
52:57 An Orthodox Façade?
54:11 Can the Human Experience God?
1:02:33 Feel like I’m missing something…
1:04:04 Etcetera
1:05:21 Guide ‘for’ the Perplexed or ‘of’ the Perplexed?
1:07:42 Again, the Irony
1:09:20 Towards a Phenomenology of Maimonides Mysticism
1:13:04 Ethics of Imitating God. The End of the Guide
1:16:18 Who was the Real Maimonides?
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