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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