There’s been a lot of talk about whether Maimonides was a mystic. Unfortunately, the discussion has been sorely confused by a lack of clarity about the basic terms of the discussion. It’s time to clear things up and get straight about the relationship between these misused and abused words: Kabbalah, Mysticism and Rationalism. Join us for the fourth installment of our series on “Maimonides and Mysticism.”

Watch the rest of our Maimonides Series:

Part 1: Who was Maimonides? https://youtu.be/w4ZgHJxQQVo

Part 2: The Many Maimonides https://youtu.be/UbjX-ypvEys

Part 3: Maimonides and the Kabbalists https://youtu.be/8fpQPAMqATk

00:00 Kabbalah vs Mysticism

08:40 Rationalism vs Mysticism

Sources and Further Reading:

Marc Saperstein, European Judaism Volume 41, Number 2, Autumn 2008: 161–172

David Fried, Mysticism and its Alternatives: Rethinking Maimonides, Lehrhaus, 2018

Menachem Kellner, Science In The Bet Midrash: Studies in Maimonides, 2009, p. 10

Alexander Altmann, Maimonides's Attitude Toward Jewish Mysticism

Louis Jacobs, Attitudes of the Kabbalists and Hasidim towards Maimonides, in The Solomon Goldman Lectures, vol. v, 1990, pp. 45-55

Gideon Freudenthal, “The Philosophical Mysticism of Maimonides and Maimon,” in Maimonides and His Heritage, 2009, p. 116

Julius Guttmann, “Introduction” in Maimonides, The Guide of The Perplexed, An Abridged Edition, East And West Library New York, 1947, p. 7

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