- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > Religion / Ethics
Full Description
Maimonides ends each book of his legal code the Mishneh torah with a moral or philosophical reflection, in which he lifts his eyes, as it were, from purely halakhic concerns and surveys broader horizons. Menachem Kellner and David Gillis analyse these concluding paragraphs, examining their verbal and thematic echoes, their adaptation of rabbinic sources, and the way in which they coordinate with the Mishneh torah's underlying structures, in order to understand how they might influence our interpretation of the code as a whole—and indeed our view of Maimonides himself and his philosophy.
Taking this unusual cross-section of the work, Kellner and Gillis conclude that the Mishneh torah presents not only a system of law, but also a system of universal values. They show how Maimonides fashions Jewish law and ritual as a programme for attaining ethical and intellectual ends that are accessible to all human beings, who are created equally in the image of God.
Many reject the presentation of Maimonides as a universalist. The Mishneh torah especially is widely seen as a particularist sanctuary. This study shows how profoundly that view must be revised.
Contents
Note on Transliteration
Introduction
1. Knowledge: To Know
Is To Love
2. Love: Abraham, Moses, and the Meaning of Circumcision
3. Seasons: Hanukah
and Purim Reconfigured
4. Women: Marital and
Universal Peace
5. Holiness: Commandments as Instruments
6. Asseverations:
Social Responsibility and Sanctifying God's Name
7. Agriculture: Sanctifying All Human Beings
8. Temple Service: The Divinity of the Commandments
9. Offerings: The Morality of the Commandments
10. Ritual Purity: Intellectual and Moral Purity
11. Damages: Who Is a Jew?
12. Acquisition: Slavery versus Universal Humanity
13. Civil Laws: God of Aristotle in the God of Abraham
14. Judges: Messianic Universalism
Conclusion
Appendix: Maimonides' Cosmic Paradigm
Bibliography
Index of Citations
Index of Subjects
