Commentary

[in chronological order]

Maimonides and the shaping of the Jewish Canon

- Diamond, James, Maimonides and the Shaping of the Jewish Canon, Cambridge, 2014.
In this work, James A. Diamond of the University of Waterloo addresses how Maimonides became part of the Jewish “canon.” From the publisher: Jewish thought since the Middle Ages can be regarded as a sustained dialogue with Moses Maimonides,… More

Maimonides on Knowledge of Good and Evil: The Guide of the Perplexed 1 2

- Burger, Ronna. "Maimonides on Knowledge of Good and Evil: The Guide of the Perplexed 1 2", ed. Pangle, Thomas and Lomax, Harvey in Political Philosophy Cross-Examined: Perennial Challenges to the Philosophic Life (Recovering Political Philosophy), Palgrave Macmillan, New York,  2013.
on The Guide of the Perplexed

Leo Strauss on Maimonides

-

Strauss, Leo. Leo Strauss on Maimonides: The Complete Writings. Ed. Kenneth Hart Green. Chicago, U Chicago Press, 2013.

Torah as Political Philosophy

- Edward Halper, “Torah as Political Philosophy: Maimonides and Spinoza on Divine Law,” in Judaic Sources and Western Thought: Jerusalem's Enduring Presence, edited by Jonathan Jacobs, pp. 190-214. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

On the Limitations of Human Knowledge

-

Motzkin, Aryeh Leo. “On the Limitations of Human Knowledge.” In Aryeh Leo Motzkin, Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition, ed. Yehuda Halper. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011: 147-151.

On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides and Spinoza on Good and Evil

- Motzkin, Aryeh Leo. “Maimonides and Spinoza on Good and Evil.” In Aryeh Leo Motzkin, Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition, ed. Yehuda Halper. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011: 83-104.
On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides and the Imagination by Aryeh Motzkin

- Motzkin, Aryeh Leo. “Maimonides and the Imagination.” In Aryeh Leo Motzkin, Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition, ed. Yehuda Halper. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011: 37-50.
On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides the Rationalist

-

Davidson, Herbert. Maimonides the Rationalist. Littman Library Of Jewish Civilization, 2011

Biography of Moses Maimonides

Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds

-

Kraemer, Joel. Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds.  Doubleday, 2008/Random House 2010.

From the publisher: “This authoritative biography of Moses Maimonides, one of the most influential minds in all of human history, illuminates his life as a philosopher, physician, and lawgiver. A biography on a grand scale, it brilliantly explicates one… More

Maimonides and His Heritage

-

Maimonides and His Heritage. ed. Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Lenn Goodman, and James Allen Grady, S U N Y press, Series in Jewish Philosophy, 2009

The Classic Jewish Philosophers

- Schweid, Eliezer, The Classic Jewish Philosophers: from Saadia through the Renaissance. Trans. L. Levin. Leiden and Boston, Brill Press, 2008.

Converts, Heretics and Lepers: Maimonides and the Outsider

- James Diamond, Converts, Heretics and Lepers: Maimonides and the Outsider, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana, 2007
From the publisher: James Diamond’s new book consists of a series of studies addressing Moses Maimonides’ (1138–1204) appropriation of marginal figures—lepers, converts, heretics, and others—normally considered on the fringes of society and… More

On Maimonides

- Manekin, Charles. On Maimonides. Belmont, Calif. & London, 2005.
On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides and the Sciences

-

Langermann, Y. Tzvi. “Maimonides and the Sciences.” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy. ed. Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman: 157-175.

On The Guide of the Perplexed

Divine Attributes as Moral Ideals in Maimonides’ Theology

-

Samuelson, Norbert. “Divine Attributes as Moral Ideals in Maimonides’ Theology.” The Thought of Maimonides: Philosophical and Legal Studies: ed. Lawrence Kaplan, Julien Bauer,and Ira Robinson: 69-76.

On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment

- James Diamond, Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment: Deciphering Scripture and Midrash in the Guide of the Perplexed , SUNY Press, Albany, N.Y. –Jewish Philosophy Series.  February, 2002
From the publisher: Maimonides and the Hermeneutics of Concealment demonstrates the type of hermeneutic that the medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) engaged in throughout his treatise, The Guide of the Perplexed. By comprehensively… More

The Limitations of Human Knowledge by Shlomo Pines

-

Pines, Shlomo. “The Limitations of Human Knowledge According to Al-Farabi, ibn Bajja, and Maimonides.” Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature. ed. I. Twersky. vol. 1: 82-109. 79

On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides

-

Kraemer, Joel L. “Maimonides.” Judaism in Practice. ed. L. Fine: 413-28.

On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides’ Secret Position on Creation

-

Davidson, Herbert. “Maimonides’ Secret Position on Creation.” Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature. ed. Isadore Twersky. vol. 1: 16-40.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

What Did Maimonides Mean by Madda’?

- Septimus, Bernard. “What Did Maimonides Mean by Madda’?” Me’ah She‘arim: Studies in Medieval Jewish Spiritual Life in Memory of Isadore Twersky. ed. G. Blidstein et al.: 83-110.
On the Mishneh Torah

Moses ibn Maimon’s Responsa

-

Benayahu, M. “Moses ibn Maimon’s Responsa.” Studies in Memory of the Rishon Le-Zion R. Yitzhak Nissim. Part 2

Maimonides’ Use of (Aristotelian) Dialectic

- Kraemer, Joel L. “Maimonides’ Use of (Aristotelian) Dialectic.” Maimonides and the Sciences. ed. Robert S. Cohen and Hillel Levine: 111-130.
On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides and the Spanish Aristotelian School

-

Kraemer, Joel L. “Maimonides and the Spanish Aristotelian School.” Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. ed. M. D. Meyerson and E. D. English: 40-68.

On The Guide of the Perplexed

On Maimonides’ Messianic Posture

-

Kraemer, Joel L. “On Maimonides’ Messianic Posture.” Studies in Medieval Jewish History and Literature. ed. I. Twersky. vol. 2:109-42. (ALSO under Mishneh Torah)

On The Guide of the Perplexed

On Maimonides’ Allegorical Reading of Scripture

-

Harvey, Warren Ze’ev. “On Maimonides’ Allegorical Reading of Scripture.” Interpretation and Allegory: Antiquity to the Modern Period. Ed. John Whitman. Brill, 2000: 181-188.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

The Status of Islam in Maimonidean Halakhah

- Bildstein, Gerald. “The Status of Islam in Maimonidean Halakhah.” Multiculturalism in a Democratic and Jewish State. ed. Avi Sagi, Menachem Mautner, and Ronen Shamir: 465-476.
On the Mishneh Torah

Maimonides’ First Commandment, Physics, and Doubt

-

Harvey, Warren Ze’ev. “Maimonides’ First Commandment, Physics, and Doubt.” Hazon Nahum: Studies in Jewish Law, Thought, and History Presented to Dr. Norman Lamm on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday. ed. Yaakov Elman & Jeffrey S. Gurock: 149-162.

On the Mishneh Torah

Moses Maimonides

-

Goodman, Lenn. “Moses Maimonides.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London & New York, 1998. vol. 6: 39-49.

Biography of Moses Maimonides

Maimonides in the Sultan’s Palace by Steven Harvey

-

Harvey, Steven. “Maimonides in the Sultan’s Palace.” Perspectives on Maimonides: Philosophical and Historical Studies. ed. Joel L. Kraemer: 47-75. The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 1997.

A biography of Moses Maimonides

Euthanasia

-

Rosner, Fred. “Euthanasia.” Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality. ed. Elliot N. Dorff & Louis E. Newman: 350-62.

Maimonides’ Approach to Astrology

-

Kreisel, Howard. “Maimonides' Approach to Astrology.” Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies 2 (1994): 25-32.

On The Guide of the Perplexed and on Other Works

Moses Maimonides the Physician

-

Lieber, Elinor. “Moses Maimonides the Physician.” The Medical Works of Maimonides: a Reappraisal. ed. Fred Rosner and Samuel S. Kottek:13-24.

Maimonides’ Repudiation of Astrology

-

Langermann, Y. Tzvi. “Maimonides’ Repudiation of Astrology.” Maimonidean Studies 2 (1991): 123-158. rprt. Maimonides and the Sciences. ed. Robert S. Cohen and Hillel Levine: 131-158.

Maimonides’ Doctrine of Creation

-

Samuelson, Norbert. “Maimonides’ Doctrine of Creation.” Harvard Theological Review 84 (1991): 249-271.

On The Guide of the Perplexed

Leo Strauss on Maimonides

-

Ivry, Alfred L. “Leo Strauss on Maimonides.” Leo Strauss’s Thought. ed. Alan Udoff, 75-91. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1991.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

Was Maimonides Influenced by Algazali?

-

Lazarus-Yafeh, Hava. “Was Maimonides Influenced by Algazali?” Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg, edited by B. L. Eichler and J. Tigay M. Cogan: 163-169.

On The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides on the Creation of the World

-

Ivry, A. L. “Maimonides on the Creation of the World.” Shlomo Pines Jubilee Volume. ed. M. Idel et al. vol. 2: 115-137.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

Providence, Divine Omniscience and Possibility: The Case of Maimonides

-

Ivry, Alfred L. “Providence, Divine Omniscience and Possibility: The Case of Maimonides.” Divine Omniscience and Omnipotence in Medieval Philosophy. ed. T. Rudavsky:143-159. rprt in Maimonides: a Collection of Critical Essays. ed. J. Buijs: 175-191.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides

- Lerner, Ralph. “Maimonides.” A History of Political Philosophy. ed. Joseph Cropsy and Leo Strauss. Chicago, 1963: 181-99. 2nd ed. Chicago, 1987: 203-22.  
Excerpt: “If one is to discuss the objects and character or law, one must proceed from an understanding of the beings for whose sake a law is made. Maimonides proceeds accordingly; in his Guide of the Perplexed, he examines the need for law before… More

Exoteric Teaching

-

Strauss, Leo. “Exoteric Teaching.” Ed. K. Green. Interpretation 14 (1986): 51-59. rprt. The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism: 63-71.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides on Creation

-

Ivry, Alfred L . “Maimonides on Creation.” Creation and the End of Days: Judaism and Scientific Cosmology. ed. D. Novak and N. Samuelson: 185-214.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides and Islam

- Hourani, George F. “Maimonides and Islam.” Studies in Islamic and Judaic Traditions. ed. W.M. Brinner & S.D. Ricks. Atlanta, 1986:153-65.
on The Guide of the Perplexed

Notes on Maimonides’ Book of Knowledge

-

Strauss, Leo. “Notes on Maimonides’ Book of Knowledge.” In Studies in Mysticism and Religion presented to Gershom G. Scholem on his Seventieth Birthday by Pupils, Colleagues and Friends. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1967. Rprt. In Strauss, Leo. Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy. Chicago, University of Chicago Press 1983: 192-204.

On the Mishneh Torah

The Astronomy of Maimonides and its Sources

-

Neugebauer, Otto. “The Astronomy of Maimonides and its Sources.” Hebrew Union College Annual 22 (1949): 321-63. rprt. Neugebauer, Astronomy and History (New York, 1983.): 381-423.

On the Mishneh Torah

Maimonides: a Biography

- Heschel, A. J. Maimonides: a Biography. trans. from the 1935 German edition by Joachim Neugroschel. New York, 1982.
Biography on Moses Maimonides

A Portrait of Spinoza as a Maimonidean

-

Harvey, Warren Ze’ev. “A Portrait of Spinoza as a Maimonidean.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 19 (1981): 151-72.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

The Mishneh Torah of Maimonides

- Twersky, Isadore. “The Mishneh Torah of Maimonides.” Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 5 (1971-79): 265-96.
On the Mishneh Torah

Maimonides and Kabbalah

- Idel, Moshe. “Maimonides and Kabbalah.” Studies in Maimonides. ed. Isadore Twersky: 31-81.
on The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides and Aquinas on Natural Law

- Fox, Marvin. “Maimonides and Aquinas on Natural Law.” Dine Israel 3 (1972): v-xxxvi. rprt. Studies in Maimonides and Aquinas. ed. Jacob I. Dienstag: 75-106.
on The Guide of the Perplexed

A Maimonides Reader

- Twersky, Isadore. A Maimonides Reader (New York, 1972).
On the Mishneh Torah

How To Begin To Study The Guide of the Perplexed

-

Strauss, Leo. “How To Begin To Study The Guide of the Perplexed.” Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed. trans. S. Pines: xi-lvi. rprt. Liberalism Ancient and Modern: 140-84.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides’ ‘Thirteen Principles’

-

Hyman, Arthur. “Maimonides’ ‘Thirteen Principles’.” Jewish Medieval and Renaissance Studies. ed. Alexander Altmann: 119-44

on the Commentary on the Mishnah

Isma’ili Theology and Maimonides’ Philosophy

-

Ivry, Alfred L. “Isma’ili Theology and Maimonides’ Philosophy.” The Jews of Medieval Islam: Community, Society, and Identity. ed. D. Frank: 271-300. Izutsu, Toshihiko. Ethico-Religious Concepts in the Qur’Án. Montreal, 1966.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

Maimonides’ Shemonah Peraqim and al-Farabi’s Fuṣūl al-Madanī

-

Davidson, Herbert A. “Maimonides’ Shemonah Peraqim and al-Farabi’s Fuṣūl al-Madanī.” Proceedings of the American Academy of Jewish Research 31 (1963): 33-50. rprt. Essays in Medieval Jewish and Islamic Philosophy. ed. Arthur Hyman: 116-33.

on the Commentary on Mishnah

Maimonides as Chief Justice

-

Goitein, S.D. “Maimonides as Chief Justice.” Jewish Quarterly Review 49 (1959): 191-204.

On the Mishneh Torah

Maimonides: a Biography

- Zeitlin, Solomon. Maimonides: a Biography. 2nd ed. New York, 1955.
Biography on Moses Maimonides

Moses Maimonides, Physician and Scientist

-

Macht, David S. “Moses Maimonides, Physician and Scientist.” Jews in the Arts and Sciences: Jubilee Volume of the Jewish Academy of Arts and Sciences. ed. Mordecai Soltes. New York, 1954: 107-19.

Biography on Moses Maimonides

Maimonides’ Statement on Political Science by Leo Strauss

-

Strauss, Leo. “Maimonides’ Statement on Political Science.” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 22 (1953):115-30. What Is Political Philosophy?

On The Guide of the Perplexed, the Mishneh Torah, and other works.

The Literary Character of The Guide for the Perplexed

-

Strauss, Leo. “The Literary Character of The Guide for the Perplexed.” In Essays on Maimonides. Ed. S. W. Baron. New York, 1941: 37-91. rprt. Persecution and the Art of Writing: 38-94.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

The Amphibolous Terms in Aristotle, Arabic Philosophy and Maimonides

-

Wolfson, Harry Austryn. “The Amphibolous Terms in Aristotle, Arabic Philosophy and Maimonides.” Harvard Theological Review 31 (1938): 151-73. rprt. Studies in the History of Philosophy and Religion. ed. I. Twersky and G. H. Williams. vol. 1: 455-77.

on The Guide of the Perplexed

Philosophy and the Law

-

Strauss, Leo. Philosophy and the Law, Tr. Eve Adler. Albany, 1995. Translation of Philosophie und Gesetz: Beiträge zum Verständnis Maimunis und seiner Vorläufer. Berlin, 1935.

on The Guide of the Perplexed