The Guide for the Perplexed (Kindle Edition)

by Moses Maimonides (Author), M. Friedländer (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

There is a saying that the history of Jewish doctrine goes runs from 'Moses to Moses'; the second of which is Moses Maimonides. Maimonides (1120-1190) was a brilliant Hispanic Jewish scholar who lived in Spain and Egypt in the 12th century. In addition to being a philosopher, Maimonides also worked as a medical doctor. The Guide for the Perplexed, originally written in Arabic, and soon translated into Hebrew and widely read, is his best known work. The framing story is that it is a letter written to one of his students, to prepare him to understand the background of the Merkabah (the Chariot of Ezekiel) narrative. In the course of this, Maimonides delves into the most difficult questions of theology and reality itself, many of which are still controversial today. Did the universe have a beginning? Will it ever end? What is the nature of evil? Does the complexity of organic life imply some kind of rational design?

The Guide consists of three books. The first book deals with the nature of God, concluding that God cannot be described in positive terms. He uses this argument to systematically deconstruct the Islamic Kalam literalist school of thought, which anthropomorphized God. The second book examines natural philosophy, particularly Aristotle's system of concentric spheres, and theories of the creation and duration of the universe, and the theory of angels and prophecy. In the last Book, he expounds the mystical Merkabah section of Ezekiel, skirting the traditional prohibition of direct explanation of this passage. After this he covers the 613 laws of the Pentateuch, organized into 14 branches, attempting to present rational explanations for each law. Throughout, Maimonides stresses that the student needs to consider all theories.

He draws from Jewish, Islamic and ancient Greek philosophers, and evaluates each one on their merits. Most notably, he scrutinizes Aristotle's natural science in the light of scripture and physcial evidence--sometimes critically, foreshadowing the spirit of the Renaissance. The seed of the scientific method is also present in his discussion of permitted cures (p. 335), reflecting his medical background: "the Law permits as medicine everything that has been verified by experiment." Controversial when it was written, the Guide continues to be a key reference point in the evolution of philosophy, and will be a rewarding journey for the modern reader. --J.B. Hare

About the Author

About the Author:

"Moses Maimonides (March 28, 1138 Cordoba, Spain - December 13, 1204 Fostat, Egypt), was a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Andalusia, Morocco and Egypt during the Middle Ages. He was one of the various medieval Jewish philosophers who also influenced the non-Jewish world. Although his copious works on Jewish law and ethics were initially met with opposition during his lifetime, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history. Today, his works and his views are considered a cornerstone of Jewish thought and study." (Quote from wikipedia.org)

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 841 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Evinity Publishing Inc; 1.0 edition (May 14, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0029ZA4W8
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #129,085 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could Maimonides Have Fewer Than 5 Stars?, November 28, 2001

By	Rivkah Maccaby "Rivkah Maccaby" (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guide for the Perplexed (Paperback)

I'm going to try to separate my critique of the text as it is presented, and Maimonides work.

The typeface used here is awfully small, and crammed onto the pages with a crowbar, it seems. The margins must be measured with a micrometer. I suppose the publishers were determined to get the thing into one volume, but this book is really pretty slender; I don't see why it couldn't be larger to accommodate larger print, with more white space, so the words aren't crammed together like passengers in steerage.

The translation is dated, and takes some getting used to, if you haven't had a lot of exposure to late Victorian English, the language may be off-putting. I happen to have a degree in English literature, and have read many styles extensively, and barely notice how dated the language was. There are other translations, but Freidlander, in this translation is very cautious in keeping his words consistent. This is important, because a large part of Guide for the Perplexed is defining Biblical terms.

The Guide for the Perplexed is a brilliant work. Maimonides is my nomination for "most important post-Talmudic scholar."

The Guide is not a simple work; Maimonides does not spell things out; he doesn't give succinct answers to ages old questions. One doesn't go to this book, look up "Cain," and say, "Ah, there's where he got his wife."

This is a book to aid the reader in becoming a better scholar. Where Maimonides does not give answers, he presents the tools that may assist the reader in studying the Torah, and coming up with his (or her!) own answers.

Words are defined, and also analyzed in an etymological way, which is really more mystical than scientific, but we're talking Torah.

Maimonides knows better than to give tools for interpretation without also giving lessons in interpretation. Some of his own mishnot come through as he discusses interpreting the Torah. He also discusses prophecy and free will, but eventually brings it all back to Torah.

Anyone who wants to be a serious Torah scholar needs this book.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, Terrible Translation, January 5, 2002

By	R. J. Corbett (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Guide for the Perplexed (Paperback)

Maimonides' Guide is a masterwork of philosophic interest to Jews and non-Jews interested in the problem posed by philosophy to revealed religion, but Friedlander's translation is not the way to approach it. Besides removing the ambiguity of Maimonides' title by rendering it "The Guide *for* the Perplexed", he translates technical Rabbanic hermaneutical terms into awkward and sometimes inappropriate Latin 'equivilants'. Anyone who needs such translation won't be able to understand Maimonides' thought anyway, steeped in Rabbinics as it is; anyone looking to learn something of the Guide will be unable to do so with this translation. Shlomo Pines' translation is universally considered superior; be sure to get both volumes.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Outdated translation, July 1, 2001

By	Avid reader (Jerusalem) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Guide for the Perplexed (Paperback)

This turn-of-the- (20th) century tranlation from the Arabic has been absolutely superceded by the Pines-Strauss University of Chicago edition. No one really interested in studying Maimonides can afford to use this translation.Maimonides in his introduction makes it clear just how careful he was in his choice of words, so someone who has to read the book in translation cannot afford to save a few bucks and buy a flawed version