Maimonides’ Path to God 

An Analysis of Maimonides’ educational, contemplative and meditative training plan. A breakdown of the mystical chapter of the Guide, 3.51. An attempt to map it, explore its primary themes and language, examine its relationship to mysticism and its impact upon the kabbalists.
Check out the rest of our Maimonides series: • Maimonides' Mysticism
00:00 Intro
00:34 Schema
09:42 Epistemology
12:11 Themes
17:14 Language
22:35 Afterlife
30:08 Conclusion
31:08 Recap
32:21 Up Next
Sources
• Adam Afterman “And They Shall Be One Flesh”: On the Language of Mystical Union in Judaism, 2016
• David Blumenthal, Maimonides: Prayer, Worship, And Mysticism
• David R. Blumenthal, “Maimonides' Philosophic Mysticism” in Daat, 2009, No. 6466, Bar Ilan University Press
• David R. Blumenthal, “Maimonides’ Intellectualist Mysticism and the Superiority of the Prophecy of Moses,” in Philosophic Mysticism: Essays in Rational Religion, ch. 3, 2006
• David R. Blumenthal, Philosophic Mysticism, The Ultimate Goal of Medieval Judaism
• Diana Lobel, “Philosophers and Sufis in the Medieval Mediterranean World”
• Diana Lobel, Moses and Abraham Maimonides: Encountering the Divine, 2021, p. 127
• Ehud Benor, Worship of the Heart, A Study in Maimonides' Philosophy of Religion, 1995, 39-53, 70-76.
• Elliot R. Wolfson, "Asceticism and Eroticism in Medieval Jewish Philosophical and Mystical Exegesis of the Song of Songs," in With Reverence for the Word, New York: Oxford University, 2003, 93-99
• Elliot R. Wolfson, Language, Eros, Being, 348-52
• Elliot Wolfson “Via Negativa in Maimonides and Its Impact on Thirteenth- Century Kabbalah.” In Maimonidean Studies 5, 2008, p. 421-35
• Elliot Wolfson, “Beneath the Wings of the Great Eagle: Maimonides and Thirteenth-Century Kabbalah,” in Moses Maimonides, 2004
• Elliot Wolfson, Abraham Abulafia: Kabbalist and Prophet, 52-93, 152-85, 197- 204;
• Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 138-9, 383 n. 76
• Gershom Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, 1962, 413.
• Gershom Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism, (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), 205
• Gideon Freudenthal, The Philosophical Mysticism of Maimonides and Maimon
• Ignaz Goldziher, "Ibn Hud, The Mahommedan Mystic, and the Jews of Damascus," Jewish Quarterly Review (OS) 6 (1894), 218-220.
• Isaiah Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar vol. III, 980-98
• Ithamar Gruenwald, “Maimonides’ Quest beyond Philosophy and Prophecy,” in Perspectives, ed. J. L. Kraemer, 1996, pp. 143.
• Jacob Dienstag: ‘Maimonides’ Guide and Sefer HaMadda in Hasidic Literature’, in Abraham Weiss Jubilee Volume, Heb. section (New York, 1964), 307-30. See Tzava'at Harivash 3; 81 and 84
• McGinn, “Meister Eckhart on Speaking about God,” in Meister Eckhart, Teacher and Preacher, ed. B. McGinn, F. Tobin, and E. Borgstadt (Mahwah, N.J.: 1986), 15-30
• Michael Fishbane, The Kiss of God: Spiritual and Mystical Death in Judaism (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994) 24-40
• Michah Gottlieb, “Two Paradigms of the Nexus Between Philosophy and Mysticism Judah Halevi and Moses Maimonides” in Faith, Reason, Politics, Academic Studies Press 2013
• Moshe Idel, “Maimonides and Kabbalah,” in Studies in Maimonides, ed. Isadore Twersky (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 54-80
• Moshe Idel, “Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed and the Kabbalah,” Jewish History 18 (2004): 197-226;
• Moshe Idel, Absorbing Perfections, 438-47;
• Moshe Idel, Ben, 328-329.
• Moshe Idel, Studies in Ecstatic Kabbalah, 1-31
• Paul Walker, "An Isma'ill Answer to the Problem of Worshiping the Unknowable, Neoplatonic God," American Journal of Arabic Studies 2 (1974): 18.
• Paul Walker, Early Philosophical Shiism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 78.
• Sarah Pessin, The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides
• Shlomo Pines, “The Philosophic Purport of Maimonides’ Halachic Works,” 9-10.
• Yossef Schwartz, Meister Eckhart and Moses Maimonides: From Judaeo-Arabic Rationalism to Christian Mysticism
Join us:
/ seekersofunity
/ seekersofunity
/ seekersofu
www.seekersofunity.com
Thank you to our beloved Patrons: Alexander, Diceman, Hannah, Julian, Leo, Sim, Sultan, John, Joshua, Igor, Chezi, Jorge, Andrew, Alexandra, Füsun, Lucas, Andrew, Stian, Ivana, Aédàn, Darjeeling, Astarte, Declan, Gregory, Alex, Charlie, Anonymous, Joshua, Arin, Sage, Marcel, Ahawk, Yehuda, Kevin, Evan, Shahin, Al Alami, Dale, Ethan, Gerr, Effy, Noam, Ron, Shtus, Mendel, Jared, Tim, Mystic Experiment, MM, Lenny, Justin, Joshua, Jorge, Wayne, Jason, Caroline, Yaakov, Daniel, Wodenborn, Steve, Collin, Justin, Mariana, Vic, Shaw, Carlos, Nico, Isaac, Frederick, David, Ben, Rodney, Charley, Jonathan, Chelsea, Curly Joe, Adam and Andre.
Join them in supporting us:
patreon: / seekers
paypal: www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_...