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Moses Maimonides—a proud heir to the Andalusian tradition of Aristotelian philosophy—crafted a bold and original philosophical interpretation of Torah and Judaism. His son Abraham Maimonides is a fascinating maverick whose Torah commentary mediates between the philosophical interpretations of his father, the contextual approach of Biblical exegetes such as Saadya, and the Sufi-flavored illuminative mysticism of his Egyptian Pietist circle. This pioneering study explores the intersecting approaches of Moses and Abraham Maimonides to the spark of divine illumination and revelation of the divine name Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, “I am that I am / I will be who I will be.”
“…Moses and Abraham Maimonides: Encountering the Divine, offers us a far more nuanced comparison of Abraham and Moses Maimonides than we have previously seen. Lobel presents a valuable portrait of the interplay between Maimonides’s philosophy and his inner religious life and spiritual practices. …Lobel’s book provides an excellent comparison between the thought of Moses and Abraham Maimonides. Her contributions to the scholarship, though subtle and nuanced, are certainly important. It is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone interested in Moses or Abraham Maimonides. …She identifies nuanced differences and puts to rest facile oversimplifications. It is the start of the study, though, not the end. There remain important questions that, as Pines wrote, ‘“need further investigation.’””
— David Fried, The Lehrhaus
Diana Lobel is Associate Professor of Religion at Boston University. She is the author of Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Sufi Language of Religious Experience in Judah Halevi’s Kuzari (2000), A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue: Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya Ibn Paquda’s Duties of the Heart (2007), The Quest for God and the Good (2011), and Philosophies of Happiness (2017).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One. Maimonides and Abraham Maimonides on Created Light, Created Word, and the Evant at Mount Sinai
1. Abraham Maimonides on Created Light in the Cleft of the Rock: Exodus 33:22
2. Maimonides on Created Light: An Esoteric Interpretation
3. Abraham and Moses Maimonides on Cloud and Glory: Exodus 16:9–10/Guide III:9
4. Abraham Maimonides on Created Light in the Preparation for the Sinai Event
5. Maimonides on the Theophany at Mount Sinai
6. Abraham Maimonides on the Created Word at Mount Sinai: Between Maimonides and R. Abraham he-Ḥasid
7. Abraham and Moses Maimonides on Created Light in the Vision of the Nobles
Part Two. Ehyeh asher Ehyeh and the Tetragrammaton: Between Eternity and Necessary Existence
8. Introduction: Ehyeh asher Ehyeh and the Tetragrammaton
9. Rabbinic Interpretations of Ehyeh asher Ehyeh
10. The Interpretation of Saadya Gaon
11. Saadya’s Long Commentary to Exodus 3:13–15
12. Abraham Maimonides on Saadya Gaon
13. The Interpretation of Maimonides
14. Abraham on Eternity and Relationship
Conclusion