Gersonides
French philosopherWikipedia
39
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
6
PODCASTS
Search complete. 39 mentions across 6 episodes found for "Gersonides".
Sep 5, 2026
David WalesNARRATOR
And he took her and came to her, and Aliath bare unto Judah Er, Onan, and Shiloh, three sons.
David WalesNARRATOR
And Levi and Issachar went to the land of the east, and they took unto themselves for wives the daughters of Jobab, the son of Yaktan, the son of Eber.
David WalesNARRATOR
And Jobab, the son of Yaktan, had two daughters.
David WalesNARRATOR
The name of the elder was Adinah, and the name of the younger was Aridah.
David WalesNARRATOR
And Levi took Adinah, and Issachar took Aridah, and they came to the land of Canaan, to their father's house.
David WalesNARRATOR
And Adinah bare unto Levi Gershon, Kihath, and Merari, three sons.
David WalesNARRATOR
And Aridah bare unto Issachar Tolah, Puvah, Job, and Shomron, four sons.
David WalesNARRATOR
And Dan went to the land of Moab and took for a wife Aphlalith, the daughter of Chamudan, the Moabite, and he brought her to the land of Canaan.
Justin SledgeHOST
Further, we're also told that we should study the great attack on Aristotelian metaphysics led by Chastei Crescas in his famous book Ur Hashem.
Justin SledgeHOST
And this is also the time period where we would study the great medieval biblical commentaries by Rashi, Gersonides, Ibn Ezra, and Nachmanides.
Justin SledgeHOST
It's worth noting that the commentaries recommended by Alameno represent a wide range of Jewish approaches to understanding the biblical text, from radical rationalists in the person of someone like Gersonides, all the way to something much more mystical, like someone like Nachmanides.
Justin SledgeHOST
Of course, Nachmanides' biblical commentary basically established the legitimacy of the Kabbalah in the Jewish world.
Justin SledgeHOST
Further, we also have the kind of polemics between al-Ghazali and Halevi, along with the debate at some level between the more Aristotelian ideas of Maimonides and the more Neoplatonic ideas of Halevi and the Khuzari.
Eli MenagedHOST
So the higher status kids go up, go up top, and the lower status ones go on the cursed ones.
Eli MenagedHOST
And actually, if you look at the Ralbag, the Rababak actually says it in a, in a more sim- almost, almost says it that way.
Eli MenagedHOST
He says, [speaking Hebrew] those that are the more choiciest, they're the ones that go on the beracha, and then the other ones go, uh, go on the other mountain.
Eli MenagedHOST
But now many of the commentators, they don't want to go with the whole status.
Mordechai TorczynerHOST
He had been there for a gathering.
Mordechai TorczynerHOST
Rashi here, as well as Ralbag, and Ibn Ezra in Nechemiah chapter six, sentence ten, where we find another use of this ayin, tsade, reish root, all three of them say it means he is immersed in a ritual event.
Mordechai TorczynerHOST
Like atseres in the Torah is used for the Shemini Atzeret, Tisha B'Av, that's its own discussion, but it's some kind of ritual term.
Mordechai TorczynerHOST
Doeg is there for ritual reasons.
9 MINS LATER
Mordechai TorczynerHOST
It could also be, according to the Ramban in Shmot, chapter 28, sentence 30, something with the names of Hashem in it, not necessarily the Choshen per se.
Mordechai TorczynerHOST
Um, but it's behind the ephod.
Mordechai TorczynerHOST
What does that mean, behind the ephod? So Radak and Ralbag say it's behind the place where the ephod is stored.
Mordechai TorczynerHOST
That's a possibility.
Marc ShapiroGUEST
Sure.
Nachi WeinsteinHOST
Or you get to Ibn Caspi, you get to Ralbag, how far, and others, how far do we-
Marc ShapiroGUEST
Actually, the Ralbag is more conservative.
Nachi WeinsteinHOST
Yeah, yeah.
Marc ShapiroGUEST
The Ralbag thinks, the Ralbag thinks that the Rambam is understanding the whole Qayin and Hevel episode, uh, as an allegory, and he says, "What are you talking about? It gives us the genealogy there, so it's not." But yes, they all understand Bereishit chapter one, and, you know, the whole story on this two, the whole story of the snake, they all understand that allegorically.
Marc ShapiroGUEST
But afterwards, how far I take it, and you're right, you mentioned the radical, uh, Ibn Caspi.
Marc ShapiroGUEST
Uh, [laughs] it's funny that, uh, Rav Shlomo Fisher writes in one place, he, in his footnote, he has a letter there where he attacks Ibn Caspi and, uh, but, but Rav, but, uh, Rav Shlomo Fisher himself is a great advocate of this idea that, uh, the, the Torah expresses itself in accord with earlier scientific understanding.
Bitzal SakachevskyHOST
Others explain that what the passage means, l'shvatacha, l'shvatacha is explaining the titan l'cha, that you shall appoint for yourself l'cho sharecha, and also l'shvatacha, that you're supposed to appoint courts for every shevet.
Bitzal SakachevskyHOST
That's how the Yimenezra, Rashi, and the Ralbag explain what the word L'shvatacha means over here.
Bitzal SakachevskyHOST
The man elaborates on this and says that these Bataydin of the particular Shevet, their job was to function as sort of a smaller Sanhedrin HaGadol, the same relationship that the Sanhedrin HaGadol had to the entire nation, consisting of the greatest Chachamim in all of Chal Yisrael.
Bitzal SakachevskyHOST
So these particular local large Sanhedrin Sanhedrin's had the had the greatest scholars of that particular Shavit and they oversaw the judicial system within that Shavit and they have they have the capacity to Force the local members of that Shavit to appear before their court They can be because they rice that are unique to that court and he says this is referenced in the in Massachas Harios Alternatively he says perhaps when it says over here, is that it's talking about how, let's say you would have a city that was populated by members of two Shvatim, was divided between two different Shvatim, was on the border, then you would have a mitzvah to appoint a local shevet, a local bezdin rather, one for each population of the shevet.
7 MINS LATER
Bitzal SakachevskyHOST
Obviously not in every particular case, but in general justice.
Bitzal SakachevskyHOST
that there should be law and order, there should be the halachos of the Torah being fulfilled, that's the responsibility of the nation as a whole.
Bitzal SakachevskyHOST
In a more nuanced sense, Rebbeinu Meyochas, the Ralbag, the Abarbanel, they say, along similar lines, that losat ha-mishpat, it's the responsibility of the nation to make sure that justice is not perverted because they will see to it that proper dayonim, are appointed.
Bitzal SakachevskyHOST
The responsibility of the nation is to make sure that there are proper judges, that that system of appointing judges is carried out faithfully, and through that they will make sure that there's no, that mishpat tzedek exists within the land.