The Guide for the Perplexed
Book by MaimonidesWikipedia
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Search complete. 87 mentions across 50 episodes found for "The Guide for the Perplexed".
Oct 28, 2026
speaker_1HOST
So welcome to this deep dive.
speaker_1HOST
We are exploring a brilliant, highly controversial text written in the year 1190 called The Guide for the Perplexed.
speaker_1HOST
And our mission today is to uncover how its author, Moses Maimonides, who is often known by the acronym the Rambam, tackled a crisis that a lot of people probably grapple with today.
speaker_2HOST
Yeah, that tension of what you do when cutting-edge science and flawless logic directly contradict the religious traditions you were raised with.
speaker_1HOST
He walks into his home and his waiting room is packed with ordinary citizens needing medical attention.
speaker_1HOST
He treats them until late into the night, often so exhausted he literally has to lie down on his back just to write prescriptions.
speaker_2HOST
which makes the existence of the guide for the perplexed even more remarkable.
speaker_2HOST
He wrote much of this philosophical masterpiece by night, basically stealing hours from his sleep.
David BassousHOST
And he writes three major works.
David BassousHOST
One major work he writes is called The Guide for the Perplexed.
David BassousHOST
Moreh Nebuchim.
David BassousHOST
Navoch is a person who's very perplexed, doesn't know what's going on.
Reuven WolfHOST
Now, let's take a look at the act of the Akedah, and the act of the binding of Isaac, and explore its significance, because it's nuanced.
Reuven WolfHOST
There are Maimonides speaks of two primary accomplishments, Maimonides wrote a book called The Guide to the Perplexed.
Reuven WolfHOST
And in The Guide to the Perplexed, Maimonides spoke of two principles that were established as a result of this great event of the binding of Isaac.
Reuven WolfHOST
We all know the end of the story is that when Abraham takes the knife and he's about to slit Isaac's, his one and only son's throat, It's exactly at that moment when the angel tells him, halt, stop.
Reuven WolfHOST
God doesn't want you to do this.
11 MINS LATER
Reuven WolfHOST
So let's take a look.
Reuven WolfHOST
I want to read with you a little bit of another book of it.
Reuven WolfHOST
See, this concept that I just mentioned comes from Maimonides, but it comes from the book of the Guide to the Perplexed, Maura Nebuchadnezzar.
EdwardAUDIENCE
Okay.
EdwardAUDIENCE
Well, my question is, so I read Maimonides recently, Guide for Perplexed.
EdwardAUDIENCE
Maimonides stated, a person should exercise regularly because the soul, Jewish neshama, it's vessel of light.
EdwardAUDIENCE
and suggests the body has to exercise sweat-producing tasks each morning.
JustinHOST
Jews know it by a Hebrew name that means the repetition of the law.
JustinHOST
Later he wrote, in Arabic, The Guide for the Perplexed, a work of philosophy that tried to harmonize Jewish revelation with Aristotle, and he wrote letters, including a famous one in the year 1172, to the Jews of Yemen, who were suffering persecution.
JustinHOST
This is the man whose verdict we are examining, a physician, a philosopher, and a codifier of Jewish law whose rulings are still cited today.
JustinHOST
Start with the code.
Aviva RichmanGUEST
And even Avraham seems to have misunderstood something here, or perhaps misunderstood shifted his understanding of God's will.
Aviva RichmanGUEST
In the Guide to the Perplexed, centuries later, the Rambam states that anything seen in a dream is a much lower status of prophecy than something seen while awake.
Aviva RichmanGUEST
And if you look at the opening communication to Avraham in the Akedah, it clearly seems to be in a dream.
Aviva RichmanGUEST
Because it's followed by, he woke up early in the morning, meaning he must have been sleeping when he heard the instruction to sacrifice his son, woke up first thing in the morning to fulfill it.
Shimon NeubortHOST
And then the Kohanim, the priests, declare that God should forgive the Jewish people for the death of this person.
Shimon NeubortHOST
Although this is clearly a ceremony with deep mystical significance, the Rambam in his Guide for the Perplexed, Meir Nebuchadnezzar, gives simple explanations that we can understand intellectually even some of the effects of this commandment.
Shimon NeubortHOST
One thing that Rambam says is that after such a ceremony people will come to talk about the murderer and therefore when word gets around and people speak eventually evidence might be unearthed and the murderer will eventually be found.
Shimon NeubortHOST
Another reason that after such a dramatic ceremony the people of the city, the inhabitants and the judges and elders will be more careful to protect people leaving the city in the future.
Mendel KaplanHOST
And then the Kohanim, the priests, declare that God should forgive the Jewish people for the death of this person.
Mendel KaplanHOST
Although this is clearly a ceremony with deep mystical significance, the Rambam in his Guide for the Perplexed, Meir Nebuchadnezzar, gives simple explanations that we can understand intellectually even some of the effects of this commandment.
Mendel KaplanHOST
One thing that Rambam says is that after such a ceremony people will come to talk about the murderer and therefore when word gets around and people speak eventually evidence might be unearthed and the murderer will eventually be found.
Mendel KaplanHOST
Another reason that after such a dramatic ceremony the people of the city, the inhabitants and the judges and elders will be more careful to protect people leaving the city in the future.
BellHOST
And then the Kohanim, the priests, declare that God should forgive the Jewish people for the death of this person.
BellHOST
Although this is clearly a ceremony with deep mystical significance, the Rambam in his Guide for the Perplexed, Meir Nebuchadnezzar, gives simple explanations that we can understand intellectually even some of the effects of this commandment.
BellHOST
One thing that Rambam says is that after such a ceremony people will come to talk about the murderer and therefore when word gets around and people speak eventually evidence might be unearthed and the murderer will eventually be found.
BellHOST
Another reason that after such a dramatic ceremony the people of the city, the inhabitants and the judges and elders will be more careful to protect people leaving the city in the future.
Iqbal AkhtarHOST
Right.
speaker_1HOST
But more importantly, look at how he wrote his masterworks, like The Guide for the Perplexed.
Iqbal AkhtarHOST
He wrote it in Judeo-Arabic, didn't he?
speaker_1HOST
Yes.
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