Josef Stern. Problems and Parables of the Law: Maimonides and Nahmanides on Reasons for the Commandments (Ta‘amei Ha-Mitzvot). Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998. xi, 201 pp.
Josef Stern's book “focuses on two elements in the Maimonidean revolution in the study of ta‘amei ha-miṣvot and their impact on Naḥmanides. The first is Maimonides' idea of the problematic commandment. The second is his idea that explanations of commandments—both individual laws and the ....
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Pennsylvania Press
2002
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| In: |
AJS review
Year: 2002, Volume: 26, Issue: 2, Pages: 361-364 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Josef Stern's book “focuses on two elements in the Maimonidean revolution in the study of ta‘amei ha-miṣvot and their impact on Naḥmanides. The first is Maimonides' idea of the problematic commandment. The second is his idea that explanations of commandments—both individual laws and the . . . totality of commandments as a whole . . . should be modelled after the multileveled interpretation of parables” (p. 3). In Chapters Two, Three, and Six, Stern discusses Maimonides' well-known “historically sensitive, context-dependent . . . explanations for the legislation of the ḥuqqim” (p. 4). While Stern briefly touches upon a number of problems that Maimonides grapples with in light of these explanations, he focuses on “specific arguments the Guide contains to counter the antinomianism implicit in its explanation of the ḥuqqim” (p. 5). Stern's arguments and readings in these chapters are thoughtful and suggestive, if at times open to question, but space constraints prevent an analysis.hey also prevent my paying more than the barest attention to Stern's remarks about Naḥmanides. Rather, I will concentrate on the second focus of Stern's work, contained in Chapters One, Two, and Five; namely, his understanding of “Maimonides' theory of multileveled parabolic interpretation” (p. 68) and his claim that Maimonides extends this “parabolic model to the explanation of the commandments” (p. 11). |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4541 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0364009402270117 |