Maimonides in His World. Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker

158 CHAPTER SIX of the wicked in general, and the descriptions of hell in par ticular, from Maimonides’ discussion. In the Comme ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 159 In the Quran, the same word (or words) is used for both the Adamic Eden and the hereafter. The interp ...

160 CHAPTER SIX because, unlike the Quran, the Hebrew Bible does not identify the Garden of Eden with the hereafter. As mention ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 161 Maimonides accompanies his argument with illustrations that we have seen used by Avicenna: the eunuch ...

162 CHAPTER SIX writings, the Guide gives us a glimpse of a positive description of Mai- monides’ understanding of paradise. Tow ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 163 provement of the soul after death. Whereas Avicenna left room for the continuous development and eleva ...

164 CHAPTER SIX goal of apprehending the separate intellects, but did not actually think that this goal was attainable by humans ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 165 led the phi losophers to adhere to this theory, and they usually displayed confi dence in their intell ...

166 CHAPTER SIX (who had no qualms in rejecting the authenticity of several other works generally attributed to Maimonides) goes ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 167 preceding publications.^49 Each of these works agrees with the style and theological position typical ...

168 CHAPTER SIX refutation to the response written by Maimonides, and which he had al- ready described as “a superfl uous repeti ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 169 Baghdad, with ten functioning schools.^57 By the twelfth century, how- ever, the renowned Jewish acade ...

170 CHAPTER SIX Jewish communities) had been corresponding with the Gaon as well as with Maimonides, asking for clarifi cations ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 171 won the discussion. Much later, however, upon returning to Baghdad from one of his business travels, h ...

172 CHAPTER SIX the resurrection, problems the discussion of which does not respond to the Gaon’s treatise. In reading Maimonide ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 173 identifi ed it without his student’s help.^69 His sarcastic remark, however, is very telling. In the S ...

174 CHAPTER SIX remain attentive to those places where the treatise responds to the Si- lencing Epistle. One example of this res ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 175 it does not manage to disengage itself from the text it seeks to refute. Its discourse is at times exe ...

176 CHAPTER SIX those who, despite endless repetitions, “understand but little, compre- hend but little, a smattering here and a ...

“FROM MOSES TO MOSES” 177 still perplexed, at least concerning the soul and its states. Maimonides’ Treatise on Resurrection tes ...