Converts, Heretics, and Lepers

by Diamond, James Arthur

• ISBN13: 9780268025922
• ISBN10: 0268025924
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

James Diamond's new book consists of a series of studies addressing Moses Maimonides' (11381204) appropriation of marginal figures-lepers, converts, heretics, and others-normally considered on the fringes of society and religion. Each chapter focuses on a type or character that, in Maimonides' hands, becomes a metaphor for a larger, more substantive theological and philosophical issue. Diamond offers a close reading of key texts, such as the Guide of the Perplexedand the Mishneh Torah,demonstrating the importance of integrating Maimonides' legal and philosophical writings. Converts, Heretics, and Lepersfills an important void in Jewish studies by focusing on matters of exegesis and hermeneutics as well as philosophical concerns. Diamond's alternative reading of central topics in Maimonides suggests that literary appreciation is a key to deciphering Maimonides' writings in particular and Jewish exegetical texts in general. "C onverts, Heretics, and Lepersis a very sophisticated exploration of Maimonidean religious philosophy. Although there have been numerous studies on Maimonides, perhaps more than any other Jewish thinker, James Diamond manages to approach the master from fresh perspectives. The result is a stunningly lucid and deep engagement with Maimonides." - Elliot Wolfson, Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University "A series of extraordinarily close readings of core texts of Maimonides', readings which illuminate the delicate interplay of philosophical and religious ideas in Maimonides. In his previous work, Diamond convincingly illustrated the way in which Maimonides carefully chooses, subtly interprets, and circumspectly weaves together rabbinic materials to address philosophers and talmudists alike, each in their own idiom. This book is a further expression of Diamond's mastery of this intricate methodology and is a work to be studied and re-studied. All students of Maimonides are in his debt." - Menachem Kellner, University of Haifa "James Diamond's book about Maimonides is a welcome addition to the regular stream of books about the thinker Jews have rightly called 'the great eagle.' His unique contribution to the Maimonidean literature is to show that the true Jewish philosopher like Maimonides is always an outsider in ordinary Jewish thought, and he is thus uniquely able to appreciate and explicate what Jews and other worshipers of the One God have to learn from other outsiders like himself." - David Novak, J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Toronto

Author Biography

James A. Diamond is the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Waterloo.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Citations
Introduction	p. 1
The Convert (Ger): Metaphor of Jewishness	p. 11
The Leper: Illness as Contemplative Metaphor	p. 33
Elisha ben Abuyah and the Hubris of the Heretic	p. 55
The King: The Ethics of Imperial Humility	p. 79
The Sage/Philosopher: A Solitude of Universalism	p. 107
God, the Supreme Outsider: Indwelling (Shekhinah) as Metaphor for Outdwelling	p. 141
Deconstructing God's Indwelling: The Challenge to Halevi	p. 159
Sabbath: The Temporal Outsider	p. 191
Notes	p. 227
Works Cited	p. 301
Citations Index	p. 317
Names Index	p. 331
Subject Index	p. 337
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