Maimonides
Medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.
- Maimonides500 related topics
Al-Farabi
Abu Nasr Al-Farabi known in the West as Alpharabius; (c.
He is credited with preserving the original Greek texts during the Middle Ages via his commentaries and treatises, and influencing many prominent philosophers, such as Avicenna and Maimonides.
Oral Torah
According to Rabbinic Judaism, the Oral Torah or Oral Law (, lit. "Oral Law") are those purported laws, statutes, and legal interpretations that were not recorded in the Five Books of Moses, the Written Torah (, lit. "Written Law"), but nonetheless are regarded by Orthodox Jews as prescriptive and given at the same time.
Belief that at least portions of the Oral Torah were transmitted orally from God to Moses on Mount Sinai during the Exodus from Egypt is a fundamental tenet of faith of Orthodox Judaism, and was recognized as one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith by Maimonides.
Jewish ethics
Ethics of the Jewish religion or the Jewish people.
Notably, Maimonides offers a Jewish interpretation of Aristotle (e.g., Nicomachean Ethics), who enters into Jewish discourse through Islamic writings.
Torah study
Study of the Torah, Hebrew Bible, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature and similar works, all of which are Judaism's religious texts.
Maimonides said that Christians, who believe in the divinity of Scriptures, would at best come to believe in the Jewish interpretation and at worse cause no harm, so the prohibition does not apply to them.
Abraham Zacuto
Spanish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, rabbi and historian who served as Royal Astronomer to King John II of Portugal.
However, in a similar vein to other giants of the Jewish faith, such as Saadia Gaon, Maimonides and the Vilna Gaon, he followed the extremely old Jewish custom (believed to have begun in the Babylonian captivity) of being buried as close to Jerusalem as possible.
Kabbalah
Esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought in Jewish mysticism.
The Theosophical or Theosophical-Theurgic tradition of Theoretical Kabbalah (the main focus of the Zohar and Luria) seeks to understand and describe the divine realm using the imaginative and mythic symbols of human psychological experience. As an intuitive conceptual alternative to rationalist Jewish philosophy, particularly Maimonides' Aristotelianism, this speculation became the central stream of Kabbalah, and the usual reference of the term "kabbalah". Its theosophy also implies the innate, centrally important theurgic influence of human conduct on redeeming or damaging the spiritual realms, as man is a divine microcosm, and the spiritual realms the divine macrocosm. The purpose of traditional theosophical kabbalah was to give the whole of normative Jewish religious practice this mystical metaphysical meaning
Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy (פילוסופיה יהודית) includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism.
Samuel ibn Naghrillah, Hasdai ibn Shaprut, and Moshe ben Hanoch founded the Lucena Yeshiva that produced such brilliant scholars as Isaac ibn Ghiyyat and Maimon ben Yosef, the father of Maimonides.
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews (יהדות ספרד, ; Djudíos Sefardíes), also known as Sephardic Jews or Sephardim, and referred to by modern scholars as Hispanic Jews,
Although the millennia-long established latter groups did not originally have ancestry from the Jewish communities of Iberia, the majority of them were influenced by the Sephardi style of liturgy, law, and customs from the influence of Maimonides; many Iberian Jewish exiles later sought refuge in those pre-existing Jewish communities over the course of the last few centuries, resulting in a conflation of terms.
Anno Mundi
Calendar era based on the biblical accounts of the creation of the world and subsequent history.
The new system reached its definitive form in 1178 when Maimonides completed the Mishneh Torah.
Isaac Alfasi
Maghrebi Talmudist and posek (decider in matters of halakha - Jewish law).
The most famous of his many students is Rabbi Judah Halevi, author of the Kuzari; he also taught Rabbi Joseph ibn Migash (the Ri Migash), who was in turn a teacher of Rabbi Maimon, father and teacher of Maimonides (Rambam).