Non­fic­tion

Between Rashi and Mai­monides: Themes in Medieval Jew­ish Thought, Lit­er­a­ture, and Exegesis

Ephraim Kanar­fo­gel and Moshe Sokolow, eds.
  • Review
By – August 30, 2011
A slew of con­fer­ences in the mid­dle of the last decade marked the 900th anniver­sary of Rashi’s death, and the 800th ofMai­monides. This vol­ume strad­dles both mile­stones, with stud­ies that try to relate to these two very dif­fer­ent Jew­ish lead­ers. This is not so eas­i­ly achieved, since Rashi was pri­mar­i­ly a com­men­ta­tor, while Mai­monides was a sys­tem­at­ic thinker. But it elicit­ed some fas­ci­nat­ing respons­es from the schol­ars includ­ed in this vol­ume. Many of them focus on bib­li­cal exe­ge­sis, which can be found direct­ly in Rashi’s works and oblique­ly in those of Mai­monides. Only a small num­ber treat the oth­er realm in which the two over­lapped — Tal­mud and Jew­ish law. Most of the con­trib­u­tors are estab­lished schol­ars, but there are also fas­ci­nat­ing con­tri­bu­tions by younger academics.

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