Saturday, September 27, 2008

A NEW MAIMONIDES BIOGRAPHY is reviewed by Steven Nadler in the New York Sun:
"Maimonides" (Doubleday, 594 pages, $35), Joel Kraemer's biography of the man known among observant Jews as "the RaMBaM" (for Rabbi Moses ben Maimon), has been 20 years in the making and is clearly the product of great study. Mr. Kraemer is a scholar of the first rank, and his book is informed by historical, religious, and biographical erudition. He is as fluent working through the genizah texts and the urban geography of a medieval Spanish city as he is drawing out the contemporary relevance of ancient Arabic religious rivalries and the import of Maimonides's halachic or legal writings.

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There can be no question that Mr. Kraemer, with impeccable scholarly skill and breathtaking erudition, has written a monumental, immensely learned volume, a real labor of love (albeit one that is in serious need of a good editor). As a source for the details of Maimonides's life and of his world, this will probably be the standard biography of Maimonides for some time to come. However, Mr. Kraemer simply does not do justice to the rich and complex thought of this intellectual titan. The philosophy of the greatest Jewish philosopher of all time deserves better than this.

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UPDATE (27 September): Bad link fixed. Sorry, I was in a hurry yesterday.