by Jonathan Fass
Maimonides—Betwe
en Philosophy and Halakhah, edited by Professor Lawrence Kaplan of McGill University, has a unique origin. In 1950-51, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, a leader of Modern Orthodoxy in the twentieth century, offered a series of lectures on Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed. While the lectures are not transcribed verbatim, comprehensive notes from a lecture attendee, Rabbi Gerald Homnick, provide the basis for Kaplan’s book. As a widely recognized scholar on the thought of Rabbi Soloveitchik, Professor Kaplan is uniquely qualified to reconstruct these lectures on Maimonides’ most challenging philosophical work.
To these notes Kaplan has provided both a preface and editor’s introduction of just over fifty pages. In a foreword to Kaplan’s introduction, Professor Dov Schwartz recognizes the achievement of this introduction to both impart “an independent perspective to the connection between R. Soloveitchik and Maimonides and aids the reader in understanding Rabbi Soloveitchik’s intentions and insights.” Read the rest of this entry »