The Great Sources with Rabbi Shnayor Burton

Rabbi Shnayor Burton
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  • Judaism
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To help support this podcast, please consider making a tax-deductible donation via Zelle to jacoblightsfoundation@gmail.com. Lecture series in Jewish Philosophy. What was the purpose of Creation? What is man's place in the world? What are prophecy and prayer about? What is the significance of Shabbos and the Promised Land? Explore these fundamental questions of Judaism from their sources, and become familiar with the systems developed by the great Torah thinkers: R' Saadiah Gaon, R' Yehuda HaLevi, R' Bachya ibn Paquda, Rambam and the school of the Mekubalim.

  1. Aug 13

    S7, E20, The Guide of the Perplexed, the Closing Chapters, 04: Know, My Son — The Parable of the Parable's Interpretation Shnayor Burton Shnayor Burton 306 subscribers Analytics Edit video

    1:00 The parable of the sultan and its two interpretations4:00 The alternative path to God that does not involve studying philosophy nor human perfection8:00 Rambam gives the interpretation of the parable and then declares that it is not a true interpretation10:30 Parables have interpretations that are not completely true12:30 Shlomo went from parable to parable, and likewise the Rambam14:45 The power of a parable lies in its appeal to the imagination and the body, which stands in tension with the interpretation of the parable18:00 The first interpretation of the parable is actually a parable for the deeper interpretation of the parable21:00 Can the first track lead to prophecy? Would it be called prophecy only equivocally with true prophecy achieved through the second track?24:00 The student requires a parable to motivate him, and he must take the path through the first interpretation, which is itself a parable27:30 Study of Torah is a lived parable, and only after appreciating its study for its own sake can a person appreciate it as a parable for something else30:30 Why Aristotle did not become a prophet31:00 The answer to the greatest contradiction between Mishneh Torah and the Guide, regarding the importance of studying halacha: its study is a living parable34:30 The key to resolving the contradiction within the Rambam himself is understanding parables

  2. Aug 9

    S7, E19, The Guide of the Perplexed, the Closing Chapters, 03: Two Roads to the Inner Court of the King

    0:00 The parable of the sultan in his palace9:30 The interpretation of the parable: the Torah track to reach knowledge of God12:45 The second meaning of the parable: the scientific track to reach knowledge of God20:25 The second meaning stands in tension with and contradicts the first27:00 Rambam wanted his student to learn things in their proper order31:00 How a person could reach certainty about divine matters without studying the propaedeutic sciences35:45 Some noble souls have God-given illumination attained not through a course of education but as a gift42:30 As a student of Rambam, R' Yosef needed a course of education 48:45 The meaning of the sultan is never interpreted; in III:52, the king is interpreted to mean the intellect54:15 God dwells in Reason, which is His Shechinah58:30 Rambam does not interpret the meaning of the sultan, since there is no parable for God1:01:01 "HaKadosh Baruch Hu" as a parable for the acquired intellect or the active intellect1:04:00 The Treatise of the Pool and the final chapters of the Guide; reason as king and conduit to God

  3. Jul 28

    S7, E18, The Guide of the Perplexed, the Closing Chapters, 02: The Birth of a Nation Under Divine Providence

    00:45 The turn and the tension in III:51, and its parallel in III:54, about whether the service of God involves turning away from this world or engaging with it4:15 A new reason for all of the mitzvahs that runs counter to the reasons given earlier in the Guide16:15 The contradiction in III:54: Is the true perfection of man intellectual or practical?28:00 Why does Rambam think we cannot be like Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov and Moshe?40:30 Only the founders of the nation can be engaged with this world while remaining purely objective and focused on Hashem 54:30 The history of the Jewish Nation as the embodiment of Hashem's traits of Kindness, Justice and Righteousness, which are the hallmarks of Divine Providence57:00 The perfection of man as individual is knowledge; the perfection of man as a member of the Jewish Nation is engagement in lived Kindness, Justice and Righteousness1:01:00 "The unity of God in the world" – Kindness, Justice and Righteousness reflect God's unity in the dimension of the material world 1:05:00 Kindness, Justice and Righteousness for the collective correspond to intelligence for the individual

  4. Jul 21

    S7, E17, The Guide of the Perplexed, the Closing Chapters, 01: The Perfect Life and the Perfect Death

    The Great Sources with Rabbi Shnayor Burton

  5. Jun 29

    Should Judaism Go Universal?

    0:00 Has the time arrived for Judaism to cultivate a stance of ideological expansion?5:00 The divine decree of separation between Israel and the nations8:00 Is the role of Israel to teach other nations or to stand as a model?13:15 Why da'as Hashem includes all the nations17:30 Ideas that are privately held are not fully held19:50 To teach da'as Hashem requires not claiming the status of a teacher of da'as Hashem26:00 AI and globalized da'as31:00 Keeping Torah internal preserves its integrity40:45 If Israel would produce prophets, would the other nations come to study from them?43:00 Should Torah sages be challenged to justify how their study is relevant to the nations?48:45 Torah scholars in Israel should orient themselves toward the other nations; Torah scholars living among the nations should orient themselves toward Israel

  6. Jun 21

    How Shlomo Read the Torah: Good, Evil, and the Heart of the Entire Tanach

    Guest shiur delivered at Kollel Bein Hamikraos in Yerushalayim

  7. May 28

    The Door Moshe Closed: Nobody Can Be Moshe, Everyone Has to Listen to Him

    Torah is a transmission from someone who went where no one else could go and came back to tell us not to. Moshe entered the source of all being and returned with a single mitzvah: stay outside. Everything else is commentary.

  8. May 27

    The Three Oaths; guest shiur at Beis Medrash Meshivas Nefesh

    The Great Sources with Rabbi Shnayor Burton

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To help support this podcast, please consider making a tax-deductible donation via Zelle to jacoblightsfoundation@gmail.com. Lecture series in Jewish Philosophy. What was the purpose of Creation? What is man's place in the world? What are prophecy and prayer about? What is the significance of Shabbos and the Promised Land? Explore these fundamental questions of Judaism from their sources, and become familiar with the systems developed by the great Torah thinkers: R' Saadiah Gaon, R' Yehuda HaLevi, R' Bachya ibn Paquda, Rambam and the school of the Mekubalim.

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