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Maimonides on Life
By Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld
Maimonides is a unique figure in Jewish history in that not only was he a masterful scholar of virtually all areas of Jewish law, but he was also one of the greatest philosophers Judaism (as well as mankind) has ever produced. His monumental work, Mishne Torah (“repetition of the Torah”) concerns itself primarily with Jewish law, yet deals with all aspects of Jewish life including philosophy, health and character development. In this class Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld studies two key sections of the Mishne Torah — the Laws of Understanding (Hilchos De’os), and the Laws of Repentance. The former is the one section devoted almost exclusively to ethics and character development. In style, this course will resemble his Pirkei Avos class, translating a weekly paragraph of Maimonides and expounding upon it, bringing out the beauty and relevance of Maimonides’ words.
Dovid Rosenfeld is a native of the Washington D.C. area. He received Rabbinic Ordination from Ner Israel Rabbinical College in 1992, while also holding a Masters in Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University. He works for aish.com as both the rabbi of their Ask the Rabbi service and as programmer of their multiple websites. He is also the author of Torah.org’s highly popular Pirkei Avos Avos class. He resides in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, together with his wife and children.
Subscribe to Maimonides on Life and receive this class via e-mail.
Hilchos De'os / Laws of Understanding
- Chapter 1, Law 1 – The First Commandment: Know Yourself
- Chapter 1, Law 2 – Controlling Our Destiny
- Chapter 1, Laws 3-4(a) – Reaching Our Own Stars
- Chapter 1, Law 4(b)-5 – Rational or Crazy?
- Chapter 1, Law 6(a) – Do We Really Want G-d? Part I
- Chapter 1, Law 6(b) – Do We Really Want G-d? Part II
- Chapter 1, Law 7 – Jewish Psychology
- Chapter 2, Law 1 – Are We Really Happy?
- Chapter 2, Law 2(a) – Curing the Disease
- Chapter 2, Law 2(b) – From Extreme to Extreme
- Chapter 2, Law 3(a) – The World Isn’t Big Enough
- Chapter 2, Law 3(b) – Arrogance vs. Self-Awareness
- Chapter 2, Law 3(c) – Anger and Self-Worship
- Chapter 2, Law 3(d) – The Anger of Sadness
- Chapter 2, Law 4(a) – Speech: Expressions of the Soul
- Chapter 2, Law 4(b) – Silence and the Road to Self-Discovery
- Chapter 2, Law 4(c) – Scaling the Heights
- Chapter 2, Law 5 – The Torah Speaks for Itself
- Chapter 2, Law 6 – Smooth Talk and Self-Deception
- Chapter 2, Law 7(a) – Torah through Laughter
- Chapter 2, Law 7(b) – The Power of the Human Eye, Part I
- Chapter 2, Law 7(c) – The Power of the Human Eye, Part II
- Chapter 2, Law 7(d) – The Pain of Inexistence, Part I
- Chapter 2, Law 7(e) – The Pain of Inexistence, Part II
- Chapter 3, Law 1 – Man as Body and Soul
- Chapter 3, Law 2 – Playing with Fire
- Chapter 3, Law 3 – In All Your Ways Know Him
- Chapter 4, Laws 1-8 – Health Issues, Part I
- Chapter 4, Laws 9-17 – Health Issues, Part II
- Chapter 4, Laws 18-23 – Health Issues, Part III
- Chapter 5, Law 1(a) – The Way of the Wise
- Chapter 5, Law 1(b) – Going Beyond the Bounds
- Chapter 5, Law 2 – Of Rabbis and Sheep
- Chapter 5, Law 3 – Wine and Self-Knowledge
- Chapter 5, Laws 4-5 – Private Matters
- Chapter 5, Law 6 – More Private Matters
- Chapter 5, Law 7(a) – Dual Standards
- Chapter 5, Law 7(b) – Understanding Man, Part I
- Chapter 5, Law 7(c) – Understanding Man, Part II
- Chapter 5, Law 7(d) – Truth versus Peace
- Chapter 5, Law 8 – Walking the Walk
- Chapter 5, Law 9 – Clothing for the Soul
- Chapter 5, Law 10 – Is Poverty the Ideal?
- Chapter 5, Law 11 – Coping with New Realities
- Chapter 5, Law 12 – Financial Planning
- Chapter 5, Law 13 – The Bottom Line
- Chapter 6, Law 1 – Of Cave Dwellers and Insulation
- Chapter 6, Law 2(a) – The Holiness of the Physical, Part I
- Chapter 6, Law 2(b) – The Holiness of the Physical, Part II
- Chapter 6, Law 3 – Love Knows No Barriers
- Chapter 6, Law 4 – Discovering G-d and Ourselves
- Chapter 6, Law 5 – Confronting the Enemy
- Chapter 6, Law 6 – High-Stakes Actions
- Chapter 6, Law 7(a) – G-d Up Close
- Chapter 6, Law 7(b) – True Friends
- Chapter 6, Law 8 – Crying Out
- Chapter 6, Law 9 – Letting It Go
- Chapter 6, Law 10(a) – Seeing Beneath the Surface
- Chapter 6, Law 10(b) – Balancing Acts and Education
- Chapter 7, Laws 1-2(a) – The Sins of the Great, Part I
- Chapter 7, Laws 1-2(b) – The Sins of the Great, Part II
- Chapter 7, Law 2 – Good Corrupted
- Chapter 7, Law 3(a) – Cynicism: The Joy of Inexistence, Part I
- Chapter 7, Law 3(b) – Cynicism: The Joy of Inexistence, Part II
- Chapter 7, Law 3(c) – Cynicism: The Joy of Inexistence, Part III
- Chapter 7, Law 4 – Birds of Prey
- Chapter 7, Law 5 – Words that Kill
- Chapter 7, Law 6(a) – Tunnel Vision, Part I
- Chapter 7, Law 6(b) – Tunnel Vision, Part II
- Chapter 7, Law 6(c) – Tunnel Vision, Part III
- Chapter 7, Law 7 – The Serpent’s Revenge
- Chapter 7, Law 8(a) – Who Are We? Part l
- Chapter 7, Law 8(b) – Who Are We? Part II
- Chapter 1, Law 1 – Laws of Repentance – Standing before G-D
- Chapter 1, Law 2 – Scapegoats and Shortcuts
- Chapter 1, Law 3 – Yom Kippur and Natural Souls
- Chapter 1, Law 4 – Minefields and Hidden Consequences
- Chapter 2, Law 1 – Deja Vu
- Chapter 2, Law 2 – Unrepentant Confession
- Chapter 2, Law 3 – Of Rodents and Confession
- Chapter 2, Law 4 – Spiritual Remaking
- Chapter 2, Law 5 – Going Public
- Chapter 2, Law 6 – The High Holidays and Man
- Chapter 2, Law 7 – Satan’s Last Gasp
- Chapter 2, Law 8(a) – Yom Kippur and Man’s Inner Light
- Chapter 2, Law 8(b) – Stirring up the Dark Past
- Chapter 2, Law 9 – Discovering the Without
- Chapter 2, Law 10 – Compassion without Theology
- Chapter 2, Law 11 – Contacting the Dead
- Chapter 3, Law 1 – Hovering Over the Red Line
- Chapter 3, Law 2 – Who Will Live and Who Will Die
- Chapter 3, Law 3(a) – Repent Your Good Ways
- Chapter 3, Law 3(b) – Higher Standards
- Chapter 3, Law 4(a) – Hanging in the Balance, Part I
- Chapter 3, Law 4(b) – Hanging in the Balance, Part II
- Chapter 3, Law 5(a) – Individual Versus Collective Guilt
- Chapter 3, Law 5(b) – Body and Soul
- Chapter 3, Law 5(c) – G-d’s Agenda
- Chapter 3, Law 6 – From the Brink of Destruction
- Chapter 3, Law 7 – G-d: Infinite or Caring?
- Chapter 3, Law 8(a) – The Legacy of Moses, Part I
- Chapter 3, Law 8(b) – The Legacy of Moses, Part II
- Chapter 3, Law 8(c) – The Torah of the Rabbis, Part I
- Chapter 3, Law 8(d) – The Torah of the Rabbis, Part II
- Chapter 3, Law 9 – Writing Yourself Off
- Chapter 3, Law 10 – Unpluralistic Judaism
- Chapter 3, Law 11(a) – Proving We’re Right
- Chapter 3, Law 11(b) – The Truth About the State of Israel
- Chapter 3, Law 12 – Collaborating with Gentile Authorities
- Chapter 3, Law 13 – Living for Illusions
- Chapter 3, Law 14(a) – Seeing the Holiness Within
- Chapter 3, Law 14(b) – Hope for the Elderly
- Chapter 4, Law 1 – Missing the Boat
- Chapter 4, Law 2(a) – What Will the Neighbors Think?
- Chapter 4, Law 2(b) – The Origins of Christianity
- Chapter 4, Law 2(c) – Taking Evil Head On
- Chapter 4, Law 3 – Starting Small
- Chapter 4, Law 4 – Blessing the Suspect
- Chapter 4, Law 5-6(a) – Getting Addicted to Evil, Part I
- Chapter 4, Law 5-6(b) – Getting Addicted to Evil, Part II
- Chapter 5, Law 1 – Repentance and Unbounded Souls
- Chapter 5, Law 2 – Unlimited Potential
- Chapter 5, Law 3 – Choose Life
- Chapter 5, Law 4 – Does G-d Control Man?
- Chapter 5, Law 5 – The World Makes No Sense
- Chapter 6, Law 1-2 – Eternal Actions
- Chapter 6, Law 3 – The Point of No Return
- Chapter 6, Law 4 – The Gift of Self-Perception
- Chapter 6, Law 5(a) – Helping Those Who Help Themselves
- Chapter 6, Law 5(b) – Following Orders
- Chapter 7, Laws 1-2 – Souls of Infinity
- Chapter 7, Law 3 – Who Are We?
- Chapter 7, Law 4 – Voices in Our Head
- Chapter 7, Law 5 – The Road to Armageddon
- Chapter 7, Law 6 – Flowing Love
- Chapter 7, Law 7 – G-d’s Cue Card
- Chapter 7, Law 8 – The Practicalities of Return
- Chapter 8, Law 1(a) – The Coming of the End, Part I
- Chapter 8, Law 1(b) – The Coming of the End, Part II
- Chapter 8, Law 1(c) – The Coming of the End, Part III
- Chapter 8, Law 2 – What is the Ultimate?
- Chapter 8, Law 3 – The Three Souls of Man
- Chapter 8, Law 4 – The Mystery of the World to Come
- Chapter 8, Law 5(a) – The Final Revenge
- Chapter 8, Law 5(b) – Breaking the Bonds
- Chapter 8, Law 6(a) – Paradise or World to Come?
- Chapter 8, Law 6(b) – Physical World to Come?
- Chapter 8, Law 7 – The Messianic Era
- Chapter 8, Law 8 – The Future Near and Far
- Chapter 9, Law 1(a) – The Story of Planet Earth, Part I
- Chapter 9, Law 1(b) – The Story of Planet Earth, Part II
- Chapter 9, Law 1(c) – Physical and Spiritual Rewards
- Chapter 9, Law 2 – Why We Want the Messiah