Rustom/Sourcebook, 10. Moses Maimonides: The Guide of the Perplexed - Crescas, Efodi, and Shem Tov: Commentaries on The Guide of the Perplexed

This entry offers passages Maimonides’s famous Guide of the Perplexed on Jacob’s vision of a ladder (Genesis 28:12–13). These passages provide us with an excellent example of how Maimonides trained his reader in the philosophical-allegorical exegesis of scripture, and how he separated his own discussion into different chapters, which often present different doctrines and interpretations for different purposes. In total, Jacob’s ladder is discussed in three separate sections of the Guide, each of which seem to put forth a different interpretations. These three sections from the Guide featured in this entry are accompanied by a selection of medieval Jewish commentaries, demonstrating how these works made sense of and decoded the secrets of the Guide. These commentaries represent some of the most influential commentaries upon the Guide written in Hebrew, namely that of Asher Crescas (14th –15th centuries), a relatively unknown commentator of obscure context; Efodi (d. ca. 1411), a polymath member of the circle of Hasdai Crescas; Shem Tov b. Joseph b. Shem Tov (fl. In late fifteenth century Spain), a scion of a distinguished Sefardic family, whose commentary on the Guide often incorporates earlier commentarial views in order to subtly revise or subvert them.