Micah Goodman - Maimonides and the Book That Changed Judaism: Secrets of The Guide for the Perplexed

I wish to thank my good friend Yedidya Sinclair for his fine, fluent, and intelligent English translation of this book.

My teacher Zeev Harvey gave me precious keys to the gates of The Guide for the Perplexed. I am extremely grateful to him for years of philosophical conversation, intellectual guidance, and friendly encouragement.

This book has been enriched by good advice from teachers and friends: Moshe Halbertal, Ran Baratz, Yair Loeberbaum, Ben Reis, Yuval Kahan, Rani Alon, and Shraga Bar-On, whose fingerprints are discernible all over the book. Boaz Lifschitz, Batya Huri, Yochai Ofran, and David Dishon read different sections of the Hebrew manuscript and contributed to it greatly. My thanks go to all of you.

The manuscript of this book was written at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. I am grateful to the institutes director, Donniel Hartman, for creating a meeting place of Torah scholars that enabled the books birth.

Shmuel Rosner invested much time and notable effort in editing the Hebrew book. I am grateful to him for the artistry, wise advice, and profound conversations that clarified the structure of the book and brought it to its present form; the critical thinking, intelligence and refinement of Galia Graver improved the book very much. I am grateful.

Thanks to Tirza Eisenberg and everyone at the Kinneret Zemora Betan Dvir publishing house who worked on the Hebrew book with dedication and love. Thanks also to my agent, Deborah Harris, whose great wisdom and experience in publishing helped find the right home for the English version. George Eltmans meticulous and insightful editing improved the text considerably; Yaffa Aranoff contributed much to the final stages of the editing process. I am grateful to my publishers, Rabbi Barry Schwartz and Carol Hupping at the Jewish Publication Society, for their enthusiastic embrace of the book and their perceptive reading and comments. Many thanks also to Sabrina Stellrecht and Jonathan Lawrence for their painstaking proofing and editing. I am grateful to Lynn Schusterman for believing that the thoughts in this book could interest readers in English as much as they appear to have done so in Hebrew. And my thanks to her for the generosity that made this translation possible.

Many years ago, my teacher David Hartman goaded me to dive into the perplexity of the perplexed. Avi Ravitsky revealed to me many facets of the secrets of the Guide; Hertz Makov provoked and encouraged me to write this book. My heartfelt thanks to you all.

This book could not have been written without many years of conversations with my students at Midreshet Ein Prat and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This rich and enriching discussion sharpened the thoughts that went into the book. I feel fortunate to have been blessed with such excellent students, who listened to me and challenged my claims. To all of you, my students over the years, through whom I have learned more than from anyone else, my very deep thanks.

For sixteen years, the Guide has preoccupied my thoughts. Throughout most of that journey, my beloved life partner has walked at my side. This book is dedicated to my best friend, to my wife, to Tzipi.