- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Interiority and Law
About This Book
Interiority and Law presents a groundbreaking reassessment of a medieval Jewish classic, Ba?ya ibn Paquda's Guide to the Duties of the Hearts. Michaelis reads this work anew as a revolutionary intervention in Jewish law, or halakha.
Overturning perceptions of Ba?ya as the shaper of an ethical-religious form of life that exceeds halakha, Michaelis offers a pioneering historical and conceptual analysis of the category of "inner commandments" developed by Ba?ya. Interiority and Law reveals that Ba?ya's main effort revolved around establishing a new legal formationânamely, the "duties of the hearts"âwhich would deal entirely with human interiority. Michaelis takes up the implications of Ba?ya's radical innovation, examining his unique mystical model of proximity to God, which he based on an increasingly growing fulfillment of the inner commandments. With an integrative approach that puts Ba?ya in dialogue with other medieval Muslim and Jewish religious thinkers, this work offers a fresh perspective on our understanding of the interconnectedness of the dynamic, neighboring religious traditions of Judaism and Islam.
Contributing to conversations in the history of religion, Jewish studies, and medieval studies on interiority and mysticism, this book reveals Ba?ya as a revolutionary and demanding thinker of Jewish law.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Series Page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Duties and Supererogatory Acts
- 2. Inner Duties
- 3. Proximity
- 4. The World to Come
- 5. BÄášin and Tradition
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series List