Seth (Avi) Kadish's Website

"Open Torah" is about the desperate need for Modern Orthodox Outreach Communities in Israel's cities and towns.

A Guide to Reading Nevi'im and Ketuvim

I designed "A Guide to Reading Nevi'im and Ketuvim" in order to ease and facilitate the direct reading and review of Tanakh in its entirety. It suggests a flexible schedule for daily reading (careful, precise reading out loud with the cantillation melody is highly recommended).

Textual "maps" of each book in Nevi'im and Ketuvim provide context for the daily units. The Guide also provides a useful alternative to the chapter divisions for the books of Tanakh.

Torah on One Foot

Ideas and materials for teaching "Basic Judaism."

My Basic Judaism Reading List

Wars of the Jews

Materials and ideas for teaching "Modern Jewish Movements" in a way that is at once historically honest, mutually respectful, and compatible with an Orthodox outlook.

Personal projects related to Torah and Jewish life:

My Kavvana book tackles the problem of "Rote versus Meaning in Jewish Prayer" (כוונה וקבע) from the perspectives of Halakhah, Jewish Thought, History of the Siddur, and the realities of daily synagogue life. The book is an exhaustive, in-depth study of a wealth of traditional Jewish sources.

“Jewish Dogma after Maimonides: Semantics or Substance?”

This article is a fundamental reconsideration of the arguments about "Principles of the Torah" among the rishonim. It argues that a these debates have been misunderstood: For the past 500 years the comments, essays and books that the rishonim wrote about about "Principles of the Torah" have been considered to be an exotic exercise devoted to issues that were ultimately trivial. This was true in traditional study over the generations since Don Isaac Abravanel, as well is in the more recent academic studies by such scholars as Menachem Kellner and Marc Shapiro. I argue that the thought and effort devoted to this topic reflects by the rishonim reflect a fundamental argument about the very nature of the Torah itself, about which they disagreed.

The full article appears in HUCA 86 (2015), pp. 195-264 (it was actually published in the spring of 2016). It is also a kind of sequel to my dissertation, and brings out the full relevance of the thought of the school of the Rabbenu Nissim Gerondi.

The Book of Abraham: Rabbi Shimon ben Ẓemaḥ Duran and the School of Rabbenu Nissim Gerondi is a revision of my 2006 Ph.D. dissertation, written under the supervision of Professor Menachem Kellner at the University of Haifa. It is now being published as an online book.

The book tests the reception of Maimonidean philosophy in late medieval Spain. It deals at length with medieval science, from botany and biology to mathematics and astronomy and on to metaphysics. Two special issues dealt with are the late medieval theories of Ikkarim (fundamental principles of the Torah) and the philosophy of prayer.

Sefer ha-Middot (Orḥot Ẓaddikim)

Middot are human dispositions or character traits. Sefer ha-Middot ("The Book of Character Traits") is a popular Jewish ethical treatise by an anonymous late medieval author; manuscript and other evidence places its composition in the 14th century. The book has been known by the title Orḥot Ẓaddikim ("The Ways of the Righteous") even since its first edition was published under that title (Prague, 1581).

In 2001 I was privileged to notice a manuscript containing a part of the book which had been missing for centuries and was never previously published. That text has been published under the title Simanei Sefer ha-Middot and is available at this page.

The Image of God

Something I've begun to develop recently (2011). Includes:

  • Source texts on the topic

  • Further material related to Lorberbaum, Westermann, Berman (Created Equal), Rav Kook...

Basic Judaism Reading List

Here's a draft list:

Mo'adim (special days in the yearly cycle)

Here's a draft list:

Humor

My sense of humor leaves a lot to be desired... Here's an attempt at political humor:

Miscellaneous and unfinished ideas for the future...

Here are some:

  • Musings (some of these have appeared or will appear as blog posts accompanying the chapters of The Book of Abraham)

  • Rashi and Maimonides as the models of Judaism.

  • Israel

Open Content License

CC BY-SA 3.0

All material on this website is copyright © 5772 (2011) by Seth (Avi) Kadish.

Unless otherwise noted, all contents available here may be copied and modified freely

according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (or a later version).

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