Intellectual Trends in the Jewish Middle Ages

In this episode, Rabbi Schacter discusses two of the major focuses of medieval Jewish intellectual life: Talmud study and Jewish philosophy. He explains how Talmud study became so important to Judaism, and some of the major codes of Jewish law that emerged from it. He also surveys the lives of three of Jewish philosophy's leading figures—Saadya Gaon, Yehuda Halevi, and Maimonides—and analyzes their work on the relationship between faith and reason.