In 1797, in what is now the Czech Republic, Pinḥas Hurwitz published one of the best-selling Hebrew books of the modern era. Nominally an extended commentary on a sixteenth-century kabbalist text, The Book of the Covenant was in fact a compendium of scientific knowledge and a manual of moral behavior. Its popularity stemmed from its ability to present the scientific advances and moral cosmopolitanism of its day in the context of Jewish legal and mystical tradition. Describing the latest developments in science and philosophy in the sacred language of Hebrew, Hurwitz argued...

The series Jewish Thought, Philosophy, and Religion aims to present a wide spectrum of studies and texts related to Jewish thought, philosophy, and religion - from antiquity to the present. It seeks to highlight the multiplicity of approaches within Judaism and to shed light on the interaction between Jewish and non-Jewish thought. The series includes monographs, collected essays, and editions of sources submitted to or produced by staff and visiting fellows of the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, as well as by scholars of the Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion at...