REVIEW: Malmad HaTalmidim

Rabbi Yaʿaqob Anatoli, Malmad HaTalmidim: The Introduction (Daʿat Press, 2025), 165 pp.

Based in London, Sina Kahen and Daʿat Press have published another significant contribution to the recovery of medieval Jewish intellectual culture: an annotated English translation of the introduction to Malmad HaTalmidim, by Rabbi Yaʿaqob Anatoli (1194–1256), a Provencal exegete and son-in-law of Rabbi Shemuel ibn Tibbon. This volume continues Daʿat Press’ broader project of revitalizing the traditions of the Geonic and Andalusian worlds, in which the study of science and philosophy was understood not as a threat to Torah, but as a means of enriching Torah study and religious observance.

Published in 1249, Malmad HaTalmidim later became a major lightning rod in the second wave of the Maimonidean Controversy (1300–1306), as Anatoli’s sermons circulated more widely and provoked renewed opposition. In Provence, several other rabbis followed his lead and preached philosophy publicly from the pulpit. A collection of sermons organized around the weekly Torah readings, Malmad HaTalmidim interprets Scripture through peshat, grammar, logic, and the natural sciences, reflecting a distinctive Provencal synthesis of Torah and general wisdom.

This approach triggered a sharp counterreaction, most notably from Abba Mari of Lunel, who feared that the public dissemination of philosophical ideas would undermine belief in miracles and divine providence, weaken religious observance, and destabilize communal norms. The ensuing controversy drew in the leading halakhic authorities of the age, including Rashba, who opposed the philosophical turn, and Rabbi Menahem ha-Meʾiri, who defended it. The volume includes a substantial introductory chapter, penned by Kahen, that provides valuable historical background to the controversy and carefully maps the theological and educational fault lines dividing the rabbis of that era.

One of the most striking features of this edition is the extensive scholarly apparatus. The learned footnotes—often far exceeding the translated text itself—supply essential context, trace sources, and clarify Anatoli’s arguments. Through these notes, Kahen and his fellow translator and annotator Jackson Gardner (neither is actually credited in the volume) enables modern readers to appreciate both the sophistication and the polemical edge of Anatoli’s introduction. Among the central ideas that emerge are the following:

1. Anatoli insists that the study of philosophy is appropriate only for those already firmly grounded in Torah. Those who bypass the proper educational sequence and turn prematurely to speculative disciplines are likened to Nadab and Abihu, who offered “alien fire.”
2. In Anatoli’s view, science and philosophy complete areas of understanding that Torah study alone cannot fully address. Exclusive immersion in Torah, without interpretation and critical inquiry, is insufficient to plumb the Torah’s depths.
3. Truth should be learned from whoever teaches it; wisdom is not confined to any single culture or tradition.
4. Drawing on Ecclesiastes (12:11), which frames the introduction, Anatoli presents tradition as “nails that fasten,” while philosophy functions as a “goad (malmad) that prods” and challenges in the pursuit of truth. Ecclesiastes thus becomes a methodological guide, urging intellectual honesty alongside fidelity to observance.
5. The study of philosophy is necessary in order to fulfill the rabbinic mandate to “know how to answer the heretic” (Avot 2:14).
6. Critical inquiry is likewise essential for the pursuit of taʿamei ha-mitzvot, the reasons behind the commandments, which deepen religious observance and rescue it from rote, mechanical service. Anatoli also warns that excessive focus on dialectical talmudic argumentation, when detached from spiritual purpose, can distract from the cultivation of love of God and meaningful religious experience.

This volume is a valuable contribution that brings an important but often neglected medieval voice back to life. Through careful translation, extensive annotation, and firm grounding in historical and ideological context, Kahen and Gardner succeed in making Anatoli’s thought accessible to contemporary readers while preserving its intellectual rigor. Students, educators, and readers interested in the enduring tensions between tradition and inquiry will find this work an illuminating window into a formative moment in Jewish intellectual history.

Rabbi Hayyim Angel, a member of TRADITION’s editorial board, is the National Scholar at the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals and serves on the Bible Faculty, Yeshiva University.