Building Blocks: Exploring Pivotal Texts in Jewish Philosophy

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The opening of this shiur, in SeforimChatter with Nachi Weinstein’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

Welcome to Small Talk by Swarm Chatter. I'm Nachi Weinstein. On this episode of Small Talk, I'm going to be joined by Rabbi Daniel Fine, who is director of education for Seed in London, rabbi and an author of number of books. And this episode of Small Talk will be discussing his new book titled Building Blocks, Exploring Pivotal Texts in Jewish Philosophy, Sources, Translations, Explanations, and Discussions published by Ari Press. Thank you, Rabbi Fine, for joining me. >> Yeah, nice to be. >> What can you tell the listeners about this book? >> Yeah, okay. So, truth is, like many s'farim, many books, I guess, across history, it's a bit of a personal journey. Meaning both when I was growing up and when I was a rabbi, I kind of really warmed towards, I would call them, nuggets of clear hashkafa in a sequential way. In other words, we grow up with all sorts of little bits of ideas about different parts of Yiddishkeit and Judaism and growth. And I felt to have them in a systematic way that A could be studied and B could be taught, uh, was was was like crucial. I saw it in my own teaching as well. So, you know, not just, I know, like a tiny little bit about emunah, but kind of really explain, really define, really brought home. And the same with any given other things that are in the book, bitachon and free will and reward and punishment, to get a real understanding of what they are in a clear way with the guided questions and translations and sources. So, that was that was a nugget, that was a nutshell, and that was the goal, to be honest, as well. >> When we say with the subtitle Jewish philosophy, how do you how do you, at least, define Jewish philosophy and especially as it pertains to this book?

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00Welcome to Small Talk by Swarm Chatter. I'm Nachi Weinstein. On this episode of Small Talk,…
2. 1:33>> Yeah, that's a good question. It's funny, people see, like, on the cover, pivotal texts…
3. 3:09It's easy reading. You sit back on the couch, you lie down in a good way,…
4. 4:41people, the uniqueness of Eretz Yisrael, and then mitzvahs, and giving reasons to mitzvahs, looking at…
5. 6:46does that stack up? Um is Emunah received this innate, is it proven etc. And all…
6. 8:22introduction, um not all the like I would say 95% of Mekoros are translated. There's 5%…
7. 9:55you took from existing translations? How did you do the translations? >> Yes, it's funny. A…
8. 12:02chapter or a topic in isolation, that's perfectly doable. >> And was there a one specific…
9. 13:38I like excitedly emailed him saying, "Is the book closed? And can I add something?" You…
10. 15:15really important, you know, just in terms of our hashkafa, in terms of our knowledge. And…

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