Prof. Yehuda Halper
* Medieval Jewish Philosophy
* Renaissance Jewish Philosophy
* Medieval Islamic Philosophy
Averroes
Aristotelian Metaphysics
Aristotelian Logic and Dialectic
History of Science
Hebrew Philosophical Terminology
Socratic Philosophy in Jewish Thought
CV
APPOINTMENTS
Associate Professor, March 2021 – Present
Department of Jewish Philosophy
Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan, Israel
Senior Lecturer, October 2015 – February 2021
Department of Jewish Philosophy
Bar Ilan University
Ramat Gan, Israel
Professor of Practice, July 2014-June 2015
Director, Hebrew Program
Associate Director, Stacy Mandel Palagye and Keith Palagye Program in Middle East Peace
Department of Jewish Studies
Tulane University, New Orleans, USA
Schusterman Visiting Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, July 2012 – June 2014
Department of Jewish Studies
Tulane University, New Orleans, USA
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Liberal Arts, July 2010 – June 2012
Department of Philosophy and the Interdisciplinary Program in Jewish Studies
Tulane University, New Orleans, USA
EDUCATION
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Ph. D. in Philosophy, Division of Jewish Philosophy, June, 2010
Awarded “Highest Distinction”
Thesis: "Averroes on Metaphysical Terminology: an Analysis and Critical Edition of the Long Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics Delta"
Supervisor: Steven Harvey
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
M. A. in Philosophy (Hebrew Program), November 2006
Master’s Thesis: "Maimonides' Natural World: A Reading of The Guide of the Perplexed Part I, Ch. 72"
Supervisors: Aryeh Leo Motzkin (d. 2006) and Warren Ze'ev Harvey
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
A. B. in Classical Studies (language intensive variant) and Mathematics, June 2004
Honors in Classics, Honors in Math, and General Honors, Dean's List
Bachelor's Thesis: "Punishment in Plato's Gorgias"
Supervisor: James Redfield Second Reader: Danielle Allen
HONORS / AWARDS
·Goldstein-Goren Book Award for the Best Book in Jewish Thought for the Years 2019-2021, for Jewish Socratic Questions in an Age without Plato
·Alon Fellowship for Outstanding Young Researchers, Israel, 2016-2020
·Young Scholars Colloquium, Israel Academy of Sciences and the Humanities
·Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, Tulane University, New Orleans, 2014.
Award presented at Tulane - Rice Baseball Game, April 13, 2014.
·Presidential Fellowship, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 2006-2010
·Library Fellow, Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Jerusalem, Israel, December 2007- July 2010
·Doctoral Scholar, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture,
October, 2008 - May, 2009 and October, 2009 – May, 2010
·Graduate Fellow, Shalem Center, Jerusalem, Israel, 2005-2006 and 2006-2007
·Junior Fellowship, John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of Democracy, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago, 2003-2004 and 2002-2003
·Undergraduate Research Award, Vertical Integration of Research and Education in the Mathematical Sciences Program, Department of Mathematics, University of Chicago, Summers 2001 and 2002
Research
Projects
2022-2025 "Samuel Ibn Tibbon's Explanation of Foreign Terms and the Foundations of Philosophy in Hebrew" Israel Science Foundation Project #622/22
Dr. Rebecca Kneller-Rowe (Bar Ilan), Assistant Researcher on the Project
Katherina Hillmann (Bar Ilan), Doctoral Researcher on the Project
Prof. James T. Robinson (University of Chicago), Outside co-operation
2021 "Dialectic in the Middle Ages: Between Debate and the Foundations of Science" Israel Science Foundation #1591/21
2019-2022 "Hebrew Traditions of Aristotelian Dialectics" Israel Science Foundation Project #2181/19
Dr. Gadi Weber (Bar Ilan), Post-Doctoral Researcher on the Project
Dr. Daniel Davies (Bar Ilan), Assistant Researcher on the Project
Arye Rainer (Bar Ilan), Doctoral Researcher on the Project
Prof. Charles Manekin (University of Maryland), Outside co-operation
2018-2019 “The Reception and Impact of Aristotelian Logic in Medieval Jewish Culture” Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Organizers: Yehuda Halper and Prof. Charles Manekin (University of Maryland)
Core Participants: Josef Stern (University of Chicago), Tony Street (University of Cambridge), Nadja Germann (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), Gad Freudenthal (CNRS, Paris), Hannah Kasher (Bar Ilan)
https://iias.huji.ac.il/The-Reception-and-Impact-of-Aristotelian-Logic-in-Medieval-Jewish-Culture
Fellowships
Visiting Scholar, Max Planck Research Group (Premodern Science) for project, " The Logic of Experience in the Medieval Hebrew Philosophical Tradition" https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/users/yhalper#:~:text=Visiting%20Scholar%20(Jan%202021-Jun%202021)&text=Dr.,Africa%2C%20and%20the%20Middle%20East.
Senior Fellow, Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, July-August 2018 and July-August 2019, Research Project: Open Inquiry in Jewish Thought https://www.maimonides-centre.uni-hamburg.de/fellows/projects/2017-2018/halper.html
Courses
Publications
MONOGRAPH
Jewish Socratic Questions in an Age Without Plato: Permitting and Forbidding Open-Inquiry in 12-15th century Europe and North Africa. Leiden: Brill, Maimonides Library of Philosophy and Religion 1, 2021
EDITED BOOKS
1. Logica graeco-arabico-hebraica, special issue (11/2) of Studia Graeco-Arabica (2021): https://learningroads.cfs.unipi.it/sga-11-22021/ .
2. The Pursuit of Happiness in Medieval Jewish and Islamic Thought. Ed. Yehuda Halper. Turnhout: Brepols Press, Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions of the Middle Ages 1, 2021.
3. Judah Moscato Sermons: Edition and Translation, Volume Three. Ed. G. Milletto and G. Veltri in conjunction with Yehuda Halper and G. Corazzol. Brill Press, 2012.
4. Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition, by Aryeh Leo Motzkin (d. 2006), edited by Yehuda Halper. Brill Press, 2012.
5. Judah Moscato Sermons: Edition and Translation, Volume Two. Ed. G. Milletto and G. Veltri in conjunction with Yehuda Halper and G. Corazzol. E. J. Brill Press, 2011.
ARTICLES (Journal Articles and Book Chapters)
1. "Are Zeno's Paradoxes of Motion Fallacies? Evidence from the Hebrew Aristotelian Logical Tradition," Ad Argumenta: special issue of Quaestio, forthcoming.
2. "Debate by the Book, about the Book, in a Book: Shem Tob Falaquera's Epistle of the Debate, Al-Fārābī’s Book of Dialectic, and Aristotle's Topics on Philosophy and the Holy Writ," Studia Graeco-Arabica 11.2 (2021): 93-106.
3. "Aristotelian Philosophical Programs in the Middle Ages," In Oxford Handbook of Jewish Philosophy, ed. Yitzhak Melamed and Paul Franks (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
4. "Choking on Water, the Stratification of Society, and the Death of Socrates in the Hebrew Averroes." In Averroes and Averroism in Medieval Jewish Thought, ed. Yoav Meyrav, Racheli Haliva, and Dan Davies (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).
5. "Expelling Dialectics from the Ideal State: Making the World Safe for Philosophy in Averroes' Commentary on Plato's Republic." In Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context: New Perspectives on Averroes' Commentary, ed. Alexander Orwin (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2022), pp. 69-86.
6. "Dialectic and Metaphysical Skepticism in Jacob Anatoli," Theoria 88 (2022): 143-163.
7. "Can the Results of Experience be the Premises of Demonstrations? 400 Years of Debate on a Single Line of Maimonides' Treatise on the Art of Logic", in Premodern Experience of the Natural World in Translation, ed. Katja Krause, Maria Avxentevskaya, and Dror Weil (London: Routledge, 2022), pp. 171-187.
8. "Happiness, Eros, and the Active Intellect: Understanding Erotic Desire in Averroes’ Long Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics Λ in light of the Middle Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics", in The Pursuit of Happiness in Medieval Jewish Thought, ed. Y. Halper (Turnhout: Brepols, 2021), 195-214.
9. “Is Silence Praise to Thee? On the Remarkable Near-Absence of Hebrew Averroist Metaphysical Speculation about God in the 15th-16th Centuries” in Averroism between the 15th and 17th century, ed. Jozef Matula (Nordhausen: Traugott Bautz, 2020), 225-244.
10. “The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Philosophers: The Ladder of Knowledge in Immanuel of Rome’s Hell and Heaven." In Philosophy for All? The Medieval Popularization of Philosophy in Medieval Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, Ed. Marieke Abram, Steven Harvey, and Lukas Muelthaler (Turnhout: Brepols, 2022), pp. 351-362.
11. "In One Sense Easy, in Another Difficult: Reverberations of the Opening of Aristotle's Metaphysics α ἔλλατον in Medieval and Renaissance Hebrew Literature," Revue des études juives 179.1-2 (2020): 133-160.
12. “Abraham Bibago on the Logic of Divine Science: Metaphysics α and the Legend of the Pardes,” in The Origin and Nature of Language and Logic: Perspectives in Medieval Islamic, Jewish, and Christian Thought, ed. Nadja Germann and Steven Harvey (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020), 323-346.
13. “King Solomon's Phaedran Madness in Johanan Alemanno's Hebrew Symposium,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 26 (2019): 309-337.
14. "Are there Second Intentions in De Interpretatione 16a3-8? The Hebrew Aristotelian Commentary Tradition in the 13th-15th centuries," Studia Graeco-Arabica 9 (2019): 243-269.
15. "Averroes’ Rewrite of Aristotle's Metaphysics Δ: Establishing The Plain Meaning of The Text in The Middle Commentary," Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Médiévales 86.2 (2019): 259-281.
16. "God, Δαιμόνιον, and 'The Absent Philosopher': Constructing a Socratic Dialogue between Halevi and his Readers according to Leo Strauss’ 'The Law of Reason in the Kuzari,'" DAAT: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy & Kabbalah 88 (2019): 191-204.
17. “The Only Extant, Complete, and Original Hebrew Commentary on the Entire Metaphysics of Aristotle: Eli Habilio and the Influence of Scotism,” Vivarium: A Journal for Medieval and Early-Modern Philosophy and Intellectual Life 57 (2019): 182-205.
18. "'For the Earth shall be Filled with De‘ah': Terminological Ambiguities and the Connection between Knowledge and Actions in Maimonides' Commentary on the Mishnah and Mishneh Torah?" In Reimund Leicht and Giuseppe Veltri (eds.), Officina Philosophica Hebraica I: Studies in the Formation of Medieval Hebrew Philosophical Terminology (Leiden: Brill, 2019), 76-103.
19. “Jewish Ritual as Trial in the Guide of the Perplexed.” In Interpreting Maimonides: Critical Essays, ed. Daniel Davies and Charles Manekin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), 114-132.
20. “Philosophical Commentary and Supercommentary: The Hebrew Aristotelean Commentaries of the 14th through 16th Centuries.” In Medieval Jewish Philosophy and its Literary Forms, ed. Aaron Hughes and James Robinson (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2019), 104-132.
21. “Does Maimonides' Mishneh Torah Forbid Reading the Guide of the Perplexed? On Platonic Punishments for Free Thinkers” AJS Review 42.2 (2018): 351-379.
22. “Socrates and Socratic Philosophy according to Judah Halevi’s Kuzari." Jewish Quarterly Review 107: 4 (2017): 447-475.
23. “The Sex Life of a Metaphysical Sceptic: Platonic Themes in Gersonides’ Commentary on Song of Songs” – in Scepticism and Anti-Scepticism in Medieval Jewish Thought, ed. Racheli Haliva (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), 146-166.
24. 'בית אם מפולג לא יעמוד: הערה על דת ומדינה בתקופת הבית השני על פי ברוך שפינוזה' (“A House Divided cannot Stand: A Note on Religion and State in the Second Temple Period according to Benedict Spinoza”). In מנחה לחנה: עיונים לכבוד חנה כשר (“Tribute to Hannah: Studies in Honor of Hannah Kasher”), ed. Avraham Elqayam and Ariel Malachi (Tel Aviv: Idra Academic Press, 2018), 475-499.
25. 'בין דעת הרמב"ם לדעת שמואל אבן תיבון: תרגומי המונח 'דעת' ויחסם לשאלות המרכזיות של משנה התורה ומורה נבוכים' (“Daᶜat HaRambam and Daᶜat Samuel Ibn Tibbon: On the Meanings of the Hebrew Term, Daᶜat, and Central Questions of the Mishneh Torah and the Guide of the Perplexed”), DAAT: A Journal of Jewish Philosophy & Kabbalah 83 (2017): 47-67.
26. “Dialecticians and Dialectics in Averroes’ Long Commentary on Gamma 2 of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 26.1 (2016): 161-184.
27. “Intellect, Platonic Imagery and the Limitations of Aristotelian Science in Judah Moscato’s Nefuṣot Yehudah.” In Studies in Jewish History and Culture, Judah Moscato Sermons, vol. iv. Leiden: Brill, 2015. pp. 327-346.
28. “Abraham Bibago on Intellectual Conjunction and Human Happiness: Faith and Metaphysics according to a 15th Century Jewish Averroist.” Quaestio: Yearbook of the History of Metaphysics 15 (2015): 309-318.
29. “Averroes on Intentionality and the Human Experience of the Natural World.” In Aristotle and the Arabic Tradition, edited by Ahmed Alwishah and Josh Hayes. Cambridge University Press, 2015. pp. 164-176.
30. “Philosophical Allegory in Bibago: Exegetical Duplicity for the sake of Open Inquiry.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 21: 3 (2014): 261-276.
31. “Bibago’s Introduction to his Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics.” Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture 10 (2013): 1-15.
32. “Revision and Standardization of Hebrew Philosophical Terminology in the Fourteenth Century: the Example of Averroes’ Long Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics Δ and the Development of Hebrew Scientific Terms.” Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism 13 (2013): 95-138.
33. “Introduction: Jewish and Philosophical Works of Aryeh Leo Motzkin” and “The Intellectual Development of Aryeh Leo Motzkin.” Pp. xi-xxi. In Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition, by Aryeh Leo Motzkin (d. 2006), edited by Yehuda Halper. E. J. Brill Press, 2012.
34. “Prayers to the God of Aristotle's Metaphysics: Tefillot Siyyum for Chapters of Book Δ of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.” Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture 8 (2011): 15-29.
35. “The Convergence of Religious and Metaphysical Concepts: Mofet and Devequt in the Hebrew Translation of Averroes' Long Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics” Studia Neoaristotelica 8: 2 (December, 2011): 163-177.
REVIEWS
1. Review of Andalus and Sefarad: On Philosophy and Its History in Islamic Spain, by Sarah Stroumsa, Bulletin of SOAS 83/3 (2020), 518-520
2. Review of Dāwūd ibn Marwān al-Muqammaṣ, Twenty Chapters, ed. and trans. Sarah Stroumsa. Iyyun: The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly 67 (January, 2018), 70-77.
3. Review of Reading Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, by David Gillis. AJS Review 41:1 (2017): 18-20.
4. Review of Maimonides & Spinoza: Their Conflicting Views of Human Nature, by Joshua Parens. Journal of the History of Philosophy 51: 2 (April, 2013), pp. 319-320.
5. Review of Il Commento medio di Averroe alla Metafisica di Aristotele nella tradizione ebraica, by Mauro Zonta, Philosophy East and West 63: 1 (January, 2013), pp. 96-99.
ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES
1. “Maimonides," Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, ed. Mortimer Sellers, Stephan Kirste, section ed. Gianfrancesco Zanetti, Springer, 2022.
2. “Judah Messer Leon," Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer, 2018.
3. “Abraham Bibago,” Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer, 2015.
4. “Judah Moscato, Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. Marco Sgarbi. Springer, 2015.
INTERNET PUBLICATIONS
1. “Introduction,” “Biography,” and “Bibliography” for the Great Thinkers’ Project on Moses Maimonides, Department of Government, Harvard University. http://thegreatthinkers.org/maimonides/
2. “Introduction,” “Biography,” and “Bibliography” for the Great Thinkers’ Project on Averroes, Department of Government, Harvard University. http://thegreatthinkers.org/averroes/.
3. “Translating Being, Essence and Substance into Hebrew: Complexities and Ambiguities” Peshat website: http://peshat.dev.cmg.co.il/uploads/media_items/halper-being-essence-and-substance.original.pdf.
Last Updated Date : 22/12/2022
