How much should a religious Jew inquire into science, philosophy, and worldly wisdoms?
What is the relation between love of God and observance of the commandments? 
What is the middle path between ignorant piety and excessive intellectualising?
 
Malmad haTalmidim is Rabbi Ya'aqob Anatoli’s classic collection of sermons that unite Torah, science, and philosophy. Written in 13th-century Provence, it guides the thoughtful reader from peshat to philosophical depth—drawing on grammar, logic, and natural science to illuminate the weekly portions. This volume offers the English translation and commentary of Rabbi Anatoli’s sermon on Bereshit. Rabbi Anatoli uses the perasha to address the central questions of Jewish thought: creation, human purpose, virtue, and the limits of knowledge. He refuses both mystical literalism and philosophical self-certainty, and instead articulates a measured, compelling vision in which tradition and inquiry meet.