The Twenty-First Century · 2026
The Battle for the Jewish Mind: The Maimonidean Controversies
Sina Kahen
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About This Edition
- English
The People Behind This Book
Sina KahenAuthor
Jackson GardnerEditor
Rabbi Yosef ZarnighianForeword
Why did Jews invite friars to burn the books of RaMBaM?
In the winter of 1232, Dominican friars burned the philosophical writings of RaMBaM in a Montpellier marketplace. A faction of Jews, afraid that reason was corroding faith, had asked them to do it.
The Battle for the Jewish Mind recovers what those flames tried to destroy: the worldly rabbinic tradition, which held Torah and the sciences to be partners in the knowledge of God.
Sina Kahen draws on the letters, bans, counter-bans, and polemics of the Maimonidean Controversies, some of the most dramatic and least-studied episodes in Jewish history, to trace the clash between two schools of Jewish thought and its relevance today.
About the Author
Sina Kahen is the co-founder of Da'at Press and The Ḥabura. He works in the medical technology and AI industries, holds a degree in Biomedical Sciences and an MBA from Imperial College London, and is the author of Ideas: Bereshit, Ideas: Shemot, The Battle for the Jewish Mind, and The Promised Land of AI. Sina was born in Iran, and has lived in the UK and US. More at www.sinakahen.com.
What Will I Gain from This Book?
The full story of the Maimonidean Controversies, and a clear understanding of the worldly rabbinic tradition and why it matters now.
