Rabbi Yehuda Loewe (1512 1607), known as the Maharal of Prague, was one of the greatest sages of the Jewish people. However, his profound Torah insights have been inaccessible to the English-speaking public until now. The second and third volumes of Gur Arye, Maharal's commentary on Rashi, are for the first time available to English readers, complete with source annotations for further in-depth study.

Rabbi Yehuda Loewe (1512 1607), known as the Maharal of Prague, was one of the greatest sages of the Jewish people.

Rabbi Yehuda Loewe (1512 1607), known as the Maharal of Prague, was one of the greatest sages of the Jewish people. However, his profound Torah insights have been inaccessible to the English-speaking public until now. The Genesis volume of Gur Arye, Maharal's commentary on Rashi, is for the first time available to English readers, complete with source annotations for further in-depth study.

"This book deals with the Kabbalah and also with Hebrew literature and poetry. The book also deals with modern issues of philosophy, Levinas and Heidegger, and the relationship between philosophy and Kabbalah"--back cover.

This book about receptions of Simon Magus uncovers further facets of one who was held to be the evil archetype of heretics. Ephraim Nissan and Alberto Ferreiro explore how Simon Magus has been represented in text, visual art, and music. Special attention is devoted to the late medieval Catalan painter Lluís Borrassà and the Italian librettist and musician Arrigo Boito. The tradition of Simon Magus’ demonic flight, ending in his crashing down, first appears in the patristic literature. The book situates that flight typologically across cultures. Fascinating observations emerge, as the discussion spans flight of the wicked in rabbinic texts, flight and death of King Lear’s father and a Soviet-era Buryat Buddhist monk, flight and doom of the fool in an early modern German broadsheet, and more. The book explains and moves beyond extant scholarly wisdom on how the polemic against Mani (the founder of Manichaeism) was tinged with hues of Simon Magus. The novelty of this book is that it shows that Simon Magus’ receptions teach us a great deal about the contexts in which this archetype was deployed.

For centuries Jews have pored over the weekly parasha with the classic Rashi commentary, aided by supercommentaries that elucidated Rashi's meaning. The Gur Arye was the Maharal of Prague's contribution to our understanding of Rashi; in it the Maharal combined philosophical and kabbalistic insights with straightforward explanations of Rashi's words. This three-volume series presents Dr. Moshe Kuhr's translation of the Gur Arye, which for the first time offers the English-speaking audience a taste of the Maharal's brilliance, along with insightful explanations that further the reader's understanding of the text.