The Stoic Jew Shiur #02: Good and Bad, in Stoicism and Judaism (Meditations 2:1)

The Stoic Jew

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

Length: 1 hour 32 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (7/3/24), in our Stoic Jew Shiur, we attempted to do an orderly review of what we covered last time, but instead, we slipped right into a fresh analysis of some of the most fundamental questions in ethics: What do we mean by good and bad? We debated whether and to what extent Marcus Aurelius's answer to this question overlaps with our understanding of the Torah's stance. We became so involved in this debate that we didn't even get to the part of the chapter that I thought we'd spend the bulk of our time discussing! Needless to say, we didn't resolve any of the fundamental issues of ethics we raised, but as I mentioned at the very end of shiur, THIS is what a philosophy shiur ought to be about - the exploration of these very questions, regardless of whether we arrive at definite answers.
-----
מקורות:
Aurelius - Meditations 2:1 (trans. Long, Farquharson, Waterfield)
Robin Waterfield – Marcus Aurelius Meditations: The Annotated Edition, Introduction (pp.xl-xli)
רמב"ם - מורה הנבוכים ג:יא; נג
מיוחס לרד"ק - משלי ג:ו
-----
The Torah content for the first half of July has been sponsored by Rachayl with “a heartfelt thank you.” Summer is now fully underway! In addition to my new Stoic Jew Shiur (Wednesday nights from 8:00-9:30pm EDT) and my relaunched Rambam Bekius podcast, I will be writing more substack articles over the next two months, some of which will be exclusively for paid subscribers. If you appreciate my writing, my recorded content, and my free Zoom shiurim and would like to support what I do, consider becoming a paid subscriber on the Rabbi Schneeweiss Substack today!
-----
If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you. If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.
-----
Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/
Patreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube: youtube.com/rabbischneeweiss
Instagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/
The Stoic Jew Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
Machshavah Lab Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com
Mishlei Podcast: mishlei.buzzsprout.com
Rambam Bekius Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
Tefilah Podcast: tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
WhatsApp (where I post my content and announce my classes): https://chat.wh

Support the show