Israeli Jewish law scholar (1938–2020)
Gerald Blidstein (June 11, 1938 – September 10, 2020) was professor emeritus of Jewish philosophy at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He was the Israel Prize laureate in Jewish philosophy (2006) and had been a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences since 2007.
Biography.
Gerald Yaakov Blidstein was born in New York and received his B.A. from Yeshiva University; his M.A. in 1961 from Columbia University, in English and comparative literature (honors); and his PhD in 1968 from Yeshiva University in Rabbinics. Even many decades after he left Yeshiva College, one of his teachers, Professor Louis Feldman, continued to express pride that Blidstein was one of his students. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary where he studied under Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. His Ph.D. advisor at Yeshiva University was the scholar of the Talmud Abraham Weiss.
Academic career.
Before immigrating to Israel in 1972, he was a lecturer in Jewish studies at Stern College for Women, assistant professor in the Department of Religion at Temple University, and then associate professor at McGill University. He was appointed associate professor at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in 1976 and became full professor at Ben Gurion in 1985. He served as head of the Jewish Philosophy Department at Ben Gurion and also as chair of Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben Gurion. He was a senior lecturer in the Department of Talmud and Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. He spent sabbaticals as the Pew Visiting Professor in Judaic Humanities at Gratz College in Philadelphia, and as the senior fellow, Department of Oriental Studies, at University of Pennsylvania. He was appointed as a fellow at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at Hebrew University, and at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Bildstein was awarded the Israel Prize for his seminal work on Jewish political thought and especially for his important studies on the philosophy of Maimonides. The Ministry of Education stated that Blidstein "has made ... a radical breakthrough in research into the halachic philosophy of Maimonides and its influence throughout the generations. In his very accurate analysis of the Halakha, he reveals its philosophical foundations and deepens our understanding of pure philosophy." He wrote books on four topics of the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides: Kings, Prayer, Heretics, and the Laws of Torah Study. His first major work on Maimonides was "Political Concepts in Maimonidean Hakakha", first published in 1983, revised and republished in 2003.
In this and other works, Blidstein analyzed the sources of political authority in halakhic literature, and discussed the impact of contemporary culture on Maimonides' rulings. He was the first faculty member of Ben Gurion University to receive the prestigious Israel Prize and was also the first to be appointed to the Israel Academy of Sciences. As a dedicated Zionist, Blidstein wrote, "The Jew who loves his people wishes to experience its fullness, and the adventure, the challenge, of Jewish fullness today is in Israel. The Jew who identifies with his people wishes to be at the cutting edge of its history and that, today, is in Israel."
References.
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