Rambam on the Satan and Ra (Part 1: Aristotelian Primer on Form and Matter)

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Length: 1 hour 47 minutes
Synopsis: Turns out, I accidentally forgot to upload last Friday's Iyov shiur! This past Friday morning (3/13/26), in our Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, I gave a shiur with the aim of introducing the basics of Aristotelian "hylomorphic" thinking, explaining the concepts of "matter" and "form" to lay the groundwork for the Rambam's explanation of the satan and the nature of ra. We began and ended with halachos in the Rambam but the bulk of the material came from "Aristotle for Everybody" by Mortimer J. Adler and "The Hungry Soul" by Leon Kass. I'm pleased with how succinct this primer turned out to be, and although I acknowledge that I may have erred in the nuances of my understanding, I can assure you that I conveyed what I THINK I know with as much clarity as I could muster!
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מקורות:
רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר המדע, הלכות יסודי התורה ב:ג; ד:ז
"Aristotle for Everybody," by Mortimer J. Adler (not explicitly quoted)
"The Hungry Soul," by Leon R. Kass, pp.35-38
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This week's Torah content is sponsored by Seth Speiser, in honor of the yahrzeit of his father, Rabbi George Speiser (Rav Yosef ben Dovid). Rabbi Speiser was a kind and gentle soul as well as an Intellectual and a scholar. He received smicha from Rav Hutner at Chaim Berlin. His love for teaching and making puns was only outweighed by his love of family.

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