Drinking in the Guide for the Perplexed, featuring Rabbi Dr. Phillip Lieberman [The Jewish Drinking Show episode 160]

The Jewish Drinking Show

Introduction
Having previously welcomed Rabbi Dr. Phil Lieberman to The Jewish Drinking Show for the geonic terms for alcoholic beverages, we welcome him back for the 160th episode of the show to discuss wine, drinking, and drunkenness in Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed.

Biography of Guest
Rabbi Dr. Lieberman is a social, economic, and legal historian of the Jews of the medieval Islamic world. He holds a BA (with distinction in economics) from the University of Washington, a MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, a MA in Talmud and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, a MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, and Semikha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.

He is Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Law, Associate Professor and Chair of Classical and Mediterranean Studies, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, and Affiliated Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and History, at Vanderbilt University. Phil is currently on military leave and serves as Associate Professor in the Department of History at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Phil also serves the US Navy Reserve as a chaplain and was mobilized to Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, where he served as Command Chaplain. He was promoted to the rank of Captain in August 2023 and is the ranking Jewish chaplain in the Department of the Navy.

His 2014 book, The Business of Identity: Jews, Muslims, and Economic Life in Medieval Egypt (Stanford University Press) was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. His latest book is The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Middle East (2022). In the first half of 2024, his translation with Lenn Goodman (also of Vanderbilt) of Maimonides’ 12th century philosophical classic The Guide to the Perplexed was published by Stanford University Press.

Phil lives with his wife, the amazing Dr. Yedida Eisenstat, his four children, and a wild Portuguese Water Dog named Argos in Nashville.

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