Maimonides on the "Decline of the Generations" and the Nature of Rabbinic Authority

Shows to what extent and in what fashion Jews are bound to accept the opinions and the pronouncements of religious authorities. Moses Maimonides, medieval Judaism's leading legist and philosopher, and a figure of central importance for contemporary Jewish self-understanding, held a view of Judaism which maintained the authority of the Talmudic rabbis in matters of Jewish law while allowing for free and open inquiry in matters of science and philosophy. Maimonides affirmed, not the superiority of