The Parable of the Palace

The text of the piece is taken from the parable of the palace, from the end of Maimonides's Guide for the Perplexed. The parable tells a story of a metaphysical king's palace and the different circles surrounding it at different distances. It is then interpreted by Maimonides in a theological and philosophical way. The reference in the piece is to the structural image: various circles of proximity to some core, which I understand as the core of irrationality surrounded by protective circles of reason and logic.

The piece uses Jewish Arabic, the original language in which Maimonides's book was written.

Jewish Arabic is an extinct language that was used by Jews in Spain and the Arabic countries in the Middle Ages. It uses mostly Arabic words that are transliterated in the Hebrew alphabet. While Maimonides wrote most of his religious writings in Hebrew, he used Jewish Arabic for the Guide for the Perplexed. The book was written while he was living in Egypt and addresses the doubts of a believer when encountering the rational ideas of Greek philosophy.

I would like to sincerely thank Prof. Meir Bar-Asher for generously recording the text in the original pronunciation. The recordings are available at www.yairklartag.com/parable.zip.