Jeffrey Katz Interview Notes
Rabbi, Author, and Religious Philosopher
Book: “Rules to Live By: Maimonides’ Guide to a Wonderful Life”
YouTube: “Arash’s World Interview with Jeffrey Katz on the Wonderful Life with Wisdom of Philosopher Maimonides”
Podcast: “Keys to Fulfillment and Happiness: Rabbi Jeffrey Katz on Divine Overflow and Transformational Rules for Living According to Maimonides”
In this episode, I have the wonderful pleasure of speaking with Rabbi Jeffrey Katz, the author of “Rules to Live By: Maimonides’ Guide to a Wonderful Life,” which provides us a summary of fascinating maxims and proverbs by this intellectual and spiritual mind of the Middle Ages.
Maimonides was a multi-talented person, and he was a doctor as well as a prolific writer who was persecuted for his beliefs but whose ideas influenced many philosophers, thinkers, and scholars, including Thomas Aquinas. In fact, the writings of Maimonides were discussed and even revered by three main Western religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Yet on this podcast, the Rabbi focuses on practical tips and guidance for everyday life and taps into the wisdom of Maimonides’ maxims and proverbs. We learn about finance and how to best deal with money as well as how a charitable and philanthropic mindset and lifestyle can attract affluence in different ways.
Moreover, it comes down to character and attitude, which can bring not only happiness to our personal and professional life, but they can also build and create trust and respect within our own community. Moreover, family is of great importance and so best practices and values are encouraged to ensure that there is mutual respect and love within the given family unit.
Finally, we also delve into the more mystical aspects of Maimonides and the importance of tapping into the good and the light and refraining from falling prey to evil and negativity. Through a spiritual lens and outlook, we can not only find love but also connect with God and experience divine overflow, which would help us see and notice signposts and divine providence throughout our lives. This would lead us to a feeling of awe and connectedness and transform our lives in profound ways and manners.
00:27: Personal Intro:
A seeker of truth. To live life to the fullest full of meaning. Getting up in the morning and looking forward to the day with all kinds of positive activities whether with family or your link to God, your career or your business. Improving character and doing all the things that make us feel human and good about ourselves.
01:36:
Talking about book “Rules to Live By: Maimonides’ Guide to a Wonderful Life” and who Maimonides is. Lived about 800 years ago with unbelievable diverse talents. Top doctor of his time. One of the greatest spiritualists. People who focused on God and the connection to God in the Western world. Multi-layered genius who is studied at major universities. Influenced Thomas Aquinas, and Jewish schools pore over the works of Maimonides. Stood the test of time.
02:47:
Rabbi Katz stumbled upon his thinking as a teenager and his father left a book lying around on the coffee table. He knew he was home when he saw some of the ideas on Maimonides. He was with somebody who would guide him with basic common-sense principles for living. Profound and bright rules, which do lead to success and contentment. Interesting because Maimonides himself had a horrid life. He was chased out of Spain because of his beliefs.
Running away from persecutors and being often chased while still producing writing under not to optimal conditions. Wrote transformational rules for living in different areas of life. Keys to fulfillment and happiness. The rabbi distilled Maimonides’ most practical rules for living in finances, career, family life, spirituality, health that can be easily implemented and change and turn your life around.
06:34:
Maimonides celebrated and even revered by all three major Western religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He had come to understand certain things that he knew were of such great value to everyone. His writings are so voluminous and extensive, but Jeffrey provides a summary of some of the most relevant ideas to our lives with rules to live by.
09:32:
The example of finance and how and why to be strict oneself but generous with others. In our family life and on a personal level, skimp with yourself first. On a business level, if you are handling someone else’s money, you must be strict and scrupulous to the penny. Every politician in the country ought to read this book before they take office.
10:58:
Another maxim is to be and remain truthful and honest even when you lose from it. Establishing your character, being trustworthy and a person of integrity is so important in the long run. Also, the risk of a wrong decision is preferable of the terror of indecision. It is important to make decisions in all areas of life. Being reliable, trustworthy and knowing how to make decisions would make us all assets in family and work and career life. These basic character qualities seem so simple, but they are so rare. You set yourself apart from all your peers. Your word is your bond.
14:59:
Authenticity can feel like the old joke “act sincere whether you mean it or not.” Maimonides famous for his charity and helping someone help themselves and becoming self-sufficient. You don’t need to be wealthy to be charitable. Adopting a philanthropic mindset and devoting your time and energy to a noble cause on a volunteer basis because it is the right thing to do, and it helps people. You increase the odds of becoming affluent in that way. The charitable mindset comes before the affluence.
17:01:
Cultivating an emotional detachment from money. That’s the number one quality you need to make money. For good financial decision, you must be emotionally removed from the money. A surgeon will never operate on his or her own child. They are too close to the situation and can’t make good decisions then. Worthwhile charitable projects would make you a magnet in your community and developing a network of contacts and relationships with some very successful people.
21:02:
It’s really these qualities of character that one really needs to develop. Everything else kinda fits into place including the relationship with God. A small child can’t be happy unless they have a strong link with parents, so too no person can be truly happy unless they develop and have a strong link and connection with God. You can do that by thinking correctly about God. You build a two-way bridge or tunnel from your mind to God.
Divine providence can come through that line of connection. God may implant certain ideas in your mind to help you through a tough situation. The divine overflow of wisdom and guidance, and information, ideas, and love. The trick is we need to become like receivers to pick it up like a radio. The radio needs to be tuned correctly and we need to get rid of the static by removing all the negativity, envy, grudges, gossip, removing the focusing on the bad qualities of people. All this just drains your emotions.
23:52:
Some people go through life just reacting. They get mad and react to things. If your life is made of only reactions and you blow up at small nuisances, what a sad situation for someone’s beautiful emotional power and mental energies to be stuck and trapped by all this trivial negativity. You must work on it and get rid of all of those roadblocks. Just get the positive going in your life and you free up so much mental and emotional power. You have retaken emotional control of your life, and you can basically do anything you want. You will receive divine overflow and see signposts in your life for the best directions ahead of you that you would have never seen before.
26:27:
How evil is just the absence of good. Darkness the absence of light. When we remove the darkness and negativity, we are really left with the light. Light also a metaphor for reasoning and rationality. Relationship with family members: don’t become your child’s boss, become your child’s adviser. Not a healthy relationship to try to control their lives. Don’t make decisions for your child and don’t tell them what to do, explain the consequences of either action instead. They want the best outcomes so they will come to trust you and come to you with their problems.
28:25:
Children are a lot like trees. They need to be watered but do not overwater them because then they will not develop strong roots. They need to have good judgment on their own. If not, they don’t know how to make their own decisions and would become helpless later on. Values are an amazing thing to focus on in your family life and to reason things out together. Remember if you don’t instill your own values in your children, someone else will.
31:31:
Accept the truth from whatever source it comes. Biblical command to respect one’s parents. Be bold and let other people know that family is your highest priority and how seriously you take your obligations.
34:03:
Silence is the maturation of wisdom. Silence then shows much higher character than any kind of speech. Also, teach your tongue to say, “I don’t know” and you will progress. People are often not humble. They think they know everything when they don’t know anything about anything about a certain subject for example. Atheists claim to know there is no God. It’s preposterous because it is not even the kind of thing that could be proven. In fact, you can’t prove a negative. People need a relationship with God to be happy. A visceral feeling people of faith have but something that atheists are really missing. But the biggest thing they are missing is humility.
36:18:
On the mystical aspects to Maimonides. There is so much in the universe that we have no clue about. There is room for so much including higher beings. Like Socrates, even though reason is important, its limits and limitations are also important. Speculating about a great being that we cannot know much about what God exactly is. God’s knowledge about us does not change. He created us in accordance with his own wisdom. He does not have to look and observe us to know. We still have free will of course, but it is not inconsistent.
The secret and the Hebrew four letter name for Him. In Hebrew those translate to past, present, and future. God is beyond time so our past, present, and future are the same. It is like saying what happened before the Big Bang. God is not the universe, but he created it and not inside or subject of time but outside of it and unfathomable to us. The futility of trying to fully comprehend what God is. It is mystical because we can have a feeling of awe and connectedness. We can use our mind to know somethings about God. Following each of these rules is transformative for our lives.
Rabbi, Author, and Religious Philosopher
Book: “Rules to Live By: Maimonides’ Guide to a Wonderful Life”
YouTube: “Arash’s World Interview with Jeffrey Katz on the Wonderful Life with Wisdom of Philosopher Maimonides”
Podcast: “Keys to Fulfillment and Happiness: Rabbi Jeffrey Katz on Divine Overflow and Transformational Rules for Living According to Maimonides”
In this episode, I have the wonderful pleasure of speaking with Rabbi Jeffrey Katz, the author of “Rules to Live By: Maimonides’ Guide to a Wonderful Life,” which provides us a summary of fascinating maxims and proverbs by this intellectual and spiritual mind of the Middle Ages.
Maimonides was a multi-talented person, and he was a doctor as well as a prolific writer who was persecuted for his beliefs but whose ideas influenced many philosophers, thinkers, and scholars, including Thomas Aquinas. In fact, the writings of Maimonides were discussed and even revered by three main Western religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Yet on this podcast, the Rabbi focuses on practical tips and guidance for everyday life and taps into the wisdom of Maimonides’ maxims and proverbs. We learn about finance and how to best deal with money as well as how a charitable and philanthropic mindset and lifestyle can attract affluence in different ways.
Moreover, it comes down to character and attitude, which can bring not only happiness to our personal and professional life, but they can also build and create trust and respect within our own community. Moreover, family is of great importance and so best practices and values are encouraged to ensure that there is mutual respect and love within the given family unit.
Finally, we also delve into the more mystical aspects of Maimonides and the importance of tapping into the good and the light and refraining from falling prey to evil and negativity. Through a spiritual lens and outlook, we can not only find love but also connect with God and experience divine overflow, which would help us see and notice signposts and divine providence throughout our lives. This would lead us to a feeling of awe and connectedness and transform our lives in profound ways and manners.
00:27: Personal Intro:
A seeker of truth. To live life to the fullest full of meaning. Getting up in the morning and looking forward to the day with all kinds of positive activities whether with family or your link to God, your career or your business. Improving character and doing all the things that make us feel human and good about ourselves.
01:36:
Talking about book “Rules to Live By: Maimonides’ Guide to a Wonderful Life” and who Maimonides is. Lived about 800 years ago with unbelievable diverse talents. Top doctor of his time. One of the greatest spiritualists. People who focused on God and the connection to God in the Western world. Multi-layered genius who is studied at major universities. Influenced Thomas Aquinas, and Jewish schools pore over the works of Maimonides. Stood the test of time.
02:47:
Rabbi Katz stumbled upon his thinking as a teenager and his father left a book lying around on the coffee table. He knew he was home when he saw some of the ideas on Maimonides. He was with somebody who would guide him with basic common-sense principles for living. Profound and bright rules, which do lead to success and contentment. Interesting because Maimonides himself had a horrid life. He was chased out of Spain because of his beliefs.
Running away from persecutors and being often chased while still producing writing under not to optimal conditions. Wrote transformational rules for living in different areas of life. Keys to fulfillment and happiness. The rabbi distilled Maimonides’ most practical rules for living in finances, career, family life, spirituality, health that can be easily implemented and change and turn your life around.
06:34:
Maimonides celebrated and even revered by all three major Western religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He had come to understand certain things that he knew were of such great value to everyone. His writings are so voluminous and extensive, but Jeffrey provides a summary of some of the most relevant ideas to our lives with rules to live by.
09:32:
The example of finance and how and why to be strict oneself but generous with others. In our family life and on a personal level, skimp with yourself first. On a business level, if you are handling someone else’s money, you must be strict and scrupulous to the penny. Every politician in the country ought to read this book before they take office.
10:58:
Another maxim is to be and remain truthful and honest even when you lose from it. Establishing your character, being trustworthy and a person of integrity is so important in the long run. Also, the risk of a wrong decision is preferable of the terror of indecision. It is important to make decisions in all areas of life. Being reliable, trustworthy and knowing how to make decisions would make us all assets in family and work and career life. These basic character qualities seem so simple, but they are so rare. You set yourself apart from all your peers. Your word is your bond.
14:59:
Authenticity can feel like the old joke “act sincere whether you mean it or not.” Maimonides famous for his charity and helping someone help themselves and becoming self-sufficient. You don’t need to be wealthy to be charitable. Adopting a philanthropic mindset and devoting your time and energy to a noble cause on a volunteer basis because it is the right thing to do, and it helps people. You increase the odds of becoming affluent in that way. The charitable mindset comes before the affluence.
17:01:
Cultivating an emotional detachment from money. That’s the number one quality you need to make money. For good financial decision, you must be emotionally removed from the money. A surgeon will never operate on his or her own child. They are too close to the situation and can’t make good decisions then. Worthwhile charitable projects would make you a magnet in your community and developing a network of contacts and relationships with some very successful people.
21:02:
It’s really these qualities of character that one really needs to develop. Everything else kinda fits into place including the relationship with God. A small child can’t be happy unless they have a strong link with parents, so too no person can be truly happy unless they develop and have a strong link and connection with God. You can do that by thinking correctly about God. You build a two-way bridge or tunnel from your mind to God.
Divine providence can come through that line of connection. God may implant certain ideas in your mind to help you through a tough situation. The divine overflow of wisdom and guidance, and information, ideas, and love. The trick is we need to become like receivers to pick it up like a radio. The radio needs to be tuned correctly and we need to get rid of the static by removing all the negativity, envy, grudges, gossip, removing the focusing on the bad qualities of people. All this just drains your emotions.
23:52:
Some people go through life just reacting. They get mad and react to things. If your life is made of only reactions and you blow up at small nuisances, what a sad situation for someone’s beautiful emotional power and mental energies to be stuck and trapped by all this trivial negativity. You must work on it and get rid of all of those roadblocks. Just get the positive going in your life and you free up so much mental and emotional power. You have retaken emotional control of your life, and you can basically do anything you want. You will receive divine overflow and see signposts in your life for the best directions ahead of you that you would have never seen before.
26:27:
How evil is just the absence of good. Darkness the absence of light. When we remove the darkness and negativity, we are really left with the light. Light also a metaphor for reasoning and rationality. Relationship with family members: don’t become your child’s boss, become your child’s adviser. Not a healthy relationship to try to control their lives. Don’t make decisions for your child and don’t tell them what to do, explain the consequences of either action instead. They want the best outcomes so they will come to trust you and come to you with their problems.
28:25:
Children are a lot like trees. They need to be watered but do not overwater them because then they will not develop strong roots. They need to have good judgment on their own. If not, they don’t know how to make their own decisions and would become helpless later on. Values are an amazing thing to focus on in your family life and to reason things out together. Remember if you don’t instill your own values in your children, someone else will.
31:31:
Accept the truth from whatever source it comes. Biblical command to respect one’s parents. Be bold and let other people know that family is your highest priority and how seriously you take your obligations.
34:03:
Silence is the maturation of wisdom. Silence then shows much higher character than any kind of speech. Also, teach your tongue to say, “I don’t know” and you will progress. People are often not humble. They think they know everything when they don’t know anything about anything about a certain subject for example. Atheists claim to know there is no God. It’s preposterous because it is not even the kind of thing that could be proven. In fact, you can’t prove a negative. People need a relationship with God to be happy. A visceral feeling people of faith have but something that atheists are really missing. But the biggest thing they are missing is humility.
36:18:
On the mystical aspects to Maimonides. There is so much in the universe that we have no clue about. There is room for so much including higher beings. Like Socrates, even though reason is important, its limits and limitations are also important. Speculating about a great being that we cannot know much about what God exactly is. God’s knowledge about us does not change. He created us in accordance with his own wisdom. He does not have to look and observe us to know. We still have free will of course, but it is not inconsistent.
The secret and the Hebrew four letter name for Him. In Hebrew those translate to past, present, and future. God is beyond time so our past, present, and future are the same. It is like saying what happened before the Big Bang. God is not the universe, but he created it and not inside or subject of time but outside of it and unfathomable to us. The futility of trying to fully comprehend what God is. It is mystical because we can have a feeling of awe and connectedness. We can use our mind to know somethings about God. Following each of these rules is transformative for our lives.
