Musings on Maimonides: 130607 - Analysis of Guide for the Perplexed

Musings on Maimonides, 6 July 2013
Analysis of the Guide for the Perplexed

This part of the blog deals with the introduction of "Guide to the Perplexed" - or GttP - as given by RaMBaM himself and as explained by the author.  Part I of the book deals with the exposition of the esoteric ideas contained in the books of the Prophets, part II with a treatment of certain metaphysical problems and part III with an examination of the system and methods of Islam, or the Kalam, as he calls them.  It has been said that RaMBaM was a zealous disciple of Aristotle which might explain many of his strange ideas with regard to trying to reconcile G-d with the universe.  Aristotle proposed the theory of the eternity of the universe which is contrary to the teaching of the scriptures.  The scriptures teach that only G-d is eternal and that He created the universe from nothing.  This is the same trap of many modern-day so-called scholars who try to reconcile the scriptures with modern science theories and the Big Bang Theory.  I have asked several of them what existed before the Big Bang and most answer that they either do not know or that the question is a nonsense question.  So much for "modern science."  Unfortunately you can believe one or the other but not both at the same time.  Supposedly Maimonides does expose the fundamental weaknesses of the Kalam with regards to their theories of the universe.  Please note that I do not capitalize Universe as Maimonides but use the more modern version of universe.

Maimonides goes to great lengths to show that G-d is not a corporeal being and that references to His hands, His ears and mouth etc do not refer to a corporeal being but to attributes so that we can understand him.  He also deals with

• The existence of Evil
• Omniscience and Providence of G-d
• Temptations
• Design in Nature, in the Law and in the Biblical Narratives
• True Worship of G-d

Any one of these subjects would be an excellent topic for any Friday evening or Saturday morning sermon or lecture for a Rabbi.  Or for a Christian pastor, for that matter.  They could preach for a month on any one of those topics and not cover the subject.  Maimonides also dealt with the conflict between science and religion, something with which we still struggle today.  His take on this seemed to be that we misinterpret the anthropomorphisms in the Holy Writ.

Prior to the time of Maimonides Jewish writers had taken the position that the Torah (the first five books of the TaNaKh, the Bible) spoke in the language of man.  Maimonides thought that all of TaNaKh was written for the more educated persons to explain to the less educated persons, or, in other words, a riddle that, on the surface, seemed simple but contained a much deeper explanation that could be understood only by those sufficiently trained over the years in the mysteries of the language and science.  For now we will deal with GftP as RaMBaM dealt with them.  Indeed, Maimonides pleads with the reader not to be hasty with criticism since he has carefully considered every sentence and every word before it was written down.  Often he closes a thought with the admonition to consider carefully what has been said and go and think about it.  Much like some of the passages of scripture end with the expression of "Selah." meaning, "Pause and meditate."

I shall, before each section of the GftP, attempt to give an overview before jumping into the deep end.  I have found each section more exciting than the section before.  However, before jumping into GftP I would like to discuss the Thirteen Principles as an overview.  Most are pretty simple if you are Jewish, Christian or Muslim.  If not, they might not appear so simple but I shall explain anyway.

So, for now, let us leave off with what I have done and next week I shall go on to the Thirteen Principles of Maimonides that we say every Friday evening as the Yigdal.   Then on to a brief weekly discussion of "Guide for the Perplexed."

Shalom,
Yaakov On