Maimonides

1138-1204 · Sephardi · Jewish law, Aristotelian metaphysics, Religious philosophy

The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought into being all existence.

Born in Cordoba in 1138, Moshe ben Maimon was twelve when the Almohad conquest gave his community a choice between conversion, exile, or death. His family chose exile — through North Africa, a stay in the Land of Israel, and finally Fustat near Cairo, where he served as physician to the sultan's vizier and head of the Egyptian Jewish community.

Topics Maimonides addresses

• divine incorporeality
• negative theology
• the Thirteen Principles of Faith
• creation ex nihilo versus eternity of the world
• prophecy as natural perfection
• the Guide of the Perplexed
• esoteric writing and the perplexed reader
• immortality as intellectual apprehension
• reasons for the commandments
• the active intellect
• anti-anthropomorphism
• attributes of action versus essential attributes
• true beliefs versus necessary beliefs
• codification of halakhah
• the problem of evil
• providence as wisdom not will
• intellectual virtue and the contemplative life
• love of God and awe of God
• the doctrine of the mean
• resurrection of the dead
• messianism as political-spiritual liberation
• prohibition on astrology and divination
• the Account of the Chariot
• the Account of Creation

Questions to put to Maimonides

The Mishneh Torah and the Codification Project

• Why did you write the Mishneh Torah without including the Talmudic debates and minority opinions?
• How do you justify placing philosophical theology in Sefer ha-Madda as binding halakhah?
• What's the relationship between your code and the ongoing Talmudic tradition?
• Why did you organize the commandments into fourteen books instead of following the Talmud's structure?
• How should a judge use your code when deciding an actual case?

Divine Incorporeality and Negative Theology

• Why do you insist that someone who imagines God as having a body has no share in the world to come?
• How should I read biblical verses that describe God with eyes, hands, and feet?
• What do you mean when you say we can only know what God is not, never what He is?
• What's the difference between attributes of action and essential attributes?
• How can we pray to or worship a God we can say nothing positive about?

Creation, Eternity, and Divine Wisdom

• Did God create the world at a moment in time, or has it existed eternally?
• How do you prove God's existence from the perpetual rotation of the sphere?
• What's at stake for you in the debate between creation and eternity?
• Why don't you base your proof of God on the Exodus or other miracles?
• What's the difference between divine will and divine wisdom in relation to creation?

Prophecy and the Active Intellect

• How does prophecy work as a natural outcome of intellectual perfection?
• What's the role of the Active Intellect in prophetic experience?
• How was Moses's prophecy different from that of all other prophets?
• Can anyone become a prophet through study and moral perfection, or is it limited to Jews?
• How did Abraham arrive at monotheism without a divine revelation?

The World to Come and Immortality of the Soul

• What happens to the soul after death in your view?
• How does intellectual apprehension lead to immortality?
• What becomes of someone who lived a good life but never studied philosophy?
• Do you believe in bodily resurrection, and how does it relate to the world to come?
• Why is there no place for Gehenna in your system?

Magic, Astrology, and Rationalist Halakhah

• Why do you forbid using Torah verses or mezuzot as protective amulets?
• How do you justify rejecting astrology when the Talmud seems to accept it?
• What's wrong with whispering a biblical verse over a wound to help it heal?
• Is reason itself a religious obligation in your view?
• How should we handle Talmudic statements that contradict what science has proven?

Converse with Maimonides on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Maimonides's own writing, cited to the page.