Book Review of "Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed"

Maimonidies' philosophic reputation rests on his masterpiece, The Guide of the Perplexed, published in Arabic in 1190 and quickly translated into Hebrew. Unfortunately, it is difficult for the average person living in the twentieth century to read The Guide with any degree of comprehension. First, there is the difficulty of its length: three volumes and a total of 178 chapters. The second difficulty is the learning the author presupposes. Maimonides did not intend the book to be read by a general audience. He assumes his readers are familiar with the sacred literature of Judaism, the classics of Greek philosophy, and the later medieval commentaries. The last difficulty is that the book was written during the twelfth century, and since then our view of the world has undergone numerous changes.

from the Introduction to Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed
by Kenneth Seeskin

Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the midst of the land whither ye go in to possess it. Observe therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, that, when they hear all these statues, shall say: "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." -Deuteronomy 4:5-6

The quotes from Seeskin and Deuteronomy provide excellent reasons to read Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed, for both Jews who want to gain a greater understanding of the Rambam's (Moses ben Maimon or Maimonides) classic insights into the Torah, and Christians who are trying to grasp the significance of Judaism and a deeper meaning of "the Law" beyond a plain reading of the text. Seeskin's book can also be thought of as "an introduction to Maimonides", since we learn a great deal about how this exalted Jewish sage conceived of the Torah, what it told him about God and what it told him about being a Jew.

To say that Rambam was primarily a philosopher and a thinker is almost an understatement. He seems to be an archetypal intellectualist and rationalist of the Jewish world and his perspectives and teachings are as relevant in Judaism today as they were 800 years ago. His intellectual viewpoint, in and of itself, makes him difficult to comprehend, at least for most people, since his unique perspective is grasped only by others operating at his level. For the "average" person, his insights and the degree of detail which he uses to pursue the holy writings could easily seem like "over-analyzing".

In a scant 141 pages, Seeskin manages to tell his audience how Rambam conceived of God, God's unique "radical Oneness", Rambam's views on polytheism and idolatry, the cognitive qualifications necessary for a Prophet, and much more.

I must admit, after reading Seeskin's book, I find myself a little less enamored with Maimonides than I have been previously. The Rambam was obviously a highly intelligent and educated man and his conception of the world around him, his God, and his Jewishness were defined by those qualities. Everything he wrote was filtered through the values of philosophy and an almost extreme rationalism, to the exclusion of all else. Even love of God was considered a rational process in Rambam's view.

This isn't necessarily bad and it provides a good counterbalance to the emotionalism we find in many Christian churches where all you are expected to do is "feel" the Holy Spirit in order to experience God. For Maimonides, to truly grasp a Jew's purpose and meaning in life, you absolutely had to take on the role of scholar and devote significant resources to the deep study of the Torah and the classic Jewish and Greek philosophical literature.

The Rambam, in considering the commandments, believed that it was possible to understand the purpose behind all of them, not only the ones that seemed to make "obvious" sense, but those that seemed obscure, such as the reason one does not consume pork. He didn't accept the simple answer of "because God said so" and made great efforts to comprehend what most of us would consider incomprehensible. Yet he also believed we needed to love God especially when His commandments and requirements went "beyond reason". He was careful though, to say that what seems like it is beyond our reason does not mean God is unreasonable or irrational, and we may be able to understand Him in terms of His effects, given additional time and study.

God is needed only when we go beyond reason, when we are asked to perform or refrain from acts which we would not think of on our own. Only then can we truly claim that our actions are holy.

It is Rambam's highly rational point of view that puts him at odds with Jewish mysticism. Mystics believe it's possible to extend a human being beyond the rational and physical world and to know God in a way that isn't possible within the limits of our normal experience. Maimonides believed that we can only know God through His effects on the world and that there is no way to access Him as He truly is. I suppose a mystic would liken the difference to God as Ayn Sof vs. God as the Shekhinah or Divine Presence, but Rambam would view even the apparent visible and tangible Shekhinah only in terms of how it impacted the physical world, much like a person believing you can only "experience" fire by examining burnt wood and ash rather than the flame itself.

While Maimonidies did not believe that the majority of Torah commandments applied to the peoples of the world, he didn't believe that the wisdom of the Torah was exclusively a Jewish possession. Much to the dismay of his critics (and he had many) he believed that knowledge and philosophy had universal applications, including knowledge of the Torah.

In our day, Maimonides' position is often ignored. We put so much stress on the concept of peoplehood that it is hard not to conclude that ethnic considerations come before philosophic ones. The dangers of making ethnicity paramount are: (1) People will become so enamored of he ceremonies, rituals, and folklore that they will neglect the intellectual growth which is supposed to follow and forget about the idea of monotheism; and (2) In the cases where intellectual growth does follow, it will over look the universality of Judaism and focus on its cultural and religious peculiarities.

Rambam did believe in preserving the Jewish identity and uniqueness and acknowledged that the Torah was the means by which this was and is achieved. However, for him, Jewish identity is understood as participation in a spiritual community. He considered the customs, ritual, and ceremonies..worth preserving because they allow the community to propagate a defensible doctrine. He also believed another set of "rituals, ceremonies, and customs" could be applied to other people groups (i.e. non-Jews), allowing them to "propagate the same doctrine", acknowledge the unique and radical Oneness of God, enact compassion on strangers, widows, and orphans, promote social harmony, and generally espouse the values that have been the hallmark of the Jewish ideal for thousands of years.

This has profound implications for Christianity and other monotheistic religious groups and provides additional motivation for Christians to entertain a study of Maimonides and his works. Through his understanding of the Torah, which he did not consider the exclusive property of the Jewish people, we can understand our God, our purpose, and ourselves. We can also understand what Judaism has to teach us as God's creations since the Torah has been the keeper of God's wisdom, knowledge, and desires for humanity since the days of Moses.

Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. -Isaiah 2:3

Listen to me, my people;
hear me, my nation:
Instruction will go out from me;
my justice will become a light to the nations. -Isaiah 51:4

Published well over a decade ago, Kenneth Seeskin's Maimonides: A Guide for Today's Perplexed continues to show us a truly relevant and educational view of not only Maimonides and his Guide, but the significance of the Torah and Judaism, not only to the Jewish people, but to the rest of us.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.