{"id":73026,"date":"2020-04-07T01:07:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T22:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=73026"},"modified":"2020-04-07T01:07:50","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T22:07:50","slug":"the-merkava-revelation-as-a-maimonidean-litmus-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-merkava-revelation-as-a-maimonidean-litmus-test\/","title":{"rendered":"The Merkava Revelation As A Maimonidean Litmus Test"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"73026","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":70197,"related_cahpter":"453","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Just how Aristotelian was Rambam?\r\n\r\n","content":"

The celestial <\/span>Merkava<\/span><\/i> prophecy in the opening chapter of Ezekiel represents a crucial battleground in the debate over the true identity of Maimonides, known as Rambam. Is he to be viewed primarily as a religious scholar who merely cloaked his Jewish philosophy within the Aristotelian terminology and thought categories of his era, or was he chie\ufb02y an Aristotelian philosopher who struggled to reconcile the faith of his community with his true philosophical beliefs?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most prominent and frequently cited instances of Rambam seemingly giving primacy to Aristotelian philosophy at the expense of Jewish tradition is his explanation, in the third section of <\/span>Guide To The Perplexed<\/span><\/i>, of the Divine secrets of <\/span>Ma\u2019aseh Merkavah <\/span><\/i>as a representation of Aristotelian cosmology. While Rambam\u2019s controversial interpretation of the <\/span>Ma\u2019aseh Merkavah <\/span><\/i>on the basis of Aristotelian metaphysics is the subject of much fanfare and criticism, scant attention is paid to his introductory comments, in which he expresses extreme caution concerning his approach:<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding these matters I followed conjecture and supposition; no Divine revelation has come to me to teach me that the intention in the matter in question is such and such, nor did I receive what to believe in these matters from a teacher\u2026it is possible that they are di\ufb00erent and something else is intended.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This is hardly the credo of someone who is arrogantly imposing his preconceived philosophical understandings on the Torah\u2019s texts. Indeed, Rambam\u2019s own words reject the notion that he is giving primacy to Aristotelian thought over the Torah. Rather, they suggest that Rambam was engaging in a genuine attempt to fathom and give meaning to the sacred texts in the spirit of the prevailing ideas of his era; that he was approaching this task with humility and trepidation, well aware of the possibility that his interpretations, and the premises upon which they were based, may not represent the true meaning of the prophecy. Such awareness conforms with the attitude displayed elsewhere by Rambam toward Aristotle\u2019s scientific and philosophical conclusions:<\/span><\/p>\n

Everything that Aristotle expounds with regard to the sphere of the moon and that which is above it is, except for certain things, something analogous to guesswork and conjecture. (Guide, 2:22)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In his recent ground-breaking book on <\/span>Moreh Nevuchim<\/span><\/i>, Dr. Micah Goodman builds on this broader approach to understanding Rambam\u2019s relationship with the Aristotelian worldview, listing several crucial areas in which Rambam departs from Aristotelian science and philosophy. Goodman is led to conclude that \u201cRambam believed that Aristotle\u2019s thought was full of errors.\u201d [<\/span>Maimonides and the Book That Changed Judaism <\/span><\/i>(JPS, 2015), p. 224.]<\/span><\/p>\n

The most important aspect of Rambam\u2019s interpretation is not his Aristotelian orientation. Rather, it is his genuine attempt to fathom and give meaning to the sacred texts in the spirit of the prevailing ideas of his era.<\/span><\/p>\n

(This post is adapted from a chapter of Judaism Reclaimed: Philosophy and Theology in the Torah. More about this book can be found at www.JudaismReclaimed.com).<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":73027,"id":73027,"title":"ez1-Maimonides-2","filename":"ez1-Maimonides-2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez1-Maimonides-2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-merkava-revelation-as-a-maimonidean-litmus-test\/ez1-maimonides-2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez1-maimonides-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":73026,"date":"2020-04-06 22:07:36","modified":"2020-04-06 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