MAIMONIDES
664
MAIMONIDES
The numerous and onerous clulics now ]iut upon him as the spiritual head of Judaism, and the constant demand for liis great medical skill, were, however, alike unable to overcome the powers of liis intellect, which he had consecrated to the elucidation of the Bible and the tra- ditional law, and to the harmonizing of revelation with philosophy, and in the midst of all his engagements Maimonides entered upon the preparation of a third re- ligio-philosophical work, which became, of all his pro- ductions, the most valued and iinportant. Its object was to reclaim one of his disciples, Ibn-Aknin (q. v.)) from the prevailing scepticism about a future world, the destiny of man, sin, retribution, revelation, etc. The design of the work is explained by Maimonides himself in the following terms : " I have composed this work, not for the common people, neither for beginners, nor for those who occupy themselves only with the law as it is hand- ed down without contemplating its principle. The de- sign of my work is rather to promote the true under- standing of the real spirit of the law, to guide those re- ligious persons w'ho, adhering to the truth of the Torah, have studied philosophy, and are embarrassed by the contradictions between the teachings of philosophy and the liberal sense of the Torah." The work, consisting of three parts in 204 sections, and entitled in Arabic n?X?^ •(^T^Sn 5X, inlleb. Cl"'2i::n ^n^^■0, Moreh Nehuchim {The Guide of the Perplexed), in allusion to Exod. xiv, 3, and, according to Griitz (vi, 363), "constituting the summit of the Maimonical mind and the justifica- tion of his inmost convictions," created a new epoch in the philosophy of the Middle Ages. " Ce livre," says Frank {Etudes Orientales, p. 360), "inspire egalement le respect par les puissantes facultes de I'auteur, la prodig- ieuse souplesse de son esprit, la variete de ses connais- sanees, I'ele'vation de son spiritualisme enfin par la lu- miere qu'il repand sur quelques-uns des points les pins obscurs dc I'histoire de I'esprit hiimain." Not only did Mohammedans write commentaries upon it, but the Christian schoolmen learned from it how to harmonize the conflicts between religion and philosophy (compare Joel, h'in/iiiss d.Jtid.Pkilos. aiifdie christl. Scholastik, in Frankel's Monntsschrift [Bresl. 1860, p. 210 sq.]; Munk, Melanges, p. 486). The contents of this great and noble work, which has become for Jewish thinkers, as it were, a "touchstone of philosophy," are, in the three parts into which it is divided, as foUows : The first part is especial- ly devoted to the explanation of all sensual expressions which are made use of in the Bible in regard to God ; this is really but a mere detailed explication of what Maimonides had already laid down in the first book of his aforementioned code, namely, that such expressions must be taken only in a spiritual and figurative sense; this part contains also the rational arguments by which philosophy proves the existence, the unity, and spirit- uality of God. The second part treats, first, of natural religion and its deficiencies ; secondly, of the creation of the world and the different graduations of the world's system ; and, thirdly, of revelation, prophecy, and of the excellence and perfectness of the divine la^v. The third part, after giving an explanation of the first vision of the prophet Ezekiel, treats of the opposition of good and evil in the world, of (iod's providence and omniscience, and their relation to the free will of man ; a number of eViapters of this last jiart are taken up in explaining the general design of the Mosaic law, and the reason for each separate law.
But wliile, on the one hand, the ^^oreh Xehirhim con- tributed more than any other work to the progress of rational development in .Judaism, it, on the other hand, also provoked a long and bitter strife lietween orthodoxy and science — carrying out, as it did, to its last conse- quences the broad principle that "the Bibk must be explained metaphorically In' established fundamental truths in accordance with rational conclusions." So bitter, indeed, was the contest which broke out between the subsequent spiritualistic ^laimoTiidian and the "lit- eral Talmudistic" schools, that the fierce invectives were
speedily followed by anathemas and counter-anathemas issued by both camps; and, finally, about the middle of the loth century, the decision was transferred into the hands of the- Christian authorities, who commenced by burning Maimonides's books, continued by bringing to the stake all Hebrew books on which they could lav their hands, and followed this decision up by a whole- sale slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Jews — men, women, and children — irrespective of their philo- sophical views. Under these circumstances, the antago- nistic parties, chiefly through the influence of David Kim- chi and others, came to their senses, and gladly enough withdrew their mutual anathemas; they even went so far as to send a deputation (in 1232) to Maimonides's grave at Saphet "to ask pardon of his ashes" (Lindo,p. 65) ; and, as time wore on, the name of Moses Maimon- ides became the pride and glory of the nation. Moses, himself, however, never witnessed the end of the con- flict into which he had the mortification to see his na- tion plunged, caused by his own labors, which had been intended solelj^ for their good. In the midst of the con- flict (the opposition begun by Samuel ben-Ali, the gaon of Bagdad, was particularly strong in Southern France and Spain, see Gratz, Gesch. d. Jiideii, vol. vii, chap, ii), " the Great Luminary" of the Jewish nation was extin- guished Dec. 13, 1204. Both Jews and Mohammedans of Fostat had public mourning for three days. At Je- rusalem the Jews jiroclaimed a day of extraordinary humiliation, reading publicly the threateiiings of the law (Deut. xxviii) and the history of the capture of the ark by the Philistines (1 Sam. iv, etc.), for they regard- ed Maimonides as the ark containing the law. His re- mains, in accordance with a personal request before his decease, were conveyed to Tiberias; and the reverence which the Jewish nation still cherish for his memory is expressed b3'the well-known saying, il^Xi "T>"1 JTi^TS^ iT;r^3 fip N?, "From Moses, the lawgiver, to Moses (Maimonides), no one hath arisen like Moses,'' in allu- sion to Deut. xxxiv, 10. "No man since Ezra had ex- ercised so deep, universal, and lasting an influence on Jews and Judaism as Moses Maimonides. His llieo- logico-philosophical works gained an authority among the progressive thinkers equal to his Mishna-Torah among rabbinical students. AU Jewish thinkers up to date — Baruch Spinoza. JMoses IMendelssohn, and the writers of the 19th century included — are more or less the disciples of Maimonides ; so that no Jewish theo- logico-philosophical book, from and after A.D. 1200, can be picked up in which the ideas of Maimonides form not a prominent part" (Dr. "Wise).