071) Mysterious ‘Secret Document’ Attesting That Rambam Was A Mystic:
RAMBAM AS AUTHORITATIVE HALACHIST:
Rabbi Moses Maimonides or Rambam (1135-1204) is known as one of the great fathers of Jewish law and rationalism. Yet scholars throughout the ages have always had an interesting relationship with his works. Some considered him to be a potential messiah, while others burned or scoffed at his books. For the overwhelming majority, though, his halachik or legal writings are acknowledged as universally authoritative. It is mainly his writings on philosophy and theology that created some controversy.
Love him or not, for the most part he is regarded as a rationalist and is never really considered to have been a mystic.
RAMBAM AS RADICAL RATIONALIST:
In Moreh Nevuchim, Rambam writes perhaps his most radical and revolutionary thesis that the Torah spoke of sacrifices and incense only as a concession to a generation that had just come out of an idolatrous and sacrificial culture. But, he maintains, it was never intended to be a core Jewish practice for future generations.
He speaks of the necessity to be weaned off those practices and move on to a more sophisticated and rational system of theology. Amazingly he says that there is no spirituality in sacrifices nor inherit holiness in the Temple service and that G-d has no desire for such practices. (This is a Rambam that one actually needs to read in order to believe.)[1]
He also writes that; “The Law concerning the fruit of a tree in its fourth year has some relation to idolatrous customs.”[2]
In another place he says that angels cannot appear in human form. This puts paid to the numerous references to angels appearing as humans as are recorded in the Torah (such as Abraham being visited by angels).
Rather, according to Rambam, these encounters took place in a dreamlike state, and should not be understood as having transpired in reality. Rambam wrote; “Do not imagine that an angel is seen or his word heard…”[3]
A similar example of his acute rationalism can be seen in his relationship with Ibn Ezra (1089-1167). Most Rishonim, as the rabbis of that era were known, did not actually ever meet each other.[4] One exception was Ibn Ezra, who at the age of fifty decided to travel (and became known as the ‘wandering rabbi’). He met the Rambam in Cairo, and they shared some of their thoughts.
Ibn Ezra wrote; “The rational approach to Torah study is fundamental. The Torah was meant only for those who know how to think for themselves. The ‘angels’ are not mediating beings but rather a reference to the mind, which must mediate between man and G-d.”[5]
From Kotzk Blog, here.