Could Maimonides Have Been a Mystic?

I think So.

Could Maimonides have been a mystic? It depends on how one defines mysticism. Maimonides was certainly not a kabbalist. The legend that irritably keeps finding its way into conversations and articles suggests that late in life Maimonides met a kabbalist who convinced him to retract everything he wrote, repent, and convert to a kabbalistic lifestyle never happened. This tale was convincingly disproven by Gershon Scholem^[1] and more recently revisited by Michael Shmidman^[2] but unfortunately continues to find traction amongst amateur kabbalists. Stories like these are found in post-expulsion documents (early 15^th century) some 200 hundred years after Maimonides died. It is not surprising that kabbalists sought to position themselves in relationship to Maimonides. By the 15^th century the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides’ legal code was a staple of Jewish learning and embraced by both the proponents and opponents of Maimonides’ philosophy.

According to the leading scholars in the field such as Elliot Wolfson and Alexander Altman Jewish mysticism must be understood as a multidisciplinary religious field as opposed to a historical phenomenon. If Louis Jacobs is correct when he defines mysticism as a religious practice that seeks the direct experience of the Divine rather than a secondhand acceptance of theological propositions,^[3] how can one deny that Maimonides was indeed a mystic? The primary thrust of his life’s work is to provide a path that leads to a correct love and awe of God, knowledge of God, and proximity to God while maintaining philosophic integrity and observing the law of the Torah.

Nothing, however, is more compelling than the case made by Professor Aviezer Ravitzky. He shows how Maimonides’ most trusted student who translated the Moreh HaNevuchim from its original Arabic to Hebrew and earned Maimonides’ seal of approval, Shemuel ibn Tibbon, read the Guide as an esoteric text revealing the mystical secrets of Judaism to the world.^[4]

HaRambam himself states the purpose of the Guide of the Perplexed:

For my purpose is that the truths be glimpsed and then again concealed, so as not to oppose that divine purpose which one cannot possibly oppose, and which has been concealed from the vulgar among the people those truths especially requisite for His [God’s] apprehension. As the verse states: “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.”^[5]

Professor David Blumenthal and Dr. José Faur were among the first modern scholars to place Maimonides and by extension the Andalusian mystical tradition he recorded, among the great Jewish mystical works. More recently Abraham Elkayim and Dov Schwartz edited a volume^[6] dedicated to Maimonides and his relationship to kabbalah and mysticism. Professor Gideon Freudenthal has made significant advances in this field and has identified insightful inroads in reading the mystical trends in Maimonides’ writings.

The Andalusian (Southern Spanish) mystical tradition teaches that God is absolutely separate from and not dependent upon His creation, and yet the possibility of an intimate relationship with God is real. It is a tradition that teaches how Judaism, Jewish law, and Jewish thought are the most direct avenues to the infinite. God is available to all “who seek Him with sincerity.”

It is a mystical tradition predicated on the possibility of unmediated and personal communion with God. The mystic, like Moshe Rabbenu of old, does not merely want to do what God commands; the mystic wants to communicate and commune with God, and wants to know the answers to life’s ultimate questions. Judaism as preserved by the Andalusian tradition provides ample venues for the non-mystic and the non-expert to know and experience the transcendent.

Unfortunately, for most, the name Maimonides or HaRambam or simply Rambam is synonymous with absolute rationalism and neo-Aristotelian thought. The impression from Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin’s title of his recent book Rationalism vs Mysticism or Menachem Kellner’s book Maimonides’ Confrontation with Mysticism is that rationalism and mysticism cannot co-exist.

To ignore Maimonides’ mystical teachings simply because they are rational, and because they are subtle, and/or because they are vehemently against the kabbalistic enchanted mythological practices, is a gross omission.

The unfortunate problem is that most equate kabbalah with mysticism. The schools of kabbalah primarily operated in the realm of mythology, superstition, magic, astrology, and the like. They were, at best, careless when it came to ascribing corporeality to God. All of these practices are wholly and totally rejected by Maimonides. For this reason, the kabbalah schools of southern France banned Maimonides’ books, especially The Guide. Mysticism does not have to mean one suspends one’s reason and rational thinking.

The differences between kabbalah and Andalusian mysticism are great and beyond the literal reading of their texts. They pertain to different stages of one’s spiritual development. For the Jews of Andalus, the mystical tradition of Judaism is theocentric – it revolves around the ultimate reality, which is God. It is a process of constant de-anthropomorphizing, constantly removing any form of corporeality or imagery or even language when it comes to God. One could argue kabbalah is anthropocentric. It places man at the center of reality and magic, superstition, angels, language, amulets, and sorcery as his tools to control or manipulate God’s will. The Torah posits categorically that God is the ultimate reality and is therefore independent of anything that man, priest, or spirit may do or say or chant. God’s will is all that truly exists.

One of the primary teachings of the mysticism of Andalusia is that an authentic mystical experience can only take place in a mind, spirit, and practice that is completely purged of corporeality and superstitions.^[7] Anything short of that is an impediment to union with God, love of God, and awe of God.

That Maimonides was indeed a deeply committed mystic who sought proximity with God and taught through his writing how to inspire, induce, and stimulate a profound love and awe of God, is evident from the fact that he sought to teach not only about prophecy but also how to achieve human perfection and prophecy.

His own descendants read and taught his works through mystical lenses, as Paul Fenton has convincingly shown.^[8] Around 1270, mystical commentaries on Maimonides’ Guide began to emerge. In those early years, there were more mystical commentaries on the Guide than there were philosophical commentaries.^[9] According to David Blumenthal, this is also the way the Jews of Yemen read Rambam’s works.^[10]

Because Maimonides cannot be ignored by the world of Torah, modern-day kabbalists such as the Chabad movement have attempted to interpret Maimonides in accordance with their thinking. They see Maimonides as one who merged intellect, heart, and law with the pursuit of God.^[11] Their challenge, however, is Maimonides’ attitude toward secular education, which Chabad does not endorse, and his understanding of ta’amei hamitzvoth [providing rational reasons for the Torah commandments].  Of course, Chabad prefers their own supernatural and magical explanations. More fundamentally, they find it hard to explain how Maimonides, a pillar of Judaism, can totally ignore the Zohar and its teachings.

Dr. Marc Shapiro^[12] shows how some Hassidic masters tried to base some of Maimonides’ halakhic rulings on the Zohar, despite the fact that the Zohar came to light after he had finished the Mishneh Torah. The Rebbe of Kotzke is a good example of one who made attempts at reinterpreting Maimonides’ rational reasons for mitzvoth in a more Hassidic fashion. For example, Maimonides writes that the incense in the Bet Hamikdash was to counter the bad smell of rotting meat. The language Rambam uses is re’ach ra [bad smell], which the Rebbe of Kotzke reads as ru’ach ra [evil spirits].^[13] The attempt to bring Rambam into the kabbalistic camp is also evident in the writings of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato. He makes use of Rambam’s notion of Divine overflow but again falls short; the greater content of Luzzatto’s thought is magic, superstition, and kabbalistic in nature.^[14]

Maimonides, the mystic emerges when his writings are studied as a pedagogic guide on how to observe a spiritual, experiential progression of love of God culminating in the highest levels of Divine knowledge, providence, and love and awe of God.

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[1] Scholem, Gershon, “Mi Hoker li-Mekubal,” Tarbiz 6 (1935), 90-98. See also Miess in Bikkurim ha-Ittim 11 (1831), 131-142.

[2] Shmidman, “On Maimonides’ Conversion,” 379-384.

[3] Louis Jacobs, “The Place of Mysticism in Modern Jewish Life,” European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe, Volume 2, 32.

[4] Ravitzky, “Samuel Ibn Tibbon,” 87-123.

[5] Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon, Maimonides The Guide of the Perplexed Introduction, translated by Shelomo Pines, page 7. See also Guide 2:2 and 2:29

[6]Published by Bar Ilan University in honor of Professor Moshe Halamish.

[7] HaRambam writes that his intellectual forbearers all came from Andalusia, and they were steeped in Greek philosophy as long as the philosophy did not question the foundations of Jewish law (Guide 1:71). Guttman notes how ibn Daud had produced his work Sefer HaQabbala [the Book of Tradition] ten years before HaRambam wrote the Mishneh Torah, where he described the ultimate pleasure of Man is to know God; his use of Aristotelian language is evident. See Guttmann, The Philosophy of Judaism, 152.

[8] Paul Fenton, Deux Traites.

[9] Idel, “Maimonides’ and the Kabbalah,” 201.

[10] Blumenthal, “Maimonides’ Philosophic Mysticism.” David R. Blumenthal: Living with God and Humanity, 85–109.

[11] See Gottlieb, “Hassidic Maimonidean Theology,” v263-287.

[12] Shapiro, Studies in Maimonides, 88-92.

[13] Ibid, 92-93.

[14] Hansel, “Philosophy and Kabbalah,”213-227.