Divine Ethics v.s. Human Ethics - Prophecy and Plagiarism

Sorry folks, this is going to be a longer post than usual but I hope worthwhile!

The beauty of Rambam is that he is such a great teacher that once one falls prey to his methods, one can become addicted. Ask most religious people what is the basis of Torah min Hashamayim - Revelation and they will tell you that it is based on Faith. They will tell you it is Mesora, that it was transmitted father to son all the way back to our ancestors who stood at Har Sinai and why would a father lie to his sons. On the blogosphere Godol Hador attacked several times similar statements. Ben Avuyah http://benavuyah.blogspot.com has a beautiful post, titled Daniel’s Dilemma making the point and showing so coherently the ambiguities of this argument. What a talented writer!

Rambam in Moreh 2:40 makes a statement on this issue that is so revolutionary that it just boggles my mind. It has been bothering me for years and this afternoon during a conversation with a friend I suddenly realized what Rambam was saying and the incredible depth in his words. Here is Rambam Friedlander translation (horrible but available on line) with some of my edits based on Pines: (Moreh 2:40)

“If you will find that the sole object of certain laws, in accordance with the intention of their author, is to establish the good order of the state and its affairs, to abolish in it injustice and prejudice: and if in these laws attention is not directed to philosophic problems, contain no teaching for the perfecting of our logical faculties, and are not concerned about the existence of sound or unsound opinions. If their sole objective is to arrange, under all circumstances, the relations of men to each other, and to secure their well-being, in accordance with the view of the author of these laws. Then these laws are political, and their author belongs, as has been stated above, to the third class, to those who only distinguish themselves by the perfection of their imaginative faculties. If on the other hand you find laws which, in all their rules, aim, as the law just mentioned, at the improvement of the material interests of the people: but, besides, tend to improve the state of the faith of man, to create first correct notions of God, and of angels, and to lead then the people, by instruction and education, to an accurate knowledge of the Universe: this education comes from God; these laws are divine”

In other words how do we know that Torah is revelatory? By its contents! Analyze its contents and if it meets a certain criteria, it is proof that it is divine! What kind of objective proof is this?

Now let us read a little further:

“The question which now remains to be settled is this: Is the person who proclaimed these laws the same perfect man that received them by prophetic inspiration, or a plagiarist, who has stolen these ideas from a true prophet? In order to be able to answer this question, we must examine the merits of the person, obtain an accurate account of his actions, and consider his character. The best test is the rejection, abstention, and contempt of bodily pleasures: for this are the first condition of men and a fortiori of prophets…”

Rambam is really going off the charts! How do we know that the giver of the Law is not a fake? The content may be divine but how do we know it is first hand? Again not because we partook in the experience at Har Sinai and we heard God say to Moshe go tell them such and such, but because the man who is telling us this is an ascetic! What is he talking about? This piece has bothered me for the longest time. True Rambam states this in context of comparing Torah to other documents such as the New Testament and the Koran whose authors also claim them to be Divine. He does not use the argument as an absolute proof for the revelatory status of Torah, but still what kind of objective argument is this?

Rambam starts the Moreh discussing ethics and morality. After introducing the concept that man has the ability to understand abstract truths in Chapter 1, he then introduces in chapter 2, ethics and morality in context of Adam’s sin.

“The fine and the bad (morals) belong to the things generally accepted as known (conventions) as opposed to those known by the intellect. For one does not say: It is fine that heaven is spherical and it is bad that the earth is flat. Similarly our language expresses the idea of true and false by the terms emet and sheker, of the morally right and the morally wrong, by tov and ra'. …After man's disobedience, however, when he began to give way to desires which had their source in his imagination and to the gratification of his bodily appetites, as it is said," that the tree was good for food and delightful to the eyes" (Gen. iii. 6), he was punished by the loss of part of that intellectual faculty which he had previously possessed. …; becoming endowed with the faculty of apprehending generally accepted things (conventions) he was wholly absorbed in judging what is proper (fine) and what improper (bad).”

Rambam defines morals as conventions. It is not an absolute truth but an agreement among peoples for reciprocal fair treatment. It is a self - protective system, not altruistic, necessary for society to function. It is not a result of intellectual depth and understanding but rather comes from the need for physical and bodily pleasure and comforts.

However the last piece of the Moreh reads thus:

“It is clear that the perfection, in which man can truly glory, is attained by him when he has acquired-as far as this is possible for man-the knowledge of God, the knowledge of His Providence, and of the manner in which it influences His creatures in their production and continued existence. Having acquired this knowledge he will then be determined always to seek loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, and thus to imitate the ways of God. We have explained this many times in this treatise.”

Rambam understands that there is a second kind of morality and ethics. That one comes as a result of intellectual development. When one searches for God by meditating about His deeds, looking at the universe we live in and understanding how it is being run, the laws of nature, science, become God’s fingerprints. Doing this we get an idea of God’s ways and we appreciate the way He deals with His creatures. That is the meaning of the 13 Midos that Moshe was taught at the Nikras Hatzur, the famous cave, after the Egel... The purpose of searching for God is therefore no longer just an intellectual search but also a very practical one. Once His ways are understood we humans now are obligated to emulate them. That is the eighth Positive Commandment in Sefer Hamitzvos Veholachto Bidrochov, a Jew is expected to emulate his Creator and how else can one do that without knowing His ways? This type of ethics is no longer a convention but an act of altruism. It is the ultimate service of God emulating Him without any expectation of reciprocity by fellow man, just like we cannot reciprocate His kindness to us.

Only a person that is not interested in worldly matters can teach this type of morality. For only to such a person are ethics and morality not reciprocal but altruistic.

Rambam is telling us, true Christianity preaches love and kindness, true the Koran teaches to give alms, but they are teaching the mundane kind, the reciprocal type. Our Torah teaches us to do these things as Imitato Dei, emulating God, and that is Divine law not a human one, given by a true prophet not a plagiarist.

Of course our Mesora stands. We accept that our ancestors were at Har Sinai. However others also have traditions and myths with similar contentions. It is the content of the Torah compared to the content of the others that proves which contention is true and which is false, which is divine and which is human.

I believe that this is one of the most important insights in Judaism missed by many academics who have studied Rambam. It is also the nuance that Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz missed in his writings. We cannot grasp God’s essence, but we can understand His world and learn to partake in Creation and its maintenance together with Him. The Torah is the guide that we follow to accomplish that. This is how Rambam legislates this in Hilchos De’os 1:11

יא ומצווין אנו ללכת בדרכים אלו הבינוניים, והם הדרכים הטובים והישרים, שנאמר "והלכת, בדרכיו" (דברים כח,ט). [ו] כך לימדו בפירוש מצוה זו: מה הוא נקרא חנון, אף אתה היה חנון; מה הוא נקרא רחום, אף אתה היה רחום; מה הוא נקרא קדוש, אף אתה היה קדוש. ועל דרך זו קראו הנביאים לאל בכל אותן הכינויין, ארך אפיים ורב חסד צדיק וישר תמים גיבור וחזק וכיוצא בהן--להודיע שאלו דרכים טובים וישרים הם, וחייב אדם להנהיג עצמו בהן ולהידמות כפי כוחו.