Metaphysics, Actions and Providence - a fascinating brew.

My wife’s cousin’s husband, Yitzchak Halperin, gave me as a present the book by Professor Aviezer Ravitzky (Lerefuah Shleima) Iyunim Maimoni’im. It is a collection of published and new articles by Professor Ravitzky dealing with Rambam and his school of thought. The first chapter is an article which I had read a while back and was published in Da’at followed by the second chapter which is a new article that complements and expands on the first one. The articles contrast Rambam’s understanding of the perfect utopian man and the understanding of some of his followers, the Maimonidean school in Provence led by The Tibbon family, R. Samuel (1150-1230) his son R. Moshe and his son in law R. Yaakov Anatoly (1194-1256).

In recent posts I suggested that setting long term goals based on partaking in how God runs the world is the meaning of Hashgacha. Rambam understands that Moshe and the patriarchs are the paradigm of such a person and therefore all their action were considered as serving God even their mundane day to day actions. It is the act itself that is seen as the ultimate service of God. Thus philosophy without action is seen as a potential and a stepping stone rather than a goal.

Professor Ravitzky reads the Rambam slightly differently. He understands Rambam as saying that they, the patriarchs and Moshe, were able to develop a type of split persona where while dealing with the mundane day to day they were at the same time engaged in metaphysical contemplation. He does not understand that acting towards a goal in the physical now is in itself service of God. Apparently R. Samuel Ibn Tibon understood Rambam that way too, and went on to disagree with this approach. He believed that philosophy and metaphysical contemplation is the ultimate goal of man and should not be contaminated by any other actions. The fact that Moshe dealt with the day to day issues of Klal Israel took him away from fulfilling his potential as utopian man.

I believe that Rambam cautions us about the limits of the human mind over and over in his writings exactly for this specific reason. Pure philosophy and metaphysics without any practical applications lends itself to flights of imagination. A philosopher who lives in seclusion and constant contemplation without acting and partaking in the physical world is not what the Torah wanted according to Rambam. It is therefore unthinkable that acting in fulfilling a divine goal should be considered a lesser level of dedication to God and a concession, necessitating a split persona of contemplating while acting.

The text of Rambam we are discussing is in MN 3:51:

“When we have acquired a true knowledge of God, and rejoice in that knowledge in such a manner, that whilst speaking with others, or attending to our bodily wants, our mind is all that time with God; when we are with our heart constantly near God, even whilst our body is in the society of men; when we are in that state which the Song on the relation between God and man poetically describes in the following words: "I sleep, but my heart is awake: it is the voice of my beloved that knocks" (Song v. 2):--then we have attained not only the height of ordinary prophets, but of Moses, our Teacher, of whom Scripture relates: "And Moses alone shall come near before the Lord" (ibid. xxxiv. 28); "But as for thee, stand thou here by me" (Deut. V. 28)… When we therefore find them also, engaged in ruling others, in increasing their property, and endeavoring to obtain possession of wealth and honor, we see in this fact a proof that when they were occupied in these things, only their bodily limbs were at work, whilst their heart and mind never moved away from the name of God.”

So far it would seem Rambam is exactly as R. S. Tibon read him. Especially the text from Shir Hashirim that he refers to, “Ani Yesheina Velibi Eir”, which seems to indicate that while he is asleep, acting in the real world and not being in touch with God, his mind is awake namely thinking of God. However if one thinks a little further why is this seen as sleeping? Either one is connected to God or not. If while I am acting physically my brain is still connected isn’t that being awake? I believe Rambam was bothered by this question and therefore clarified:

“It also seems to me that these four reached that high degree of perfection in their relation to God, and enjoyed the continual presence of Divine Providence, even in their endeavors to increase their property, feeding the flock, toiling in the field, or managing the house, only because in all these things their end and aim was to approach God as much as possible. It was the chief aim of their whole life to create a people that should know and worship God. "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him" (Gen. 18:19). The object of all their labors was to publish the Unity of God in the world and to induce people to love Him; and it was on this account that they succeeded in reaching that high degree; for even those [worldly] affairs were for them a perfect worship of God”.

Rambam is saying that the fact they were doing things with the goal of creating a people that is aware of God turned their mundane acts into worship. I don’t see any metaphysical speculation here at all. It is the goal and aim of the action that makes it in itself a service of God and fits within the understanding of what is God’s providence.

There has been a constant debate within Judaism about the meaning of Rambam’s ideas on this subject. Closer to our times Chassidim developed the idea that while dealing in worldly matters one should remain attached to HKBH contemplating Him with part of the mind. The irony is that the mystical movement took the rationalist Rambam’s idea as they saw it (as per Tibon) and adapted it as their own. Many Kabalistic ideas have their source in Rambam’s rationalist approach which are then taken and transformed, but that is for other posts.