Maimonides' Confrontation with Mysticism (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization)

362 Pages·2006·166.2 MB·English

by  Menachem Kellner

• •
• •
M E N A C H E M K E L L N E R
Oxford · Portland, Oregon
•
T h e Litt1nan Library o f Jewish Ci · · tion
2006
Tl1e Littman Library of]e wish Civilization
Chief: Executive Officer: Ludo Craddock
POBox64s,OxfordoX2ou1,
UK
Published in the United States and Canada by
The Littman Library of]e wish Civilization
c/o ISBS, NE s8thAvenue Suite
920 300
Portland, Oregon
97213-3644
Men4dJnn Kellner
(c,_.) 2006
AJJ rights resnwd.
No part oj~this publiaitilm may be ,q,,odueed,
stored in a retrimu systn,,, or trtmm1itud, in any fom, or by
of.
any mans, without tht prior pn,nission in fflti"IJ
The Littman Libmry of]rwish c;;PUU'AtUm.
This book is soul nJ,jtct to the condition that it shllll not
by of or otherwise, be lent, rt-sold,hirtd ma or
N) t1"Rde
othe11Vise circuilittd without the publisberS prior amsmt in ""Y
fom, ofb inding or awn· otlJtr than that in which it is published
nmuar
""" without condition indUIU"IJ this condition
R
being imposed on the pu,rhllSer.
this"'-
A alflUO/J'U reanrl for is 11wiiuiblef rom the British LiJmiry
Librt,ry ofC ongress CAtlllogi"IJ•in-Publiauion D11111
Kellner, -Man,
:en 1944-.
MAiMonides' confrrmtlltion wit/, ,nystiann I Kellnn:
r4W,
p. cm. -(Tht Littman lih,•,yoflewish · · ·
I nduda bib/· · ,efe,-enas MIil int/a,
MAimonuus,
l. Moses, 11.JJ-I2 04. 2. ,\,fy sticism-]U illiiml. J. °"""'1-
H iswry-To 4.JUIUlism-F.ssena,9enius, nlllJlre. J. Rllbbi11ical litm#urt
1500.
Histo,yatul crititism. I. Title. II. Series: Litmumlil,1w,yoflewishciviuz.alion
(Series)
BMJJJM6/G,.5 2006
200604,6511
196.7' 12902-dc.22
ISBN
1-904113- 29-X
ISBN
978-1-904113- 29-4
J
P'"'lishi"IJ 0,-onlinlltOr: tmaM oth
. : ]olm
S1111,ulm
Dffl6" by Ptte Russell. filri"IJtlon, Oxon.
Copy-editing: Lind.sry 1ay"1r-G#thmn,
a.utns
Proofrtading: Philippa
Index: Men11chtm Kellner
Hope
Typeset by Servi«s (Abi1f8"'1n) Ltd.
Pn11ted ;,, GrtlJt Bntain tm 11eill-fru P"J>tr by
MPG Boola, Bodmin, ComNU
ALO Kellner, Menachem
BM Marc, 1946-
Maimonides'
755
confrontation with
.M6
K45
mysticism
2006
For my brother and sister-in law
S
IRA AND J O S I E H O U L S O N
When R. Joseph heard his mother's footsteps he would say:
'I will arise before the approaching Shekhinah?
BT KIDDUSHIN 31B
.
MOSHE IDEL
on Mai1nonides have been written and still more will
AN Y Boo IC s
appear. Most arc written by scholars of Maianonides, themselves
often open or hidden Maimonideans. Menachem Kcllner's book is written
by a scholar who does not necessarily wish to be identified as a religious or
intellectual follower of his subject. Not that Professor Kellner has anything
against Mai111onides; on the contrary, he would like to have the best of him
consonant with modem sensibilities. His book presents the Great Eagle in
the relativity of his greatness. This means that he believes that, in order to
understand Mai111onidcs and his achievement, it is necessary to encounter
the various religious versions of Judaism that existed before Mai111onides.
This necessitates a relativizing approach, since Maimonides' views should
be understood, not so much as the expression ofa 'true' Judaism, but as the
fascinating alternative he offered to other fonns oft he religion.
Less a philosopher than a religious thinker, Mai111onides is presented here
the religious background that informed his many innovative and
GJi.a&•. .. .,
influential choices. The book is thus not only an analysis of the thought of
the great religious thinker but a complex survey of what was ac.tt1ally avail
able on the horizon of the many contemporary Jewish literatures, with
which he engaged in a dialogue that was often critical. The discussions that
serve as the background and foil to Maimonides' thought reiterate the lack
of a Jewish orthodoxy before hi111, a leitmotiv ofo ne of Professor Kellner's
earlier books. In a way, Mai111onides himself was not an orthodox thinker,
since there was no established orthodoxy before his time, but he strove to
establish an orthodoxy and indeed succeeded in doing so. Thus, while Mai
monides' religious outlook serves as a clear centre for the entire enterprise,
Professor Kellner tells a story that is much more complex than a simplistic
po1uait of the Great Eagle as the opponent to the elusive Sabians, or as a
religious leader dealing with unpleasant characteristics of earlier Judaism.
In order to do this, he has had to engage a huge bibliography-the only reli
able way ofe valuating the originality ofM ai1nonides' thought. Maimonides
• •• Foreword
Vlll
did the same; he confessed to having read two hundred books ofm agic, per
haps more than many oft he scholars ofm agic in academia today.
Professor Kellner surmises the pre-Maimonidean existence of Jewish
world-views that he calls proto-kabbalistic ( similar to the thought of Rabbi
Judah Halevi), which, in different ways, constituted the trigger for Mai
monides' rethinking of Judaism. This rethinking process is the core of the
original contribution of the present book, which deals with a religious
reform. The best way to understand the gist of Maimonides' project would
be to present him as a reformer, not unlike Martin Luther with his reform
of Catholic Christianity. However, while the Protestant Reformation was
basically fideistic, the Maimonidean one was naturalistic. What was the
essence of this reform? Professor Kellner would formulate it as follows:
Maimonides thoroughly depersonalized proto-kabbalistic Judaism, includ
ing the concept of divinity, angelic terminology, the Divine Presence
(Shekhinah), the Glory (karod), demons, and, finally, man himself, who is
ideally reduced to his mental capacity. In reaction to this intellecrualist
refor1n ofm any elements in Jewish proto-kabbalism, a counter-reformation
led by the younger generation of Maimonides' contemporaries created the
historical forms ofk abbalism. This was perhaps the deepest restructuring of
Judaism since Rabbi Yohanan hen Zakai.
The main assertion that emerges from Professor Kellner's book is that
Maimonides was a religious thinker who attempted, as Kellner formulates
it, to disenchant Judaism. As presented by Judah Halevi, Nahmanides, or
the vast majority of kabbalists, Judaism presents the concepts of purity,
corrunanclments, or the process of halakhic decision-making as parts of an
enchanted universe, with complex ontologies and occult affinities that pre
determine much ofr eligious life. Endowing religious man with choices and
great freedom, Maimonides created a new, if highly elitist, Judaism, thus
undercutting one oft he most characteristic features of the two major for1ns
(biblical and rabbinic) of earlier Judaism: the democratic structtire of reli
gious knowledge as envisioned in both biblical and rabbinic Judaism. Elit
ism is irrevocably related to esotericism, as Professor Kellner suggests, and
this i11unediately necessitates a certain type ofe xclusive religion. The secrecy
that enwraps the ideals-and perhaps the beliefs-of this new form of
Judaism represents not a continuation of the modest discussions of the
'secrets of the Torah' found in rabbinic or Heikhalot litcrarure, but, rather,
the infusion ofa new form ofe sotericism of Platonic origin, which has as its
main audience the comtnunity no less than the canonical book. The secrets
are dangerous, not because they misrepresent Torah but because they are
•
lX
potentially da1naging to the masses and may destabilize communal solidity.
In a way Mai1nonides, who shuns particularistic strands which ontologize
the Jew, a1·rives at an elitist position that creates a new co11ununity of
thinkers-a la al-Farabi-to wit, non-Jewish Jews. Shifting the centre of
gravity oft he halakhocentric rabbinic system from specific deeds to specific
thoughts engenders an intrinsic state of tension in the superiority of the
mental over the perfor1native.
A more historical remark on the margin of this book: it is quite opti
mistic. To believe that one person was able to reforrn so many aspects ofr ab
binic Judaism single-handedly, to enrich it by importing such dramatically
different concepts, shows that the profound structures of this religion are
flexible enough to allow the emergence and success ofa stonishing refor1ns.
The fact that, great as Maimonides was, he did not overcome the traditional
for1r1s ofp roto-kabbalism shows that the dynamic of religion is much more
complex than subscribing to authorities, however widely accepted. Tradi
tion, inertia, nostalgia, and a deep involvement with the classical texts were
strong antidotes against the magical power of Maimonides' persuasion. In
fact, I believe that in order to succeed in such a dramatic reforn1, one must be
a great magician ofl anguage.
The great irony of the later development of Judaism is found in its most
widespread and used text: the prayer-book. Mai1nonides formulated the
'Thirteen Principles', which (in a more poetic version) became the credo of
traditional Jews, included in the liturgy and recited every day. This would
seem to be maximum canonization de facto. However, exactly this achieve
ment was paralleled by potential opponents of Maimonides' views. The
proto-kabbalists are represented in the prayer-book by the Aleinu prayer,
with its Heikhalot terminology and anti-Christian overtones, while the full
fledged kabbalists who wrote the Zohar and the arch-kabbalist Rabbi Isaac
Luria received the same accolade: their Aramaic texts and poems also
became an accepted part of the traditional liturgy, part of the generally pre
vailing peaceful coexistence between strikingly divergent forms oft hought.
This unacknowledged, implicit, and eclectic theological pluralism is far
removed from Maimonides' theological strictures. If Judaism is to be
defined or described by its practice more than by its beliefs, the prayer
book-the most widespread and influential Jewish document-tells us a
story that can be su1n1narized as follows: Maimonides the theological
thinker, who offers an abstract orthodoxy, is complemented by poetic pieces
replete with mysticism, whose theosophy is quite different from his. Coher
ence is not a matter of a co1nrnonly accepted theology-people who think
Foreword
X
together about the nature ofG od as part oft heir worship-but is performa
tive in nature, achieved by people reciting the same texts synchronically
speaking together. This sonorous ambience, important in rabbinic Judaism,
remained important after the intellectualist reform. If, for Maimonides,
Jews are those who think correctly about God and reality, then it is Halevi
who prevailed in the liturgical emphasis on Hebrew, pronunciation, and
togetherness. While Maimonides would have some problems with the con
shtiblakh,
tent and the form ofp rayer in some hasidic he would nevertheless
be quite welcome among those mystical enthusiasts. Particularistic as they
are, they are nevertheless more tolerant than the universalistic Maimonides.
In one of his generous remarks, Professor Kellner argues that Mai
my
monides would agree with my approach. I wish, and have reasons to
ass111ne, that Maimonides would agree with Kellner's.
presented in this book will seem to many
HE MAIMONIDES
readers to be so far out of the mainstream of Judaism as to have left it
altogether. Traditionalist Judaism today is often understood by its practi
tioners and presented by its exponents and interpreters as if the crucial
element in Jewish religious identity is ethnic, deter1nined by descent from
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Such Jews, influenced by the thought of Rabbi
Judah Halevi (d. 1141) and the ontological essentialism of kabbalah, in
effect see the crucial event in Jewish religious history as being the Covenant
of the Pieces between God and Abraham. Maimonides sees the crucial
event in Jewish religious history as the revelation at Sinai, when the descen
dants ofA braham, Isaac, and Jacob converted to Judaism.
This point must be fleshed out. Thinkers like Judah Halevi, the authors
of the Zohar, Maharal of Prague Rabbi Shneur Zalman of
(c.1525-1609),
Lyady (1745-1813), and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) were all con
vinced that Jews are distinguished from non-Jews by some essential charac
teristic which made them ontologically distinct and superior. This view has
no source in the Hebrew Bible at all and very few clear-cut sources in rab
binic literature, but it ca1ne to dorninate medieval and post-medieval
Judaism. (This is hardly surprising, given the way in which the non-Jewish
world threatened the Jews for much oft his period.)
Maimonides, as I will make clear below, did not express himself un
ambiguously on these issues; as is well known, he wrote esoterically. If he
contradicts himself on the issue of universalism and particularism, why not
see his universalist statements as exoteric window-dressing, which do
not reflect his true views? Another way of putting this is to ask why one
should insist, as I will be doing in this book, on taking his universalist state
ments as basic and reading his particularist statements in their light? Why
not do the reverse? After all, that is the way in which Maimonides has been
read by many of his students over the centuries ( a reading, I might add,
which allows hirn to remain an authoritative figure in rabbinic circles).
One ought to adopt the following methodology. First, it is crucial to read
what Maimonides actually said, not what he should have said (a ccording to
• • Preface
Xll
the reader's preconceptions). What Maimonides a<..nially says in very many
contexts is surprisingly universalist.
Second, one must examine what options were really open to Maimon
ides-that is, what ideas were really available to him. These options include
not only the tradition of Greek-Arabic philosophy (with its implicit uni
versalist thrust), but a tradition ofJ ewish biblical and rabbinic universalism
as well.
Third, one ought to adopt a method proposed by the philosopher Susan
Haack (in the context of an argument against epistemological relativism)
and see Maimonides' writings as a kind of crossword puzzle. At any given
point in filling out a crossword puzzle, a number of different solutions
might satisfy any given hint. But that does not make all solutions equally
reasonable. As Haack notes, 'How reasonable a crossword entry is depends
on how well it is supported by its clue and any already completed entries;
how reasonable these other entries are, independent of the entry in ques
tion; and how much of the crossword has been completed.'1 Reading Mai
monides as a particularist demands the revision of a great many already
completed entries in the Maimonidean crossword.
1 Haack, 'Staying for an Ans,ver',
12.