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The Philosophy of Moses Maimonides  

In the Jewish calendar, we are in the month of Tevet.  In this month, we remember the death of Moses Maimonides, who died on the 20th day of this month.  On the regular calendar, it was December 13, 1204.  Considering the overwhelming influence the philosopher had on all of Jewish letters,  it is hard to believe there was a time when his work was burned and his teachings banned from Jewish academies.  In fact, his writings have probably aroused more emotion and controversy than those of any other Jewish thinker.  One of the reasons is that he was a rationalist.  He emphasized the absolute spirituality of G-d, denying that the Deity could have any physical characteristics.  This, in an age when many scholars, as well as ordinary folk, accepted at face value a biblical description of G-d’s “outstretched arm” or “strong hand.”  Maimonides declared that anyone who believed G-d has a physical form is no better than an idol worshiper. 

   Maimonides opposed scholars who portrayed the coming of the Messiah as a miraculous time.  He pictured the Messianic era in natural terms, a time of peace and goodness, when the people of Israel would live in their own land, free to devote themselves to the study of Torah and an understanding of G-d. 

   Maimonides’s full name was Moses ben Maimon, and he became known in Hebrew as the Rambam, from the acronym of  Rabbi Moses ben Maimon.  He was born in 1135 in Córdoba, Spain, where his father was a judge and rabbi.  When he was 13, he had to flee the city with his family after radical Muslim Almohads invaded Spain, forcing Jews to choose between conversion to Islam or death.  The family wandered for years, moving from Spain to Morocco and then Palestine, and finally settling in Fostat, the old section of Cairo, Egypt.

   Today, no one is against Maimonides’s philosophies and theories.  All the Jewish rabbis and scholars use Maimonides’s work for the study and development of Jewish traditions.  This history teaches us that sometimes what is radical in our age today does not mean that it’s incorrect for the future.   

    Everything that is new for us and we don’t understand, we try to shove aside or criticize.  But that is not because it’s against our belief; it’s because we are afraid to see how the world changes.  We resist change.  Would it not be better that we overcome our fear and become open and strong?  Without fear, we can create a future that can provide for our families and descendants the successful life that all of us dream.

   Beth Shalom begins this month with new projects.  We have kept the happiness of our last Chanukah party, and with this light we are in the process of creating a future for ourselves.  Maybe in this way, Maimonides’s philosophy about the Messiah is something real for us today.

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