uploads 11340 0 maimonides confrontation with mysticism, classes 2 and 3,source sheet

8/12/2019 Uploads 11340 0 Maimonides Confrontation With Mysticism, Classes 2 and 3,Source Sheet

1/4

Maimonides Confrontation With Mysticism

Melton Gesher at JCC, April 3 and April 10, 2013

JSI at Congregation Beth Torah, April 4 and 11, 2013

Classes 1, 2 and 3, The Hebrew Language

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Brachot, page 55a

Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: Bezalel knew how to combine the letters

by which the heavens and earth were created. It is written here, And He hath

filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, and in

knowledge (Exodus 35:31), and it is written elsewhere, The Lord by wisdom

founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens (Proverbs

3:19), and it is also written, By His knowledge the depths were broken up

(Proverbs 3:20).

RiHaL - Rabbi Yehudah haLevi

Kuzari II 66Hebrew is superior to all the other languages [both] with regard to the essence of

language and with regard to all that it embraces by way of meanings.

Kuzari II 68

It is the language in which God spoke to Adam and Eve

The superiority of Hebrew is manifest from the logical point of view if we

consider the people who employed it for discourses, particularly at the time when

prophecy was rife among them.

Kuzari II 72 our language which was created and instituted by God

Kuzari IV 25

However, the [various] languages and forms of writing differ in excellence with

respect to one another. Some of their names correspond very closely to the things

named by them, while some of them [correspond only] remotely. The divinely

created language which God taught Adam and placed [both] on his tongue and in

his mind, is undoubtedly the most perfect language and also the one that

corresponds most closely to the things named by it. [Thus, it is just] as Scripture

said: And whatever the man would call each living creature, that would be itsname (Genesis 2:19), meaning that the creature deserves [just] that name that

[the name] corresponds to it and tells about its nature. Thus the superior status of

the holy language [relative to the other languages] and [the fact] that the angels are

more strongly affected by it than [by] any other was entirely necessary.

With respect to this relationship [of correspondence between word and language

in Hebrew], one may also say of [Hebrew] writing that the forms of its letters are

not haphazard and accidental, but rather [are designed] for a purpose

corresponding to what is intended by each and every letter. According to this,


2/4

therefore, it is not farfetched for the names [of God] and whatever resembles them

in [both oral] expression and in writing to have an efficacy [of their own], and,

prior to both of them, a determinate measure, [by which] I mean, the thinking of a

soul that is pure, and similar to the angels.

Maimonides / TheRaMBaM - Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon

Guide of the Perplexed I 65 (pages 158 159)

I do not consider that after having attained this degree and having gained the true

knowledge that He, may He be exalted, exists not by virtue of an existence and is

one not by virtue of a oneness that you require that the denial of the attribute of

speech with reference to Him be explained to you

Now in all these cases in which the words saying and speaking are applied to

God they are used to denote either will and volition or a notion that has been

grasped by the understanding having come from God The terms in question

never signify that He, may He be exalted, spoke using the sounds of letters, and a

voice Thus the dictum of Scripture By the word of the Lord were the heavens

made (Psalms 33:6) is used figuratively to signify that the heavens havecome into existence through His purpose and will. No one among our renowned

men of knowledge is ignorant of this.

Guide of the Perplexed III 8 (pages 435-436)

I can also give the reason why this our language is called the Holy Language. It

should not be thought that this is, on our part, an empty appellation or a mistake;

in fact it is indicative of true reality. For in this holy language no word at all has

been laid down in order to designate either the male or female organ of copulation,

nor are there words designating the act itself that brings about generation, the

sperm, the urine or the excrements. No word for designating, according to its firstmeaning, any of these things has been laid down in the Hebrew language, they

being signified by terms used in a figurative sense and by allusions. It was

designed thereby to indicate that these things ought not to be mentioned and

consequently that no terms designating them should be coined. For these are

things about which one ought to be silent; however when necessity impels

mentioning them, a device should be found to do it by means of expressions

deriving from other words, just as the most diligent endeavor should be made to be

hidden when necessity impels doing these things.

Guide of the Perplexed II 30 (pages 357 358)Among the things you ought to know and have your attention aroused to is the

dictum: And the man gave names [to all the cattle and to all the birds of the sky

and to all the wild beasts; but for Adam no fitting helper was found] (Genesis

2:20). It informs us that languages are conventional and not natural, as has

sometimes been thought.

Guide of the Perplexed I 61


3/4

All the names of God, may He be blessed, that are found in any of the books

derive from actions. There is nothing secret in this matter

Do not think anything other than this and do not let occur to your mind the vain

imaginings of the writers of amulets or what names you may hear from them or

may find in their stupid books, names which they have invented, which are not

indicative of any notion whatsoever but which they call the names and of which

they think that they necessitate holiness and purity and work miracles. All of these

are stories that it is not seemly for a perfect man to listen to, much less to believe.

Guide of the Perplexed I 62

When wicked and ignorant people found these texts, they had great scope for lying

statements in that they would put together any letters they liked and would say:

This is a namethat has efficacy and the power to operate if it is written down or

uttered in a particular way. Thereupon these lies invented by the first wicked and

ignorant man were written down, and these writings transmitted to good, pious and

foolish men who lack the scales by means of which they could know the true from

the false. These people accordingly made a secret of these writings, and the latter

were found in the belongings left behind them, so that they were thought to be

correct. To sum up: A fool believes everything (Proverbs 14:15).

Mishne Torah, Laws of Recitation of the Shma Chapter II

Halacha 9

How must one enunciate? He must be careful not to pronounce [a letter with] a

strong dageshas if there were no dagesh, or [a letter with] no dageshas if there

were one. Nor should one pronounce the silent shevaor silence the pronounced

sheva.

Therefore, one must pause between two words in which the first word ends with

the same letter with which the second word begins. For example, when reading !"#

$##!(bechol levavcha) (Deuteronomy 6:5), one should pause slightly between !"#(bechol) and $##!(levavcha). [One should act] similarly in the cases of %&'#()

*+*,(va'avad'tem meheirah) (Deuteronomy 11:17) and !-&./0"* (hacanaf p'til)

(Numbers 15:38).

One must also pronounce distinctly thezayinof )+"1&(tizkeru) (Numbers 15:40).

One should sufficiently elongate the daletin '2((echad) (Deuteronomy 6:4) in

order to proclaim God's sovereignty over the Heaven and the Earth, and all four

directions. The chetin '2((echad, ibid.) should not be shortened so that the word

sounds like '2-((ee-chad).

Halacha 10

A person may recite the Shemain any language he understands. One who recitesin a foreign language must be as scrupulous in his enunciation as if he were

reciting it in the Holy Tongue.

Letters of Maimonides, Sheilat edition, 429; Responsa of Maimonides, Blau

edition, page 398, number 244

Anyone who wishes to cleave to the study of Torah, even if he understands

only one verse or one law and it makes no difference if he understands the

matter in Hebrew or Arabic or Aramaic, [since] the point is to understand the


4/4

matter in any language. [Since] the Shema may be recited in any language, how

much more so the commentaries and compositions.

uploads 11340 0 maimonides confrontation with mysticism, classes 2 and 3,source sheet

Documents