The Essential Agus. Steven T. Katz
the human personality and to set the ideals of the spirit over against the hungers of the flesh. To be sure, M. tended to downgrade sex as a “shameful” activity. (II, 36.) He described the Hebrew language as “holy,” because it contained no words for the genital organs and employed “pure” euphemisms for the sexual act. In this respect, he was probably influenced as much by the feverish overindulgence of the Moslem princes as he was by the teaching of Aristotle. But, his essential teaching was in keeping with the aims of the classicist. He regarded the health of the soul as paralleling the health of the body, rejecting the Augustinian claim that the love of self opposes and contradicts the love of God.7
Neo-Maimonist ethics is also a blend of the quest for balance of the classicist and the lyrical temper of the religionist. Along with M., we affirm the ancient principle of the Golden Mean. All virtues are happy syntheses of opposing tendencies. But, man’s perennial quest for wholeness leads him again and again toward the brink of self-transcendence. M. supplements the classical ideal by the principle of imitatio dei, though in his view this principle could be asserted only in a metaphorical sense. To us, the urge for self-transcendence is a fact of human nature, for we cannot attain self-fulfillment without surrendering to a high ideal. The consequences of this hunger to be part of a greater whole are not always salutary. People are driven on occasion to serve idols and to reject the tensions of freedom. Here, again, is an illustration of the dangers inherent in the polar tension within the human soul. Self-surrender to a partial good may be socially destructive as much as the anarchical drive for self-assertion. In the childhood of the human race, the limited whole which becomes the surrogate of God, is the clan, the tribe or the city-state. It is rare individuals, philosophers, statesmen and above all prophets, who have opened up wider horizons for the psychic need of self-transcendence. Plato, Aristotle and Xenophon shattered the naive idolatry of the Greeks. Isocrates expanded the meaning of the term, “Hellene,” to embrace those who acquire the culture of the Greeks. And, it was the long line of Hebrew prophets that most effectively contrasted the adoration of the One God with the sterile folly of worshipping any and all idols. The pathos of the prophets set its seal upon the deepest layers of the Jewish heritage. “Leave the Israelites alone—if they are not prophets, they are surely the sons of prophets.” (Pesahim 66a.)
The rejection of idolatry is an ethical as well as a theological principle. It means that no ideal is more than a fragment of our total goal, more than a way-station on the road to personal and universal perfection. In every generation, the classical procedure of harmonizing conflicting interests and ideals issues in a consensus of what is reasonable and morally obligatory—a Way, which is then structured into laws and ordinances (halachah). But, along with this legal pattern, there is also the beckoning ideal of greater perfection—a Vision of the sublime, which is only dimly reflected in articulate ideals. Beyond these ideals is the Nameless One, to whom alone our worship is directed. The concrete ideals of the age are all too readily transformed into idols, and the resounding No of prophetic monotheism, impels humanity to go beyond the “idols of the market-place” in quest of the receding horizon of perfection. “Without vision, a people is undone.”
The religious Liberal, by virtue of his dynamic Vision, will be keenly conscious of the failures of the age and the limits of the regnant ideals. To him, the worship of the One God will result in an awareness of our human sinfulness. We ask forgiveness, not alone for the sins we have committed, but even more so for permitting some ideals to preempt our total loyalty, shutting all else from our view. Sin is the failure to heed the call of the whole—the whole of our self, the whole of society, the whole of the spectrum of ideals, that is the light of God.
There is an old pietistic comment on the claim of the Sages that in time to come, God will slaughter Satan. Why should Satan be punished? it is asked. Was it not his duty to mislead and seduce people?—The answer is—Satan will be punished for the mizvot he urged, not for the sins that he commended. How beautiful!—The perfect world will be attained only when the demonic is totally separated from the divine—a consummation which can hardly be reached in our mundane existence.
THE MEANING OF GOD
M.’s conception of God is the most misunderstood part of his system. It is taken to be “The Unmoved Mover,” Who can only be described in negations. He is not this and not that. While we may think of Him as being One, Living, Almighty, All-knowing, we have to bear in mind that His unity is unlike that of all other forms of unity, that His Life, His Power and His Wisdom are totally unique, in no way comparable to the meaning that those adjectives normally convey. We seem to be left with a vacuous Naught. Since M. takes pains to hammer home the principle that “the end of our knowledge of God is to know that we don’t know” (I, 59), many scholars in medieval and modern times have concluded that his God-idea was really devoid of religious content. At least one contemporary scholar even went so far as to infer that logically M. was a naturalist.
Actually, when the “Guide” is seen as a whole, the positive aspects of M.’s conception become clear. Existentially, M. confronted the Divine Being in times of meditation as the Ground of all being, the Purpose of all existence, the ultimate object of man’s total devotion and affection. Intellectually, M. identifies the Divine with the marvelous wisdom that is apparent in living things, reserving the term, “nature,” for the mechanical laws that prevail in the inanimate world. (I, 69; III, 19; III, 23.) In the designs of plants and animals, the reality of purposiveness is apparent. The whole is far more than the sum of its parts—one spirit dominates and controls the functioning of myriad components. Furthermore, certain species depend for their existence on other forms of living beings. A Wise, All-powerful Will is at work, over and above the unvarying mechanism of nature.8
This blend of Wisdom and Will is manifested on a still higher level in the creation of humanity. Even in its most primitive stages, mankind received inflows of Divine Power and Wisdom from God. (II, 40.) These upward thrusts led to the development of skills needed for survival and of social customs that provided a modicum of order and justice. Among the Greeks and other cultured peoples, there have arisen statesmen, scientists, inventors and poets, who have contributed mightily to the formation of a civilized society. Yet, the laws of the Greeks (nomoi) did not meet the spiritual needs of their people. The only perfect law is the Torah, which addresses itself to the ethical and religious concerns of the individual as well as the economic and political interests of society. “So, the Torah, which is not a natural product is led up to by natural developments.” (Ibid.) The Torah was given to the Israelites, but in the course of time the “Torah of Truth” will govern the lives of all men and women. (Code, “Hilchot Melochim,” end.) “For all of existence is like one living individual.” (I, 72; Pines, p. 117.) The thrusts of God, manifested in the biblical prophets and less perfectly in statesmen, poets and philosophers will ultimately redeem all mankind.
Here, then, is a holistic and evolutionary conception of God’s work in history. The vistas of the contemporary theory of evolution were of course not open to M. But, he conceived of God as being actively at work, creating the ideal human society of the future. Having postulated the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, M. insisted that the Divine Flow from the sphere of Active Reason amounted to a series of additional creative acts, which transpired in the domain of history. While the material laws of nature have been fixed at creation, the spiritual horizons of mankind remained open, and the help of God is extended to the diverse builders of the ideal society of the future—to scientists, investors, statesmen, poets, but above all to those who prepare themselves in mind and heart for prophecy. The perfect God must have designed “the best of all possible worlds,” but only as a potentiality, revealed to prophets. And He is working in the dimension of time along with the elite of Israel and the nations in order to achieve this goal.9
The revival of prophecy is an indispensable step on the road to messianic perfection. The Messiah of the House of David will inaugurate the glorious era, but it will continue to grow in perfection for a long time, as the Messiah and his successors proceed to convert all