Maimonides the Rational Mystic?

There’s been a lot of talk about whether Maimonides was a mystic. Unfortunately, the discussion has been sorely confused by a lack of clarity about the basic terms of the discussion. It’s time to clear things up and get straight about the relationship between these misused and abused words: Kabbalah, Mysticism and Rationalism. Join us for the fourth installment of our series on “Maimonides and Mysticism.”

Bonus:

00:00 Kabbalah vs Mysticism
08:40 Rationalism vs Mysticism

Sources and Further Reading:
Marc Saperstein, European Judaism Volume 41, Number 2, Autumn 2008: 161–172
David Fried, Mysticism and its Alternatives: Rethinking Maimonides, Lehrhaus, 2018
Menachem Kellner, Science In The Bet Midrash: Studies in Maimonides, 2009, p. 10
Alexander Altmann, Maimonides's Attitude Toward Jewish Mysticism
Louis Jacobs, Attitudes of the Kabbalists and Hasidim towards Maimonides, in The Solomon Goldman Lectures, vol. v, 1990, pp. 45-55
Gideon Freudenthal, “The Philosophical Mysticism of Maimonides and Maimon,” in Maimonides and His Heritage, 2009, p. 116
Julius Guttmann, “Introduction” in Maimonides, The Guide of The Perplexed, An Abridged Edition, East And West Library New York, 1947, p. 7

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Join them in supporting us:

[TheEsotericaChannel]

Watching while flying to NYC - solid stuff, brother !

[giffica]

This has been a phenomenal series. Bringing Judaism and it’s ideas to a wider audience is not just important but a holy task. Maimonides is truly a towering figure.

[goldstarrocketeer]

so thrilled to have found this channel! please keep making videos, I wish these kinds of discussions were more accessible outside of strictly academic spaces

[dexocube]

Good to see you defining some terms right out the gate. I had never heard of this bloke until I saw Dr Sledge's video on him, now because of you two I'm fascinated

[Barbarossa]

Coming over from Filip at Let's Talk Religion. 🙂

[dilipkmathur]

By far the clearest voice in Jewish thought today.

[purposelyperplexed]

What were the ancient mystery schools about or would we have to go out and guess to a degree? Maybe that's why they're called mystery schools LOL. I subscribed. THX. There's a gnostic Gospel, I'm really not sure if it's Christian or not tbh, titled The Gospel according to Thomas I believe. This book has some really mystical type belief systems. I have been looking through your library and I subscribed as I mentioned. Do you ever go over the book of Thomas? From what I understand, it's basically similar to pieces of Kabbalah. They seem to be teaching that the physical body and physical realm is polluted. I don't know if it's speaking about the original humans being of a spiritual or glorified type body and then after the initial form of disobedience that they then became somehow physical. Tbh, I have not read the book of Thomas. I really don't want to read it and form opinions until someone that is older than me and much more knowledgeable with mysticism could attempt to explain. I think it's called the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas or something to this effect. Thank you for your videos

[yosefzee]

Isn't pre modern rationalism classified as scholasticism

[readyfireaim]

God is mostly inactive, but oversees the multiverse. It is extremely rare for Him to intervene in the affairs of other beings. His ways are also said to be highly mysterious, to the point where not even His angels are capable of understanding His way of operation unless He informs them Himself. It is believed that one could be rendered insane if they attempt to comprehend His motives and methods.

Though He is an entity of pure goodness, God is ultimately a purely ontological force, being unknowable and inert, and remaining ever-distant from His creations, with most accounts of biblical and talmudic figures interacting with Him being actually interferences from His avatars like Yahweh,  Shekhinah or Metatron, His Voice, or the Archangel Gabriel, the Messenger. In spite of this, He remains a central figure in the grand scheme of the narrative, with His influence subtly guiding all of existence towards a state where goodness outweighs evil, with every event that ever took place in the universe, regardless of how unfortunate, ultimately leading up to the day where the world will bloom into a state of pure harmony, in tune with its creator.

[Ann_A_Lien]

Look up the following: Theo-Monistic mysticism by Michael Stoeber. A free PDF of the book is online. It’s an interesting compendium to the topic of mysticism in these regards. 🌸

[joediamo]

could you please get to the point. What we're some of Maimonides basic tenets?

[MetatronsRevenge]

how to i tie that type of Rambam turban?

[evyatar]

To argue that Maimonides was a mystic, you have to argue that mysticism does not contradict rationality. It's like arguing that there is no conflict between communism and capitalism. True, there is some overlap when you expand the concepts very much, but then the argument loses its value.

[lewiakk]

Definitely gotta make a vid on rabbeinu ibn gabirol zy”a. Gut yonif/moshiach

[aminrodriguez]

8:26 nononono, its the other way around. Ram Bam was a Mystic indeed, deep into it, he just took a different thought path to Mysticism than Kabbalist did, all emcompassed by Judaism. He went aristotelian instead of Zoharian (?).

[Tokinjester]

interesting stuff, I was always under the impression that Kabbalah _was_ Jewish mysticism and judging by the thumbnail at 1:37 I'm now guessing that Sufism isn't all I'd thought there was to Islamic mysticism!

[readyfireaim]

Yesh, sometimes identified as Jehovah,  YHVH,  Allah, or simply God, is the Supreme Creator of the Abrahamic Religions, recognized as the one and only God in Christianity,  Judaism and Islam, of whose Divine Presence all other divinities in alternate faiths and religions are nothing but pale shadows and who stands outside of Creation as its absolute ruler, enigmatic, ineffable and only ever manifesting through mere avatars of His being, such as the Jesus Christ, the Annointed One, who many believers recognize as the Son of God and the Good Sheperd who would guide humanity to the direction of its Creator, though even such avatars are still shaped entirely by the eyes of those who behold them, and thus their words ultimately reveal more about the person with whom they are communicating than about God Himself. Every single being that existed before the universe was made, and the universe along with the multiverse itself was created by His will.

[BeN-mpnv]

יש אפשרות לכתוביות בשפות נוספות, עברית למשל?

[readyfireaim]

According to both Vishnu and Shiva, it is extremely rare and impossible for God to possess negative feelings, yet according to Michael,  Gabriel,  Metatron,  Lucifer and Azazel, God's divine wrath is describe to be an unspeakable and frighteningly endless force of storm that cannot be calm, once it was unleash. However, as God is a deity of pure love and benevolence, He is unable to destroy anything - not because He cannot, but because it would hurt His Heart - so to execute His punishments, God uses His alter egos to manifest His wrath, for example,  Yahweh, whom he used to carry out his great punishments, such as the Great Flood, or order the death of Egypt's firstborn, making Yahweh seen as a tyrannical God of the Hebrews.

[readyfireaim]

It is said that God is the creator of the deities as well, allowing them to oversee and control fragments of the universe itself and in the process, made His existence hidden for the time being until he sent Gabriel to reveal His nature and all other things that are connected to Him and the events that occurred before the time of man to humans whom would later be addressed as His Prophets. The Prophets themselves act as His messengers on Earth, with the task of spreading His existence and love throughout the globe. And they are also said to wield a fraction of His divine power.

The many different conceptions of God, and competing claims as to God's characteristics, aims, and actions, have led to the development of ideas of omnitheism, pandeism, or a perennial philosophy, which postulates that there is one underlying theological truth, of which all religions express a partial understanding, and as to which:

The devout in the various great world religions are in fact worshipping that one God, but through different, overlapping concepts or mental images of Him.