Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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MASMID Ihe Jroliticdl ami iDocKil J liilosophy aj JVi (iinioniclcs By Davih W. I ' i-.i I (.ouskv The year 1935 will witness the 800th anniversary of the birth of Maimonides. F.xcrcising as he chM such a profoiiiiil influence on Judaism and Jewisli thought, it is lull (II be expected that the Jewish world will ring with his praise. Cotintless tributes will be paid to his genius, — and rightfully so, for religion, philosophy, science, logic, and law all tlowed with eqtial facility from the pen of this most versatile thinker. No realm of human en- deavor was left unexplored by his penetrating mind, Those who have attempted to elucidate his doctrines have been legion. Yet, s trange to relate, none have seen fit to develop that signi- ficant aspect of his thought, his .system of political philosophy. The attribution to Maimonides of a com- prclKiisixc Staats-philosophie demands cxplan.i- liou, I ' or, unlike his famous contemporary Aqiu ' nas, he left no individual treatise on political science, Neither was he a social reformer intent on eradicating the roots of the existing .system and substituting in its stead an order which he advocated. Maimonides was primarily the inter- preter of Judaism in all its aspects. G— d had revealed to His People a system of laws whose entirety embodies the Divine scheme of life. Many of His precepts seemed incompirehensible and ir- rational to those w ho had tasted of the forbidden fruits of philosophy. But the human mind, in- sisted Maimonides, is a spark of the Divine Intellect, and man can comprehend in his finite manner the workings of the Infinite. The Law is not entirely foreign to Nature, and just as we are able through the principles of philosophy to achieve a rational conception of natural phenom- ena, so too can we attain some sort of understand- ing of the Divine commands. It was to tliis Her- culean task of reconstructing from the body of the Law revealed to Moses its underlying philosophj-. •uul of rendermg m this fashion the complexities of the Torah intelligible to thinking man and com- p.uible with Reason, that Maimonides dc ' oted him- self. In his interpretation of the laws pertaining to social organization and economic practices as an integral factor in the Jewish system of life, his views on political theory find expression. His rules regulating political and economic institutions may be but a codification of the principles as revealed in the Pentateuch, preached by the Prophets, and applied in the Talmud. Neverthelc-ss. his explana- tion of their Biblical context, his decisions in cases of Talmudic disagreement as to their practical realization, and his prcsonal comments, impart to the whole a flavor peculiarly Maimonidean. Any attempt at an understanding of Maimonides must be preceded by the realization that his fun- damental philosophical assumptions were those of Aristotle. The tenor of philosophical thought of the 12th Century was predominantly Aristotelian Aristotle ' s teachings had thoroughly permeated Maimonides ' thought and its influence on the shaping of his doctrines was profound. It was the foundation on which Maimonides erected his philosophical structure. And if Maimonides strove to make religion compatible with reason, it was with the tenets of Aristotle that he attempted to effect its conciliation. Following the path blazed by the Stagyrite. Maimonides declares that everything that exists in the world is an harmonious blend of matter and form. Maimonides. in true Aristotelian tradi- tion, is neither a crass materialist nor a flight}- idealist. The world is neither a collocation ot atoms nor a bodiless conglomeration of ideas. The universe is a fusion of both. Matter or physical properties, and form, the essence of things, unite in the formation of particular objects. To il- lustrate, a rose has for its matter a mass of chemical Fiiu

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MASMID answered, That lies deep down in the world, but until now no one has been sufficiently humble to bend down far enough to pick it up. From all this it is quite clear that the Jewish doctrine is directed not only at die individual, but at the entire people. Not only the isolated individual soul is addressed, not only the voice ot conscience in the individual man is called upon, the message is given to the ivhole people, and the individual is always a member of the congregation. The most terrible thing that can happen to the individual is that his soul shall be separated from the people. That is equivalent to death. On the other hand, in belonging to the Congregation of Israel lies the guarantee of immortality. The con gregation of Israel is, as we have already said, a foiiiuled congregation, not one that has evolved from Nature. People can form congregations in many ways. They form groups for practical reasons, because of a common faith, or because they belong to the same or a similar race. But all such ties are relative. Even the peoples of the world are collected about a center which has no absolute reality in itself, for natural realities are not absolute realities. Israel alone is gathered about a center which is nothing but absolute reality itself. Israel stands under no star, as do the other peoples of the world. Its center is absolute reality itself. That is why Israel as a nation is more strongly bound together than any other group in the world. It is the strongest possible form of solidarity! That is why the Jewish community cannot be compared with other communities. It can be understood only from its oivii point of view. Israel cannot be looked upon from an external point of view and explained on bases which lie outside it. None of these per- spectives would be an adequate standpoint from v. ' hich to understand this phenomenon. Israel can be understood only from its own vantage point; and this is its very peculiarity, that it cannot be measured with foreign standards. All other com- munities can be compared with one another. Jewry, alone, stands by itself. The Jewish doctrine sharply distinguishes be- tween God, m.ui, and the world. The world is thus understood, in .1 completely modern way, as something relati c. It is as is termed in physics, a field , a field of relationship . It is useful to differentiate between world and Nature . The world is a Nat ure in the midst of which stands man. All these infinite relationships, the whole system of relations, find their connecting thread in man. Man is the key to these relations and the keystone of their system. Man is the high- est thing in Nature. And his task is to build the world, to build human society. But human society can be founded only upon the order of truth, the order of justice; and the Jewish teachings have dis- cussed the problem of social justice more pro- foundly than any other doctrine on earth. In this relative world, man stands at the center, the high priest of all creation. God is not an abstract, dis- tant principle. He is not simply a First Cause which discharged the world from itself, the world now continuing to be of its own volition. Rather, God is present in this world, but not identical with it. This idea of the presence of God is one which imparts an unusually lofty meaning to life. Man is addressed by the absolute, and he can answer. Man is not an isolated ego, not a shut-off being, a creature who has, as the great philosopher Leibnitz said, no doors and no windows. The I cannot be understood without the You . Indeed one can even say that the You is much more primary than the I . The I awakes only to the call of the You . Thus we oppose these three entities to one another: The absolute God is the only reality ; the relative world is His creation ; and man, addressed and answering, opens upward to- ward reality, and downward embraces all Nature into unity. All the commandments and prohibitions of the Jewish teachings are epitomized in three highest commands. They are prohibitions. Idolatry, mur- der and adultery are forbidden even when one is threatened with death. These three prohibitions are, as it were, chapter headings for the whole series of our maxims of life. These three also {ContDuied on page 60)

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MASMID constituents. Its form is that which transforms this amorphous mass of atoms into a meaningful and intelligible substance and which renders it distinct from other objeas. The form of a thing is its essence, that which imparts to ir meaning and individuality. To quote Dr. Santayana, the aroma of a rose is the soul of the rose. In the world of particular objeas no matter can exist without form. Neither can form be independent of matter. For a specific thing to be intelligible it must possess both. The entire world of parti- culars is in a constant flux of development, evoI ' - ing from the simple to the more complex, from potential to actual, as everything strives to achieve its pure form. Pure form, the highest degree of excellence which a thing can attain, is the goal towards which all natural objects are evolving. Man is no difl erent from any other natural organism. He, too, exists by virtue of the coalescence within him of matter and form, the matter — his physical embodiment, the form — his soul. But that particular faculty which tenders man superior to all other forms of Creation is the rational. Unlike other species, man is endowed with the capabilit) ' of rational thought. He is able to acquire vast stores of knowledge. He possesses a moral sense which enables him to differentiate between right and wrong. Man ' s true form, therefore, consists in this property of intellectual perception. And just as the ultimate end of everything lies in the consummation of its form, so too should all efforts of man converge on one goal — the utmost development of his intellect. The highest purpose of the Law lies in this per- fection of man ' s rational faculty, the glorification of the intellect. Man is to scale the heights of intellectual achievement by learning Eternal Truths. He is to be taught the knowledge of the things in existence that a person perfectly developed is capable of knowing. The Existence, the Unity, the Omniscience, the Omnipotence, the Will, and the Eternity of G — d are to be the factors nur- turing him to nooscopic maturity. But the evolution of form is always dependetit on changes in matter. The mind cannot exist some- where in die ethereal realms of the Universe. It is inseverably bound to and encompassed by the limitations of the flesh. Hence any attempt at the improvement of the intellect — man ' s form — must be preceded by the betterment of his physical condition. Like a tiny boat on the ocean, the mind and spirit are tossed about with reckless abandon by the tempestuous billows of emotion and bodily passion. If man is to be favorably disposed to the reception of Truth he must be happy and contented. He must conquer his lusts and desires. As a re- sult, though the teaching of G — d ' s attributes is the ultimate aim of the Torah, the establishment of material well-being and physical self-control must receive prior consideration. Man ' s material happiness is attained by the satisfaction of his bodily needs. It is when the problem of securing subsistence and material com- fort becomes of paramount importance that the mind is no longer receptive to the tenets of Faith. To render the intellect capable of absorbing these Eternal principles, man must be assured his food, shelter and other natural requisites. But one man alone cannot procure all this. For man is very self-insufficient. It would be necessary for him to learn the art of ploughing, of threshing, of weaving, etc., etc. But even the lifetime of a Methusaleh would not suffice for the learning of all this. Man, avers Maimonides in consonance with Aristotle ' s famous dictum, is of an inherently social nature. Life in society is the very breath of existence. ' Without it, man perishes miserably. With it, he can achieve the well-being and eco- nomic sufficiency without which our dreams of spiritual development must flounder in miry myth. Society is therefore created to render possible man ' s physical synthesis by providing him with his material wants. But no mere herding of individuals into social units will solve man ' s economic difficulties. The natural tendency of all human beings to enforce the dictates of their own egos will inevitably result in the clash of ambitions. The simple must give way before the crafty. The weak will be ground Sixteen