Yeshiva University - Masmid Yearbook (New York, NY)

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M ASMID The philosophy of Maimonides is not that of a lonely conttmplator drawint; a faith for living out of an intellectual love and total embrace cf God. His ideas are not the outcome of a spiritual resurrection attendant upon rejection by the world and man. He is not a solitary thinker spinning universal panaceas from the pinnacle of despair or devising a universal formula of Happiness that would apply to all men under all conditions. Man ' s happiness does not consist in a selfless de- votion to infinite Being or in an absorption in the One of Plotinus. Spiritual life, according to Maimonides, does not consist in a laughter cf Democritus or in the cry of despair of an Ec- clesiastes that All is vanity; there is no Epi- curean garden or Painted Porch of the Stoics in which to find refuge from the defeats and frustra- tions of this world. Human life is no longer an accidental occurrence in a universal pandemonium, a Platonic medital ' to mortis, an ante-chamber to the world to come, or a longing for a sensuous paradise. Neither the persecutions which he wit- nessed nor his personal misfortunes could mar his conviction that the ideal must spring from the natural and not the reverse, that human blessed- ness can not be dissociated from its material basis, and that immortality can only be achieved in living and not in dying. If the neo-Platonists exalted the transcendental realm of Ideas as the natural dwelling place of the human spirit, Maimonides exalted the realm of nature as the womb and matrix of all spiritual values. . . . here, cries Maimonides, ' .; man ' s world, here is his home, ill which he has been placed, and of which he is himself a portion. (Italics mine.) In this emphasis upon man ' s earthly existence lies the philosophical significance of Maimonides. He suggested a way of life that required more reason and less authority, more analysis and less enthusiasm, more searching and less quibbling, more action and fewer words. And in praising Maimonides we can do no better than apply to him the celebrated dictum of Aristotle: When one man said, then, that reason was present — as in animals, so throughout nature — as the cause of order and of all arrangements, he seemed like a sober man in contrast with the random talk of his predecessors. MAIMONIDES AND THE PRESENT GENERATION (Continued from page 14) men of wisdom and insight. Spiritually famished mankind will continue to discover the sages of Israel and their essentially constructive and spiritual message and foremost among them Mai- monides, true citizen of the world. As we contemplate the life of Maimonides, man of destiny, the glory of his mind, the unique beauty and nobility of his spirit and the com- pleteness and achievements of his life, we stand in reverence of man ' s unlimited capacity for un- derstanding of the infinite, inherent qualities of the chosen ones. The blessed life of Maimonides has made for greater righteousness and happiness of his people and to this day helps inspire us to a life of deeper meaning, of greater harmony with the ultimate source of life, light and goodness — God. It is in this spirit of reverence and humility — his spirit — that we celebrate the eight-hundred years of life of this Tsadik — the name by which his great son Abraham usually designates him. Especially true of Maimonides is the dictum of our sages: Greater are the righteous in death than in life. Twenty-eight

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M A S M I D yk ' ld jiroof for or against a ccri.ilii (rnil; atul when tliis was found they asserted lliai ilic iliin must be endowed with those properties; then they employed the same assertion as a proof for tlic identical arguments which led to ihi. ' assertion, and by which tiiey either supporidl or refuied .1 icriaiii opinion . . . Ull yui, hnucicr. .n .1 i i ' n ' i il rule, that Theniistiiis wiis righ . .i) i ' i; », )( ' liroperties of things can not aJjpl than- wires to our opinions, hut our opinions must he adapted to the existing properties. (Italics mine.) It is dear therefore that true knowledge can not be obtained by smothering nature in a fanciful formula but that whimsical concoctions must be given up for the sake of intellectual insight. Although immediate knowledge of God is im- possible, knowledge of His nature can.be ob- tained t hrough His works, and it is through con- tact with the variety of things in the universe and through a grasp of the forms exhibited by these things that man can arrive at true knowledge of the I ' orm of Forins. You, however, know, says Maimonides, how all these subjects are con- nected together; for there is nothing else in exis- tence but God and His works, the latter including all existing things besides Him; we can only ob- tain a knowledge of Him through His works; His works give evidence of His existence, and show what must be assumed concerning Him, that is to say, what must be attributed to Him either af- firmatively or negatively. This knowledge of the works of God consists in the understanding of the field of action, of the myriads of particular sub- stances, the orderly succession of natural processes, and the laws governing these processes. The universe is discovered to be a stable entity and not a haphazard configuration of atoms. Just as the human body constitutes a microcosm so does the universe, whose parts are inter-related to form an organic whole, constitute a macrocosm. But in spite of the fact that the universe is governed by laws and exhibits an all-pervading order it is not a strictly deterministic system as the Mutakallemim took it to be. It is instead an open universe in which the reign of order docs not preclude the ouurrencc of novelty and change. Maimonides ' polemic against determinism and his endeavor to reconcile order with novelty must be understood in terms of his all-embracing interest in man ' s earthly happiness. Just as in the social and political lilc man imist feel himself an active agent in working out his own nature and in identifying himself with society, so must he feel himself a factor in the universe of which he is a part. Man can not feel at home in a world fated from all eternity to remain as it is. In the light of these considerations it is not difficult to see why Mai- monides fought against the notion of the eternity of the universe, an idea identical for him with strict determinism. An unbiased and dispassionate knowledge of nature teaches us that things were not made spe- cifically for man in order that he might enjoy them. They do not come into being to ser ' e man, although by discovering their natures and pur- poses man can employ them for his use. I con- sider therefore, says Maimonides, the following opinion as most correct according to the teaching of the Bible, and best in accordance with the re- sults of philosophy; namely, that the Universe does not exist for man ' s sake, but that each being exists for its ow-n sake, and not because of some other thing. Through the application of reason it is possible to discover the place and value each thing has in the scheme of the universe as a whole, and it is only through reason that man can leam to control things for his benefit. When man arrives at such an intellectual view of nature he truly know ' s and loves God, and this love of God it is which constitutes his supreme blessedness. Through this knowledge he becomes a member in the cosmic order and feels at home in it, just as through moral knowledge he becomes a member in the social order. And it is in the harmonious synthesis of the human and the di- vine, the moral and the intellectual, the material and the spiritual, that man finds his fullest realiza- tion and his highest happiness on earth. Tuenly-sesen-

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M A SM I D iDilcnci :l IAS I.I A ' l The home of tlie Marks family was rcnowiinl within knowing distance as the reieptade ol that abstract substance called Silence tiiat deej- ' incomparable stillness which reigns supreme in graveyards, when the wind is absent . m ilie slumbering foliage has ceased its rustling. Here lived and moved two phantom-like figures — a father and an only son— who flitted noiselessly about the rooms, strictly avoiding conversation, each living in the limitless, unexplored region of his own thoughts and bearing his own burdens. David Marks, the master of the household (though the only other inmate was his son), sat invariably at the head of the table, with the ponderous volume of the Talmud before him, meditating upon its text (for he always assiduously studied in silence), and occasionally pulling out a stained grimy cloth (a sort of handkerchief) from the pocket of his long coat, to wipe his perspiring forehead. He was a tall, strong man in his early sixties, with a closely-cropped grey beard, and bore his age astonishingly well. As though hound by a terrible oath which could never be expunged. David dreaded to disturb this heavy, brooding stillness; for his long years of tailoring, from which he had retired with a tidy sum invested for the proverbial rainy day, had taught him — if nothing else — to sit speechless and motionless like the statue of Buddha, gazing blankly into space. What a profound change everything had under- gone since he had lost his jewel — the com- panion of his earthly pilgrimage. The Reaper had gathered her into His harvest while she was yet in the prime of life. But David was not ith- out his consolation, for she had left him with an only son Nathaniel, the gift of the Lord, who was then five years old. A time there was when faithful Ruth, his wife — peace be upon her soul in the abode of the blessed — supplied the tangible link between him and the child who was the de- light of his eyes. A meek, timid woman she was, of stunted physique and intellect, who.se compre- hension of things was very limited, but who, splendid little woman, could not harm a fly even if she wanted to. Ruth lived in total dissociation from all intellectual effort, for her mental ac- tivity was hindered by gross physical actualities. Bound to a purely domestic routine, she could claim only a few minor accomplishments, but for fully fifteen years she had been his trusty partner in life, the confidante of his joys, hopes, and dreams, the soother of his great sorrows; and he had not found her wanting. A woman of super- lative goodness, he boasted of her. She was a shining epitome of that class of womanhood which yives itself up ungrudgingly in absolute devotion to its menfolk; she nursed him in his illnesses, and busied herself sensibly w ith all those details of comfort for his sake, which reflected her tender feelings towards him, and her homely manners and methods always met with his approval and praise. When she had completed her household duties she would sit opposite him — who was steeped in the delights and rigorous discipline of the Talmud — and dread to attempt any trifling conversation, lest she thereby commit the grievous sin ot Bittul Torah and consequently bring upon herself the perdition of her soul both in this present world and in the future existence. Instead she would sit silent, and allow her mind to wander aimlessly, now and again admiring the dark, meditative eyes of her husband, his broad and intellectual brow; her patient and long-suf- fering face would shine with delight, and a be- nevolent smile ever played at the corners of her thin-lipped, ashen-white mouth. In the spiritual realm especially, Ruth allowed herself to be shepherded by her husband. She had a fixed no- TueKiy-nifie