“Cold”. “Elitist”. “Rationalist”. “Aristotelian”.
These are the sorts of words which are customarily associated with the Jewish philosophy of Rambam. In recent years, the popular trend in Jewish thought has portrayed a gaping gulf between Mysticism and Rationalism – with Rambam typically placed firmly in the rationalist corner.
As I have posted on a couple of occasions however (links at the end), a strong mystical theme is detectable in much of Rambam’s writings. While it is true that Maimonidean thought firmly rejected magical rites and superstitions as well as the notion that divinity could enter the physical domain, much of the Moreh Nevuchim seeks to guide its readers to train their “tzelem Elokim” mind so as to be able to transcend the limitations that the physical world places upon it. By doing so, it enables itself to receive flashes of intuition and profound knowledge which form the basis of a providential relationship with God.
Rabbi Levy proceeds to draw upon the powerful poetry of Shir HaShirim, a book that many of us read yesterday, in order to illustrate how Maimonidean thought approaches the subject of mysticism. Shir HaShirim, in Rambam’s telling, describes the complex nature of this relationship between God and humanity, portraying it in the form of two lovers who are seized by a holy passion for one another.
The following is paraphrased from Rabbi Levy’s opening chapter:
From the moment the scroll of Shir HaShirim opens the lover becomes increasingly bold and brave in her attempts to consummate her relationship with her heart’s desire. She craves him, she pursues him to the hills and through the valleys in order to find the one whom her soul loves. The lover, however, is in no rush to respond. He hides behind the walls, looks through the window and peers through the lattice but does not reveal himself to her. When she asks about his whereabouts, he responds by advising that she go and search for him.
The passionate lover is bursting with emotion. She does not hesitate and leaps forward in a torrent of stormy love. Her love is not gradual – it is a rush that ascends along a path of holy passion through the burning sun (1:7) and late at night (3:2). And while her lover tries to calm her down and allow their love to deepen gradually her unmitigated passion and impulsive pursuit exhausts her to the point that when the great and long-awaited moment for their union finally arrives, she is unable to open the door of her chambers (5:1-6). When she finally does her beloved is gone.
After recognizing her mistake, she passionately resumes her pursuit. The beloved, we are informed has sixty men surrounding his chamber so that the lover is not able to storm his room, espousing a love that is carefully nurtured and disciplined. He has earlier asked her to be like “a stallion of the chariots of Pharaoh” (1:9). While the horse is one of the bible’s most striking images of unrestrained energy (Iyov 39:19-25) here he invokes a horse that is hitched to a chariot. The same horse that has enormous energy in this image must harness that energy for the sake of the chariot and channel it to afford his charioteer the maximum strength. The disciplined powerful horse is the symbol of harnessed and restrained energy ready to burst forward in a disciplined manner at the appropriate moment. The lover must learn to integrate her heart and her head – her emotions and her actions.
The story of the lover and the beloved in Shir HaShirim ends in a calm and soothing place:
“Come my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vine has flowered, if the grape blossoms have opened, if the pomegranates are in flower; there will I give you my love. The mandrakes give fragrance and at our gates are all manner of choice fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.”
The contrast between these verses at the end of the book and the tension of the pursuit at the beginning of the story are striking. At this later stage in the relationship the lover and beloved have found a place of love and harmony where the lovers merge as one; a mature and serene love has replaced the unrestrained passions of youth.
Rambam concludes Hilchot Teshuvah with a description of the sort of love for God that a person should aspire to:
“What is the proper love of God? That a person should love God with a very great and exceeding love until his soul is bound up in the love of God. In this way, he will always be obsessed with this love as if he is lovesick”.
The entire Shir HaShirim, notes Rambam, is a parable describing this love. Yet this is not an overwhelming emotional frenzy. Rambam proceeds to explain that love for God is by means of the “knowledge through which we know Him”.
The Andalusian mystical tradition, according to Rabbi Levy, teaches that God is absolutely separate from, and not dependent upon His creation and yet the possibility of an intimate relationship with God is real. The crucial message which emerges from Shir HaShirim, however, is that our pursuit of a relationship with God must be patient and mature. Built upon carefully thought out knowledge and serene meditations rather than fueled by passionate emotional impulse.
From the sections that I have read so far, Rabbi Levy’s book is an excellent introduction to this world of Maimonidean mysticism.
https://www.amazon.com/Mysticism.../dp/B0BXNK5DF6....
Previous posts on the subject of Maimonidean mysticism.
