Maimonides Confrontation With Mysticism

Melton Gesher at JCC, April 3 and April 10, 2013

JSI at Congregation Beth Torah, April 4 and 11, 2013
Classes 1, 2 and 3, The Hebrew Language

Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Brachot, page 55a
Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: Bezalel knew how to combine the letters
by which the heavens and earth were created. It is written here, And He hath
filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, and in
knowledge (Exodus 35:31), and it is written elsewhere, The Lord by wisdom
founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens (Proverbs
3:19), and it is also written, By His knowledge the depths were broken up
(Proverbs 3:20).


RiHaL - Rabbi Yehudah haLevi

Kuzari II 66
Hebrew is superior to all the other languages [both] with regard to the essence of
language and with regard to all that it embraces by way of meanings.

Kuzari II 68
It is the language in which God spoke to Adam and Eve
The superiority of Hebrew is manifest from the logical point of view if we
consider the people who employed it for discourses, particularly at the time when
prophecy was rife among them.

Kuzari II 72
our language which was created and instituted by God

Kuzari IV 25
However, the [various] languages and forms of writing differ in excellence with
respect to one another. Some of their names correspond very closely to the things
named by them, while some of them [correspond only] remotely. The divinely
created language which God taught Adam and placed [both] on his tongue and in
his mind, is undoubtedly the most perfect language and also the one that
corresponds most closely to the things named by it. [Thus, it is just] as Scripture
said: And whatever the man would call each living creature, that would be its
name (Genesis 2:19), meaning that the creature deserves [just] that name that
[the name] corresponds to it and tells about its nature. Thus the superior status of
the holy language [relative to the other languages] and [the fact] that the angels are
more strongly affected by it than [by] any other was entirely necessary.
With respect to this relationship [of correspondence between word and language
in Hebrew], one may also say of [Hebrew] writing that the forms of its letters are
not haphazard and accidental, but rather [are designed] for a purpose
corresponding to what is intended by each and every letter. According to this,
therefore, it is not farfetched for the names [of God] and whatever resembles them
in [both oral] expression and in writing to have an efficacy [of their own], and,
prior to both of them, a determinate measure, [by which] I mean, the thinking of a
soul that is pure, and similar to the angels.


Maimonides / The RaMBaM - Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon

Guide of the Perplexed I 65 (pages 158 159)
I do not consider that after having attained this degree and having gained the true
knowledge that He, may He be exalted, exists not by virtue of an existence and is
one not by virtue of a oneness that you require that the denial of the attribute of
speech with reference to Him be explained to you
Now in all these cases in which the words saying and speaking are applied to
God they are used to denote either will and volition or a notion that has been
grasped by the understanding having come from God The terms in question
never signify that He, may He be exalted, spoke using the sounds of letters, and a
voice Thus the dictum of Scripture By the word of the Lord were the heavens
made (Psalms 33:6) is used figuratively to signify that the heavens have
come into existence through His purpose and will. No one among our renowned
men of knowledge is ignorant of this.

Guide of the Perplexed III 8 (pages 435-436)
I can also give the reason why this our language is called the Holy Language. It
should not be thought that this is, on our part, an empty appellation or a mistake;
in fact it is indicative of true reality. For in this holy language no word at all has
been laid down in order to designate either the male or female organ of copulation,
nor are there words designating the act itself that brings about generation, the
sperm, the urine or the excrements. No word for designating, according to its first
meaning, any of these things has been laid down in the Hebrew language, they
being signified by terms used in a figurative sense and by allusions. It was
designed thereby to indicate that these things ought not to be mentioned and
consequently that no terms designating them should be coined. For these are
things about which one ought to be silent; however when necessity impels
mentioning them, a device should be found to do it by means of expressions
deriving from other words, just as the most diligent endeavor should be made to be
hidden when necessity impels doing these things.

Guide of the Perplexed II 30 (pages 357 358)
Among the things you ought to know and have your attention aroused to is the
dictum: And the man gave names [to all the cattle and to all the birds of the sky
and to all the wild beasts; but for Adam no fitting helper was found] (Genesis
2:20). It informs us that languages are conventional and not natural, as has
sometimes been thought.

Guide of the Perplexed I 61
All the names of God, may He be blessed, that are found in any of the books
derive from actions. There is nothing secret in this matter
Do not think anything other than this and do not let occur to your mind the vain
imaginings of the writers of amulets or what names you may hear from them or
may find in their stupid books, names which they have invented, which are not
indicative of any notion whatsoever but which they call the names and of which
they think that they necessitate holiness and purity and work miracles. All of these
are stories that it is not seemly for a perfect man to listen to, much less to believe.

Guide of the Perplexed I 62
When wicked and ignorant people found these texts, they had great scope for lying
statements in that they would put together any letters they liked and would say:
This is a name that has efficacy and the power to operate if it is written down or
uttered in a particular way. Thereupon these lies invented by the first wicked and
ignorant man were written down, and these writings transmitted to good, pious and
foolish men who lack the scales by means of which they could know the true from
the false. These people accordingly made a secret of these writings, and the latter
were found in the belongings left behind them, so that they were thought to be
correct. To sum up: A fool believes everything (Proverbs 14:15).

Mishne Torah, Laws of Recitation of the Shma Chapter II
Halacha 9
How must one enunciate? He must be careful not to pronounce [a letter with] a
strong dagesh as if there were no dagesh, or [a letter with] no dagesh as if there
were one. Nor should one pronounce the silent sheva or silence the pronounced
sheva.
Therefore, one must pause between two words in which the first word ends with
the same letter with which the second word begins. For example, when reading !"#
$##! (bechol levavcha) (Deuteronomy 6:5), one should pause slightly between !"#
(bechol) and $##! (levavcha). [One should act] similarly in the cases of %&'#()
*+*, (va'avad'tem meheirah) (Deuteronomy 11:17) and !-&. /0"* (hacanaf p'til)
(Numbers 15:38).
One must also pronounce distinctly the zayin of )+"1& (tizkeru) (Numbers 15:40).
One should sufficiently elongate the dalet in '2( (echad) (Deuteronomy 6:4) in
order to proclaim God's sovereignty over the Heaven and the Earth, and all four
directions. The chet in '2( (echad, ibid.) should not be shortened so that the word
sounds like '2-( (ee-chad).
Halacha 10
A person may recite the Shema in any language he understands. One who recites
in a foreign language must be as scrupulous in his enunciation as if he were
reciting it in the Holy Tongue.

Letters of Maimonides, Sheilat edition, 429; Responsa of Maimonides, Blau
edition, page 398, number 244
Anyone who wishes to cleave to the study of Torah, even if he understands
only one verse or one law and it makes no difference if he understands the
matter in Hebrew or Arabic or Aramaic, [since] the point is to understand the
matter in any language. [Since] the Shema may be recited in any language, how
much more so the commentaries and compositions.