Rambam and What He Still Teaches

I’m a Jewish mother, so I can freely tell Jewish mother jokes:

An Jewish man was elected to be President of the United States. He called his mother and invited her to come to DC for the Days of Awe.

“Oy, I’d like to, but it’s so much trouble. I have to get a cab to the airport, and …”

“Mom, I’m the President. You don’t need to wait for a cab, I’m sending a limo.”

“Oy,” she said, “but it’s still a lot of trouble. I’ll have to get wait in line for a ticket, and maybe get stuck with the middle seat… “

“Mom, I’m President of the United States! I’ll send a private jet. I can send Air Force One!”

“Oy,” replied his mother. “And when we land, I’ll have to get my luggage and carry it through the airport and get a cab…”

“Mom, I’ll send a helicopter. You won’t have to go to any trouble. None.

“Oy, son, that’s nice, but what about a room? The hotels in Washington are expensive…”

“Mom, you’ll stay with us at the White House!”

“All right,” she finally said, “I guess I’ll come.”

The next day she called her friend.

Friend: “What’s new?”

The mom: “I’m visiting my son for the holidays.”

Friend: “The doctor?”

The mother paused before answering: “No, the other one…”
…
Beyond the traditional Jewish mother jokes about “our sons, the doctors,” physicians really have played a key role in our history. Looking at the medieval Islamic world, it’s astounding to note the role doctors played.

Physicians were expected to be knowledgeable about fields of philosophy, science, and mathematics. They might be poets, government leaders, even warriors.

Many of the Jewish physicians of that era were also rabbis.

While the rabbinic role was important within the Jewish world, the most erudite physicians often found their way to royal courts.

The most notable of them – great Rabbi Moses ben Maimon -- aks Moses Maimonides – aka Rambam – came from their ranks.

My own fascination with Rambam has been lifelong. I still remember being in Sunday school when our teacher told us about Maimonides – a great rabbi and a physician! It was such a revelation!

It was hard to picture. I mean, rabbis were, you know, rabbis. Physicians were different, they were part of the world…

A rabbi and a doctor. Mindboggling.

I’ve dreamed about Rambam. Once, during a restless, thirsty night after Kol Nidre, in my dream he simply said: This is ben Maimon. You’re not listening to me.
Honestly, I didn’t know enough about him then to know what I was supposed to be hearing…

I’m NOT an expert on Rambam; his works are too numerous and deep for me to come close to studying them all.

However, every now and then, when I’m studying writings, I remember the dream and tell myself: okay, I get it.

Until the next time I study him… and the next…

It’s not just when I study. Sometimes when I am helping someone in need … I wonder if this is what the dream meant…

Rambam has a deserved reputation as an intellectual snob – the Guide to the Perplexed begins with a warning that the book is not for the stupid. What can you say, the man was brilliant.

When you study him, you cannot ignore Rambam the rabbi OR Rambam the physician. And it’s hard to know, which of these crowns – rabbi or doctor – motivated him the most.
In both roles, it is very VERY clear that he cared deeply about people. His writings on tzedakah – helping other people – are still unmatched.

I can picture his reaction to yesterday’s breaking news, that the poverty rate in the United States has climbed to 43.6 million people – one in seven.
Would Rambam tell us not to worry, that others would take care of the poor, we had to focus on fellow Jews … because no one else would?

No!

Rambam was clear.

We first take care of the people in our family and then in our town. Not the Jews in our town. The people in our town.

Then we turn outward, toward the nation and toward Israel.

Rambam, the rabbi-physician most emphatic teachings are to remind us of our responsibility to the needy.

As we talk more about Rambam, and his passionate love of God – we cannot forget that love of God always equals loving and helping others, especially the ones who cannot help themselves
.
Rambam was way ahead of his time in his understanding of mental illness. While the Europeans were exorcising demons and locking up the mentally ill, Rambam found numerous ways to treat them.

Rabbi Moses’ Jewish writings, are brilliant and profound. In my own mind, he was – deservedly --THE RABBI.

Unlike many of our faith, who eschew all study except the study of Torah, Moses Maimonides advocated study of secular subjects, especially science. A radical concept at the time – and in some circles a heretical concept today.

In the bulk of the yeshiva world of both yesterday and today, secular studies weren’t and aren’t considered important. Torah, Talmud, halachah – those are the only subjects that really count.

Science? Feh! Stick to Torah. History as an academic subject? Only as it pertains to Judaism and tradition and even then only in limited uses, and only in the context of “the rabbis”.

This attitude still holds sway in many Jewish quarters. This very issue is probably the biggest difference between Conservative Judaism and much of the Orthodox world today. The more I learn about this great scholar, the more I think of him as a forerunner of today’s Conservative movement!

For Rambam, science – our minds in general – was a God-given tool … one that was necessary to understand God’s universe. How could we know God if we didn’t do our best to know about His Creation?

Further, according to Rambam, such knowledge would inevitably lead to love of God – and love of His creation.

Rambam’s attitude: Science is true, and Scripture is true.

Suppose science conflicts with Scripture?

Rambam was clear: if it appears there is a conflict, we do not understand Torah. And we must study harder. Scripture is true, science is true, conflict is impossible.

Today, we know through science that earth came into existence billions and billions of years ago. Yet, tradition says that the world is now 5,711 years old.
How would we expect the great Rabbi to answer?

He taught that much of Torah is metaphor. It is impossible to describe God, for He is infinite and eternal. Rambam, true to form, would say that the number 5711 is symbolic and imparts great truths from Torah. He would also say that it is not literal, that we also have to understand Creation through the eyes of science.

For a long time, I held the traditional assumption Rambam’s greatest religious writings were to make study easier for Jews who aren’t very learned.
That’s only part of the story. He wanted to free his own students from the demands of traditional Talmud study. If they – ie WE are to succeed in the world around us, they did and we do need to devote significant time and energy for science, mathematics, and philosophy – whatever our passion is – whatever path we choose.
Torah is important… certainly. But Rambam saw – and I see saw ALL learning as a path to knowing God… and most importantly, to loving God.

ALL learning.

Rambam was clear: “Knowing the nature of the universe will lead us to attain love of God.” That was the most important goal he could imagine.
In his own life, he illustrated this by devoting his life to healing others and to guiding people to God. He wrote a letter describing his day, the demands on his time. It’s an awesome letter. He was tired, so very tired, but that didn’t stop him.

He worked tirelessly on behalf of others … Rambam demonstrated his love of God by helping others – through Torah, through healing as a physician. He was a doctor of the soul as well as a doctor of the body.

His patients ranged from members of the royal court to the great unwashed poor. He treated them all with the same care and respect.

Because this is Yom Kippur and a day for atoning for sin, it’s important to note that among Maimonides’ great legacies, we have an incredible treatise on teshuvah, returning to God. By the same token, he considered sin was caused by a diseased soul.

Rambam would be the first to declare that today …Yom HaKippurim -- we must see to the healing of our souls … for that will bring us closer to love of God.
He encouraged us to keep before us the knowledge that should stand, always, before the Divine Presence.

Great Chasidic rabbis taught that we should seek God in nature – contemplate the Holy One and the wonders and miracles of creation.

Centuries earlier, Rambam advised doing the same. Contemplating the beauty and harmony of the universe would lead to love of God.

I won’t pretend that I have come to FULLY understand Rambam. I feel quite sure that if I were to dream about him again, he’d tell me AGAIN that I still don’t get it.
However, now I do understand that he had deep mystical beliefs. He expressed them through philosophy -- that was the language of scholars of his day.

Because I have known Rambam -- Rabbi Moses ben Maimon -- as a Jewish scholar, I assumed that was the most important part of his life. I failed to consider that he was among the most multi-faceted of men who ever lived.

Because I always located Rambam in a Jewish culture, I failed to recognize how the Islamic world impacted his thinking. Rabbi Moses lived in a time of great intellectual ferment. While Europe suffered through the Dark Ages, Islamic culture glittered with academic achievement: philosophy, science, mathematics to name a few.
Like all of us, Rambam was a product of his culture. Had he lived Europe – uncivilized in the twelfth century -- he would never have been exposed to the world of scholarship that nurtured his mind.

The question remaining: what does this great man teach us today?
1. We must never stop learning and growing. Among his first works, he wrote a Commentary on the Mishnah. He completed it, then went back to work on it. Throughout his entire life he mulled it over and revised it. The insights of the young Rabbi Moses changed throughout his life.
Therefore, if we examine someone’s thoughts at 20, we should not expect them to think the same way at 30, or at 40, and all the way down the road.
In politics, they call this flip-flopping. In the real world, it means a person is growing and thinking.
2. Rambam encouraged having a well-rounded education. For Jews, it meant Torah study – of course – but it also meant science and mathematics and a host of other subjects needed to understand the world.
Therefore, it is our duty to learn what we can. We cannot lose sight of Rabbi Moses’ goal of all learning – if we understand the world, we cannot help but love God – and ultimately feel passion for the Holy One.
3. Love of God can and must be nurtured. As I mentioned, we never stop growing. If Rambam never ever reached a point where he thought he knew enough, neither should we!

4. We shouldn’t be afraid that history or science will shake the foundations of religion! We should embrace knowledge and seek a deeper understanding of Torah.
Rambam devoted his life to the message that science and Torah are enmeshed as one. Science – the intellect in general – is a wonderful tool to deepen our religious lives.

But that leaves us with a great responsibility. We must not lose sight of the fact that the goal of knowledge is the loving the Almighty.

5. Finally, we have his life’s example of service to others, the side of Rambam that transcends his studies and writings. We have the man himself.
Beyond science, beyond philosophy – he advocated that contemplation of nature – of the beauties and wonders of nature. As the Chasidic rabbis would proclaim centuries later, this contemplation would bring us to love and awe of the Kadosh Baruch Hu, the Holy One, Blessed is He.

Love of God, of course, leads to love of humanity – to knowing that God implanted his essence in all people. In addition to his duties as a religious leader, Rabbi Moses “rolled up his sleeves” and worked tirelessly on behalf of the powerful and the lowly, the ill, the depressed, the poor. We too must roll up our sleeves work tirelessly on behalf of the powerful and the lowly, the ill, the depressed, the poor.

In the end, it all comes down to love of God and reliance on Him. Notably, RamBam closed his ongoing work, the Commentary on the Mishnah, with a quote from Isaiah (40:29-31):
“God gives power to the faint; and to those who have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall fall; But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Think about this verse. Hashem will renew our strength. This is our spiritual strength, our resolve to do the right thing.

Not only does God renew our strength, he helps us to soar with the eagles!
That’s today – the spiritual peak of Yom Kippur.

But after we soar, we eventually have to walk.

Life returns to normal – but after Yom Kippur, we should have a NEW normal. The point of the holiday is transformation and closeness to God.

EVEN AFTER YOM KIPPUR -- we must persist in following a path of goodness and righteousness and service to others.

Therefore, we heed both Rambam and Isaiah.

When we grow in love of God, we grow in our passion and our ability to bring goodness into the world.

May God see our merit and seal us for a year of blessing.