[Avodah] Rambam on corporality

[David Riceman]

From: "Daniel Eidensohn" <yadmoshe at 012.net.il>

> *Rav Elchonon Wasserman ...  I heard in the name of Rav Chaim Brisker
> that the Rambam views that there is no such thing as inadvertent heresy.

This is explicit in MN I:36.

> However the Rambam ... attributes
> indicating corporeality have been predicated of Him in order to indicate
> that He, may He be exalted, exists, inasmuch as the multitude cannot at
> fIrst conceive of any existence save that of a body alone; thus that
> which is neither a body nor existent in a body does not exist in their
> opinion.
>
> Rambam thus states that the Torah describes G-d in physical  terms
> because the masses can not accept the existence of a non-physical G-d.
> Thus the Torah itself has to teach the masses heresy - which according
> to the Rambam means that they will lose their Olam HaBah.!?

I think this misstates the Rambam's opinion.  What the masses misunderstand 
is the nature of existence, not the nature of God; they predicate existence 
only of physical things (not, for example, of the British constitution). 
Incidentally, it's not only the masses: Boswell reports that Dr. Johnson 
shared this misapprehension.

Even the philosophically sophisticated don't understand what it means for 
God to exist, since existence predicated of God is wholly different than 
existence predicated of anything else (MN I:35,57).  As a result, while the 
Bible uses imprecise language to describe God's existence, there is no 
precise language available.

The Bible tries to correct people's misapprehensions about God but not their 
misapprehensions about the nature of existence.  The Bible uses some phrases 
indicating that God is not physical ("v'el mi t'damyuni v'eshveh", MN I:55). 
Even someone who is philosophically naive should realize that there is a way 
to harmonize those verses with the ones which seem to attribute corporeality 
to God's existence.  Thinking of God's existence as a positive attribute is 
a mistake but not a heretical one (MN I:51).

David Riceman