[Avodah] rationalism and mysticism

[Arie Folger]

On Monday, 24. September 2007 16.38:49 Yitzhak Grossman wrote:
> Without more evidence, I do not accept this view, and am not convinced
> that it is the mainstream.  While I am aware that there is evidence of
> Sufi influence in the thought of various thinkers who lived and wrote
> in Islamic civilizations, I would like to see justification for this
> claim about the Rambam.

On account of this post, I took my trusted Moreh Nevukhim (thank you for the 
impetus) and turned to the latter part of the third section, and sure enough, 
chapters 50 and 51 seem difficult to read as an ultrarationalist. One must be 
careful, however, as you already pointed out, to consider that there are 
things which we may consider to be nonrational, such as the soul, which for 
the Rambam fit into Aristotelian physics and metaphysics. However, this does 
not detract from my observation that Rambam knows some kind of mysticism. 
IOW, Rambam's rationalism included some nonrationalism in it, for it seemed 
rational to him to include some nonrationalism.

<SNIP>
> I concede that there is much in the medieval attempts to rationalize
> Talmudic literature which greatly strains one's credibility, but the
> issue here isn't the level of plausibility that you or I assign these
> interpretations, but the fact that Rishonim apparently believed them;
> this is not because the Rishonim are necessarily infallible, but
> because our discussion is about whether historically Judaism has been
> inextricably intertwined with mysticism.

My point was that the existence of RSG's philosophical commentary on Sefer 
Yetzira does not require that SY was read rationalistically only. Somehow, 
barring explicit statements to that effect on Rambam's part, I would consider 
such a view very difficult.


Kol tuv,
-- 
Arie Folger
http://www.ariefolger.googlepages.com