[Avodah] Rabbi S. R. Hirsch Takes On The Rambam

[Professor L. Levine]

My grandson Daniel Levine who is studying in Yeshiva KBY and I are in the process of reading RSRH's Nineteen Letters with the notes written by Rabbi Joseph Elias.  Today we read part of letter 18. While I knew that RSRH criticizes the RAMBAM, I was surprised at how strong this criticism is. Some of what is in letter 18 is posted at https://goo.gl/o3uXdg


Below is a sampling.


"Pressure of the times demanded more: the underlying ideas of the Tanach and the Talmud were recorded in the aggados, but again, in a veiled form, requiring of the student an active effort on his part in order to grasp the inner spirit, which really can be passed down only by word of mouth."


"However, not everybody grasped the true spirit of Judaism. In non-Jewish schools Yisrael's youth trained their minds in independent philosophical inquiry. From Arab sources they drew the concepts of Greek philosophy and came to conceive their ultimate aim as perfecting themselves in the perception of truth. Hence rose conflict. Their quickening spirit put them at odds with Judaism, which they considered to be void of any spirit of its own; and their view of life was in contradiction with a view that stressed action, deeds, first and foremost, and considered recognition of the truth to only be a means toward such action."


And so the times brought forth a man of spirit who, having been educated within an uncomprehended Judaism as well as Arab scholarship, was compelled to reconcile this dichotomy within himself. By giving voice to the way in which he did this, he became the guide for all who were engaged in the same struggle.

It is to this great man alone that we owe the preservation of practical Judaism until the present day. By accomplishing this and yet, on the other hand merely reconciling Judaism with the ideas from without, rather than developing it creatively from within, and by the way in which he effected this reconciliation, he gave rise to all the good that followed- as well as all the bad.
His trend of thought was Arab-Greek, as was his concept of life. Approaching Judaism from without, he brought to it views that he had gained elsewhere, and these he reconciled with Judaism. Thus to him too, the highest aim was self-perfection through recognition of the truth; and the practical, concrete deeds became subordinate to this end. Knowledge of God was considered an end in itself, not a means toward the end; and so he delved into speculations about the essence of God and considered the results of these speculative investigations to be fundamental axioms and principles of faith binding upon Judaism.


See the above URL for more.


YL
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