Maimonides: the doctor of the soul and its rationalism to reach the faith

“The ultimate purpose of man is to know God to the extent of its possibilities.”

I. historical Context and biographical

Moshe ben Maimon (1138-1204), known as Rambam (acronym Rabenu Moshe ben Maimon), was born in Cordoba, Spain, during the splendour of Al-Andalus, a period of coexistence intellectual between muslims, jews and christians. Son of the judge and scholar Maimon ben Yosef, grew up immersed in the spirit of the aristotelian philosophy, science, Arabic, and jewish mysticism jewish.

After the persecution almohad, his family was exiled to Fez (Morocco), then to Palestine, and finally to Fostat (Cairo, Egypt)where it is established. There was spiritual leader of the jewish community in egyptian and medical staff of the vizier of Saladinthe great ayyubid sultan. His life combined faith and science, rational thought, and the mystery of the soul.

II. The view of Maimonides as “kabbalistic rationalist”

Although Maimonides is not considered to be a cabalist, in the classical sense (as Isaac Luria or Moshe Cordovero), his thinking creates a bridge between philosophical reason and the hidden wisdom. For the kabbalists later, especially in Safed (XVI century), Maimonides was a spark prior to the Kabbalah revealed, the exponent of the balance between the Sejel (intellect) and the Nefesh (soul).

From the perspective of kabbalistic:

• Your reason not denied by the mystery, but that it was organized under a cosmic order rational, a reflection of the Ein Sof (the Infinity of god) manifesting in comprehensible structures.
• Your aristotelian philosophy he became the foreign language of an inner wisdom that, although not expressed in kabbalistic terms, suggesting the dynamics of the sephiroth under names such as “emanations intellectuals” or “active forms”.
• Your search for the unity between science and prophecy represents, cabalísticamente, the reunification of the lower worlds (Asiyá) with the upper (Atzilut).

“Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hatred, and hatred leads to violence.”

III. Major works and its spiritual meaning

1. Mishné Torah

Monumental work of coding halachic. In it, Maimonides ordered all the jewish Law in a systematic and logical way.
From the perspective of the kabbalistic:

• The Mishné Torah it acts as a “Tikkun of the oral Torah”, a restoration of the cosmic order of the Law.
• Each law is not only legal rule, but a manifestation of din (rigor) and the chesed (mercy) in equilibrium, reflecting the sefirot of Gevurah and Jésed.
• Its hierarchical structure reflects the ascending ladder of the soul towards the divine knowledge.

2. Guide of the Perplexed (More Nevujim)

It is his work in philosophical and theological depth. Written in Arabic, tries to reconcile reason with revelation.
In key kabbalistic:

• The “perplexity” of the browser is the same of the initiate who enters into the hidden worlds without a map.
• His insistence on the absolute transcendence of God coincides with the notion of the Ein Sof, a divinity without form or attributes.
• Maimonides asserts that only through the intellectualization spiritual can human beings come closer to God, which, for the kabbalist is the ascension by the planes of consciousness (sephiroth).

“Do not imagine that you can reach God by means of the imagination; only the intellect perceives it.”

3. Comments on the Mishnah and the 13 Principles of Faith

These principles are the theological foundation of judaism policy. However, its structure reveals an occult symbolism:

• The first five principles refer to the dimension of the Divine Being (Atzilut).
• The following five are related to the structure of Creation and the Torah (Beriyá and Yetzirá).
• The final three represent the return of the soul and redemption (Asiyá).
  Thus, the 13 principles correspond to the 13 attributes of divine mercy revealed to Moses, and with the channels of emanation between the infinite and the finite.

IV. Doctrines and concepts essential

1. The Divine Unity

Maimonides describes God as the absolutely one and indivisible. This idea, rational, on its surface, is cabalísticamente the echo of Ein Sof, of which the unit does not support composition or division.

2. The Active Intellect

Taken from aristotelian philosophy, the Active Intellect in Maimonides is the mediator between the human knowledge and divinity. For the kabbalists, corresponds to the level of Biná (Understanding) or even Tiferet (Beauty), where the human mind can receive the divine Light.

3. Prophecy as a union intellectual-spiritual

The prophecy, in Maimonides, is not magic or a vision irrational; it is a process in which the human intellect, purified, captures the emanations of the Active Intellect.
In kabbalistic terms, this is equivalent to the devekut —the union of the soul with the higher spheres by pure thought.

4. The soul and its perfection

The human soul has degrees —vegetative, animal, rational, and only the rational can gain access to immortality. To the kabbalists, this process corresponds to the refinement of the kelipot (shells impure), and the ascent by the spiritual worlds.
The soul perfected returns to its root divine, as the spark returns to the fire primordial.

“The human perfection consists in knowing the truth of all things according to his ability.”

V. Maimonides and Kabbalah later

Although the Cabal luriánica emerge centuries later, the wise men of Safed —as Cordovero and Luria— saw in Maimonides a precursor to rational cosmic order that they develop symbolically.

• Cordovero cites his systematic approach as a model for ordering of the emanations.
• Luria, though mystical, shared the idea that the creation is organized rationally through contractions and fumes that could be understood intellectually.

In this sense, Maimonides represents the stage of “preparation” kabbalisticthe mind that prepares the container (kli) to receive the Light. His philosophy is the form; the Cabal is the substance. Both are needed.

“Faith without reason is superstition, reason without faith it is arrogance.”

VI. Universal

The Rambam influenced not only judaism, but also in:

• Thomas Aquinas, who adopted his method to reconcile reason and faith.
• Islamic philosophersas Averroes, with whom he shared the intellectual language of the arab world.
• Kabbalists rationalists sephardic (as Abraham Abulafia), which reinterpretaron your thinking as a way of meditation on the Divine Name through the illumined reason.

“Silence is the shield of wisdom.”

VII. Conclusion: The balance between the Intellect and the Light

Maimonides is the archetype of the wise joins the intellect with the mystical. His legacy teaches us that the thought does not exclude the faith, but purifies it.
From a reading kabbalistic, your work is a Merkavá rational: a car of understanding that lifts the soul from the earthly to the divine.
The Rambam did not reveal the Cabal, but hinted: the concealed in the folds of the intellect, in the idea that the divine truth is one, infinite, and is accessible only through the unification of the thinking and the spirit.

“The health of the body is part of the journey towards the perfection of the soul.”

“The perfect love to God can be achieved only through the knowledge of Him.”