Thinking as a Way of Serving God - Maimonides
About this episode
This episode explores the complex relationship between religion and philosophy in the work of Maimonides, highlighting his integration of Aristotelian thought into Jewish tradition.
The relationship between religion and philosophy reaches an intensity and complexity in Maimonides' work that has hardly any precedent within the Jewish tradition. His thinking stands at the intersection of revelation and reason, of Torah and Aristotle, of halakhic obligation and metaphysical contemplation. In this tension he develops a model in which religion and philosophy do not cancel each other out, but rather make each other possible. His famous dictum קַבֵּל הָאֱמֶת מִמִּי שֶׁאָמְרָהּ (“Accept the truth of whoever speaks it”) (Commentary on the Mishnah, Avot 4:1) is not just an intellectual openness, but a theological statement: truth is one, and where it appears, there it is a trace of God. This belief forms the basis for his attempt to integrate Aristotelian philosophy into the fabric of Jewish tradition. That Maimonides was able to carry out this integration is because he did not see Aristotle as a threat to the Torah, but as a necessary addition. The Aristotelian cosmos, with its hierarchical order, its emphasis on form, purpose, and necessity, and its idea that the highest human activity is theoria (Nicomachean Ethics X.7), became for Maimonides a framework for…
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