Juliet Tresgallo
Unit 10: The Condition of Exile
In the past few weeks, we have discussed why Maimonides wrote Guide of the Perplexed for those who possess a high level of intellect and have deeply studied science, philosophy, and Torah. This week, our readings are mainly revolved around Maimonides’ Epistle to Yemen, which Maimonides intended to be read by both scholars and those of average intelligence. “The Guide might be said to be a guide for the qualified perplexed; the Epistle to Yemen, in contrast, is a guide for the unqualified perplexed” (Lerner 14). Although it was specifically addressed to Jacob ben Nathanael ibn al-Fayyumi, head of the Jewish community in Yemen, Maimonides asked for it to be copied and distributed to the rest of the community (Lerner 132).
In the Epistle to Yemen, Maimonides addressed the concerns of Jacob with regards to a man in Yemen who claimed to be Messiah. Jacob wrote that the man was modest in that he admitted to his limited knowledge, but Maimonides responded that a true Messiah would not have limited knowledge, since he would be the greatest prophet after Moses (Lerner 126). To emphasize how dangerous it is to believe in false prophets, Maimonides described four stories about Jews believing in false Messiahs, and how each situation ended with the Jews experiencing increased suffering (Lerner 128-131). Maimonides was shocked that someone as scholarly as Jacob would be swayed by a false prophet when there were no rational proofs to support his belief, and he claimed that it indicated a deeper problem in the Jewish community (Lerner 125).
Yemen, which Maimonides described to have once been a land of peace, Torah study, and abundance, had become a place of persecution and forced apostasy (Lerner 15). During their Exile, Jews were likely to lose faith in God, since their oppression and misfortunes seemed to indicate that God abandoned the Jews (Lerner 123). Because of their doubts, Jews were inclined to turn to astrology and divination to explain their suffering. Maimonides explained that the Yemenite Jews needed to look to the natural world around them instead of the stars (Lerner 22). Only then would they realize that their suffering has natural causes that are direct consequences of their actions and are not merely due to unique formations in the sky. Relying on astronomy allowed Jews to shamelessly pursue their desires without fear of divine punishment.
Surprisingly, Maimonides wrote that the Jews should celebrate their calamities. He believed that hardships were “a source of glory and a great achievement for them before God” (Lerner 110). Maimonides explained that misfortune is a way to test and purify the Jews’ piety. Perhaps misfortunes happen to us in order strengthen our faith in God, as well as a punishment for our sins. Despite tendencies of idolatry, Maimonides wrote in his letter to Obadiah the Proselyte that even our ancestors were idolaters before they left Egypt, but that “whoever adopts Judaism and confesses the unity of the Divine Name, as it is prescribed in the Torah, is counted among the disciples of Abraham our Father, peace be with him” (Twersky 475). It is easy to believe in God if everything in one’s life goes according to their wishes, but it becomes much more difficult if one’s life is full of suffering. When facing obstacles, will we hold onto our faith in God and His promise to redeem us, or will we turn away from God in search of more immediate answers?
What can be done to prevent Jews from believing is false prophets? According to Maimonides, it is very important for Jews to strengthen each other’s faith in God and the Torah. The elders should teach the youth, and those of high intellect should teach the commoners (Lerner 23). Jews in Exile are more prone to be swayed by false prophets and by other religions, so it is vital that they spend their time learning Torah. I found it interesting that according to Maimonides, Judaism is simply a physical representation of the true meaning of divine law that is limited by human understanding, while other religions are altered versions of Judaism, and are therefore even more limited and imprecise (Lerner 20).
Maimonides described how an ignorant person can easily recognize surface features but not understand deeper meanings. He used a metaphor of a statue that resembles a man but does not contain man’s inner complexity gifted to him by God. “Man’s interior contains true wonders and matters attesting to the Creator’s wisdom: The distension of his nerves in his muscles and their ramification, and the joining of his sinews and points of their connections, the intertwining of their ligaments and their manner of growth, the structure of his bones and the joints, the egress of his pulsating and nonpulsating blood vessels and their branching out, the setting of his limbs into one another, the open and concealed parts, every one of them in the appropriate measure, form, and place” (Lerner 105). This detailed metaphor made me wonder if one of the reasons that Maimonides chose to become a doctor is because he believed that we should study God’s creations to gain a better understanding of Him, and surely man would be the best creation to deeply study.
Maimonides wrote that anyone who claims to overwrite or change the commandments is obviously a false prophet, since the laws of Moses are eternal and unchanging (Lerner 116). He also wrote that Jews should not try to predict the future or the End of Days like other religions, since disconfirmations of our predictions will only cause us to lose faith in God. The true Messiah will be the only one to predict our future (Lerner 115). He will appear in the land of Israel and will not be recognized until God reveals him to be the Messiah (Lerner 127). By this statement, it makes sense that Jews should not attempt to predict when the Messiah will come or who he will be, since it is written that it will be impossible to recognize him. It seems as though when the Messiah arrives there will not be any doubt that he was sent by God, so any speculation about his identity is pointless. If one thinks he may have found Messiah, then the fact that he is not completely certain is a clear indication that he is not the true Messiah.
Despite all of this, Maimonides gave his own prediction of the End of Days, 4970 years after Creation, even though this proved to be false after that time had passed (Lerner 125). Maimonides claimed that Saadyah, who also predicted the End of Days inaccurately, went against the prohibition in order to unify the Jews and to strengthen their belief in God. Maimonides would probably justify his transgression similarly to how he justified writing down the Oral Torah in the Mishneh Torah. It is clear that he wanted to reignite the passion of the Jews in Exile for learning Torah and serving God.
What do you all think? Do you believe that Maimonides was right to provide his own prediction for the End of Days, after arguing against doing just that? Do you think it is possible for Jews to have a continued belief in Messiah without attempting to predict when he will arrive and who he will be?
Thank you Juliet, I found your post thought provoking. I found the part about embracing our suffering to be very interesting. In another class I learned about the power of suffering, how it can actually bring people together and create more meaning in people’s lives. Also, that higher suffering (in the study it was poverty and standard of living) is highly correlated with being more religious. Maimonides says that the suffering was a test of piety, while modern science suggests that it actually increases piety. I wonder if Maimonides would change his position if he knew this. Perhaps he would say that the suffering of the Jewish people was good because it made them more pious, even if it was not a test. Since Maimonides lived in a time that was relatively void of suffering for the Jews, at least in the area where he lived, he may have seen less piousness in the Jews around him than he would have liked. His claim about the date of the messiah could have been a reaction to that. Maimonides was not above using simplicity and avoiding what he thought to be the real truth in order to get Jews to observe properly. His claim was probably another way to increase observance.
Juliet, this was a concise and effective blog post that I enjoyed reading. To answer your question: As you noted, Maimonides was writing to both the scholars and the average people in the Jewish community in Yemen. It seems that Maimonides addresses the concept of the Messiah in contradicting ways because he is addressing two different groups in this case. He argues against predicting the End of Days because average people take the language too literally and then lose faith in God when the future doesn’t happen in the manner in which they are expecting. Moreover, the End of Days is a more abstract concept than many people are capable of understanding. That being said, he contradicts himself and gives his own interpretation of the End of Days in order to convince the average Jew in exile to follow Halakhah because even if they don’t understand fully the reasoning behind the following of Halakhah, performing it will bring them closer to God and true enlightenment. He is aware that the interpretive reader will take heed of his contradiction and will understand why he made the contradiction in the first place.
In this week’s readings, we see some of the dangers of living in exile, according to Maimonides. In his Epistle to Yemen, Maimonides responds to Jacob, a head of the Yemenite Jewish community, and his dealings with an individual claiming to be the Messiah. Jacob, a learned man, initially believed the false prophet. Maimonides shows that the claim was clearly a false one and tells stories of other situations of false prophecy. Maimonides addressed this letter to Jacob, but he had the exchange distributed across different Jewish communities. The condition of exile was one that lead to suffering in the Jewish community, and I believe that this suffering is a condition that lead Jews to seek hope in these Messianic claims, even though they were false. The suffering of the Jewish people has been used as a theological claim of the abandonment of the Jews as the chosen one, and this idea may have furthered desires to keep Jews in a politically oppressed state. Leading back to Juliet’s last question posed in her post, I believe this state is one that fosters the desire for Messiah to arrive, hoping for a savior to end the suffering that Jews endured in the condition of exile.
Juliet, you’ve procured very interesting questions. I’ll tackle them in the order you asked them: I do not know if the label “right” or “wrong” is correct in this situation; from the text, Maimonides seems to be arguing against the prediction of the ‘End of Days’ because it, for Jews in Yemen, creates a false/mystified image of God as being the savior and the end of their suffering while transcending the predictor’s own image (the prophet Maimonides warns of). While, for me, it is not clear why exactly Maimonides himself provides a prediction, I agree with Sam B. in that the End of Days is a more abstract concept than the ‘average’ person can understand. I would expect the reason for Maimonides’ prediction to not project himself as being “separate from His people” (Occasional Letters – to Obadiah the Proselyte) as the prophets in Yemen seem to project. As for your second question, Maimonides certainly believes this is possible; for me, however, I believe the prospect of a ‘End of Days’ – the hope of the end of suffering and grief – is necessary for a continued belief – a ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ type thing. If no hope of a better existence is in mind, then what is the point of a God?
Juliet, your post was wonderfully concise and smooth. In answering your first question, I was reminded of our discussion of Maimonides’ understanding of right and wrong. Maimonides often describes right and wrong to be impulsive, while true and false are conclusions of rational thought. As such, I think his prediction is a means to encourage those governed by their impulses to engage in the contemplation of G-d. Providing a date for the coming of the Messiah simply helps people realize this eventual reality and coerce them in the the fear-based action that will hopefully end in acting from love. To achieve this end, I believe Maimonides’ readers that understand this prediction to be false will also have the intellect to recognize this as a pedagogical technique meant for those without the background or capacity to attain this level of understanding quite yet.
Great Post Juliet.
I liked how you mentioned how Maimonides thought that Jews in exile should not be discouraged by their suffering, and that their suffering should even be celebrated. I think this touches on two ideas that we’ve seen this semester. The first is that Jewish suffering is not a sign that the Jewish faith is wrong. I think that Maimonides wants to encourage Jews to find real solutions to their struggle. I also think that the idea that God intervenes in the world is counter to Maimonides’ thinking. The second reason is that maintaining belief in God and Judaism while suffering strengthens a person’s faith. Just like habit ‘molds’ character, believing in God while in distress further reinforces belief.
As for your question regarding Messiah, Maimonides has already justified using the promise of the Messiah to unify Jews through strengthening their sense of hope. I also think that setting a date is not necessarily problematic because Maimonides consistently argued that specific details like timing were necessary more than they were ‘meaningful.’ By setting a date that was in the distant future, I think that Maimonides accomplishes his goal of promoting a strong sense of faith in Jews while avoiding answering an impossible question (predicting when the Messiah will come).
Juliet, your post was great and covered interesting points for discussion. Before answering your questions at the end, I want to discuss the idea of Jews in exile, particularly how they are more susceptible to be swayed to other religions and believe in false prophets. This stuck with me, since it is very easy to believe that Jews of this mental and physical state are going through tremendous hardships that would definitely make them reconsider their life decisions. To answer your first question, no, I do not think that Maimonides was right to provide his own prediction. I think it is a waste of time and energy to overcomplicate situations and create hypotheticals of what will happen in the end of days. To answer your second question, I do believe that Jews can have a continued belief in Messiah. What is interesting about the human brain is that we don’t need to physically see and feel something to believe in it. If it is echoed enough times amongst a great number of people, we begin to formulate ideas in our heads of what Messiah may look like. From that point on, I believe that we believe in those figures and that the question of when and who are simply formalities. I picture it more as a reveal than a prediction or a question of belief.
I thought you did a great job summarizing the readings for this week, and I appreciated you leavings with profound questions at the end. I think that in an ideal world, Jews would continue to have a profound belief in the Messiah without requiring the knowledge of when he will arrive. However, the ideal world is not the world of reality. I think that it is an impossible feat to ask individuals to have an intrinsic belief in a concept without allowing them the to estimate the time in which the Messiah will come. I think though Maimonides argues against predicting when the Messiah will come, and then does so himself, he is not at fault for this. After all, Maimonides was only human as well. Additionally, Maimonides was addressing two distinct groups when he said this – scholars, and those who were ordinary individuals. I think that the distinction between these two groups dually grants a separation in the meaning behind Maimonides request that the End of Days not be specifically predicted.