the world is an apple tree
the q of creation from nothing, from everybody's favorite overconfident medieval philosopher
So we're back with what I can only at this point call Your Every Occasional Maimonides. It's now officially an ongoing series?
But first!
First of all, the January Zoom Salon
for House of Study members is here!
Jan 11, 2-3:30ET/11-12:30PT
We go to a place with other people (or sit on our couch, or stand in our living room, or whatever) and say words. What happens?? What... do they do? What are they supposed to do? Especially if God is not a vending machine and prayers are not a quarter? We'll look at a range of Jewish and other sources with a number of different ideas about this, and hash out the question for ourselves about what all this might be really about.
Now. I thought it might be fun to look at a big philosophy question this time– specifically the creation of the world, in honor of our coming up on the end of the Torah (and our symbolic starting the story over– though we won't, not really.)
We've got a sacred book that begins,
"At the beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth—now the earth was Confusion and Chaos, darkness over the face of Ocean, rushing-spirit of God soaring over the waters—God said: Let there be light! And there was light." (Genesis 1:1-3)
How might a physician-philosopher in the 12th century make sense of these words?
I'm going to quote little bits of the Guide for the Perplexed and then try to explain what's going on, insofar as I understand Maimonides, using a metaphor I've found useful– maybe it's useful to you as well? Whether or not you agree with how Maimonides makes sense of this is less the issue than whether or not you get what he's doing and can engage with it.
If nothing else, I think it's worthwhile to show you a more sophisticated engagement with questions that are often only depicted as a choice between fundamentalist literalism or secular scoffing. And if you'd like, we can look at how other Jewish thinkers consider the same question another time. (Let me know if you dig this? Or if you'd rather stick with the more practical-ethical stuff?)
The incorporeality of the Divine Being, and God's unity, in the true sense of the word—for there is no real unity without incorporeality—will be fully proved in the course of the present treatise. (Guide 1.1)
That is, God is infinite, and something with hands and a voice and moods and wishes (and etc.) is finite, limited. So obviously anthropomorphisms in Torah must be allegorical. (More here.) Language can only get you so far, but unfortunately we’re silly little humans who are stuck using language, which is why the Torah uses corporeal God language. This is an important starting point to get our boat pointed in the right direction.
Those who follow the Law of Moses, our Teacher, hold that the whole Universe, i.e., everything except God, has been brought by God into existence out of non-existence. In the beginning God alone existed, and nothing else; neither angels, nor spheres, nor the things that are contained within the spheres existed... Even time itself is among the things created; for time depends on motion....(Guide 2:13)
God is eternal, the world is not. Time? Matter? Physics? Angels? All happened somewhere between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:3. He explains that he probably can't prove that the divine created the universe out of nothing – but that it's a strong logical possibility.
I intend to show that the theory of the Creation, as taught in Scripture, contains nothing that is impossible; and that all those philosophical arguments which seem to disprove our view contain weak points... Since I am convinced of the correctness of my method... (2:16)
God, Please Grant Me The Confidence Of A Medieval Jewish Physician-Philosopher...