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Maimonides, Spinoza and Us: Toward an Intellectually Vibrant Judaism

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This is an important book for people who want to understand the truth of Judaism, rather than the obscurantist notion that Jews must accept the views of authorities without asking questions.

Marc D. Angel is one of the leading American Orthodox rabbis. He is the founder and director of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals and rabbi emeritus of the well-known Congregation Shearith Israel of New York City. He devotes himself to teaching a view of Judaism that is based on reason. He shows how Jews can observe the mandates of Torah in an intelligent and meaningful manner. He demonstrates that this is the view of the great Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138-1204).

Angel states that Maimonides asserted that there are three ways to determine if something is true: (1) It can be proved by human reason, (2) It is perceived with certainty by one of the five senses. (3) It is a Torah teaching as explained by the sages. However, if the Torah statement "contradicts verified truth, then the Torah must be interpreted to conform to established truth." The statement should be read metaphorically or allegorically.

It is this last statement that bothers many people. They ask, "Where do we draw the line? If we allow people to disagree with the literal biblical statements and interpret them rationally, these interpreters will do away with the Torah!" They, like the Church of the Dark Ages, insist that everyone accept the Bible literally, and consent to the words of clergy without question. Angel rejects this approach. He recognizes that the solution of these obscurantists is: Insist that they accept untruths, so that they do not stray.

Angel points out that while Maimonides and Spinoza stress the use of reason, the two differ. Maimonides accepted the traditional ideas and believed that God is involved with the world, revealed the Torah containing truths, He watches over people, rewards and punishes them, performs miracles, and prayers work. When a biblical statement contradicted reason, Maimonides read it as a metaphor or allegory; it is the word of God, but it did not literally mean what it said. Torah, Maimonides taught, must be read intelligently. In fact, Maimonides felt, Torah cannot be understood without knowing the universal secular wisdom of physics and the other sciences.

Spinoza rejected these ideas. He felt that the Bible is a work that describes human longings to understand the world and God, and that it must be read as a human document, as it is written, and that it is out of date.

Many Maimonides scholars contend that Maimonides would agree with Spinoza on many if not all these ideas, but Angel insists that these scholars are wrong. In any event, what is significant is that both Maimonides and Spinoza emphasized the need for people to use their minds.

The problem with religion, what makes it wrong, is that people toss reason aside and accept everything that they read or hear from "scholars" and "authorities." These unthinking people believe that these "sages," although secluded from daily human activities and usually insufficiently educated in secular studies, men who refuse to consider non-Jewish teachings, have a unique ability, an endowment of divine inspiration, to understand what Torah means and what it requires of human beings. They accept the misguided notions of these "sages" without realizing that this behavior - a practice that is no more than about two hundred years old - is akin to the notion of papal infallibility, and that they have surrendered their lives and the lives of their families to a fundamentalist anti-rational obscurantist mindset.

As a result, they live a life of corrupted Judaism. They treat biblical verses as if they are magical formulas that can effect a cure. They use religious objects such as Torah scrolls and mezuzot as charms that have protective powers. They recite incantations and magical formulas and seek blessings from "sages" believing superstitiously that these objects and people have supernatural powers. They accept the notion that the world is filled with demons and go through foolhardy ceremonies for protection. They are convinced that the "sages" can perform miracles for them, cure them, get them money, marry off their daughters, find them a job.

They wear red strings on their wrists, mezuzot around their necks, and drink and eat foods blessed by holy men; men, not women, God forbid! They imagine that they must say a kaddish for their deceased relatives, not to remember them, but to assure that "their souls rise heavenward." They fail to realize that it is absurd to think that their parent's afterlife depends on their yearly recitation of a formula. They put kvitels, notes to God, in cracks of the Western Wall, without realizing that they are insulting God; for they are saying that God is only capable of hearing prayers if they are written and placed in the outside walls of the destroyed ancient Temple.

Readers will find that Rabbi Angel addresses many other questions. What are other examples of superstitions that should be avoided? What is the status of proselytes? Why is the current procedure for conversion contrary to Jewish tradition? What is the status of women in Judaism?

This is a significant book. Whether one agrees with everything that Rabbi Angel writes is insignificant. What is important is that the book will make people think. Who can ask for anything more!

Intellectually stimulating. The book forces the reader to dig beyond the surface of Judaism and into it's complex world in a way that enlightens the reader. Spinoza on the other hand advocates for understanding Judaism only through logic and reason, explaining God and his creation through that which the human mind can grasp. All in all a great book.

This is a book for orthodox Jews (and anyone else interested). The author seeks to describe an orthodoxy that is based on acceptance of reason and rejection of obscurantism. It's not really about Maimonides and Spinoza. It's about Maimonides; Spinoza is just a foil against which Maimonides, the author's hero, can shine.

If you are knowledgeable about Maimonides, especially his "Guide for the Perplexed", you will find nothing new in this volume. If you are not so knowledgeable it may well present to you an authentic picture of Judaism that is very different from the one that you are used to - and it will be well worth your time to read it through.

There are some lovely "purple passages" in which the author waxes eloquent and passionate about some of the worst excesses of modern ultra-orthodoxy (from the rationalist's point of view).

Unfortunately, I must complain (yet again) about the transfer of this work from hard-cover to eBook: Amazon have failed on two major matters. Firstly, there are places where passages have been omitted. Whether this is a matter of a word or words, or whole lines or even whole paragraphs I cannot say. But it is clear from sentence structure and syntax that material has been missed. Secondly, there is no mechanism allowing instant access to the endnotes, something that is essential in a scholarly work such as this is. Such a mechanism has been available in other Amazon eBooks that I have read.

Having actually been in the class that inspired this book I must say it was trully a pleasure to relive that time by reading Rabbi Marc Angel's latest offering Rambam, Spinoza and Us. Prior to 2007 I lived in NYC and attended Rabbi Angel's class on the Rambam when he introduced a section of the class on Spinoza. During that group of classes he presented an intriguing and thought provoking analysis to the concept of rational Judaism. It was from those classes that Rabbi Angel was inspired to write this book and it was a joy to see the direction this book took.

Without having to rehash who the Rambam and Spinoza were and their contributions to soceity I will state the following concerning the book. The book takes the reader on a comparison journey between two outlooks, due to their writings, between the Rambam and Spinoza on various topics dealing with Judaism, religion in general, reason, logic and their concepts. The two perspectives are based upon the similarities and the major differences between the Rambam and Spinoza and how it reflects a balenced view of truth, logic, reason, and Judaism. I have always considered Rabbi Angel one of the great Rabbinic thinkers of this era and it has been an inspiration to have learned directly from him. So to have him serve as the readers guide on this topic was an amazing journey.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is searching for a basic method on how to incorporate reason, Judaism, and life together as one; the way they were meant to be.

This book contrasts rationalist Jewish traditionalism (exemplified by Maimonides), the secular rationalism of Spinoza, and more mystical Jewish traditionalism. The author comes out foursquare on Maimonides's side, and tries to enlist Maimonides on the side of rationalist, modern Orthodoxy.

Like Maimonides (and other religious authorities he occasionally quotes), he believes that just as the written Torah should not be taken literally, the "oral Torah" of rabbinic wisdom should not be taken literally where it seems to favor superstition or oppose scientific reality: in Maimonides' words: "there may be an allusion in those words, or they may have been said with a view of the times and the business before him." In other words, the Torah (both written and oral) should be interpreted to conform to reason. By contrast, Spinoza believed such interpretations were often strained, and that the Torah is no more valid than any other finite, man-made book. Rabbi Angel responds that Maimonides' view is not so much a compromise with reason, but an "admission of the limits of reason."

Angel confronts one possible problem with this view. Although plenty of eminent rabbis have agreed with Maimonides' handling of questionable aggadah (nonlegal statements such as legends), how do we deal with halacha (Jewish religious law) that appears to be based on superstition? Angel responds by pointing out that Maimonides gives us rational explanations for some of these rules, explanations we can rely upon today.

I generally thought Angel effectively advocated his point of view- but I do wish, however, that Angel had quoted Maimonides more and paraphrased less; sometimes I could not tell where Maimonides ended and the author's interpretation began.

An interesting exploration of some of the works and philosophies of Maimonides and Spinoza and how they may be relevant for today (which they are IMHO). I found this book to be both educational, well written and thought provoking.