Intro to Rambam system part2

In response to Matt's questions I am posting this article which I wrote some time ago for a different purpose. It is a good beginning to explaining the notion of a "Rambam system".

The Rambam system of mesorah

The challenge of modern Jewish education is to prepare its graduates for the unique issues of the 21st century- developing a rich torah identity within the framework of full citizenship in a modern society. Torah U’mada, as this haskafa is known today, finds its clearest exposition in the works of Rambam. Central to Rambam is Mada, the notion that an overarching world of abstract principles - ie the Wisdom of the Creator - unifies all disciplines, Torah as well as general studies. Mada is percieved through a lawfulness (nimmus) external to our minds, that is expressed in all things of shamayim va-aretz as a world of principles or “forms” embodied in the mechanisms of matter. Brayshees describes the relationship of the world of abstract principles to the Creation through the metaphor of “ohr”. Ruach Chen explains the metaphor. Physical light’s primary existence is outside man as a luminous entity and only secondarily exists as an illuminator of man utilizing the eye of the body. By way of analogy, ohr’s primary existence is outside man -the nimmus that governs all things in shamayim va-aretz - and only secondarily exists as an illuminator of man’s hashkafa upon ohr utilizing the eye of the soul . What is unique in man’s development as a mind is kabbalas ole malchus shamayim- the need for a human being to choose to attain his tachlit- apprehending the Creator to the extent of our ability through his hashkafa upon ohr . This kabbalas ole malchus shamayim choice depends upon the initiation of the mind to hashkafa. To attain the skill set proper to hashkafa, a student must be initiated into the ohr of the world of abstraction. Torah has a special role in the student’s development of haskafa -becoming a Nefesh able to use its skills to recognize the expression of ohr in the overarching sovereignty of general principles and subject matters of mada.

The initiation of an immature Nefesh to Hashkafa

Rambam, in his intro to chelek, exhorts a Rav to take great care in initiating his students into hashkafa upon the world of abstract general principles. The reason for this is pointed out in Shemone Perakim. As rational animal the hashkafa skills of our Nefesh sichli must develop in an immature psyche or Nefesh behami that is essentially animal in character. As animal, the immature Nefesh’s kochos are oriented to ahava for the pleasant, the colors, tastes, feel and smells of particulars apprehended by the animal senses. The immature Nefesh’s ahava of the material world of particulars is antithetical to initiation into the principles and subject matters proper to true research- a mechitza in the words of Rambam. Such initiation requires that the students orientation shift from an immature hashkafa upon the worlds of sports, fashion and pop culture- worlds ordered to focusing hashkafa upon material properties that attract the Nefesh behami , to a mature hashkafa upon the worlds of Mathematics, torah she-bichtav/ baal peh and sciences - subject matters ordered to focusing haskafa upon the essential properties that motivate the Nefesh sichli. The first step of initiation into the torah world of abstract general principles is coaxing the immature Nefesh out of its focus upon particulars. This coaxing must be done with great care. If the Rav forces the students to see the overarching sovereignty of general principles and subject matters ie malchus shamayim as he himself sees them, he will disrupt the orientation of kochos natural to the young student. The nefesh behami will perceive the incompatibility of its focus upon particulars with malchus shamayim and resist accepting its malchus with every possible defense. The Rav therefore, must imitate rachmanut ha-boreh by introducing the principles and subject matters of malchus shamayim in a student centered sequence or path. As an animal, man naturally focuses upon principles exemplified in cases of practical benefit to his dominion and pleasure-ie yishuv aretz and yishuv daat. Such a nefesh sichli insofar as it is yet unilluminated by ohr must be carefully guided to finding the ohr experience within social life as this immature nefesh percieves it.

The intro to chelek provides this student centered path - mitoch shelo lishma bah lishma instruction in ikrim. Once this initiation is completed the Ikrim serve as first principles- the core abstractions which are the very tools by which the immature Nefesh attains kedushas yisrael, ie becoming a Nefesh with a sufficiently stable focus upon the abstract world to percieve Shamayim va-aretz as a subject matter for Torah principles of yishuv. It is through the ikrim curricullum that we understand the torah’s priority in Mada. This priority exists because of the need to initiate the immature nefesh hashkafa to the abstract world through the subject of yishuv that it is naturally motivated by.

Given the critical place of ikrim in Rambam’s approach, one would expect his modern day Torah U’Mada disciples to root their curricula in Rambam’s intros to chelek and Shemone Perakim. Yet in practice, we see scarcely any attention devoted to these works, or for that matter to any theory of Nefesh development whatsoever. In point of fact, first generation Torah U’Mada programs emphasize behavioral conditioning proper to training animals- mitzvas anashim melumada. The mitzvas anashim melumada of the morning curriculum remains virtually unchanged since medieval times, while an independent general studies curriculum teaches rote memorization through behavioral conditioning in the afternoon. This intermarriage of mitzvas anashim melumada curricula ignores the most essential dimension of Rambam’s program - the absolute centrality of utilizing all disciplines as instruments to the core objective of nurturing the Nefesh Sichli to ahava for abstract general principles ie the ikrim curriculum of chelek. Do we really expect the student exposed to our current education to mature from ahava of particulars, the cornerstone of Western popular culture? What we should expect is indeed what we are getting- a generation of students whose ahava is essentially for Western popular culture and whose attachment to Judaism remains sentimental at best, cynical and rebellious at worst. This situation is a Chillul hashem of the highest order and a recipe for disaster. Ultimately, a community will act on its ahava for non Jewish life objectives in the form of assimilation. We must not repeat the mistake of pre-emancipation Jewry that accepted mitzvas anashim melumada only to ultimately witness the loss of the vast majority of Jews to the siren song of assimilation. Similar to New Orleans our current mitzvas anashim melumada culture is a levy whose hurricane Katrina will inevitably come. We must immediately restore the ikrim as the core instrument of communal culture and cease deluding ourselves that our current mitzvas anashim melumada program is motivating our students to the skills of hashkafa needed for the pursuit of ahava.

Ikrim must substitute for Nefesh’s organic experience with a true yishuv

The natural path is for the immature nefesh to be initiated by gaining rich experience of ohr as it organically emerges from the model of his parents, community and rabbinic leadership. Shema beni mussar avicha, vi-al titosh toras imecha. In the absence of principles that imbue the societal life strategies of Judaism with purpose and meaning proper to ahava of a mature Nefesh sichli, torah degenerates from being a subject participating in the unity of mada to being just another faith, a sentimental attachment to an ancient arbitrary culture typical of non Jewish nations. Bereft of ahava, Judaism becomes a mitzvas anashim melumada scholasticism founded upon blind attachment to authority rather than honest conceptual research, a deadly rote observance of meaningless mitzvos utterly detached from life. As the navi so aptly puts it a dry bones remnant of the living organism of the community with ahava for Mada pursuit is all that remains; once the adults of the community lose serve as role models with the capacity to initiate their children into the world of abstraction a dark age of Judaism must emerge.

The cause of this is clear. In the absence of initiation to the abstract world of Mada, the tachlit of man underlying the Mitzva system becomes locked into animal notions of the immature nefesh. By extension, the torah’s instrumentality to an orientation shift from an immature focus upon material properties that attract the Nefesh behami , to a mature focus upon essential properties subject to the abstract general principles that motivate the Nefesh sichli becomes meaningless. Obviously, if the tachlit of man is some form of animal good the core educational path of mitoch shelo lishma bah lishma founders and adults lose the ability to function as agents of hashgacha by initiating their children into the world of abstraction. Alienated from the sovereignty of adult abstract perspective a new parallell universe “Judaism” emerges in which the Nefesh’s kochos are mispercieved as instrumental to material ends. Like a cancer, the badui material objective of the Nefesh’s kochos metastisizes throughout throughout the gamut of topics of involved in understanding of the infrastructure of the social system. ie the inyanim of Torah. Incapable as they are of percieving the social system as an instrument to the hashgacha’s end of nuturing the kochos to the development of Nefesh sichli, ignorant preachers spin endless paradigms for the subject matter of torah ie yishuv aretz out of their favored distortions. Each such “haskafo” shares three fundamental distortions that make them attractive to the immature Nefesh unitiated into the world of abstraction:

1) Substitution of a material tachlit for kedushas ha-Nefesh and by extension a false torah she-baal peh method through distortion of the core torah description of “the man of the state” the Creation of Adam ie “Gan Eden”

2) Application of above core distotortion to the general outline of hashgachas facilitating of overall human development into a society of kedusha “the state of men” ie geula through instruments of Gan Eden, techiyas ha-meysim and Moshiach

3) An enslaving mitzvas anashim melumada culture of anti talmud torah u’mitzvos distorting the complete subject matter of topics needed to understand hasgacha and Geula.

As the sorcerers of Pharoah tried to make staff into a snake, these preachers create the illusion of giving life to small numbers of mitzvot that satisfies the masses of immature nefesh’s uninitiated into the world of abtraction. In their overall objective however they inevitably fail. The majesty of the mitzva system with its vast array of instruments dedicated to developing a society of kedusha, a torah whose method of exploring the special case of man is in harmony with the other subjects exploring mada as it is expressed throughout Creation cannot be contained in the imprisoning walls of such “haskafos”.

Sequential courses ordered to establishing the Rambamic lashon limudim

Once Rambam liberates the community through foundational hakaras ha-chet, a new world of talmud torah u’mitzvos opens up. Schools can then return to their core objective- torah lishma ie ahava rooted in the pursuit of the abstract principles of mada through the overarching framework or subject of talmud torah u’mitzvos. Rambam bids the reader to take to heart that he must review the intro to Chelek regularly if he is to truly apprehend its message. Clearly, there is to be Talmud Torah in between these readings. How exactly do these readings interconnect?

Rambam implies a cycle of readings united by the mediating concepts of Gan Eden, techiyas ha-meysim and Moshiach. This requires an explicit cyclical student centered path of guided reading of torah initiating him into the world of abstraction ie a mitoch shelo lishma bah lishma instruction in ikrim. Each of these readings is instrumental to stabilizing principles of varying logical levels. These readings are best thought of as a series of sequential courses moving through the skills needed for attaining hashkafa. These principles are not entirely learned from the subjects however. There is a craft of thinking- logic- designed to train the mind in the method of thinking needed to succeed in the Rambam approach. Over the years other thinkers have, in effect, joined in Rambam's project, giving further aid in the cycle of readings. Of these the ones most interesting to me are the Ramchal and the Ralbag. The Ramchal specializes in logic, while the Ralbag specializes in applying logic to Tanach.