Rambam's prescription for the golem

Rambam has an interesting term for people such as ourselves who have "awoken" to the light of Shechina. The term he uses is "golem" which refers to a raw material- ie an immature Nefesh. The immature Nefesh grasps, in principle, that there is a source to the Mada we see expressed in the Craft of Creation. He knows that there is a set of luminous Shechina principles embedded in the D'varim of Mesorah. However, the golem is able to apply this general principle only in certain ideal areas. In certain select areas of life he engages the world through a clear framework based on solid application of principles. In other areas his application is weak or distorted. Yet other areas are under the sway of habit, the golem is not yet reflective about these areas at all. This is very much like a student of craft. In the idealized dojo under highly standardized ideal environments, he recognizes the opportunity to punch or block. In the street the same karate golem will be bewildered and fall into ineffective fighting habits. So too the Doctor. In ideal textbook presentation he will recognize a disease and prescribe a cure. In the hospital he will have "eyes that see not" once again.

A Modern Orthodox Jew might have a good grasp of principles such as Torah U'mada. However, his habits of talmud torah might be highly restricting. The modern golem never asks himself how he will implement his grand ideal of Torah U'madah by listening to a Drasha before Musaf once a week.

A religious Zionist will have a clear sense of the imperitive of not relying on miracles. It is indeed a blessing to have tools such as a military. But again what of Talmud torah as the basis of Ahavaso and Yiraso?

The challenge for the Golem is to extend his basic insight to a full scale method of recognizing his environment and calculating the response to engage the world. In this he is ,once again, much like the student of any practical craft. He must be guided along a sure path of Mesorah, starting with a clear sense of two things. A) The all encompassing dependence of Creation upon the design of the divine Craftsman. B) A sense of how man's development fits in to this design as a craft of engaging the world, a service within the design of the Craftsman.

Unlike the woodcutter who serves through arbitrary action to please an authority, the golem realizes that his service is to choose to be a reflective part of a system governed by law. To progress, he must have the story of Creation formulated into a model of the world that helps him identify ohr principles applicable in the frameworks he will find himself in. This model of the world will be the foundation,yesod, of all laws because each law will gain its meaning and purpose as an instrument of properly engaging the world as illuminated by the Ohr of the Mesorah. Just as the engineer sees opportunity to build buildings via application of the model of the world of Physics to building materials, the doctor applies the model of Chemistry and biology to the human body, the golem moves toward application of the model of Creation to his immature Nefesh learning how to find its place in the world.

We are now in the position to understand the absolute priority Rambam's assigns to yesodei ha-torah on the path to Mitzvot.

וראיתי לחלק חיבור זה לארבעה עשר ספרים:

ספר ראשון. אכלול בו כל המצוות שהן עיקר דת משה רבנו, וצריך אדם לידע אותן תחילת הכול--כגון ייחוד שמו ברוך הוא, ואיסור עבודה זרה. וקראתי שם ספר זה ספר המדע.

I saw fit to divide this composition into 14 books:

The first book: I will include in this all the Mitzvot that are the essence of the Das- system of Moshe our teacher, which a person must know prior to anything such as the unity of his name and the prohibition of idolatry. I named this book: The book of The Knowledge.

In this statement Rabbenu Moshe articulates the basis for an emergence from being a mindless woodcutter projecting his personal material good as the organizing principle of Creation. In its stead lies the unity of His name, the Ohr of Mada able to be applied to every area as causal principles, if we choose to seek the names of things like our Forbear Adam the first.