Maimonides' Confrontation with Mysticism

Maimonides rejected the enchanted, occult-affinity worldview of proto-kabbalistic Judaism and created a new, disenchanted, depersonalized, elitist, and universalist religion. His attempted reformation failed, as shown by the success of the kabbalistic counter-reformation his writings provoked. The book argues that Judaism's deep structures are flexible enough to allow such dramatic reforms, yet the dynamic of religion is more complex than simply following authorities, since Maimonides could not overcome traditional proto-kabbalism.

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Abstract

This book presents Maimonides against the religious background that informed his many innovative and influential choices. The book not only analyses the thought of the great religious thinker but contextualizes it in terms of the ‘proto-kabbalistic’ Judaism that preceded him. The book shows how the Judaism that Maimonides knew had come to conceptualize the world as an enchanted universe, governed by occult affinities. It shows why Maimonides rejected this and how he went about doing it. The book argues that Maimonides' attempted reformation failed, the clearest proof of that being the success of the kabbalistic counter-reformation which his writings provoked. It shows how Maimonides rethought Judaism in different ways. It is in highlighting this and identifying Maimonides as a religious reformer that this book makes its key contribution. Maimonides created a new Judaism, ‘disenchanted’, depersonalized, and challenging; a religion that is at the same time elitist and universalist. The book's analysis also shows the deep configuration of Judaism in a new light. If Maimonides was able to reform so many aspects of rabbinic Judaism single-handedly, to enrich it by importing such dramatically different concepts, it shows that the profound structures of this religion are flexible enough to allow the emergence and success of astonishing reforms. The fact that, great as Maimonides was, he did not overcome the traditional forms of proto-kabbalism shows that the dynamic of religion is much more complex than subscribing to authorities, however widely accepted.