THE GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
BY MOSES MAIMONIDES
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL ARABIC TEXT
BY M. FRIEDLANDER, PH.D
Part III Chapter 51
I have shown you that the intellect which emanates from
God unto us is the link that joins us to God. You have it in your
power to strengthen that bond, if you choose to do so, or to weaken
it gradually, till it breaks if you prefer this. It will only become
strong when you employ it in the love of God, and seek that love: it
will be weakened when you direct your thoughts to other things.
You must know that even if you were the wisest man in respect to
the true knowledge of God, you break the bond between you and
God whenever you turn entirely your thoughts to the necessary
food or any necessary business; you are then not with God, and He
is not with you: for that relation between you and Him is actually
interrupted in those moments. The pious were therefore particular
to restrict the time in which they could not meditate upon the name
of God, and cautioned others about it, saying," Let not your minds
be vacant from reflections upon God." In the same sense did David
say," I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my
right hand, I shall not be moved" (Ps. xvi. 8): i.e., I do not turn my
thoughts away from God; He is like my right hand, which I do not
forget even for a moment on account of the ease of its motions,
and therefore I shall not be moved, I shall not fail.
We must bear in mind that all such religious acts as reading the
Law, praying, and the performance of other precepts, serve
exclusively as the means of causing us to occupy and fill our mind
with the precepts of God, and free it from worldly business; for we
are thus, as it were, in communication with God, and undisturbed
by any other thing. If we, however, pray with the motion of our
lips, and our face toward the wall, but at the same time think of
our business; if we read the Law with our tongue, whilst our heart
is occupied with the building of our house, and we do not think of
what we are reading; if we perform the commandments only with
our limbs, we are like those who are engaged in digging in the
ground, or hewing wood in the forest, without reflecting on the
nature of those acts, or by whom they are commanded, or what is
their object. We must not imagine that [in this way] we attain the
highest perfection; on the contrary, we are then like those in
reference to whom Scripture says," Thou art near in their mouth,
and far from their reins" (Jer. xii. 2).
I will now commence to show you the way how to educate and
train yourselves in order to attain that great perfection.
The first thing you must do is this : Turn your thoughts away from
everything while you read Shema. or during the Tefillat, and do
not content yourself with being devout when you read the first
verse of Shema, or the first paragraph of the prayer. When you
have successfully practised this for many years, try in reading the
Law or listening to it, to have all your heart and all your thought
occupied with understanding what you read or hear. After some
time when you have mastered this, accustom yourself to have your
mind free from all other thoughts when you read any portion of the
other books of the prophets, or when you say any blessing; and to
have your attention directed exclusively to the perception and the
understanding of what you utter. When you have succeeded in
properly performing these acts of divine service, and you have
your thought, during their performance, entirely abstracted from
worldly affairs, take then care that your thought be not disturbed
by thinking of your wants or of superfluous things. In short, think
of worldly matters when you eat, drink, bathe, talk with your wife
and little children, or when you converse with other people. These
times, which are frequent and long, I think must suffice to you for
reflecting on everything that is necessary as regards business,
household, and health. But when you are engaged in the
performance of religious duties, have your mind exclusively
directed to what you are doing.
When you are alone by yourself, when you are awake on your
couch, be careful to meditate in such precious moments on nothing
but the intellectual worship of God, viz., to approach Him and to
minister before Him in the true manner which I have described to
you-not in hollow emotions. This I consider as the highest
perfection wise men can attain by the above training.
When we have acquired a true knowledge of God, and rejoice in
that knowledge in such a manner, that whilst speaking with others,
or attending to our bodily wants, our mind is all that time with
God; when we are with our heart constantly near God, even whilst
our body is in the society of men: when we are in that state which
the Song on the relation between God and man poetically
describes in the following words:" I sleep, but my heart waketh: it
is the voice of my beloved that knocketh" (Song v. 2) :-then we
have attained not only the height of ordinary prophets, but of
Moses, our Teacher, of whom Scripture relates :" And Moses
alone shall come near before the Lord 11 (ibid. xxxiv. 28):" But as
for thee, stand thou here by me" (Dent. V. 28). The meaning of
these verses has been explained by us.
The Patriarchs likewise attained this degree of perfection; they
approached God in such a manner that with them the name of God
became known in the world. Thus we read in Scripture:" The God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.... This is My
name for ever" (Exod. iii. 15). Their mind was so identified with
the knowledge of God, that He made a lasting covenant with each
of them :" Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob," etc.
(Lev. xxvi. 42). For it is known from statements made in Scripture
that these four, viz., the Patriarchs and Moses, had their minds
exclusively filled with the name of God, that is, with His
knowledge and love; and that in the same measure was Divine
Providence attached to them and their descendants. When we
therefore find them also, engaged in ruling others, in increasing
their property, and endeavouring to obtain possession of wealth
and honour, we see in this fact a proof that when they were
occupied in these things, only their bodily limbs were at work,
whilst their heart and mind never moved away from the name of
God. I think these four reached that high degree of perfection in
their relation to God, and enjoyed the continual presence of Divine
Providence, even in their endeavours to increase their property,
feeding the flock, toiling in the field, or managing the house, only
because in all these things their end and aim was to approach God
as much as possible. It was the chief aim of their whole life to
create a people that should know and worship God. Comp." For I
know him, that he will command his children and his household
after him" (Gen. xviii. 19). The object of all their labours was to
publish the Unity of God in the world, and to induce people to love
Him; and it was on this account that they succeeded in reaching
that high degree; for even those [worldly] affairs were for them a
perfect worship of God. But a person Eke myself must not imagine
that he is able to lead men up to this degree of perfection It is only
the next degree to it that can be attained by means of the
above-mentioned training. And let us pray to God and beseech
Him that He clear and remove from our way everything that forms
an obstruction and a partition between us and Him, although most
of these obstacles are our own creation, as has several times been
shown in this treatise. Comp." Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God" (Isa. lix. 2).