Maimonides
Principles of Jewish Faith
In our last session, we began to look at one of the clearest statements of Jewish belief - that being Rabenu Moshe Ben Maimon’s Thirteen Principles of Faith. [From his name we ‘get’ his “nom-de-Plume”: Maimonides - as we know him with affection.]
So, now for the New Year 5771, we will review the First Principle and continue. We will use as our reference material Aryeh Kaplan’s book, Maimonides’s Principles - The Fundamentals of Jewish Faith 1975.
We sing Yigdal:
- 1: Great is the Living G-d, and praised
He exists, yet His existence has not tim.
- 2: He is One, no unity is like His,
He is beyond compare in His holiness.
The First Two Principle say:
- I believe with perfect faith the G-d is the Creator and ruler of all thing. He alone has made, does make, and will make all things.
- I believe with perfect faith that G-d is One. There is no unity that is in any way like His. He alone is our G-d - He was, He is, and He will be.
Maimonides, in formulating these Principles, studied all of the extant Jewish literature in order to determine which Principles are - and have been always - taken as those with are uniquely accepted in Judaism. He attempted to distill, in the clearest possible language, Principles which we have continued to study and discuss for over the past eight centuries.
The Second Principle says, simply, He is One - He always has been One & He will forever be One. Or; as One He was before everything and will be after everything is gone. Wow. We can probably conceive of everything coming to an end for we know that death is (besides taxes) the only certainty in life; but can you conceive of there being something before anything (else)?
What else can we glean from this Second statement? He is One. 1. Singluar. This One G-d is the cause of and the Creator of... everything. There is the story of the scientist that appears before G-d and says that mankind does not need Him anymore; they can now create life too. G-d says; “Is that right? Show me.” The scientist stoops down to gather some elements for the earth and G-d interrupts him saying; “No, no, no... go make your own dirt!”
What else? He cannot be more than One because His One is Everything. So He is also not divisible, he is not a pair, a male or female, differing elements - He is One & He is All. After all we do declare: “Hear (Listen!) Israel, the L*rd is our G-d, the L*rd is One. Echad!
Ponder:
- IF He is One, how is it that He does manifest Himself in many ways?
- IF He is “simple” (simply One), how do you understand that and what He accomplishes?
- Does he exist in different times? What IS time to G-d? Is He outside of time? What is time? To us? To Him? Is it different? How? When?
- What do Christians think of when they consider G-d? Is He really Three?
- How - or in what way - did our ancestors, sages and prophets “see” G-d?
Your contribution is encouraged.
