Welcome to Judaism Demystified, a podcast for the perplexed.
Join us as we explore some of the most fascinating Jewish and
Torah related topics with our esteemed guests.
By tackling some of the biggest questions you likely won't find
addressed elsewhere, we aim to shed light on important issues
and inspire a return to the fundamentals.
Enjoy the show. Thank you, Rabbi Levy, for
joining the Judaism Demystified podcast.
Once again, it's a pleasure having you on.
We had a lot of great feedback from the first time you're on,
so thank you. Thank you for having me again.
You guys are amazing. Your reach is fantastic and I
love listening to your podcast. You guys are doing great.
Thank you so much. So I want to we're obviously
having you on here to discuss your latest book.
It is called Jewish Mysticism, Essays on Maimonides, The Guide
of the Perplexed. What inspired you to follow up
your book, The Mysticism of Andalusia with this new volume?
And was there a particular intellectual or historical
thread you felt compelled to continue exploring?
Well, thank you. That's a very good question.
The truth of the matter is this last book is the third in a
trilogy. This was part of the plan when I
originally presented my concept to my publishers and friends.
It was going to be a 1500 page book and everybody said no one's
going to read a 1500 page book and no one is going to purchase
a 1500 page book which was going to be like 3000 footnotes.
And so the concept five years ago was to break it up into
three parts. And so the first book, The
Mysticism of Andalusia, which we talked about at the time, was
really an introduction to my worldview and my understanding
and reading of Rambam. And what I did there was really
contrast and compare Andalusia mysticism, Andalusian worldview,
Andalusian religious concept and and and and and and practice to
Northern Spanish and European ideas.
And the contrast was just so stark.
And you know, really, one might say two different religions
almost, but of course it's not. I talked about in my
introduction of that book that we're one people, but the
differences were really stark. And, you know, in that book I
discuss the difference in how we read a text.
There's a chapter there called Reading Literally and literally
Reading and how in Andalusia one understood that language is
limited and language has to be interpreted and and, and
literature has to be seen in the larger context of, you know,
other factors, philosophy and science.
And so when a text is exposing an idea, one has to dig deep.
Harambam uses the pasuk in Michele that the Golden Apple,
which is covered with a silver netting.
We always have to probe and dig deep for the golden apple.
Our brothers and sisters in Europe were much more
literalists. They read texts in a literal
way. I discuss a lot of these
differences in the first book. My second book, Founding Fathers
of Sephardic Jury, I wanted to respond to the many out there,
including, I think I mentioned this at the time, also my friend
Micah Goodman and others who are putting out into the world that
Harambeam created a new religion, invented a new
Judaism, which is false. And I proved that in my book
Founding Fathers of Sephardic Jewry.
I trace ideas that dig back to Rabba Sadia Gaon, who probably
is the most authoritative link to the Talmud, right through to
Haraambam, and the Ibn Tibon families who translated the text
of Andalusia. If anything, our brothers and
sisters in Europe with Kabbalah and with magic and with
superstition introduced into Judaism, something that was not
prevalent in Rabbinic Judaism. It existed in Rabbinic Judaism,
but it wasn't mainstream Rabbinic Judaism.
And then my third book, this one that was just published this
year is Jewish Mysticism. I want to reclaim our language
back. This is very, very, very
important and and people raise eyebrows.
Jewish Mysticism and the guide of the perplexed.
How can the 2GO together in the same sentence?
And they do, because people are fixated on this idea that Jewish
mysticism has to be Kabbalah. And it's not.
You might want to say it's one arm of mysticism, European,
Jewish, European mysticism, Northern Spanish, medieval
mysticism full of magic and superstition and corporeality
and thurgy. But Harambam has a whole
different Jewish mysticism, and Andalusia put forth a mysticism,
a Jewish mysticism that is pure, that seeks out proximity with
God, closeness with God, deep spiritual experiences, ecstatic
experiences that are philosophically sound,
scientifically sound. And we don't have to throw our
reason and rationalism out the window to pursue a deeply
profound Jewish mysticism. And so I it's important that my
readers and of course my students over the last 30 years
understand that a Judaism without a spiritual, mystical
tradition is dry. And that wasn't Rambam's
Judaism. You know, the academic world.
They dried up. Sought not just that, they
sought to create Rambam as like a schizophrenic dual
personality. You know, he was the Rambam of
the guide of the perplexed, the man who was a rationalist, no
need for religion. And then he was the IT was the
man of the Mishnet Torah, who, you know, the masses.
I live amongst the masses, so I have to give them the Jewish
law. That's nonsense.
Anybody who reads both the guide of the perplexed Moran Nebuchim
and Mishnet Torah sees this synthesis of philosophy and
spirituality and this sublime sense of closeness to God, this
language of love and passion and awe that permeates all of
Harambeam's literature and books.
The frustration existed even in our own camps.
That's the real truth. You know, so many in my, in, in
my own camp would say, you know, I, I, I embrace Rambam, but he's
too rationalist for me. What does that mean?
Too rationalist for me? You know, let me just put a
further layer on this. There are actually Shalotte and
Chuvot, and if you Google YouTube poschem who seriously
question whether it's permitted to study the Moranovochim today.
How could you even raise that as a question?
The most important book after the Torah and Talmud is the
Moranovochim, no doubt, hands down for me.
And so that's why I tried to make it accessible in this book.
And the response I've gotten has just been magnificent across the
board, the Jewish, non Jewish academics, rabbis, students.
And you know, they have. A talent in in making these, you
know, deep concepts digestible. Thank you.
Right now there's talk about
translating it into Hebrew and into Spanish, which is very
nice. And I, I, you know, I, I'm, I'm,
I'm, I feel grateful for that. That's the real truth.
It's been a labor of love. But to really put out there a
reading of Harambeam that I, I believe, you know, this might
sound strange. It's the naive reading.
It's the way he wanted us to read his texts, right?
And the original readers of Harambam, including the original
the first translator Shumweli bin Tibon, read it as a mystical
text. That goes lost on people.
That goes lost on people totally.
Because it's it's it's it's inconceivable to me that
Harambam would have the Tibon family translated personally.
Ask them to translate it and they take it a certain way and
that is and no. And Strauss has the right way,
not them. Correct.
That doesn't make sense. Aramban reviewed parts of the
initial translation. He embraced it.
And Shweli Bentibon was a philosopher and a Mystic.
The schools of Andalucia produced incredible Mystics.
Ibn Pakuda, Ibn Gabirol, these guys were on a different level
spiritually. So that I hope that answers your
question. That's really big, my motivation
over the years. So very, very noble, just to
echo a few points, maybe to Polish it from my own
understanding, so correct me if I'm wrong.
So this idea, Obama's a rationalist.
The way I understand what people are saying when say he's too
much of A rationalist for me is that they're hinting at is that
a rationalist by definition, is somebody who essentially
believes that the that rational understanding is the is is the
full and complete understanding that there cannot be anything
beyond our rational knowledge. Rational knowledge encompasses
all, whereas Hagenbaum would be someone who you, you maybe
consider consider super irrational in which he
acknowledges the the rational universe and and and and what's
the word and it's within, It's within the the order of of of
knowledge. But there is knowledge that goes
beyond the rational knowledge. One that is not it's not
intelligible in terms of saying 1 + 1 is 2 and and but one
that's that can be inspired to get little glimpses.
We would call it right? He calls.
It flashes. Flashes, that's what I you're
exactly right. Flashes That my teacher, Nevoir,
essentially. Nevoir, yeah.
My teacher Hakamfour called what you're describing meta
rationalism. Meta Rationalism.
Exactly. And he, he talks about that,
Hakamfour writes about it. The, the my, my, my path is a
little different. And you know, like Benji said, I
try to make these difficult concepts, especially in medieval
language, accessible to us. And so my path, the language I
use is inducing love, inducing awe in the seeker.
You know, I was recently asked, you know, for Haram bomb, you
know, Massimer Bereshit and Massimer Kava is is is physics
and and quantum physics. And I said, yeah, wrap your
brain around some of that stuff. And it's mind boggling.
Yeah. That's the real truth.
And when one does, when you think about quantum physics or
you think about the vast universe that we are suspended
in, that should induce in you a sense of awe and wonder, and it
should lead to a sense of profound love of the creator of
this universe, which is God. And so those are the moments
that the soul is stirred into a spiritual ecstasy.
You don't need the addiction of another miracle, you know,
another superstitious belief, another gematria, you know,
another Rebbe story, Hararambam would say.
Enough of that. Find that fuel in the.
It is. In the world, in the Torah, in
the wisdom of Torah. Well said.
I think that's what you were saying.
Benzene I. Yeah, that's exactly, yes.
It's a it's, it's using we, we expand our knowledge within
reality to then to then also see, to be able to acknowledge
and and feel God's awe and also understand that there are things
that we don't understand. And within that prism of what we
don't understand, lies. Exactly.
A lot more and and we kind of have to in steps get there
instead of just erasing everything and jumping to some,
you know, ontological reality, which would be something like
the lamotte and which are more ontological.
Whereas this is starting from the ground up.
And then when you get there, it's within the incorporated
reality that we're within. I actually, I wanted to ask, I
don't know if I asked you the last time we had you on, I might
have. But like Professor Menachem
Kellner, I believe you're friends with like he obviously
sees Rama as as not a, as a completely rational, you know,
not, not a mystical. And there are people like that
like like Rabbi Natan Slifkin sees it the same way.
How do you do your conversation with?
Where do they go? Like how do you?
Yeah, I, I made a point of including, I, I got a lot of
approbations and, and letters for my first book from many,
many scholars. Menachem wrote 1 and I included
his on the back cover because the first line he writes, you
know, I disagree with Rabbi Yamili's main premise, which is
there's no such thing as mystical union.
But I've been harassing him and we, we've studied texts
together. And in this book, I, I worked
on, I, I, I prove mystical union based on the study of Professor
Guidon Friedenthal. Freudenthal, who is a professor
at Tel Aviv University, world renowned scientific philosopher,
and he wrote a number of articles on the Morani Vukim
where he shows how, and it's not for this conversation, but you
should read it in the book how how Rambam brilliantly through
medieval science philosophy speaks to the possibility of
mystical union. And the truth is, I'm badgering
my good friend Rabbi Kaliner. He's read this book and he's
coming around him and many people are coming around to this
idea that the finite human being can indeed link with the
infinite. That's the first chapter of the
Guide of the perplexed. Now I use contemporary language.
What does it mean? The image of God, I call it
Hararambam, called it whatever I call it, consciousness, high
level consciousness, this aware of this, this, this, this, this,
this ability we have as human beings that scientists even
today don't fully understand and appreciate how it is that we can
self reflect our, our, our brain is made-up of cells and, and,
and synapses and gel and we're able to self reflect, we're able
to cooperate, we're able to communicate in very, very
sophisticated ways. And there's no doubt, at least
in my mind, that consciousness is that possibility within us,
if it's trained correctly in how Rambam gives us, and I talk
about it in this book, a practice to train one's mind and
consciousness to link up with the divine to access knowledge
and wisdom that we don't or can't necessarily access, you
know, by reading more books. And it's a real thing.
I've, I've experienced it. Join me at 4:00 in the morning
in my meditation room here. And you know, I'll take you to
place. And I tell this to my students,
I'll take you to places that are remarkable, are amazing.
So. So I think that the that the
that the reason why I'm not speaking for someone like
Professor Kellner. I'm just talking in general,
like for, for, for people that that gravitate more towards
either you want to call it rationalism, which we understand
is a mischaracterization. But those who are more towards
Havan Bam's camp, I think the reason why they're uncomfortable
with the word mystical union, I think it has a lot to do with
language. And what I mean by that is, is
that for most people, and possibly because of the
influence of Kabbalah, mystical union feels like a like an
anthropomorphism of God, meaning mystical union with God is kind
of like God coming down from what he is, we going up.
And then like, you know, we kind of meet in this middle of this
ontological like, you know, blurred line of finite and
infinite. And you know, there we are with
mystical union in Kabbalah would be, you know, going up to the
Lamothe, let's call it right, right.
So, and when you said what you just said, there was a there
you, you were talking about not necessarily ontological union,
which I think is what most people generally consider when,
when the words mystical union is used, but rather an intellectual
knowledge based union. And if maybe you can expand on
that, it would help people could be maybe come more more towards
what you're saying. Could be, could be.
I'm not talking anthropomorphically here at all.
You know what I'm saying? I wanted to clear that up for
this. But Harambam at the end of the
Murene Wuhim speaks of those who can achieve closeness to the
inner sanctuary where the king resides, and the seven stages
and levels. And the lowest level is those
that are outside the gates of the Kingdom facing the wrong
direction. And those that achieve the
different levels get the the the opportunity to enter into the
inner sanctuary that's not anthropomorphic.
That's a real experience. Hararambam wouldn't write it if
it wasn't a real experience. And we achieved that by I talked
about this in my first book, Purging the mind of all the
Nonsense. And you keep talking about
Kabbalah with respect, respect. I say purge the mind of all
those. Really.
It's it's, it's Hevel Hevalim. It's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a
drug that, that, that confuses and clogs the spirit from great
elevations and again, superstitions and, and, and, and
false promises. You know, this poor young couple
came to see me recently. They're having marriage
problems. And they they came to tell me
that one of the rabbi's said to them, bring me your kit to BA
because your problems are already in your kituba that you
signed 20 years ago. I'm so worried that I'm so
worried that I know who you're talking about.
It's. Such nonsense.
It's so sad. It's so sad.
You know, my my son fell off his bicycle and the rabbi said check
your mezuzahs. Stop that.
I'm curious to know your thoughts on the earlier
Mikubalem and even I would say someone like Rabbi Abraham
Aboulafia, who is not the typical he's not ready my mana
Dean, but he's not Kabbalist, but his his views on prophecies,
you know, is somewhat my mana Dean.
So like there can someone gain a lot from that kind of meditation
because obviously he uses the names of Hashem and all the holy
names and all that, that stuff. Obviously not.
But what do you, what do you see from the Kabbalistic side, let's
say, that could be useful? So Avraham Abu Lafia is a good
example. He referred to Haram Bam as the
Prince of Princess. He read the Moran Ebuchem as a
book teaching prophecy. Now, unfortunately, he was too
immersed in those northern Spanish Franco German
kabbalistic traditions that misled him.
Because you can't, you can't achieve higher realms of
spirituality when you're so immersed in thurgy and
superstitions and magic and corporeality, which is the
worst? And so that that's what
misguided him and misled him. But his original writings about
the Guide of the Perplexed, they're very profound, very
beautiful. I've studied them deeply.
I write about it in my first book.
Yeah, OK. Let's go on next.
Very interesting. OK, so in your chapter The Path
of Jewish Law, you ask whether the pursuit of higher
consciousness or metaphysical knowledge can bypass the the
premacy of Halaha. How does Maimonides navigate the
tension between individual spiritual striving through
science, philosophy, or mysticism and the collective
binding nature of Jewish law? Wow, that's a fantastic
question. I really debated whether to
include that chapter in the book because the answer to that
question is tucked away in vintage my Mauna Deon way in his
introduction to the Mishna in about 7 paragraphs. 8 paragraphs
somewhere in the middle of his comment of his introduction to
the Mishna. In a nutshell, I'm going to say
the following for Harambeam. Mitzvot aren't just a way of God
testing us, as many schools in the Middle Ages believed.
You're not supposed to inquire about them.
It's what they would say. You just do them because God
commanded them. That was not Harambam's
approach. Harambam believed that just like
you can induce incredible love and awe of God by peering into
the, you know, night sky or seeing a beautiful sunrise or
sunset, you also can induce A profound love in awe of God by
studying his mitzvot, the law that he commanded, and the
profound deep wisdom in that law.
For Haram Bam, God gave Musharra Benu the law, not as just
something capricious, but something to make us better
human beings and make society better and make the world
better. And so the truth of the matter
is, there is access to God without the law.
But the law, Jewish law is what completes the individual in
terms of wisdom, in terms of knowledge, and in terms of
goodness. And so let me just, if it's OK,
let me see if I can find it very, very quickly.
I want to read you, you know, for let me just see the pages.
It's like it's here in the middle of here.
It is. I'm going to read you a quote
from Haram Bomb chapter 327. The true law, which as we said
is 1 and beside which there is no other law.
The law of our teacher Moses has for its purpose to give us the
twofold perfection. It aims, first at the
establishment of good mutual relations among men by removing
injustice and creating the noblest feeling.
Secondly, it seeks to train us in faith and to impart correct
and true opinions. When the intellect is
sufficiently developed. So one has to engage and
practice and allow Jewish law to completely resonate with one's
life and lifestyle and being to really achieve those higher
levels of spirituality that Haran Baum asks we pursue.
Does that make sense? He he in, I think it's the 4th
chapter of you said maybe third or fourth.
I think it's the 4th chapter of he actually says that knowledge
of Allah is the prerequisite for for pardes.
Absolutely 100%. What goes with what you're
saying? 100 percent, 100%.
That's why the Mishnitora and Morani Bohim go together.
And I write about this progression of his evolution and
how he put this material out. And I'm a firm believer.
I write about this in my book, The Founding Fathers of
Sephardic Jury, that Harambam dedicated his life to preserve
the Andalusian tradition. Without this, we would have lost
it completely, right? We wouldn't have had the
Andalusian Jewish tradition. That was a good question, Ben.
I think I think one of the most interesting things about his
approach is that he says 1 should ascribe, you know, reason
to the mitzvot. Also like if you come across.
100% roof. That supports the the, you know,
like the knowledge or or the wisdom of Hashem.
You, you should actually, you should go with that, even if
even if it's not exactly on point, but you know, he
encouraged that kind of thinking.
So that's. Right, 100% the the study and
purpose and reason for mitzvot is, is an A process that we
evolved with, you know, Aaron Bamu writes in the morning of
it's impossible to suggest that God didn't have reasons for the
mitzvot. And our purpose is to study and
think through those reasons and, and and and present various
possibilities of reasons. Will we understand them all?
Maybe not. Will we understand some?
Maybe that's the beauty of it. That's what connects us.
I wrote a whole article on this years ago on on how Harambam's
approach to to Amir mitzvot is what builds community of the
Jewish people. Anyways, that's that's yeah.
Yeah, because I think people are sometimes shackled by this idea
of like, well, if it wasn't brought down in a particular
source, then I shouldn't go there with my thoughts or I
shouldn't, you know. But in in the modern age where a
lot of things are being revealed to us about, you know,
archaeology and, and the ancient world that they didn't have
access to, it's mind blowing the things you can actually ascribe
to the mitzvot because you have this information. 100%.
Yeah. So I think him, him saying that
empowers us in a way in this. Absolutely.
I totally agree.
Those are important chapters in
Section 3 of the guide, beginning with chapter 25, the
whole section on Tamiya mitzvot is very, very important.
And in contrast to our brothers and sisters and Ashkenaz in
Europe who said we're not supposed to investigate reasons
for mitzvot, they felt, no, it's God's will, just do it, right.
Very different approach, right? Yeah, it is.
Hard. It is hard to grow with the
mitzvot if you're just going with it's God's will.
And that is true that it is God's will.
And regardless of how far we do or don't get an understanding
the mitzvot, we are obligated to do it.
And there's for sure things that we don't understand that that
that that is incorporated within it.
But to your point, the point is not just the action itself, but
to grow with the action. And that can only be done when
we ascribe meaning so that we can grow with it and.
And and we see the infinite wisdom of God, you know, in, in,
in, in these mutual. Yeah, beautiful.
Yes, that was a good question. Thank you.
So I wanted to get into the chapter which I love the topic
of Iov. I think that we that that topic
alone deserves its own podcast, but for another time, in the
chapter you wrote, the The Knowledge that Heals you explore
Rambam's personal suffering, how it informed his reading of
Sephir Eov. So at a high level, how does he
understand the message of Sephir Eov and how does it connect to
his powerful statement that were not for Toran philosophy?
Quote on quote, I should have succumbed to my afflictions.
Well, beautiful question. So first of all, it's
interesting to note that in the entire guide of the perplexed,
EOV occupies probably the most amount of ink.
You know, Musharraf, they knew probably a second, but EOV
occupies the most. And I think there are two
reasons for that reason. Number one is because of all the
characters and personalities in the Tanakh.
EOV or the Tanakh describes EO's enlightenment in a very powerful
way, in a way that Harenbaum wishes he could do in his Guide
of the Perplex. The end goal of the guide is an
EO type enlightenment. But the second piece, and I
think it's what you were alluding to Benji, is that
Harenbam found a lot of comfort in EOS experience.
And you know how Rambam did experience loss in a very
profound way. I, I, I, I, I mentioned in my
book how he describes the loss of his brother, almost like
losing a son, like losing a child.
You know that that's how deep it was for him.
And, and he writes in some of the letters that he was
depressed for a very long time. And as you said, if it wasn't
for his continued study of Torah, he would have perished in
his despair. So what is it that heals?
What aspect of Torah heals? And here Hararambam's reading of
Iov is so profound and so beautiful.
Unfortunately, most readers you can't get beyond the four
philosophical schools that are Rambam begins by describing you
know and they get you know it just gets it gets too technical
for them. Here is the punchline of the EU
of peace. When God says to E, of where
were you when I created the world?
When God says to Eov, where were you when I put the leviathans
out in the sea and the soaring eagles in the sky?
And Eov responds by submitting to that truth.
What's the truth that Eov came to know?
And what I'm going to tell you now is really what the entire
Guide of the Perplexed is about. The truth that EOS came to
realize is that we human beings are a speck on this Earth, and
our Earth is a speck of a speck in our Milky Way.
And in our Milky Way, there are 2 trillion Suns the size of our
sun. And in the 26 billion year
universe there are some 3 trillion Milky Ways that we are
aware of. And when we embrace this
recognition of how we are suspended in this vast universe
by just the grace of God, how could any pain or suffering or
loss fill my existence? It can't.
My existence is so much more than that loss.
The loss is tragic, yes, but my existence and my very being is a
miracle beyond comprehension. And that was EO's great
enlightenment. And that when Hararambam, what
Hararambam is telling me is when he studies Torah, that's the
place he goes to. He goes to this place of
incredible awe and profound love of God, creator of this vast,
incredible universe. I was just in New Rochelle last
week and I read to this beautiful crowd there.
Chapter 14 and Section 3 where Harambam describes the distance
between the earth and the moon and the earth and some of the
planets. And the furthest distance
Harambam can can describe is 850,000 mil.
And for the person in the Middle Ages, that was like this huge
number that must have induced the sense of incredible awe.
And I joked with the crowd, I showed them a picture of a
recent James Webb telescope image of the universe.
And I said, imagine if Haram bomb.
Wow. That's what we should be feeling
when we when we look out into the night sky and remind
ourselves how infinitesimally small we are and yet how
magnificent our creation is. And what I write about in my
book, it's a famous quote, people have been quoting this
all the time, is that moment where we recognize how
infinitesimally small we are, but at the same time how
incredibly grand our consciousness is.
That's mysticism. That's the moment of profound
spiritual equanimity, and that's the moment of EOV.
And that's the healing that we can achieve, how Rambam
achieved. And that's was EO's moment of
great enlightenment. So if you were to ask me what's
the guide about? It's those chapters on EOV.
It's, it's, it's, it's that moment of enlightenment.
Does that answer your question? Absolutely, I mean, there's so
much more we could discuss, but to me, one of the most like I I
watched one of these videos years ago on the size of the
universe and 111 fact just always it's still today gives me
chills. The thought of it is that there
are more stars in the known universe, immensely more stars
than there are grains of sand on the earth.
Correct. Which is insane.
But that's what that's where you want to be.
You want to induce that insane moment.
You want to constantly, because if you stay there, Benji, in
meditation, in that insane moment, your spirit flies.
You know what I'm saying to you? Be there in those in those
moments where the mind is like bending and that's where you
want to go. That's where I try to take my
students in meditation. That's where you want to go,
though. Today the universe is about 26
billion years old, but that number keeps changing because
the vastness of what we're able to know today, that's my Sibora
sheet. My simmer Kava is beyond that
moment of, you know, what we call today The Big Bang.
And that's that place where there is no time, there is no
space. Unfathomable.
Yeah. And that's where you want to be.
Keep thinking about that because.
That we we have to, we have to, we have OK, so.
So we use the to the furthest limits of the fathomable to
appreciate and sink in the beautiful.
That's beautifully said. Yes, yes, yes, but again, from a
training, from a spiritual training place.
Unlike Eastern meditation, Jewish meditation is about
inducing love of God. That's what we meditate on.
That's our meditation. We're not just.
Meditating on our breath. Yeah, that was very nice.
I was actually just learning of the Rambam today, this morning.
So it's funny that yeah, exactly that part on Shabbat.
So we're not just meditating on our breath to relax ourselves
and to we're meditating with an intellectual background and a
scientific background and a philosophical background to
induce, as Benji was describing before, this sense of awe of God
where you tremble, the prophets, Haram Bam and others describe
would go into these fits of trembling.
That's what. That's how we meditate.
You know what's interesting about this?
So the Naveen in a sense have a had a much larger handicap in
terms of inducing that awe because their scientific
knowledge was actually very minimal.
We have immensely more scientific knowledge.
And like you said, the world is trillion times more than what it
was for Navi in terms of what he could have imagined or or or
gone to. Yet interestingly enough, the
world seems to have become increasingly superficial.
We have become increasingly superficial, and we have more to
work with to induce that. It's just interesting to me.
We've lost touch with nature. Though we've become more
distracted, unfortunately, but but it's not all lost.
We could tap into that. And Harambam in chapter in
chapter 51 talks about at night when you're lying in bed,
control your mind. Don't let it race into nonsense.
And he talks about meditation. And the meditation should be
love of God. I say do it in the early hours
of the morning before Tefila, before Shakarit, before the sun
rises and where everything is quiet and peaceful and get rid
of distractions and use the knowledge we have accessible to
us. Today.
I subscribe to Astronomy magazine.
Why? The pictures throw me into this
sense of incredible awe, pictures of this vast universe.
And you're right in that the opportunities are here, but
we're also so distracted. And the early Naveen were not
distracted, but they didn't have the opportunities we have today.
They had the natural world. They could look up at the
universe into a clear sky. And because we're more self
absorbed, the world is very fast-paced today.
There in, in the, there was a lot of of course, hardships in
the earlier days, but the world was slower.
You know what I mean by that? Everything was slower, not that
everything is faster. And it's like, and we have our
phones and, you know, our minds are racing on nonsense a lot and
a lot. We and and to really to it takes
real dedication and, and and and a willingness to to really
involve yourself in transformation.
Yeah, I you, one of the exercises I do with the
students, and Harambam writes about this in the guide, is
remind ourselves what God is not.
And you just take it deeper and deeper and deeper.
So of course he's not physical, Of course he's not big.
Of course he's not this, he's not strong.
And then we start getting into God is also not merciful.
And people, What do you mean? Yeah, because mercy is a human
feeling. We could apply mercy to God
because we believe it's something good, but that has to
also be checked off the box. We have to completely purge our
minds of all those things we think God is or might be,
because he's not. We can't fathom what is beyond
that moment of The Big Bang, and yet we have to allow our minds
to induce this sense of, like Benji said, craziness, you know,
this sense of, like, incredible awe.
So it does, it does give people the impression though, that God
is a very distant to God because he's on, you can't relate to him
in those ways. But at the same time, what
you're saying is that mystical union is the is the goal, and
it's achievable. It's that tension, it's that
exact tension, this transcendence that
philosophically is not achievable, but spiritually is
achievable, right? We're we're, we're trying to
transcend the bounds of our existence, correct our
consciousness. And by doing so, we're kind of
emulating in a way got as much as we can.
Obviously not. It's not, it's not really
possible, but I understand what you're saying.
So I actually want to, you know, get into the next part which is
connected to this. I was just mentioning in, in, in
Rambam, when he's, when he's teaching in, in the mission of
Torah, he's teaching in safer Ahava about Shmai srael and how
when I was learning it today, he was talking about how his, his
Yaakov Vavino is teaching this idea of the oneness of Hashem to
his sons. And this is going to lead into
the next question, which is the radical unity.
The chapter that you wrote radical unity Shemais or El.
And you highlight Rambam's bold assertion that it is ridiculous
to say God is 1 as it, as it is to say God is many.
So can you explain what he means by this?
How this notion of radical oneness challenges conventional
theology and how it should shape the way we speak about or relate
to God? Fantastic question.
So first thing I do in that chapter, which is very important
and I hope you picked it up. Harambam innovative his own
Midrash, the Gemara asks. In my second Pisakim, page 54 a,
the Gemara asks the basic Halachi question, how can we
interrupt the sequence of tupis sukim with the words?
It's unheard of. You're interrupting a sequence
of sukim with an invented line. That line doesn't appear
anywhere in Tanakh. I do a search and the Gemara
answers a story of rich lakish that he learned that Yakov Avinu
was on his deathbed and he wanted to reveal to his children
the end of days, and it was withheld from him.
So he asked his children, My children, is there anyone here
who doesn't believe? And they all said, no, Shama
Israel a shamal ocaino hashemihad.
So he responded, Baruch Shane kivod mahutoli olambad.
That's not what Harambeam writes in the Mishnet Torah, correct.
Harambeam writes in the Mishnet Torah that Abraha Yaakov was on
his deathbed and he wanted to reveal to his children Yehudo
Shalakadosh Baruhu, the unity, the oneness of God, and the
profound secret in the oneness of God.
And before he did so, he wanted to ascertain that all his
children were on the same page as believers.
And then they said Shmai Israel and he said Baruch Shane kevod
mahu tolu Alameda. So what's that deep secret that
he wanted to teach them? And so Haram bam in the 1st 9
Halahot of Yohotia Soda Torah divides this up into two parts,
that which everybody should know, men, women and children,
and that which the advanced students should know.
He makes the same division in Section 1, chapter 34 and
Section 1, chapter 35, that which everybody should know and
that which the more advanced students should know.
Everybody should know that when we say Hashemiah Keanu
Hashemihat, it doesn't mean one. That's a misconception, because
if you believe God is 1, then you believe he's divisible or
there's one in the context of others.
Nah, that's not the case, says Hararambam.
It's a one that is unique. It's a one.
Again, language fails us. We don't have a word for this in
the language, so we use one. But we have to know what that
one means. So a Professor Herman Cohen of
the early 20th century used the word unity.
Others use the word unique. Others use the word infinite.
Hashem is infinite. Harambam didn't have a language
for infinite maybe ain't soft, but who I, I don't remember is
using that. So that word ekhad is something
other than one. It's it's, it's it's it's, it's
a, it's a unique infinite isn't. Yahid unique.
Could be, could be. Yeah, let.
Me know. Yeah, could be.
So that's that.
So that's the deep secret. Now how Rambam says in the first
few halach what yesterday I had to write in chapter Section 1,
chapter 34, this you have to teach everybody, men, women and
children, unlike our Muslim brothers and sisters who unders
who said, yeah, the scholars should know what the unity of
God is, but let the women believe whatever they want, Let
the kids believe whatever they want.
Arambam says no. And then there is the more
advanced understanding of the transcendence of God and, and,
and, and, and God as a creator of, of, of, of what it means to
be the creator of this vast universe.
And so from a theological perspective, first of all, it's
amazing that Harambeam created his own midrash.
That in itself is amazing. And So what Harambeam wants us
to do, when we cover our eyes and we say Baruch Shane
Kevodmal, who told Lambad, we're thinking of our great
grandfather, Yakova Vinu teaching us, speaking to us and
saying, reflect on this infinite unity oneness of our Creator of
Hashem theologically and spiritually, that's just so
beautiful and so profound. Yeah, this fundamental idea of
unity with, you know how we learn it with the Shamas.
It's on our doorposts, it's on our it's, it's correct.
It's a Filene. It's on the city gates.
It's like everywhere we go, inside and out.
That is since. We spin.
A shot before we even do you know anything, we have to know
this, must know what it really means, the unity of Hashem.
So I think that is a very important very.
Very important. That's a fundamental premise,
fundamental principle, No corporeality, no bargaining with
God, absolute submission to God. I was recently asked, you know,
Rabbi, so why do we pray? How does Hararambam understand
prayer if God is immutable? And the answer is because the
act of submission to God is in itself incredibly powerful and
world changing. That act of submission is an act
of recognition, which is an act of change, and the smallest
change changes everything. Yeah, absolutely.
Wow, beautiful. This is great.
We, we, before we go, we wanted to ask you and like we asked all
of our guests, is there any project you're working on?
Anything else you want to plug? Listen, I'm always working on
something. My friends in Israel asked me to
create a teacher's guide for my trilogy of books.
It's it's it's a difficult task. I'm working on that.
And yeah, I'm always available to answer questions, to respond.
I get hundreds of emails a week, people who've read or reading my
books and that, that's what I love to do.
And how can they? How can they reach you?
Yes, Google Yamin Levy. There's about 3 different emails
ways of getting me you know what I'm saying I I make myself
available and accessible, but I encourage people really to read
this last book. It's an introduction to the
guide of the perplexed. The first chapter is the names
of God, and that's a very important fundamental principle,
this idea that we have to understand that names point to
something. You know, in the ancient world,
names were attributes. And we have to understand what
it means when we speak of names of God or God's name.
Leave it for those who want to read about it.
I encourage people to. Yeah, to study and to read it.
Good. I'm grateful to the two of you
for having me on. I hope this met your high
standards that you have in every of your videos.
You guys are fantastic. Thank.
You thank you this very enlightening.
We really appreciate a lot of really important points were
spoken. Thank you so much.
Thank you. OK, guys, good.
Take care. Bye.