Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah 1

Welcome back. Perhaps Hebrew school felt less like a journey into the divine and more like a celestial roll call, where God was a character we were told to believe in, often depicted with a very human-like temperament and a penchant for rules. You weren't wrong to find that a bit…stale. Many of us did.

But what if we could peel back those well-worn images and encounter a God so profoundly, radically different that it might just re-enchant your understanding of existence itself? We're diving into Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, specifically Foundations of the Torah 1. Forget the Sunday school caricatures; Maimonides, the brilliant 12th-century philosopher and legal codifier, is about to introduce you to a concept of God that’s less about a cosmic landlord and more about the absolute, necessary truth underpinning every atom of reality. It’s a vision that resonates deeply with the complexities and questions of adult life, offering both an intellectual anchor and a profound sense of liberation. Let's shed the old takes and discover a fresher, more expansive view.

Context

• Beyond the Rules: Maimonides as Philosopher-King

  For many, Maimonides (often called "Rambam") evokes images of endless legal codes, intricate Jewish law, and strict adherence. If you encountered him in a traditional setting, it was likely through his legal magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah, perhaps without much context for its profound philosophical underpinnings. But Maimonides was not just a jurist; he was one of the greatest Jewish philosophers. The Mishneh Torah isn't just a collection of laws; it's a meticulously structured, comprehensive system, beginning with the most fundamental philosophical principles. This isn't a mere preamble; the very first book of the Mishneh Torah is called Sefer HaMadda, "The Book of Knowledge." As the Peirush on 1:1:2 explains, this book is named so "because it includes commandments related to thought, knowledge, and beliefs." It’s a powerful statement: before you get to the "do's" and "don'ts," you must first grasp the foundational "is" – the very nature of existence. This immediate plunge into metaphysics sets the stage, revealing that for Maimonides, understanding God isn't a passive belief but an active intellectual pursuit, the very "pillar of wisdom."

• The "First Commandment" is Not What You Think

  You might recall the Ten Commandments and the instruction "I am the Lord your God…" (Exodus 20:2). Is this a commandment? Maimonides says "yes," classifying it as the first positive commandment (Mitzvat Aseh) – to know that there is a God. However, as the Yitzchak Yeranen commentary points out, this isn't universally agreed upon, with some (like Nachmanides) viewing it more as an introduction to God's kingship than a distinct mitzvah. This seemingly arcane debate actually demystifies a crucial "rule-heavy" misconception: the idea that religion is primarily about a list of arbitrary commands to be obeyed. For Maimonides, the "command" to know God isn't about blind obedience; it's about intellectual affirmation of a fundamental truth. It's not "believe it or else"; it's "understand this, and everything else will make sense." The Peirush on 1:1:2 further clarifies that if God's existence and knowledge of human actions aren't affirmed, "Torah faith crumbles." So, the "first commandment" is less about a punitive rule and more about establishing the absolute prerequisite for any meaningful spiritual framework. It's the ultimate "this matters because…" statement for all of Jewish thought and practice.

• The Hidden Name: The Divine Architect of Oral Law

  The very opening words of Maimonides' text – "Y'sod ha'yesodot v'amud ha'chochmot" (The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom) – hold a subtle, yet profound, secret. As the Peirush on 1:1:2 and Seder Mishnah on 1:1:1 keenly observe, the first letter of each of these four words (Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh) forms the Tetragrammaton, God's unutterable four-letter name, YHVH. This isn't just a clever literary device; it's a deeply intentional, reverent nod from Maimonides. Why here, at the beginning of a legal code? The Seder Mishnah offers several powerful insights. Firstly, it signals that the ultimate purpose of all the laws, ethics, and wisdom contained within this vast compilation is not external reward, but solely to do God's will and to draw closer to Him. This reframes the entire enterprise of Jewish law from a transactional model to one of intimate connection. Secondly, and perhaps even more radically, Maimonides uses this hidden divine signature to assert the divine origin of the Oral Law itself. Unlike the Written Torah, which is universally acknowledged as divine, the Oral Law (the interpretations, traditions, and rabbinic enactments that form the bulk of Maimonides' work) was often challenged as human invention. By embedding God's explicit name at the outset, Maimonides declares that "both are from one Shepherd" – both Written and Oral Torah are direct emanations of the divine, not merely human constructs. This dismantles the "rule-heavy" misconception that the Oral Law is just a human-made fence around the divine law; instead, it's presented as an equally sacred path, divinely inspired, whose ultimate goal is profound spiritual proximity.

Text Snapshot

"The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought into being all existence. All the beings of the heavens, the earth, and what is between them came into existence only from the truth of His being. If one would imagine that He does not exist, no other being could possibly exist. If one would imagine that none of the entities aside from Him exist, He alone would continue to exist, and the nullification of their [existence] would not nullify His existence, because all the [other] entities require Him and He, blessed be He, does not require them nor any one of them."

New Angle

The Ultimate Anchor in a Fluid World: When Everything Shifts, What Holds?

Think about your adult life. What are the "foundations" you’ve built upon? Maybe it's a career, a relationship, financial security, a strong sense of identity, or a particular passion. For many of us, these foundations, while crucial, often prove to be more fluid than we imagined. Careers pivot, relationships evolve or dissolve, financial markets fluctuate, and even our sense of self can undergo profound transformations. We chase security, meaning, and stability, only to find that the ground beneath our feet is constantly shifting. This constant search for an anchor, this quiet anxiety about the impermanence of all things, is a hallmark of the adult experience. We’re often told to "find our purpose" or "be our authentic selves," but what if those "purposes" or "selves" are themselves built on something less than foundational?

This is precisely where Maimonides, with his almost startlingly direct philosophical opening, offers a radical re-enchantment. He declares, "The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought into being all existence." This isn't a suggestion or a comforting platitude; it's a logical necessity. He calls this Primary Being the "necessary existent" (Mitzui) – a term the Peirush on 1:1:2 highlights, explaining that "existent" here means "necessary existent." What does this mean for us, navigating the choppy waters of modern existence?

Consider this: Maimonides isn't asking you to believe in a God who intervenes in every traffic jam or helps you find your lost keys. He's asking you to intellectually grasp that there must be an ultimate, uncaused cause, a bedrock of reality, without which nothing else could possibly exist. "If one would imagine that He does not exist, no other being could possibly exist. If one would imagine that none of the entities aside from Him exist, He alone would continue to exist, and the nullification of their [existence] would not nullify His existence, because all the [other] entities require Him and He, blessed be He, does not require them nor any one of them." This is a profound philosophical argument for absolute dependence: everything we perceive, experience, and build is contingent, secondary. Its existence relies entirely on this Primary Being.

Insight 1: Beyond Contingency – Reclaiming True Security

In a world that often feels overwhelmingly contingent – where our jobs, health, and even our planet's stability feel precarious – Maimonides offers an intellectual path to recognizing the non-contingent. He's not saying "everything will be fine if you just believe." He's making a logical claim: for anything to exist, there must be something that exists necessarily, independently, and is the ultimate source of all other existence. This "necessary existent" (as clarified by the Peirush on 1:1:2 and Steinsaltz on 1:1:2) is the ultimate anchor.

For adults grappling with imposter syndrome, career crises, or the crushing weight of existential dread, this insight can be deeply transformative. Your worth isn't contingent on your latest achievement, your financial portfolio, or your social standing. These are all transient, secondary realities. The very fact of your existence, and the existence of anything you hold dear, points to this ultimate, non-contingent truth. Recognizing this shifts the ground of our security from the shaky sands of temporal success to the bedrock of absolute reality. It's a profound "this matters because…" moment: our lives, with all their struggles and triumphs, are not random flukes in a meaningless void, but expressions of a fundamental, necessary truth. This understanding provides a deep, almost serene sense of grounding that no market crash or personal setback can truly erode. It allows us to participate fully in the contingent world, pursuing goals and building relationships, but with an underlying awareness that our ultimate security lies beyond these fleeting forms.

The Peirush on 1:1:2 states that God is the "ikar" – the root or foundation of everything. When we understand this, our entire framework for meaning shifts. Our search for purpose moves from seeking external validation or transient pleasures to aligning ourselves with this ultimate ikar. The Seder Mishnah on 1:1:1 beautifully articulates this, explaining that Maimonides' subtle hint to God's name at the outset of his work signifies that the "ultimate purpose of all these [laws and wisdom] is not on condition of receiving reward for doing them… but the true purpose of all this is to do the will of the Commander, blessed be He, and to draw near to the Holy One, blessed be He." This isn't about earning points; it's about recognizing and aligning with the ultimate reality. In our adult lives, where we're constantly measuring success, worth, and meaning, this Maimonidean perspective radically redefines the game. The ultimate "win" isn't accumulation, but connection to the Source.

The Freedom of the Unbounded: Liberating God (and Ourselves) from Our Limited Projections

If your past experiences with the divine left you feeling constrained, judged, or burdened by a sense of an unseen, micromanaging presence, you're not alone. Many spiritual journeys stall because the "God" presented to us is too small, too human, too much like an amplified version of our own flaws and expectations. We project our own limitations – our need for control, our anger, our joys, our physical forms – onto the divine. Maimonides, however, systematically dismantles this anthropomorphic cage, offering an expansive vision of God that is incredibly liberating.

He dedicates significant portions of this foundational text to explaining what God is not. God "is not two or more, but one, unified in a manner which [surpasses] any unity that is found in the world." He's not one like a category (a 'species' of 'gods'), nor one like a body divided into parts. He is absolutely simple, unified beyond any human conception of unity. Crucially, Maimonides stresses that God is not a body, nor does He have a physical form. Why is this so important? Because "if there were many gods, they would have body and form, because like entities are separated from each other only through the circumstances associated with body and form." And if God had a body, He would have "limitation and definition," and therefore "limited and defined power." But our God, Maimonides argues, possesses "unlimited power." Therefore, He cannot be a body.

Insight 2: Releasing the Divine from Human Constraints – A Path to Spiritual Maturity

This isn't just abstract philosophy; it's a profound spiritual liberation. Think about the ways we unconsciously limit God: by imagining Him with human emotions (anger, joy, sadness), by placing Him in a specific "place" (heaven "above"), by thinking of Him as acting with "hands" or "eyes." Maimonides directly confronts this: "All these [expressions were used] to relate to human thought processes which know only corporeal imagery, for the Torah speaks in the language of man." The stories, the vivid imagery of God "sitting" or "wielding a sword" – these are metaphors, pedagogical tools to help us grasp concepts that are otherwise incomprehensible. "Does He have a sword? Does He need a sword to kill? Rather, this is metaphoric imagery."

For adults who've struggled with reconciling a scientific worldview with religious texts, this is a monumental bridge. Maimonides gives us permission to read sacred texts with intellectual sophistication, recognizing that ancient language speaks in the idiom of its time, not necessarily in literal scientific terms. It frees us from the need to defend literal interpretations that clash with our adult understanding of the universe.

Furthermore, Maimonides extends this non-corporeality to all human attributes. God is not bound by time ("no beginning, an end, or age"), does not change ("I, God, have not changed"), and does not possess human emotions ("neither anger nor laughter, neither joy nor sadness"). If God is utterly unchanging and beyond human emotion, what does this mean for our perception of divine judgment, reward, and punishment? It means that our understanding of these concepts must also transcend simplistic human projections. God's "anger" or "joy" are not shifts in His unchanging essence, but metaphorical descriptions of the consequences of our actions within a divinely ordered reality. This perspective shifts our focus from trying to appease a fickle deity to understanding the inherent spiritual mechanics of existence.

The commentary on Peirush 1:1:2 emphasizes that God has "no gvul" (limit or definition). Our minds operate by defining, categorizing, and limiting. To truly apprehend Maimonides' God is to stretch beyond these cognitive boundaries. Moses, our teacher, famously asked, "Please show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18). Maimonides explains that Moses wasn't asking for a literal vision of a physical form. He sought to "know the truth of the existence of the Holy One, blessed be He, to the extent that it could be internalized within his mind." God's reply – "You shall see My back, but you shall not see My face" – is Maimonides' profound metaphor for our human capacity. We cannot grasp God's essence ("face"), but we can know Him through His effects, His manifestations, His "back" – the order, beauty, and intricate workings of creation.

This insight offers immense freedom in our self-perception and our spiritual practice. If God is beyond all human limitations, then perhaps we too can find freedom from the rigid boxes we put ourselves in. We are not expected to be perfect, unchanging, or emotionless. Instead, our spiritual task becomes one of continually seeking to understand the "back" – the divine wisdom embedded in the world, the ethical imperatives that flow from a unified, just Source, and the pursuit of virtues that allow us to align our finite, changing selves with an infinite, unchanging truth. It's a journey not of rigid adherence to a human-shaped God, but of expansive, intellectually vibrant engagement with the unbounded reality that Maimonides lays bare. This is a God that not only tolerates but demands intellectual curiosity and a willingness to transcend simplistic, childhood notions of the divine.

Low-Lift Ritual

The "Necessary Existence" Scan: A 2-Minute Grounding Practice

We live in a world of constant flux, where our attention is pulled in a thousand directions. It’s easy to take existence for granted, to treat everything around us as just “there.” This week, let’s dedicate a mere two minutes to a low-lift ritual that directly engages Maimonides’ concept of a “Primary Being” and “necessary existent” – the absolute anchor of all reality. This isn’t about generating a feeling, but about engaging in a focused intellectual exercise that subtly reconfigures your perception of the world.

The Ritual: The "Necessary Existence" Scan

Time: 2 minutes (or slightly more if you get lost in thought, which is encouraged!) Frequency: Try it once a day, or whenever you feel a moment of stillness, perhaps at your desk, on a commute, or before bed.

Steps:

1. Choose Your Object (30 seconds): Look around you and pick any mundane object. It could be your coffee mug, a pen, your phone, a plant on your windowsill, or even your own hand. Don't overthink it; just pick something immediately visible.

   • Example: Let's say you pick your phone.

2. Observe Its Contingency (30 seconds): Spend these seconds truly seeing the object. Notice its color, its shape, its texture, its function. Then, consciously acknowledge its contingent nature. This phone wasn't always here. It was manufactured, assembled, designed. It’s made of materials that were extracted from the earth. It will eventually break, become obsolete, or cease to exist in its current form. It is dependent on other things for its existence.

   • Example (Phone): "This phone exists. I can feel its weight, see its screen. But it didn't always exist. It came from a factory, from raw materials. It will eventually stop working. Its existence is temporary, dependent."

3. Imagine its Non-Existence (30 seconds): Now, for a brief moment, try to genuinely imagine this specific object not existing. What would the world be like right now if it simply vanished? Not just your phone, but all phones. What if the very concept of a phone had never materialized?

   • Example (Phone): "Imagine no phones. No texts, no apps, no quick calls. A different world. A very different me." This isn't about longing for its absence, but about highlighting its non-essential nature to the fabric of reality itself.

4. Shift to Necessary Existence (60-90 seconds): Here's the core of the practice. Shift your focus beyond the object's contingent existence. Maimonides states: "If one would imagine that He [the Primary Being] does not exist, no other being could possibly exist." Now, reflect: What is the fundamental, underlying truth of being that must exist for this object, or anything at all, to exist? This isn't about finding God in the phone, but using the phone as a portal to consider the ultimate, uncaused source of all existence.

   • Example (Phone): "For this phone to exist, for the metals and plastics it's made of to exist, for the laws of physics that govern its function to exist, for the human mind that conceived it to exist—there must be an ultimate, foundational reality. A Primary Being. A necessary existent that doesn't depend on anything else, but on which everything else depends. That truth of being is the absolute anchor."
   • This is a mental acknowledgment, a quiet intellectual affirmation of Maimonides' core assertion. You’re not trying to feel God, but to know Him as the indispensable condition for all reality.

Why this matters: This ritual trains your mind to habitually look beyond the surface of contingent existence to its ultimate source. In a world that constantly demands our attention for the ephemeral, this practice offers a powerful, low-barrier way to reconnect with the profound, non-contingent truth that Maimonides describes. It’s a moment of grounding, reminding us that no matter what shifts or crumbles in our lives, the "foundation of all foundations" remains.

Chevruta Mini

1. Maimonides rigorously argues that God is not corporeal, has no form, and does not experience human emotions like anger or joy. How does releasing simplistic, anthropomorphic images of God (e.g., a "bearded man in the sky," a demanding parent figure, or a cosmic scorekeeper) impact your personal sense of spiritual freedom, responsibility, or the way you understand divine justice?
2. Maimonides posits that "If one would imagine that He [the Primary Being] does not exist, no other being could possibly exist." He is the "necessary existent," the ultimate anchor. How does this idea of an absolute, indispensable foundation for all reality resonate with or challenge your adult experiences of seeking meaning, purpose, and stability in a constantly changing and often uncertain world?

Takeaway

You weren't wrong to find your earlier encounters with "God" inadequate. Maimonides, the re-enchanter of thought, offers a sophisticated, intellectually rigorous journey beyond simplistic notions. He invites us to shed the anthropomorphic projections and, instead, to grasp God as the absolute, non-contingent "Primary Being" – the "foundation of all foundations" upon which all existence, meaning, and stability ultimately rest. This isn't about blind faith; it's about a profound philosophical insight that can serve as an unshakeable anchor in a fluid world, liberating us from narrow spiritual confines and opening a path to understanding reality at its deepest, most expansive level. The God of Maimonides is not a character to be believed in, but the indispensable truth to be known.