Maimonides in His World. Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker

Chapter Six

“From Moses to Moses”:

Maimonides’ Vision of Perfection

Notwithstanding maimonides’ complete immersion in the cultural
world of his time, the Jewish tradition and the Jewish community were at
the heart of his thought and activity. As the community’s leader, he as-
pired to reach the point at which the Jewish people would be found de-
serving of being described by the nations as “a wise, understanding na-
tion” [Deut. 4:6]. At the same time, he sought to attain a personal level
of understanding that he knew was suited only for a few individuals, and
not for the masses. This chapter will examine the tension between Mai-
monides’ role as a community leader, and his craving for solitary, indi-
vidual salvation.

“True Felicity”: The Hereafter in Maimonides’ Thought

Although Maimonides’ discussion of the hereafter is couched in the terms
of traditional Jewish sources, his position must be understood against the
backdrop of Islamic philosophy. We should therefore begin with a brief
description of the hereafter of Muslim phi losophers.^1
The attitude of Muslim phi losophers to the hereafter was determined
by the sacred text. Both eternal punishment for the wicked and everlast-
ing bliss for the righ teous are depicted in the Quran in vivid colors.
Paradise is described in sensuous, corporeal terms, and the Quran dwells
in detail on the garden’s pleasures or delights. Hadith literature expounds
on the Quranic descriptions of paradise and adds to them still more col-
orful, more sensuous descriptions. This corporeal paradise could not be
accepted by the phi losophers. When the falasifa speak of the hereafter,
they consider it to be the culmination of human perfection. According to
allfalasifa, the human being is composed of body and soul. Following
Platonic teaching, they see the soul as including vegetal and animal souls
or parts, and a rational soul. The body perishes with death, regardless of

(^1) On the depiction of the hereafter in Islam and in Islamic philosophy, see further S. Stroumsa,
“ ‘True Felicity’: Paradise in the Thought of Avicenna and Maimonides,” Medieval Encoun-
ters 4 (1998): 51– 77.