138 James A. Diamond
- For the rabbinic sources claiming that the Torah existed before God cre-
ated the world, see Ephraim Urbach, Th e Sages: Th eir Concepts and Beliefs, 2 vols.,
trans. I. Abrahams (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1975), 180 – 82. For the ramifi cations of a
“pre-existent Torah” during the course of the history of Jewish mysticism from the
Middle Ages, see Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish in Jewish Mysticism
(New York: Schocken Books, 1954), 13 – 14. - MT, Laws of Idolatry, 1:3.
- Ibid.
- MT, Laws of Idolatry, 2:4; GP, III:29, p. 517, based on Sifre Devarim 54. See
also BT Shavuot 29a; BT Horayot 8a. - See Alfred Ivry, “Strategies of Interpretation in Maimonides’ Guide of the
Perplexed,” Jewish History 6, nos. 1 – 2 (1992): 113 – 30. Ivry asserts, “In its stated pur-
poses, then, the Guide is a work of biblical exegesis with a clearly stated herme-
neutic” (118), as opposed to a philosophical composition in the traditional West-
ern form. - Considering the recent fl urry of books bearing the title “How to Read
the Bible” (at least nine by my count: Frederick Grant, James Kugel, Marc Bret-
tler, J. Paterson Smyth, Edgar Goodspeed, James Fischer, Richard Holloway, Steven
McKen zie, Jack Rang), Maimonides, by rejecting this title, considerately spared us
a further perplexity of simply accessing his book. - For a probative analysis of this parable, see Hannah Kasher, “Th e Parable of
the King’s Palace in the Guide of the Perplexed as a Directive to the Student” (Heb.),
AJS Review 14 (1989): 1 – 19 - MT, Laws Concerning the Basic Principles of the Torah, 4:13.
- CM, Berakhot, 9:5.
- BT Shabbat 87b.
- MT, Ethical Traits, 1:7.
- MT, Torah Study, 1:11 – 12. Many of the manuscripts substitute gemara for
talmud. - Also cited in MT, Laws of Reciting Shema, 8:4. One can recite the words
of the Torah aft er having experienced a seminal emission, which would normally
quarantine the subject from fully participating in religious life. - For a book-length treatment of Maimonides’s antagonism to mystical cur-
rents that were germinating within Judaism during his life and that were to become
staples of the kabbalistic tradition, see Menachem Kellner’s Maimonides’ Confron-
tation with Mysticism (Portland, OR: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2006). - GP, I:46, p. 103, citing Bereshit Rabbah.