God of Israel - God of Reason?

Maimonides ¹ by adapting Aristotle's ² prime mover postulates that existence/reality implies or points to a greater reality that is the source of everything that exists;

In the pagan world religion is conceived in mythical terms.  Consequently people inhabiting the realm of imagination argue that the Aristotelian system excludes the possibility of scriptural revelation.⁴⁸ Maimonides intended to demonstrate that the opposite was the case.  Not only are Scripture and myth mutually exclusive but reason – Aristotelian reason in particular – necessitates a prime mover transcending the physical universe…Transcending myth and imagination involves locating a reality that is not a product of the human psyche but is the source of everything that exists. ….an existent who is not the body of the universe, who is neither corporeal or a corporeal force, who is one, continuously eternal, uncaused and unchangeable, and He is God”⁴⁹

The Arabic adverb an tamma (that is there) is used as an interjection to point at something outside the mind of the speaker. Transcending myth and imagination involves locating a reality that is not a product of the human psyche but is the source of everything that exists. By discovering his absolute dependence on an absolute reality outside himself man succeeds in breaking the grip of imagination and enters the realm of reason. At once, this discovery leads to the recognition of God and the beginning of wisdom (see Ps 111:10; Prv 1:7)³. Using the same adverb in Hebrew Maimonides began the first paragraph of the Mishne Tora: “The Foundation of [all] Foundations and the Pillar of [all] sciences is to know that is there [she-yesh sham] a First Existent. He bestows existence [mamsi] to all that which exists. Whatever exists from heavens to earth and between them, does not exist but from the verity of His existence.”⁵⁰ … The use of the active participle Mamsi (bestows existence) underscores the continuous dependence of all creatures on His transcendental existence and thereby His continuous omnipresence and omniscience ⁵¹   ….This doctrine passed from Maimonides to Newton, who in the General Scholium wrote, “that the Supreme God exists necessarily” and is “a Being necessarily existing” ⁶⁵… the scientific discovery of reality leads to the discovery of God. The ultimate reality. Viewed rationally the whole universe is perceived as a semiological entity that “points out towards Him”.^{66  4}

48 - Shemona Peraqim 6, Maimonides, Perush ha-Mishnayot, 4 378—79.

49 - See Maimonides, Guide, sec. 3, chap. 29, pp.377 (line 12), 380 (line 28);

chap. 30, p. 382 (line 18); chap. 32, p. 388 (line 4); chap. 397, (lines 5—6).
50 - See ibid., chap. 29, pp. 378 (line 8)—79 (line 26).
51 - See Kuzari 4:11, 13. For the recurrence of this type of phenomena in the

West, see Eliade, Myth and Reality, especially chap. 9. On their effect on modern

intellectual trends, see idem, Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions, chap. I.  

65 - Newton Principia, 546

66 - Miamonides, Guide,  sect. 1 chap. 19.  

However for Maimonides the Aristotilian rational conclusion for the existence of God is only the doorway to the realization that Gods existence and His knowledge transcend human rationality. “There is no correlation between His knowledge and human knowledge, just as there is no correlation between His beingness and human beingness”. ⁵ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.” ⁶ For Maimonides the Aristotelian mechanistic prime mover has nothing in common with the God of Israel who, through an act of will, purposefully made the universe. Thus the limits of reason bring us to Prophecy the realm within which God addresses man, “Therefore we shall stop at the boundaries of our faculties and acquiesce those matters which cannot be apprehended through judgment to him [Moses] who was the recipient of the divine and awesome flow, and who was worthy of the statement: ‘Mouth to mouth I am speaking in him’⁷ ”.⁸   

1.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides

2.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle

3.       Psalm 111:10  - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;

all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.  

Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise

wisdom and instruction.

4.       Homo Mysticus: A Guide To Maimonides’s Guide For The Perplexed

Jose Faur pp. 98-99 (Syracuse University Press 1999)

5.       Maimonides, Guide, sec. 3, chap. 20, pp. 348 (line 28) – 49 (line 2)

6.       Isaiah 55:8

7.       Numbers 12:8

8.       Maimonides, Guide, sec. 2, chap.24, pp.228 (line 28) – 299 (line 1).

Cf. sec. 3, chap. 21, p.351 (lines 11 – 20)