THE FIRST PART of The Guide of the Perplexed My knowledge goes forth to point out the way, To pave straight its road.
Lo, everyone who goes astray in the field of Torah, Come and follow its path.
The unclean and the fool shall not pass over it; It shall be called Way of Holiness.1 1. Cf. Isa. 35: 8.
In the name of the Lord, God of the World 1 [EPISTLE dedicatory] M- honored pupil Rabbi Joseph,'2- may the Rock guard you, son of Rabbi Judah, may his repose be in Paradise. When you came to me, having conceived the intention of journeying from the country farthest away in order to read texts under my guidance, I had a high opinion of you because of your strong desire for inquiry and because of what I had observed in your poems of your powerful longing for speculative matters. This was the case since your letters and compositions in rhymed prose came to me from Alexandria, before your grasp was put to the test. I said however: perhaps his longing is stronger than his grasp. When thereupon you read under my guidance texts dealing with the science of astronomy and prior to that texts dealing with mathematics, which is necessary as an introduction to astron¬ omy, my joy in you increased because of the excellence of your mind and the quickness of your grasp. I saw that your longing for mathematics was great, and hence I let you train yourself in that science, knowing where you would end. When thereupon you read under my guidance texts dealing with the art of logic, my hopes fastened upon you, and I saw that you are one worthy to have the secrets of the prophetic books revealed to you so that you would consider in them that which perfect men ought to consider. Thereupon I began to let you see certain flashes and to give you certain indications. Then I saw that you demanded of me additional knowledge [ and asked me to make clear to you certain things pertaining to divine matters, to inform you 1. Gen. 21: 53. The correct sense of this Hebrew invocation is “ God of Eternity.” However, in current Hebrew the words mean “ God of the World ”; this seems to have been the meaning that Maimonides had in mind.
2. As Maimonides states in this Epistle, the Guide was written for the benefit of this disciple and for those like him. For this reason, some importance should be attached to the description, given in the text, of the intellectual attainment of Joseph, son of Judah.
4 The Guide of the Perplexed I [2 b of the intentions of the Mutakallimun in this respect, and to let you know whether their methods were demonstrative and, if not, to what art they belonged. As I also saw, you had already acquired some smattering of this subject from people other than myself 5 you were perplexed, as stupefaction had come over you; your noble soul demanded of you to find out acceptable words.3 Yet I did not cease dissuading you from this and enjoining upon you to approach matters in an orderly manner. My purpose in this was that the truth should be established in your mind according to the proper methods and that certainty should not come to you by accident. Whenever during your association with me a [biblical] verse or some text of the Sages was mentioned in which there was a pointer to some strange notion, I did not refrain from explaining it to you. Then when God decreed our separation and you betook yourself elsewhere, these meetings aroused in me a resolu¬ tion that had slackened. Your absence moved me to compose this Treatise, which I have composed for you and for those like you, however few they are. I have set it down in dispersed chapters. All of them that are written down will reach you where you are, one after the other. Be in good health.
3. Eccles. 12: 10.
[INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST PART] Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, For unto Thee have I lifted my soul} Unto you, O men, I call, And my voice is to the sons of men.2 Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, And apply thy heart unto my knowledge.3 The first purpose of this Treatise is to explain the meanings of certain terms occurring in books of prophecy. Some of these terms are equivocal $ hence the ignorant attribute to them only one or some of the meanings in which the term in question is used. Others are derivative terms 5 hence they attribute to them only the original meaning from which the other meaning is derived. Others | are amphibolous terms, so that at times they are believed to be univocal and at other times equivocal. It is not the purpose of this Treatise to make its totality understandable to the vulgar or to beginners in speculation, nor to teach those who have not engaged in any study other than the science of the Law — I mean the legalistic study of the Law. For the purpose of this Treatise and of all those like it is the science of Law in its true sense. Or rather its purpose is to give indications to a religious man for whom the validity of our Law has become established in his soul and has become actual in his belief— such a man being perfect in his reli¬ gion and character, and having studied the sciences of the philosophers and come to know what they signify. The human intellect having drawn him on and led him to dwell within its province, he must have felt distressed by the externals of the Law and by the meanings of the above-mentioned equivocal, derivative, or amphibolous terms, as he continued to understand them by himself or was made to understand them by others. Hence he would remain in a state of perplexity and confusion as to whether he should follow his intellect, renounce what he knew concerning the terms in ques¬ tion, and consequently consider that he has renounced the foundations of the Law. Or he should hold fast to his understanding of these terms and not 6 The Guide of the Perplexed I [3 b let himself be drawn on together with his intellect, rather turning his back on it and moving away from it, while at the same time perceiving that he had brought loss to himself and harm to his religion. He would be left with those imaginary beliefs to which he owes his fear and difficulty and would not cease to suffer from heartache and great perplexity.
This Treatise also has a second purpose: namely, the explanation of very obscure parables occurring in the books of the prophets, but not explicitly identified there as such. Hence an ignorant or heedless individual might think that they possess only an external sense, but no internal one. However, even when one who truly possesses knowledge considers these parables and interprets them according to their external meaning, he too is overtaken by | great perplexity. But if we explain these parables to him or if we draw his attention to their being parables, he will take the right road and be delivered from this perplexity. That is why I have called this Treatise “The Guide of the Perplexed.”
I do not say that this Treatise will remove all difficulties for those who understand it. I do, however, say that it will remove most of the difficulties, and those of the greatest moment. A sensible man thus should not demand of me or hope that when we mention a subject, we shall make a complete exposition of it, or that when we engage in the explanation of the meaning of one of the parables, we shall set forth exhaustively all that is expressed in that parable. An intelligent man would be unable to do so even by speak¬ ing directly to an interlocutor. How then could he put it down in writing without becoming a butt for every ignoramus who, thinking that he has the necessary knowledge, would let fly at him the shafts of his ignorance? We have already explained in our legal compilations some general propositions concerning this subject and have drawn attention to many themes. Thus we have mentioned there that the Account of the Beginning 4 is identical with natural science, and the Account of the Chariot 5 with divine science; and have explained the rabbinic saying: The Account of the Chariot ought not to be taught even to one man, except if he be wise and able to understand by himself, in which case only the chapter headings may be transmitted to him.4 5 6 Hence you should not ask of me here anything beyond the chapter headings. And even those are not set down in order or arranged in coherent fashion in this Treatise, but rather are scattered and entangled with other subjects that are to be clarified. For my purpose is that the truths be glimpsed and 4. ma'aseh bereskith. Literally: the Work of the Beginning.
5. macaseh merkabah. Literally: the Work of the Chariot.
6. Babylonian Talmud (hereafter cited as B.T.), Hagigah, lib, 13a.
4^] The Guide of the Perplexed I 7 then again be concealed, so as not to oppose that divine purpose which one cannot possibly oppose and which has concealed from the vulgar among the people those truths especially requisite for His apprehension. As He has said: The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.1 Know that with regard to natural matters as well, | it is impossible to give a clear exposition when teaching some of their principles as they are. For you know the saying of [the Sages], may their memory be blessed: The Account of the Beginning ought not to be taught in the presence of two men.8 Now if someone explained all those matters in a book, he in effect would be teaching them to thousands of men. Hence these matters too occur in parables in the books of prophecy. The Sages, may their memory be blessed, following the trail of these books, likewise have spoken of them in riddles and parables, for there is a close connection between these matters and the divine science, and they too are secrets of that divine science.
You should not think that these great secrets are fully and completely known to anyone among us. They are not. But sometimes truth flashes out to us so that we think that it is day, and then matter and habit in their various forms conceal it so that we find ourselves again in an obscure night, almost as we were at first. We are like someone in a very dark night over whom lightning flashes time and time again. Among us there is one9 for whom the lightning flashes time and time again, so that he is always, as it were, in unceasing light. Thus night appears to him as day. That is the degree of the great one among the prophets, to whom it was said: But as for thee, stand thou here by Me,10 and of whom it was said: that the skin of his face sent forth beams, and so on 11 Among them there is one to whom the lightning flashes only once in the whole of his night 5 that is the rank of those of whom it is said: they prophesied, but they did so no more}2 There are others between whose lightning flashes there are greater or shorter intervals. Thereafter comes he who does not attain a degree in which his darkness is illumined by any lightning flash. It is illumined, however, by a polished body or something of that kind, stones or something else that give light in the darkness of the night. And even this small light that shines over us is not always there, but flashes and is hidden again, as if it were the flaming sword which turned every way}8 | It is in accord with these states that the degrees of the perfect vary. As for those who never even once see a light, but grope about in their night, of them it is said: They know not, neither do 7. Ps. 25:14. 8. B.T., Hagigah, 11b. g. Or: there are those.
8 The Guide of the Perplexed I [ g<z they understand; They go about in darkness.1+ The truth, in spite of the strength of its manifestation, is entirely hidden from them, as is said of them: And now men see not the light which is bright in the skies.15 They are the vulgar among the people. There is then no occasion to mention them here in this Treatise.
Know that whenever one of the perfect wishes to mention, either orally or in writing, something that he understands of these secrets, according to the degree of his perfection, he is unable to explain with complete clarity and coherence even the portion that he has apprehended, as he could do with the other sciences whose teaching is generally recognized. Rather there will befall him when teaching another that which he had undergone when learning himself. I mean to say that the subject matter will appear, flash, and then be hidden again, as though this were the nature of this subject matter, be there much or little of it. For this reason, all the Sages possessing knowledge of God the Lord,16 knowers of the truth, when they aimed at teaching something of this subject matter, spoke of it only in parables and riddles. They even multiplied the parables and made them different in species and even in genus. In most cases the subject to be explained was placed in the beginning or in the middle or at the end of the parable; this happened where a parable appropriate for the intended subject from start to finish could not be found. Sometimes the subject intended to be taught to him who was to be instructed was divided — although it was one and the same subject — among many parables remote from one another. Even more obscure is the case of one and the same parable corresponding to several sub¬ jects, its beginning fitting one subject and its ending another. Sometimes the whole is a parable | referring to two cognate subjects within the particu¬ lar species of science in question. The situation is such that the exposition of one who wishes to teach without recourse to parables and riddles is so obscure and brief as to make obscurity and brevity serve in place of parables and riddles. The men of knowledge and the sages17 are drawn, as it were, toward this purpose by the divine will just as they are drawn by their natural circumstances. Do you not see the following fact? God, may His mention be exalted, wished18 us to be perfected and the state of our societies to be improved by His laws regarding actions. Now this can come 1 6. In the context this appears to be the meaning of the two adjectives al-ilahi and al-rabbdnl-, the literal meaning of the former is “divine”; the latter is derived from rabb signifying “the Lord.”
17. al-hukama?. The term often designates the philosophers.
18. In the text: God...when He wished. The sentence that follows is anacoluthic.
5 b ] The Guide of the Perplexed I p about only after the adoption of intellectual beliefs, the first of which being His apprehension, may He be exalted, according to our capacity. This, in its turn, cannot come about except through divine science, and this divine science cannot become actual except after a study of natural science. This is so since natural science borders on divine science, and its study precedes that of divine science in time as has been made clear to whoever has engaged in speculation on these matters. Hence God, may He be exalted, caused His book to open with the Account of the Beginning, which, as we have made clear, is natural science. And because of the greatness and importance of the subject and because our capacity falls short of apprehending the greatest of subjects as it really is, we are told19 about those profound matters — which divine wisdom has deemed necessary to convey to us — in parables and riddles and in very obscure words. As [the Sages], may their memory be blessed, have said: It is impossible to tell mortals 20 of the power of the Account of the Beginning. For this reason Scripture tells you obscurely: In the begin¬ ning God created, and so on.2i They thus have drawn your attention to the fact that the above-mentioned subjects are obscure. You likewise know Solomon’s saying: That which was is far off, and exceeding deep; who can find it out?22 That which is said about all this is in equivocal terms so that the multitude might comprehend them in accord with the capacity of their understanding | and the weakness of their representation, whereas the per¬ fect man, who is already informed, will comprehend them otherwise.
We had promised in the Commentary on the Mishnah that we would explain strange subjects in the “Book of Prophecy” and in the “Book of Correspondence” — the latter being a book in which we promised to explain all the difficult passages in the Midrashim 23 where the external sense mani¬ festly contradicts the truth and departs from the intelligible. They are all parables. However, when, many years ago, we began these books and com¬ posed a part of them, our beginning to explain matters in this way did not commend itself to us. For we saw that if we should adhere to parables and to concealment of what ought to be concealed, we would not be deviating from the primary purpose. We would, as it were, have replaced one indi¬ vidual by another of the same species. If, on the other hand, we explained what ought to be explained, it would be unsuitable for the vulgar among the people. Now it was to the vulgar that we wanted to explain the import 19. khutibna. The Arabic word for rhetoric derives from the same verbal form of the root in question.
20. Literally: flesh and blood. 21. Cf. Midrash Shnei Ketubim, Batei Midrashoth, IV.
22. Eccles. 7:24. 23. Maimonides uses here and subsequently the term drashoth.
io The Guide of the Perplexed I [ 6a of the Midrashim and the external meanings of prophecy. We also saw that if an ignoramus among the multitude of Rabbanites should engage in speculation on these Midrashim, he would find nothing difficult in them, inasmuch as a rash fool, devoid of any knowledge of the nature of being, does not find impossibilities hard to accept. If, however, a perfect man of virtue should engage in speculation on them, he cannot escape one of two courses: either he can take the speeches in question in their external sense and, in so doing, think ill of their author and regard him as an ignoramus — in this there is nothing that would upset the foundations of belief; or he can attribute to them an inner meaning, thereby extricating himself from his predicament and being able to think well of the author whether or not the inner meaning of the saying is clear to him. With regard to the meaning of prophecy, the exposition of its various degrees, and the elucidation of the parables occurring in the prophetic books, another manner of explanation is used in this Treatise. In view of these considerations, we have given up composing these two | books in the way in which they were begun. We have confined ourselves to mentioning briefly the foundations of belief and general truths, while dropping hints that approach a clear exposition, just as we have set them forth in the great legal compilation, Mishneh Torah.
My speech in the present Treatise is directed, as I have mentioned, to one who has philosophized24 and has knowledge of the true sciences,25 but believes at the same time in the matters pertaining to the Law and is perplexed as to their meaning because of the uncertain terms and the parables. We shall include in this Treatise some chapters in which there will be no mention of an equivocal term. Such a chapter will be preparatory for another, or it will hint at one of the meanings of an equivocal term that I might not wish to mention explicitly in that place, or it will explain one of the parables or hint at the fact that a certain story is a parable. Such a chapter may contain strange matters regarding which the contrary of the truth sometimes is believed, either because of the equivocality of the terms or because a parable is taken for the thing being represented or vice versa.
As I have mentioned parables, we shall make the following introductory remarks: Know that the key to the understanding of all that the prophets, peace be on them, have said, and to the knowledge of its truth, is an under¬ standing of the parables, of their import, and of the meaning of the words 24. Or: has become a philosopher.
25. Translated in accordance with the Ibn Tibbon Hebrew translation, which supposes a very slight graphical alteration of the Arabic text as we have it. The Arabic text could be rendered: and really have knowledge of the sciences. But the sentence is awkward.
II Qb ] The Guide of the Perplexed I occurring in them. You know what God, may He be exalted, has said: And by the ministry of the prophets have I used similitudes.26 And you know that He has said: Put forth a riddle and speak a parable 21 You know too that because of the frequent use prophets make of parables, the prophet has said: They say of me: Is he not a maker of parables?2* You know how Solomon began his book: To understand a proverb, and a figure,• The words of the wise, and their dark sayings.22 And it said in the Midrash: | To what were the words of the Torah to be compared before the advent of Solomon? To a well the waters of which are at a great depth and cool, yet no man could drink of them. Now what did one clever man do? He joined cord with cord and rope with rope and drew them up and drank. Thus did Solomon say one parable after another and speak one word after another until he understood the meaning of the words of the Torah.*0 That is literally what they say. I do not think that anyone possessing an unimpaired capacity imagines that the words of the Torah referred to here that one contrives to understand through understanding the meaning of parables are ordinances concerning the building of tabernacles, the lulab, and the law of four trustees. Rather what this text has in view here is, without any doubt, the understanding of obscure matters. About this it has been said: Our Rabbis say: A man who loses a sela 31 or a pearl in his house can find the pearl by lighting a taper worth an issar.*2 In the same way this parable in itself is worth nothing, but by means of it you can understand the words of the Torah.** This too is literally what they say. Now consider the explicit affirmation of [the Sages], may their memory be blessed, that the internal meaning of the words of the Torah is a pearl whereas the external meaning of all parables is worth nothing, and their comparison of the concealment of a subject by its parable’s external meaning to a man who let drop a pearl in his house, which was dark and full of furniture. Now this pearl is there, but he does not see it and does not know where it is. It is as though it were no longer in his possession, as it is impossible for him to derive any benefit from it until, as has been mentioned, he lights a lamp — an act to which an understanding of the meaning of the parable corresponds. The Sage has said: A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings [ maskiyyoth ] of silver.** Hear now an elucidation of the thought that he has set forth. The term maskiyyoth denotes filigree tra¬ ceries; I mean to say traceries in which there are apertures with very small 30. Cf. Midrash on the Song of Songs, l:i. 31. A silver coin.
32. A coin; ninety-six issar were worth a selac.
33. Cf. Midrash on the Song of Songs, 1:1. 34. Prov. 25:11.
12 The Guide of the Perplexed I [7a eyelets, like the handiwork | of silversmiths. They are so called because a glance penetrates through them; for in the [Aramaic] translation of the Bible the Hebrew term va-yashqeph — meaning, he glanced — is translated va-istekhe.35 The Sage accordingly said that a saying uttered with a view to two meanings is like an apple of gold overlaid with silver filigree-work having very small holes. Now see how marvellously this dictum describes a well-constructed parable. For he says that in a saying that has two meanings — he means an external and an internal one — the external meaning ought to be as beautiful as silver, while its internal meaning ought to be more beautiful than the external one, the former being in comparison to the latter as gold is to silver. Its external meaning also ought to contain in it something that indicates to someone considering it what is to be found in its internal meaning, as happens in the case of an apple of gold overlaid with silver filigree-work having very small holes. When looked at from a distance or with imperfect attention, it is deemed to be an apple of silver; but when a keen-sighted observer looks at it with full attention, its interior becomes