with respect to their effacement from existence, it says: Ye shall break down their altars...and hew down their groves, and so on,-38 And destroy their name out of that placed | These two purposes are reiterated in a number of passages. For this is the first intention extending over the whole of the Law, as is made known to us by [the Sages], may their memory be blessed, in their transmitted commentary on His dictum, may He be exalted: Even all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses,*0 For they say: j 22 The Guide of the Perplexed III • 50 [676 Herefrom you may learn that everyone who professes idolatry, disbelieves in the Torah in its entirety; whereas he who disbelieves in idolatry, professes the Torah in its entirety.+1 Cognize this.
CHAPTER 30 When you consider these ancient and unhealthy opinions, it will become clear to you that among all men it was an accepted view that through the worship of stars the earth becomes populated and the soil fertile. Their men of knowledge, as well as the ascetics and the men of piety among them, preached this to the people and taught them that agriculture, on which the existence of man depends, can only be perfected and succeed according to wish if you worship the sun and the stars; if you anger them through diso¬ bedience, the land will become barren and devastated. In their books they say that Jupiter had been angry with the wildernesses and the deserts and that they therefore lacked water and lacked trees and were inhabited by ghouls. They had a very great esteem for the peasants and the cultivators of the soil because of their being engaged in cultivating the earth, an occupa¬ tion that conforms to the will of the stars and pleases them. The reason why the idolators had a great esteem for oxen was the utility of the latter in agriculture. They even said that it was not permitted to kill them because force was joined in them | to handiness for man in agriculture; the oxen only acted thus and submitted to man in spite of their force because the gods were pleased with their work in agriculture. Inasmuch as these opinions were generally accepted, [the idolaters] connected idolatry with agriculture, the latter being necessary for the subsistence of man and of most animals. Accordingly the priests of idolatry preached to the people during their assemblies in the temples and fortified in their minds the notion that through the practices of this cult, rains would fall, the trees would bear fruit, and the land would become fertile and populous. Consider what they say in “The Nabatean Agriculture”1 in the passage on the vineyard; you will find there the following text of the Sabians: All the ancient sages have said and the prophets have commanded and prescribed to play on musical 41. Siphre to Num. 15:23; B.T., Horayoth, 8a; B.T., Qiddushin, 40a. The subject is dealt with by Maimonides in Mishneh Torah, 'Abodah Zarah, II 4.
1. This work is referred to in the preceding chapter.
instruments before the statues during festivals. They said — and they were truthful — that the gods were pleased with this and accorded the best reward to those who acted thus. They multiplied the promises concerning this — promising, that is, a prolongation of life, a warding-off of calamities, the dis¬ appearance of infirmities, the fertility of the sowing, and the thriving of the fruits. The text of the Sabians continues up to here.
Now inasmuch as these notions were generally accepted so that they were regarded as certain, and as God, may He be exalted, wished in His pity for us to efface this error from our minds and to take away fatigue from our bodies through the abolition of these tiring and useless practices and to give us Laws through the instrumentality of Moses our Master, the latter in¬ formed us in His name, may He be exalted, that if the stars and the planets were worshipped, their worship would be a cause for the rain ceasing to fall, for the land being devastated j and producing nothing, for the fruit of the trees falling off, for misfortunes attending circumstances, for infirmities be¬ falling the bodies, and for a shortening of lives. These are the intentions of the words of the covenant, which the Lord made, and so on.2 You will find that this intention is reiterated in the whole of the Torah: I mean that it is a necessary consequence of the worship of the stars that rains will cease to fall, that the land will be devastated, that circumstances will become bad, that the bodies will suffer from diseases, and that lives will be short; whereas a necessary consequence of the abandonment of their worship and the adop¬ tion of the worship of God will be rainfall, the fertility of the land, good circumstances, health of the body, and length of life. This is the contrary of what was preached by the idolaters to the people in order that they worship idols. For the foundation of the Law consists in putting an end to this opinion and effacing its traces, as we have explained.
CHAPTER 51 There is a group of human beings who consider it a grievous thing that causes should be given for any law; what would please them most is that the intellect would not find a meaning for the commandments and prohibitions. What compels them to feel thus is a sickness that they find in their souls, a sickness to which they are unable to give utterance and of 2. Deut. 28:69. The quotation is not exact.
r 68 b ^24 The Guide of the Perplexed III ■ 51 which they cannot furnish a satisfactory account. For they think that if those laws were useful in this existence and had been given to us for this or that reason, it would be as if they derived from the reflection and the understanding of some intelligent being. If, however, there is a thing for which the intellect could not find any meaning at all and that does not lead to something useful, it indubitably derives from God; for the reflection of man would not lead to such a thing. It is as if, | according to these people of weak intellects, man were more perfect than his Maker; for man speaks and acts in a manner that leads to some intended end, whereas the deity does not act thus, but commands us to do things that are not useful to us and forbids us to do things that are not harmful to us. But He is far exalted above this; the contrary is the case — the whole purpose consisting in what is useful for us, as we have explained1 on the basis of its dictum: For our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.2 And it says: Which shall hear all these statutes [huqqim] and say: Surely this great community is a wise and understanding people,3 Thus it states explicitly that even all the statutes [huqqim] * will show to all the nations that they have been given with wisdom and understanding. Now if there is a thing for which no reason is known and that does not either procure something useful or ward off something harmful, why should one say of one who believes in it or prac¬ tices it that he is wise and understanding and of great worth? And why should the religious communities think it a wonder? Rather things are indubitably as we have mentioned: every commandment from among these six hundred and thirteen commandments exists either with a view to com¬ municating a correct opinion, or to putting an end to an unhealthy opinion, or to communicating a rule of justice, or to warding off an injustice, or to endowing men with a noble moral quality, or to warning them against an evil moral quality. Thus all [the commandments] are bound up with three things: opinions, moral qualities, and political civic actions. We do not count speeches as one of these things since the speeches that the Law enjoins or forbids belong in part to the class of civic actions, and in part are meant to cause opinions, and in part are meant to cause moral qualities. Therefore we have limited ourselves here, in giving reasons for every law, to these three classes. | CHAPTER 32 If you consider the divine actions — I mean to say the natural actions — the deity’s wily graciousness and wisdom, as shown in the creation of living beings, in the gradation of the motions of the limbs, and the proximity of some of the latter to others, will through them1 become clear to you. Similarly His wisdom and wily graciousness, as shown in the gradual suc¬ cession of the various states of the whole individual, will become clear to you. The brain is an example of the gradation of the motions and the proxi¬ mity of the limbs of an individual: for its front part is soft, very soft indeed, whereas its posterior part is more solid. The spinal marrow is even more solid and becomes more and more solid as it stretches on. The nerves are organs of sensation and of motion. Accordingly the nerves required only for apprehension by the senses or for motion that presents but little difficulty, like the motions of the eyelids and of the jaws, proceed from the brain, whereas the motions required for moving the limbs proceed from the spinal marrow. As, however, it is impossible for a nerve, in view of its softness — even for a nerve proceeding from the spinal marrow— to move an articula¬ tion, the matter was wilily and graciously arranged as follows: the nerves are ramified into fibers, and the latter, having been filled with flesh, become muscles. Thereupon the nerve, having overpassed the extremity of the muscle, having become more solid, and having been commingled with frag¬ ments of ligaments, becomes a tendon. The tendon joins and adheres to the bone; and thereupon, because of this gradation, the nerve is capable of moving a limb. I mentioned only this one example to you because it is the most obvious of the wonders explained in the treatise “On the Utilities of the Parts of the Body,”2 all of which wonders are clear, manifest, and well known to those who consider them with a penetrating mind. Similarly the deity made a wily and gracious arrangement | with regard to all the indi¬ viduals of the living beings that suck.3 For when born, such individuals are extremely soft and cannot feed on dry food. Accordingly breasts were pre¬ pared for them so that they should produce milk with a view to their receiving humid food, which is similar to the composition of their bodies, until their limbs gradually and little by little become dry and solid.
Many things in our Law are due to something similar to this very governance on the part of Him who governs, may He be glorified and i. I.e., through the above-mentioned actions.
2. Cf. Galen De usu partium humani corporis i.17; ii.3. 3. I.e., the mammals.
j 26 The Guide of the Perplexed III • 32 [ 70a exalted. For a sudden transition from one opposite to another is impossible. And therefore man, according to his nature, is not capable of abandoning suddenly all to which he was accustomed. As therefore God sent Moses our Master to make out of us a kingdom of priests and a holy nation*— through the knowledge of Him, may He be exalted, accordingly to what He has explained, saying: Unto thee it was shown that thou mightest know, and so on;5 Know this day, and lay it to thy heart, and so on6 — so that we should devote ourselves to His worship according to what He said: And to serve Him with all your heart,1 and: And ye shall serve the Lord your God,9 and: And Him shall ye serve? and as at that time the way of life generally accepted and customary in the whole world and the universal service upon which we were brought up consisted in offering various species of living beings in the temples in which images were set up, in worshipping the latter, and in burning incense before them — the pious ones and the ascetics being at that time, as we have explained, the people who were devoted to the service of the temples consecrated to the stars —: His wisdom, may He be exalted, and His gracious ruse, which is manifest in regard to all His creatures, did not require that He give us a Law prescribing the rejection, abandonment, and abolition of all these kinds of worship. For one could not then conceive the acceptance of [such a Law], considering the nature of man, which always likes that | to which it is accustomed. At that time this would have been similar to the appearance of a prophet in these times who, calling upon the people to worship God, would say: “God has given you a Law forbidding you to pray to Him, to fast, to call upon Him for help in misfortune. Your worship should consist solely in meditation without any works at all.” Therefore He, may He be exalted, suffered the above-mentioned kinds of worship to remain, but transferred them from created or imaginary and unreal things to His own name, may He be exalted, commanding us to practice them with regard to Him, may He be exalted. Thus He com¬ manded us to build a temple for Him: And let them make Me a Sanctuary?0 to have an altar for His name: An altar of earth thou shall make unto Me?1 to have the sacrifice offered up to Him: When any man of you bringeth an offering unto the Lord?2 to bow down in worship before Him; and to burn incense before Him. And He forbade the performance of any of these actions with a view to someone else: He that sacrificeth unto the gods shall be utterly 7°b ] The Guide of the Perplexed III • 52 32 7 destroyed, and 50 on,-13 For thou shah bow down to no other god.n And he singled out Priests for the service of the Sanctuary, saying: That they may minister unto Me in the priest’s office}5 And because of their employment in the temple16 and the sacrifices in it, it was necessary to fix for them dues that would be sufficient for them; namely, the dues of the Levites and the Priests. Through this divine ruse it came about that the memory of idolatry was effaced and that the grandest and true foundation of our belief — namely, the existence and oneness of the deity — was firmly established, while at the same time the souls had no feeling of repugnance and were not repelled because of the abolition of modes of worship to which they were accustomed and than which no other mode of worship was known at that time.
I know that on thinking about this at first your soul will necessarily have a feeling of repugnance toward this notion and will feel aggrieved because of it; and you will ask me in your heart and say to me: How is it possible that none of the commandments, prohibitions, and great actions — which are very precisely set forth and prescribed for fixed seasons — should be intended for its own sake, but for the sake of something else, as if this were a ruse | invented for our benefit by God in order to achieve His first intention? What was there to prevent Him, may He be exalted, from giving us a Law in accordance with His first intention17 and from procuring us the capacity to accept this? In this way there would have been no need for the things that you consider to be due to a second intention. Hear then the reply to your question that will put an end to this sickness in your heart and reveal to you the true reality of that to which I have drawn your attention. It is to the effect that the text of the Torah tells a quite similar story, namely, in its dictum: God led them not by the way of the land of the Philistines, although it was near, and so on. But God led the people about, by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. 18 Just as God perplexed them in anticipation of what their bodies were naturally incapable of bearing— turning them away from the high road toward which they had been going, toward another road so that the first intention should be achieved — so did He in anticipation of what the soul is naturally incapable of receiving, prescribe the laws that we have mentioned so that the first intention should be achieved, namely, the apprehension of Him, may He be exalted, and the rejection of idolatry. For just as it is not in the nature of man that, after having been 13. Exod, 22:19. The entire verse reads: He that sacrificeth unto the gods, save unto the Lord only, shall be utterly destroyed.
17. Or: from revealing His first intention. 18. Exod. 13:17-18.
J28 The Guide of the Perplexed III -52 [71a brought up in slavish service occupied with clay, bricks, and similar things, he should all of a sudden wash off from his hands the dirt deriving from them and proceed immediately to fight against the children of Anakf so is it also not in his nature that, after having been brought up upon very many modes of worship and of customary practices, which the souls find so agreeable that they become as it were a primary notion,20 he should abandon them all of a sudden. And just as the deity used a gracious ruse in causing them to wander perplexedly in the desert until their souls became courageous — it being well known that life in the desert and lack of comforts for the body necessarily develop courage whereas the opposite circumstances necessarily develop cowardice — and until, moreover, people were born who were not | accus¬ tomed to humiliation and servitude — all this having been brought about by21 Moses our Master by means of divine commandments: At the com¬ mandment of the Lord they encamped, ami at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses22 — so did this group of laws derive from a divine grace, so that they should be left with the kind of practices to which they were accustomed and so that consequently the belief, which constitutes the first intention, should be validated23 in them.
As for your question: What was there to prevent God from giving us a Law in accordance with His first intention24 and from procuring us the capacity to accept this? — you lay yourself open to an inference from this second question. For one may say to you: What was there to prevent God from making them march by the way of the land of the Philistines and pro¬ curing them the capacity to engage in wars so that there should be no need for this roundabout way with the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night?25 Also you lay yourself open to a third question as an in¬ ference, a question regarding the reason for the detailing of promises and threats with regard to the whole Law. One may say to you: Inasmuch as God’s first intention and His will are that we should believe in this Law and that we should perform the actions prescribed by it, why did He not procure us the capacity always to accept this intention and to act in accordance with it, instead of using a ruse with regard to us, declaring that He will procure us benefits if we obey Him and will take vengeance on us if we disobey Him and performing in deed all these acts of benefiting and all these acts of vengeance? For this too is a ruse used by Him with regard to us in order to 19. Cf. Num. 13:28. 20. Or: intelligible. 21. Or: through the instrumentality of.
22. Num. 9:23. 23. yasuhhu, the word used, may mean “to be correct” or “to be in 24. Or; from revealing to us His first intention, 25. Exod. 13:2a.
"2d ] The Guide of the Perplexed III -52 329 achieve His first intention with respect to us. What was there to prevent Him from causing the inclination to accomplish the acts of obedience willed by Him and to avoid the acts of disobedience abhorred by Him, to be a natural disposition fixed in us?
There is one and the same general answer to all these three questions and to all the others that belong to the same class: Though all miracles change the nature of some individual being, | God does not change at all the nature of human individuals by means of miracles. Because of this great principle it says: O that they had such an heart as this, and so on.26 It is because of this that there are commandments and prohibitions, rewards and punishments. We have already explained this fundamental principle by giving its proofs in a number of passages in our compilations. We do not say this because we believe that the changing of the nature of any human individual is difficult for Him, may He be exalted. Rather is it possible and fully within capacity.27 But according to the foundations of the Law, of the Torah, He has never w'illed to do it, nor shall He ever will it. For if it were His will that the nature of any human individual should be changed be¬ cause of what He, may He be exalted, wills from that individual, sending of prophets and all giving of a Lawr would have been useless.
I return to my subject and I say that, as this kind of worship — I mean the sacrifices — pertain to a second intention, whereas invocation, prayer, and similar practices and modes of worship come closer to the first intention and are necessary for its achievement, a great difference has been made28 between the two kinds. For one kind of worship — I mean the offering of sacrifices — even though it was done in His name, may He be exalted, was not prescribed to us in the way it existed at first; I mean to say in such a way that sacrifices could be offered in every place and at every time. Nor could a temple be set up in any fortuitous place, nor could any fortuitous man offer the sacrifice: Whosoever would, he consecrated him 29 On the con¬ trary, He forbade all this and established one single house [as the temple], Unto the place which the Lord shall chose,50 so that sacrifices should not be offered elsewhere: That thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest.51 Also only the offspring of one particular family can be Priest[s]. All this was intended to restrict this kind of worship, so that only the portion of it should subsist | whose abolition is not required by His wisdom. On the