מורה נבוכים

00:00 All right, this is Igris, and today we are going to look at the story of the Moreh Nevuchim, the Guide for the Perplexed, and the Rebbe's position on it. A little bit of an introduction. The Rambam, that's Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, he wrote his magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah, which is also called the Yad HaChazakah, and then later on he wrote a philosophical work called the Moreh Nevuchim, the Guide for the Perplexed. Moreh Nevuchim was written for Jews who were struggling with contradictions between faith and reason, and specifically contradictions between philosophy, which was very much the science of the day, and Torah. It was not well received, to say the least. Uh, the great Maimonidean controversy, it is sometimes called. And, uh, many great Rabbanim banned the book for heresy. They ultimately, uh, ultimately, these bannings, they, uh, they led it to being burnt in public along with Sefer Hamada, which is one volume of the Rambam's Mishneh Torah that discusses similar ideas. Uh, most of the Rabbanim involved in this ultimately regretted it and regretted it and, um, retracted. And the Moreh Nevuchim is no longer considered heretical in most circles. Nonetheless, it has variable levels of acceptance among the Jewish people. Uh, today, we're going to try to figure out the Rebbe's shitah regarding the Moreh Nevuchim, whether we should study it, and if so, how and when we should learn it. So without further ado, we're gonna take a look at the letters. Uh, this is an Igris share after all. Uh,

01:11 this letter is labeled Zayin, Reish, Nun, Tes. It is from Yud Aleph Nissan of Taf Shin Chaf. You'll find it in Igris Kodesh, Volume nineteen on page two seventy-seven, and the Rebbe writes, Shalom Uvracha. The Rebbe says, uh, begins the letter by saying that a few days ago, a Mrs. Hannah, maybe Salzberger is what this is saying, uh, visited me, says the Rebbe, and delivered a personal greeting from you, as well as the first three volumes of Moreh Nevuchim in your edition. So it seems this individual had published, uh, Moreh Nevuchim, at least the first couple volumes of it, and they were presented to the Rebbe as a gift, and the Rebbe thanks these individuals in advance and, uh, asks that they send the remaining volumes to him, to, to him as they're published. And he would also like to see maybe a catalog of other publications they're publishing with possible interest in adding it to the Rebbe's library. That's sort of the intro on the letter. Let's get into the meat of the letter. He says, "I was particularly impressed," he says, "by the effort you put into putting these volumes together." "I-I see how much you put into, uh, into editing and commenting on these volumes, especially given that which I heard from the Friediker Rebbe." And that is that I heard many times from the Friediker Rebbe, says the Rebbe, I heard many times that there was a particular fondness, the word being used in Hebrew is , a particular fondness, uh,

02:31 was reserved for the Rambam, for his books, including the Moreh Nevuchim, among the Nesiei Chabad, among the Rebbes of Chabad, that the Rebbes of Chabad have a particular affection for the Rambam's Seferim, and in particular, the Moreh Nevuchim. So I'm particularly happy, the Rebbe says, that you spent so much effort on publishing these volumes because the Rebbeim of Chabad have always had a special love for the Rambam, for his Seferim, and specifically for The Guide for the Perplexed, for Moreh Nevuchim. And this begins, says the Rebbe, this begins going all the way back to the Alter Rebbe, who's the author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch. The Alter Rebbe quotes the Moreh Nevuchim again and again. Furthermore, the Tamach Tzedek had an actual Seder every day where he would sit down and learn the Moreh Nevuchim, not alone. Along with his successor, uh, the Rebbe Maharash. So the Tamach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash had a chavrusah every day on the Moreh Nevuchim. And, uh, and they would explain the Moreh Nevuchim, uh, according to the greatest mysteries of Taries HaChassidus and of Kabbalah. As is proven by a couple pages which did make it into writing. And we have printed these as the Reshimas Tamach Tzedek on Moreh Nevuchim. So the Rebbe's saying that, uh, they learned them together, the Tamach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash. And if you want to know how much the Tamach Tzedek loved the Moreh Nevuchim, we do have some surviving manuscripts of his comments on the Moreh

03:51 Nevuchim. He seems to have taken notes along the way, and we printed them in Reshimas Tamach Tzedek on Moreh Nevuchim. And the Rebbe then continues by saying that I have asked people to, uh, send these Sefer HaChidushim from the Tamach Tzedek to you, uh, where these notes are printed, and where you can also see other things, other comments from the Rebbeim about the Rambam, and this might help you in future printings. He also sends over a certain Maamar that he thinks would be worthwhile for them to see. Uh, the Maamar in Sefer HaKudsha Tarya of the Alter Rebbe, Der Maamar HaKodesh, HaKudsha Mishkan, uh, et cetera. I-- This isn't really on topic, but, you know, we like to go off topic a little bit. Uh, it's a little bit on topic. If you look, uh, a little bit further down, the Rebbe has a, uh, a, uh, a PS, and this one's not labeled Nun Beis, but it is still a PS. It's after the signature, and everything after the signature is where the action and letters happen. And the Rebbe just adds here, he says that, uh, "I want to bring as a note," even though it seems to be a pretty minor note at first glance. The name of the Rambam, the Rebbe says, is held in incredible esteem, just very, just, uh, holiness by the entire Jewish people across all communities to the point that every detail, a particular value is attached to every single detail regarding the Rambam. And based on

04:58 this, the Rebbe says, dissonance. The Rebbe says that, uh, appear- apparently in this volume of Moreh Nevuchim, they printed the Rambam. They had written the Rambam's name, Reish, Mem, uh, Beis, Mem, without the, uh, without the, the, uh, the Siman Rashei Teivus, without the Chimchim, without the, uh, without the quotation mark that goes between the Beis and the Mem. They'd written it simply as Reish, Mem, Beis, Mem, uh, as it's pronounced. And this is not the way that it's typically written. It's typically written with, uh, markings between the Beis and the, and the Shlos Mem. And the Rebbe says, "I found this a kind of a, a sort of a, a sort of a negative dissonance," uh, uh, in a, in a bad way. In, uh, prior years, perhaps people didn't care about these things so much. But in this generation, the Rebbe says, nowadays, to our great, to our great sorrow, people are trying to, uh, create a separation between the generations. They want to erase many, many hundreds of years of, uh, of our nation's history. Every single thing, every single dot, and every single line that connects the present to the past, in a, in a, uh, un- Un-unbroken chain. We have to guard very, very much. So the Rebbe saying that, uh, even when it comes to the little signs, the or the , these quotation marks that go between the Beis and the Mem of Rambam, we can't take that out because that's something that we've always-- that's the way

06:27 we've always written it. The generations have always written it that way. And nowadays that there are people who are trying to separate us from our ancient past, it is important for us to hang on to every, uh, vestige of the original version. And every vestige of the original version includes even seemingly minor points like the way this Ram-- the way the Rambam is traditionally spelled with a Gershayim sign between the Beis and the Mem. So the Rebbe is, uh, is saying it sounds like a small point to you, but it's actually a big point. You should be printing this book spelling the word Rambam the way it's always been spelled, because that's part of our connection to the past. And on the other hand, the Rebbe says, in a related note, . So the Rebbe says on the other note, I, I was pleased to see you do something else. I was pleased to see that although technically the title should be Moreh Hanivuchim, not Moreh Nevuchim. Um, it should be Moreh Hanivuchim with a He in front of the word Nevuchim. And as a matter of fact, this is brought in several places, including by the translator of the Moreh Nevuchim. Remember, the Moreh Nevuchim was written in Arabic originally and translated by Ibn Tibbon. Uh, so the translator himself apparently wrote it as Moreh Hanivuchim. Nevertheless, the Rebbe says the widespread custom among the Yidden has been to write it without the He, to write Moreh Nevuchim. And, uh, since this has been

07:43 the tradition for many years, it would be the right thing to continue. And in this regard, the Rebbe says, "I'm very pleased because the envelope that you sent me and in the, uh, and in the pages and in the headers, uh, it looks like all around in your, uh, maybe on the dust jacket and on the dust jacket around the book, you seem to have written Moreh Nevuchim the whole place and not Moreh Hanivuchim, and I like that. I like that you're writing it grammatically incorrectly in deference to the way it's always been done, because it's important that we, uh, that we maintain the traditions, uh, the way people have always done things to connect ourselves to the past." So that doesn't have all that much to do with Moreh Nevuchim, but it was too interesting for me to leave on the cutting floor. We have here a, a mini-sheet from the Rebbe in our larger Rebbe shi-shir, that the Rebbe doesn't want us changing things like this because it creates a connection to the past. Now, just to get back to the actual content of our letter. Uh, from looking at this letter, we get a very strong sense here that the Rebbe is in favor of Moreh Nevuchim. Uh, if you read this letter in isolation, you'd come to the conclusion that everyone has carte blanche to learn it, and that every word in it is to be taken seriously. Uh, is the word used here. Our Rebbeim had a unique and particular

08:36 fondness for this book, and it's quoted throughout the entire Chassidus, so it would certainly seem to be a ringing endorsement of The Guide for the Perplexed, Moreh Nevuchim. But, uh, it is not that simple, not at all. And in order to show you why it's not so simple, uh, I'm gonna take you on a brief tour through what the prior Nesiah Chabad have said about the Moreh Nevuchim. And we're going to start with some kind words from the Alter Rebbe. This is, uh, found in Igris Alter Rebbe. This is the Igris of the Alter Rebbe on page eighty-nine. And this is an Igris here, so all Igris are valid. This is the Igris of the Alter Rebbe on page eighty-nine. And, uh, it's written-- It's really interesting context to this letter. It's written to the Anash of Vilna. That's the Chabad Chassidim who were living in Vilna. Vilna was the stronghold of the Misnagdim, who were very opposed to Chassidus, and they were obviously experiencing a lot of pushback from the local Misnagdim who opposed Chassidus and considered Chassidus to be heresy. Uh, pushback might be too, too light a term, but they were receiving pushback. The Alter Rebbe encourages them to hold strong and compares the rocky beginning of Chassidus to the indignities that the, uh, Rambam's Moreh Nevuchim suffered before the Jewish people understood just how special it was. So I'm gonna read this inside now. This letter is, uh, from Igris Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe writes, We should remember what happened

09:41 way back when. Who could be greater than the Moshe of our generation, which was, uh, Moshe of his generation, which was the Rambam of blessed memory? In the lands of Sefarad, he created a good name for himself, and he went and he became greater and greater. He was so great that in his lifetime, they used to say in the Kaddish prayer, instead of the normal phrase, they would add in, They would mention the Rambam's name in Kaddish. He was so revered. They saw his great glory and his holiness and his Chassidishkeit. Uh, but in far off lands, there were far off lands. They didn't know much about his glory. They considered him a heretic, and they said they would and they burnt his books. They burnt his books in the streets. Based on people who were very wise in their own eyes, they read what the Rambam had written in Hilchos Teshuva, and it did not occur to them. They didn't, uh, they didn't think to maybe, um, to maybe attribute their misunderstandings of the Rambam to their own lack of, lack of knowledge. As was ultimately explained by the Ramban and the Radak, who ultimately explained that the Rambam was not saying anything that was heretical. But then many days passed. And also those who, uh, who hated them had moved on. Eventually, uh, meaning hated the words of the Rambam. And truth ultimately sprouted forth from the ground. And then the entire Jewish people knew. That Moshe is true and his Torah is

11:22 true. And in this case, he certainly means that Rambam is true and his writing is true. So, too, should happen for us speedily in our days. Amen. And, uh, and so it was, by the way. Just like the Moreh, the Moreh Nevuchim was originally vilified and ultimately vindicated. So too, Chassidus, uh, ultimately was originally, uh, many people considered it to be heresy. And as they, um, learned more about it, it became universally accepted among the Jewish people. Anyway, uh, this letter sounds like a full-throated endorsement of the Moreh Nevuchim. Uh, and it would seem to be in line with what we saw from the Rebbe. We're seeing a lot of really nice things about the Moreh Nevuchim, but, uh, about The Guide for the Perplexed. But then you see things like this, this next source on the sheet. Uh, here's a Tamach Tzedek. It's printed in Ora Tarba Midbar, Volume Three, Parshas Chukas, page seven seven seven, seven hundred and seventy-seven. And the Tamach Tzedek writes, Of philosophy that is expressed in two books. Second one's getting thrown under the bus. Cheves HaLevavos and also Moreh Nevuchim. Hem etamim et ha'terem mi shelibe lev tahor. They defile the purity of one who has a pure heart. Somebody who has a pure heart who learns these books, who learns the Moreh Nevuchim, The Guide for the Perplexed, says the Tamach Tzedek, they get defiled by it. Ach mishu navuch vetamim be chorum ve sfeikas bemunah. But somebody who's already confused, who's perplexed, dare I say, and

12:40 is, uh, impure, and they're full of these, uh, doubts about faith and about the-- and alien thoughts. Yochal hiye le tahar al ydei ze. They can become pure through reading the Moreh Nevuchim. So he's saying here that people, uh, much like the Parah Adumah, which is probably why this is part of Shavuos, right? So much like the Parah Adumah, much like the red heifer in the Torah, uh, the Moreh Nevuchim purifies the impure and defiles the pure. He goes on to say, "Vahainu ki refu'ah be'etzem hi medavah marah sam." Fundamentally, be'etzem refu'ah, healing is with something that is bitter, uh, or a medicine, a bitter medicine. Elu lemi sheyesh bo likkilkol gadol zeh marah. This is if somebody is, uh, very sick, this bitter medicine will make them better. Ki mei kinayana mefsim sei chol vehem sei chol anushim meklipos nega chulu. Ein tzorech klal lasamim. Elu lemi she'nis kakol yuchal zeh leheil. Somebody who is healthy does not need this medicine, but for somebody who is sick, uh, it can help them. So the Tamach Tzedek is saying for someone who is sick, who is spiritually sick, who's, uh, who is, who is, uh, spiritually sick, yes, spiritually sick, faith-wise sick, uh, such a person might benefit from the Moreh Nevuchim, uh, because it's a bitter medicine. Bitter medicines are made for sick people. But people who are healthy in their faith and healthy in their, uh, in their Yudais, uh, healthy in their shitas, they're not people who need the Moreh Nevuchim. And,

13:46 uh, adaraba, it can actually, to the contrary, it can actually make them sick. Uh, so the Tamach Tzedek here is implying that a person without doubts and faith should not learn the Moreh Nevuchim, and that the Moreh Nevuchim, The Guide for the Perplexed, excuse me, is a medicine exclusively for the sick. A, a complementary story, and maybe contradictory, I can't really tell, uh, was told by Rashbam El Grenem and is printed in Lukete Sipurim Purlau, uh, on page two oh three. Um, tell you what he says. He says that the Tamach Tzedek, uh, one time was learning Moreh Nevuchim with his son, and he said the following. He said, "Rambam had a keva bria." Rambam had a healthy belly, a healthy stomach. He was able to eat snakes and scorpions, and it didn't damage him at all. And then afterwards, the Tamach Tzedek said about himself, "Also me, I also have a healthy stomach," meaning the Tamach Tzedek also is able to absorb the snakes and scorpions, presumably of philosophy, and not be damaged by it. Veheizev. And then he added, "Mi she'ein lo keva bria asur lalilmad." Now, the Tamach Tzedek said anybody who does not have a healthy stomach is forbidden to learn, excuse me, is forbidden to learn the Moreh Nevuchim, is forbidden from learning The Guide for the Perplexed. Acheich ach panah le'echad mibano vemeichad bavav. This is kind of funny, or maybe sad, I don't know. Then he turned to one of his sons or one of his grandsons, and

14:59 he said the following. "Ve'ata bevadei lei." You definitely not. You definitely cannot learn the Moreh Nevuchim. So it would seem from this story that only someone with a healthy stomach can process the Moreh Nevuchim. Uh, this would seem to limit The Guide for the Perplexed to basically nobody, as far as I can tell, because based on the Artura that we saw earlier, if you're too healthy, you can't learn it because it will introduce doubt. And if you're too unhealthy, you can't learn it because you won't have the spiritual fortitude to convert it to too good. Now, our Rebbe says that the Rabbeim had a special love for the Moreh Nevuchim, uh, which he calls the Chibiya Sera. And up until now, I'm not seeing it. The, uh, and don't worry, we're gonna resolve this. But at this point, it's hard to see the Chibiya Sera, the incredible love that the, uh, Rebbe's talking about that our Rabbeim had for Moreh Nevuchim. The Tamach Tzedek is not saying nice things about it. Uh, the answer seems to be that they had a special love for the Kabbalah and Chassidus hidden inside the Moreh Nevuchim, hidden inside the Rambam's works, uh, specifically Guide for the Perplexed, and that they spent a good deal of time pulling out the truth, the emes, from an otherwise confusing book. Uh, this is in the Iggros Frieda Kereba. These are letters from the Frieda Kereba, Volume four, page five oh four. And the Frieda Kereba says that, uh, "In the beginning

16:02 of the year, Taf Reish Yud Gimel, in the month of Mar-Cheshvan, the Tamach Tzedek set up a shir limud, uh, a Seder he was gonna learn with his son, the Rebbe MaharaSH, every single day." And, uh, this Seder was, uh, was at very odd hours. In the winter, it was set from ten PM until twelve-thirty AM, and in the summer, it was from four in the morning until six-thirty in the morning. So this is, what, two and a half hours every day, I think? Two and a half hours every day, and it was always at odd hours. Uh, and it went on for four years, except for two months. It went on for almost four years. Uh, Mar-Cheshvan Taf Reish Yud Gimel until Elul of Taf Reish Tes Zayin was the period of time where they were learning this. The limud ham hayu be kabbalah ve chakira. They learned in Kabbalah and chakira. That is, they learned both Kabbalah and philosophy. Uh, not, you know, God forbid, Greek philosophy. I'm talking here about they, they learned, um, you know, traditional Jewish philosophy. We'll see in a second. He's gonna say the names of the books. Shetei shanim u'shelim lamdu sifrei kabbalah im birei chassidus. The first two years they were learning together during this period of time, they studied Sifrei Kabbalah with the explanations in Chassidus. And then for the following eighteen months, they learned Sifrei Mechkar of the Rasag, the Moreh Nevuchim, the Ikrim, and the Kuzari. They learned Rasag Yagon's work, the Moreh

17:09 Nevuchim, The Guide for the Perplexed, the Sefer Ikrim, and the Kuzari, all classic philosophical Jewish works. Ve'al pi tara chassidus. And furthermore, they learned these using Tarus HaChassidus, Al Pi Tarus HaChassidus. That is, that they read Chassidus into these particular works. So, uh, we see from this letter of the Frieda Kereba that they learned the Moreh Nevuchim, and I guess they had a fondness for it, or they wouldn't have learned it, but they learned it Al Pi Chassidus. Uh, they read Kabbalah into the Moreh, revealing the intention of Rambam all along, which means that they weren't really reading the Moreh Nevuchim in its Peshat. They were fixing it or cleansing it. Uh, I'm borrowing this language, cleansing and fixing, from the next entry, which I haven't shown you yet, which is in Reshima Sayuman from the year Taf Reish Tzedek Gimel, page three twenty-one, where the Rebbe records the Frieda Kereba as saying the following. He says, "Az harah mishpacha seinu." There was a, uh, there was a rule. There was a warning. There was a rule. There was a rule in our family. "Velimud ha chakira hi al esren shana." Apparently, in Beis HaRav, among the Rebbe's family, there's a rule that you can't learn these Sifrei Chakira, these Jewish philosophy books, until you are twenty years old. And those books are the Ikrim, the Kuzari, the Moreh Nevuchim. Uh, "Ad meish meseden lam tihi le-Ikrim." The, uh, Rebbe Rashab, he first, when he turned twenty, presumably, learned the Ikrim, and then after that,

18:15 he learned the Kuzari, and after that, he learned the Moreh Nevuchim. He learned The Guide for the Perplexed. "Ha-Tamach Tzedek amar, uh, le-Maharash, 'Bo vene kanech es ha-Rambam.'" The Tamach Tzedek apparently said to the Rebbe Maharash when they learned the Moreh Nevuchim together, "Come let's, uh, come let's clean up the Rambam. Come let's cleanse the Rambam. Come let's wipe down the Rambam." So the idea is, the idea is that, uh, that they're learning the Moreh Nevuchim al pi Chassidus, and their fondness for it seems to come from the fact that they're revealing the Chassidus inside the Rambam. The Rebbe ends up making this exact point in a sicha in Terias Menachem from Purim of the year Tav Shin Chaf Beis on page two oh seven, where, uh, where he makes it much more clear that this Chassidus that's in the Rambam isn't a forced thing. It's something that was really there all along. The Rebbe writes or the Rebbe says, "Yedua ma she'amar Moreinu HaMemr sheRambam hai mekubal gadol." It's well-known, says the Rebbe, what, what the Friediker Rebbe said, that the Rambam was a great Kabbalist. "Ve'at simla kah sh'izo beyesh ish legazeir einena kabbalah fil bibram deRambam." And the reason why the Rambam does not even hint to Kabbalah, uh, "B'demi lema shematinu kamu Rambam zeh befeish Rashi." Rashi sometimes hints to Kabbalah, uh, other, other contemporaries, rough contemporaries, not literally at the same time, but within that, you know, Rishonim. Other Rishonim who were not officially Mekubalim, they sort of hinted to

19:23 the fact that they knew Kabbalah in their works. The Rambam, i-it's, uh, i-it-- there's no hint at all that he knew Kabbalah. How-- Why did he hide it so well? "Harei zeh lefish hai az zman mesukah legazeir she'einena kabbalah fil bibram miza," that the Rambam apparently lived in a time where he knew that it was an incredible sakana, that it could cause real spiritual, physical danger for somebody to reveal any Kabbalistic thing, even as a remez, even as a hint. "Ad kam lashabraf." That's the end of what the, uh, that's the end of what the, uh, what the Friediker Rebbe said. And then the Rebbe now adds, "Yeish leimer," that would seem to say, "Shelechaim nihyeh nina acharonu sheavrah hasakana," that now after the sakana has passed and there's no danger anymore, "Matinu shehatam haTzadik lamdim Rambam v'adam HaMarash yesev Moreh Nevuchim al pi Kabbalah v'Chassidus," that the Tam haTzadik and the Adam HaMarash learned the Moreh Nevuchim al pi Kabbalah and Chassidus. Uh, which means, just to, uh, to unpack this a little bit, uh, we essentially have our first answer. The Moreh Nevuchim is greatly beloved by our Rabbeim when it's learned correctly al pi Chassidus, and that was actually the intent of Rambam all along. He was unable to even hint to Kabbalah and Chassidus in his work, but the truth is he was a Mekubal, which means that if you know how to dig deep enough, you will find the Kabbalah and Chassidus inside the Moreh Nevuchim. It's not hinted to

20:27 there, but the guy who wrote it, the guy who wrote it, the Tzadik who wrote it, the Rambam who wrote it, is an incredible Mekubal. So the Moreh Nevuchim is, uh, greatly beloved by our Rabbeim when learned correctly al pi Chassidus. It remains dangerous to learn without Chassidus because there are misleading ideas and questions and approaches in the simple reading of it, which would imply that someone must learn Chassidus very well before learning the Moreh Nevuchim, and we actually do find that. We find that the Rebbe says that exactly in Likkutei Sichos volume twenty-six, page thirty-four. And by the way, that is a foundational sicha on the Rebbe's view of Moreh Nevuchim. It's a sicha worth seeing if you wanna know more about this topic, but I'm gonna give you an excerpt from this. This is the one that's on page thirty-four. And here the Rebbe says, "Kamoni nevaseh from Moreh Nevuchim im Yediias Hashem v'hanevuah," uh, that the-- in many of the things that's in the Moreh Nevuchim, that's in The Guide for the Perplexed, are foundational when it comes to understanding Hashem and when it comes to prophecy. He talks about angels, uh, o perush hamikraes. He explains verses. "Asher einam mufanam davka le'echad meyuchad." These are not for one specific audience. These are just, you know, things that the Jewish people have always believed. "Asher hu shalem bedaato umidaso ve'ain bechochmas hafilosofim veyedei inyanehem mnishema bevo vechalah el kol echad." That is that the Rambam writes in his introduction that he wrote

21:33 to people who are, uh, who are-- who know a lot of the philosophy that exists right now, and they're confused by it, but that's not what the Moreh Nevuchim is in its entirety. Part of the Moreh Nevuchim is written for those who are confused, but a lot of the things in the Moreh Nevuchim, the Rebbe's saying, were written for el kol echad, for every single person. "Lefa'ach hasefer Moreh Nevuchim hu sefer shelach v'chelek behaTorah." Furthermore, the Sefer Moreh Nevuchim, this Guide for the Perplexed, is a book of and a part of the Torah. "She'al ein amar haTorah hinitskes." The Torah is eternal. "Mezeneh geah leihudim bechol dorei zeh shematinu bekol hapotzim sheshalom lahalacos beMoreh Nevuchim." This is relevant to Jews who are living in every single generation, uh, so much so that we find that there are certain poskim who learned halakha from the Moreh Nevuchim. The Rebbe gives a couple examples in the sicha. So the Rebbe here is saying that although there are parts of the Moreh Nevuchim that are specifically for people who are struggling in their faith, there are parts of the Moreh Nevuchim that are definitely for everybody. And on one level or another, the Moreh Nevuchim is part of our holy Torah, and therefore, it is relevant to everybody in one way or another. The Rebbe continues a couple pages later, dot, dot, dot, if you like. Uh, this one I believe, I believe, I didn't write in my notes well, but I believe this excerpt I have is

22:30 from page like thirty-six or maybe even like thir-- further on, further on in the sicha. "Ve'kashe ish not dama derush habelim upnimiyus haTorah k'vi hiniskal zeh beChassidus Chabad al yedei Admor HaZaken." When a person has the introduction, the necessary introduction of learning the Pnimiyus haTorah, that's Chassidus, the way that it was revealed in Chassidus Chabad by The Alt Rebbe, "Az ai efshor lahfika missefer Moreh Nevuchim es inyanim beYediias Hashem ba'atzamim beToras haChassidus." You will then be able to draw out things from the Moreh Nevuchim, uh, the proper understanding of Yediias Hashem in line with Toras haChassidus. "Ve'az miskal ha'ketzein Moshe emes v'Toraso emes," and then you will be able to reveal just how Moshe is true and his Torah is true. That's Rambam. "Heim b'niglah heim b'nistar," both in the revealed parts of the Torah and the hidden parts of the Torah. So we see from the sicha and from everything we've seen up until now that only by, only by a Chassidus can we really come to understand Rambam's intent in The Moreh Nevuchim. But even with Chassidus, and this is a trickier thing for me to wrap my head around, but, uh, even with Chassidus, it appears that sometimes Rambam will say something in The Moreh Nevuchim that we're not supposed to take seriously and that he himself did not really mean. Now, why would I say something like that? That sounds like kirah. You're gonna burn my podcast the way they burnt the book. Um, that is an outrageous claim. It's one

23:36 the Rebbe makes, however, and it's one the Rebbe makes in a famous science Torah letter to a certain professor struggling to reconcile Torah with the age of the universe and with evolution. Uh, I'm gonna show it to you. It's, it's on the screen now. Uh, this individual seems to have referred some of the ideas in The Moreh Nevuchim and the Drush Or HaChaim, uh, that essentially say that Genesis is non-literal and that science is correct. The Rebbe clarifies that these positions, while they are brought in books written by holy people, were never meant to reflect their actual positions. And, uh, here's the letter. We're gonna jump down to the h-- we're gonna jump down to the, um, jump down to the part of the letter that you need to see. It says, "Hara," here's a note. "Yeduim," it's well-known, "hapeshim zem beezes farim," that there are-- that these interpretations that you're mentioning about science and Torah, where the Torah gets, uh, the Torah gets knocked aside for the science, uh, is mentioned in certain books. "Frat Maimon Or HaChaim sheam azkin b'mechtavei." This is mentioned in the Maimon Or HaChaim, uh, the Drush Or HaChaim, uh, from the Terias Yisroel. "Sheyesh lekashem m'shitas hispachus," and they can tie in very nicely with evolution. "Av alam ayin besfarim Maimon el yir-- el yirah." Somebody who looks in these books carefully, they are going to see. "Shekes nem leimitecha kar pnimis bechiyei hashitah." They are not being written by people who legitimately believe in what they're saying.

24:44 "Ela leshem ataram ukhovanas shemeitzim, shemeitzim anan besfarim, besfarim apologetica, apologetit." That is that they are being written in a way that has a clear intent to be apologetic works. They're, they're essentially polemics. They're, uh-- th-these are works that were written in order to convince people of something, but not because, uh, they're written in a mode of debate. They're not written in a mode of truth. "Sh'atz la'ares leumas elim sheyesh limitzei datim veshitas mafili bekesef kesvei kedushy vechazal." That is that they want to demonstrate to the nations of the world that you can find their opinions, the science, the philosophy, even in the holy writings and in Chazal. Uh, these writings themselves-- Excuse me. The writers themselves, they personally did know. They understood. That they were giving very dodgy answers. And the answers they were giving were incredibly forced. They understood these to be forced. They felt that they were obligated to write in this way in order to line up their Hashkafa with the, uh, with the-- Excuse me, the Hashkafahs of the world with the Torah. So they understand that these are forced explanations. They, they felt compelled to write this way in order to improve the perception and standing of our holy Torah in the eyes of the world. That's what the Rebbe is saying. Even though they themselves knew that these were not true explanations. Look what he says. He says, even though they themselves understood. That this was not the true interpretation. So the Rebbe has just made a very controversial

26:07 claim. Uh, the Rebbe is saying that there are Rishonim, um, Acharonim, Gedolei HaYisrael who wrote books with Shitas that include rationalism essentially, that reconcile science and Torah by saying that the Torah should, uh, should step aside and the science is just right, and that they, uh, or tried to squeeze the Torah into science by giving us a non-literal Genesis and stuff like that. And the Rebbe is saying they wrote these things knowing They wrote them, they themselves knowing that they were not telling the truth. And they did it because they felt that it was necessary in order to make Judaism look good, in order to save the world. And then he gives an example of this, and that's where things get really controversial. The Rebbe gives an example. The Rebbe says, and who could be greater than the Rambam? About him, the sages said that from Moshe until Moshe, from Moshe Rabbeinu until Moshe the Rambam, nobody ever rose up who was as great as Moshe. But yet, if you look in his book, the Yad HaChazakah, the Mishneh Torah, you'll see. You can tell by looking at the Yad HaChazakah, the Mishneh Torah, that the things he writes in Moreh Nevuchim, especially when it comes to reasons for mitzvahs, are not actually things he personally believes. This also applies to many of the great Jewish philosophers in those days and also in our days. That is, that they believe that they are going to make a Kiddush Hashem. They're gonna sanctify God's name by

27:38 twisting the words of Chazal in order to make them fit into science. This will raise their, uh, this will raise their, their, their esteem, their reputation among many circles of the Jewish people. And also among the nations of the world. So, uh, this means that the let-- That, that's the part of the letter we're reading. Just to talk about this outside, uh, this means that the Rambam himself wrote Moreh Nevuchim as an apologetic work that should not always be taken seriously. The Rebbe is saying that not every claim in Rambam is his actual position, as is clear from the Yad HaChazakah. The real Rambam is in the Mishneh Torah, and some of the ideas in the Moreh Nevuchim, the Guide for the Perplexed, were only meant for his generation, which was a struggling generation. So we have a second guideline in the Rebbe Shita in learning Moreh Nevuchim. Uh, first, we had learn Chassidus and read Chassidus into it. And second, what we've just discovered now, is recognize that some of the things you find in there are not what the Rambam really thinks and are, to borrow the phrase that the Tamach Tzedek used earlier, uh, medicines that are meant to purify the impure but shouldn't be taken too seriously at face value. Uh, this notion that the real Rambam is the Rambam of the Mishneh Torah and that his Moreh Nevuchim, while it contains mystical secrets, uh, does not always reflect his actual position or even the actual truth of the matter, is

28:50 also expressed in a Yechidas that was printed in Kfar Chabad, uh, volume six forty-nine, page twenty-one. A young man had asked the Rebbe in Yechidas, "Which is the real Rambam?" That's what he wanted to know, because the two books are so different in their approaches to Yiddishkeit that they almost sound like two different people wrote them. You have this, like, Chassid of the, uh-- You, you have the, you have the Rebbe of the Yad HaChazakah, of the Mishneh Torah, and then you have this rationalist over in the Moreh Nevuchim. It sounds like it's two different people. So this, this young man asked the Rebbe about this, and the Rebbe answered the following, uh, in Yechidas. The Rebbe said, "Ein stira." There's no contradiction. He said the Rambam wrote the Moreh Nevuchim and to address the problems of his time in line with the philosophy that was accepted in the world during those days. But the real Rambam, The real Rambam is the Rambam of the Mishneh Torah of the Yad HaChazakah. And, uh, the Rebbe added that one must live, a Yid needs to live with the Mishneh Torah, not with the Moreh Nevuchim. That is, the Rebbe is not saying don't learn the Moreh Nevuchim. The Rebbe is saying if you wanna know what to live with, you live with the Mishneh Torah 'cause that's what the Rambam really thinks. The Moreh Nevuchim was written to address the problems of the time. So the real Rambam is the Mishneh Torah, is the Yad HaChazakah.

30:05 Uh, the thing that we learn one or three chapters of every day. And, uh, a Yid must live with the Mishneh Torah, not the Moreh Nevuchim. I'll also note, uh, as long as we're here, that in all of my research, I never once found the Rebbe recommending that someone learn the Moreh Nevuchim, which is interesting. We, we know the Rebbe really pushed, uh, learning Mishneh Torah, obviously. Uh, and we also know that other philosophical works like Shaar Bitachon from the Chabad Lubavitch, he's constantly saying to learn. But all I found was the Rebbe explaining what the Moreh is, how to learn it, uh, but not necessarily to learn it. I didn't find, maybe somebody, uh, will write in that they have some, they have some letter, some halo, where the Rebbe told somebody to learn the Moreh Nevuchim. But even then, uh, if you find one or two, it's not going to be a dominant thing. The, the Rebbe tells people to learn the Shaar Bitachon in almost every volume of Igrus. You just don't see the Rebbe pushing people to learn Moreh Nevuchim. I think it now might be a little bit more clear why. Uh, because here's what the Rebbe Shita seems to be from everything we've seen. Let's try to sum it all up. Uh, number one, the Moreh Nevuchim is holy. The Rebbe had a special love for it. Uh, because it contains the secrets of the Torah, and they worked very hard to extract those secrets and to read Kabbalah

31:08 into the Moreh Nevuchim. This approach is mandatory. One cannot learn the Moreh Nevuchim without first learning Chassidus and without the intent to read the Chassidus into the Moreh Nevuchim. Any other way of reading it is dangerous for both those searching for answers, that would be the unhealthy bellies, and those not searching for answers, the pure who would become impure. Secondly, even once you've used Chassidus to read the Moreh Nevuchim, keep in mind that you'll find some ideas in there that do not reflect the Rambam's authentic opinion and were written specifically for his generation of struggling Jews. Uh, one should not, God forbid, prioritize rationalism, science, or philosophy over faith, even if the Moreh Nevuchim, the, uh, the Guide for the Perplexed, sometimes does so because that's not the real Rambam. That's Rambam trying to save a generation. If you want the authentic Rambam and the authentic Torah, that's in the Yad HaChazakah. And of course, it's, it's also in Chassidus. Uh, in any event, this has been a, uh, one of our particularly long ones, and we looked at a lot of different topics. Uh, thank you all for staying with me, and thank you all very much.