Maimonidean Rationalism: Part 2: "Avodah Zarah as Falsehood - Denial of Reality and Rejection of Science" by David Guttmann

Apposite my discussion in Maimonidean Rationalism, at http://michaelmakovi.blogspot.com/2009/01/maimonidean-rationalism.html, see also some articles:

U-Madua Lo Yeresem - Asher Benzion Buchman
Contrasting the divergent views of RambaM and RambaN/Rashba, and trying to show that RamaN/Rashba would hold like RambaM were they alive today.
http://www.hakirah.org/Vol%202%20Buchman.pdf

Rabbi Marc D. Angel, "Religion and Superstition: A Maimonidean Approach", http://www.jewishideas.org/min-hamuvhar/religion-and-supe

Rabbi Marc D. Angel, "Reflections on Torah Education and Mis-Education", http://www.jewishideas.org/min-hamuvhar/reflections-torah-education-and-mis-education

Miracles in Rambam’s Thought— a Function of Prophecy - David Guttmann
I haven't read this yet
http://www.hakirah.org/Vol%203%20Guttmann.pdf

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"Avodah Zarah as Falsehood - Denial of Reality and Rejection of Science" - David Guttmann
An analysis of Rambam's view of avoda zara
http://www.hakirah.org/Vol%206%20Guttmann.pdf

This last article makes such an important thesis, in my opinion, that it is worth summarizing briefly.

The author notes that before Rambam famously declares that the prohibition of avoda zara is at the heart of the Torah's entire weltanschauung and the majority of its mitzvot,

The knowledge of these opinions and practices [of idolatry] is of great importance in explaining the reasons for the commandments. For the foundation of the Law and the pivot round which it turns consists of the effacement of these opinions from the minds and of these monuments [idols and their temples] from existence... This [eradication of idolatry] is the principal and first objective of the whole Torah...

(Page 1, quoting Moreh Nevuchim 3:29), Rambam first discusses Divine Providence viz a viz man's role in this world. Man's role in this world, to oversimplify, is to be at the apex of this world and help maintain, secure, guard, and assist all other myriad aspects of this world. I (not Rambam) would personally see this as what G-d meant when He told us to "be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it" and when He told Adam to guard and keep the garden; man is to be the world's steward.

Behold footnote 29 in that article, quoting Rambam's comment on Avot 1:2 (viz. על שלושה דברים העולם עומד: על התורה ועל העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים - On three things the world stands: on Torah, on service, and on deeds of loving-kindness.)

יאמר, שבחכמה, והיא התורה, ובמעלות המידות, והן גמילות חסדים, ובקיום ציוויי התורה, והן הקרבנות—התמדת תיקון העולם, וסידור מציאותו על האופן השלם ביותר. [My translation: That is to say: In wisdom, which is "Torah", and in positive virtues, which is "deeds of loving-kindness", and in keeping the laws of the Torah, which is "sacrificial service", this will ensure preservation and rectification of the world, and order and establish existence in a complete way. Guttmann then continues] It is important to note that with these few words Rambam summarized his understanding of ta’amei ha-mitzvot and gives its Tannaitic source.

Indeed, Rambam has just described what he believes "tikkun olam", "repair of the world", to be: the ordering and proper establishment of our temporal existence.

(While on the subject of "tikkun olam" being sociological and temporal: see the following: Rabbi Shelomoh Danziger, "Rediscovering the Hirschian Legacy", Jewish Action 5756/1996, p. 23, http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/Danziger.pdf, quoting Rabbi Hirsch's Commentary on Genesis 9:27:

[T]hese spiritual pursuits ... are meant to lead to proper action, to the right response to the ever-changing conditions of life, in order 'to prepare the world for the kingdom of G-d', as we put it in our daily prayers.

The phrase "prepare the world for the kingdom of G-d" is a translation of l'takken olam b'malkhut Shaddai ("to perfect the world under God's sovereignty"). Thus Rav Hirsch explicitly relates tikkun olam to practical sociological rectification of the material world.

And see Dr. Judith Bleich, "Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch: Ish al Ha'edah" Jewish Action, issue unknown, p. 28, http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/bleich_rsrh.pdf:

[Hirsch aimed at n]othing less than transformation of the entire Jewish community and ultimately, the molding of society at large in its moral image (tikkun olam).

But back to Rambam: So the purpose of man's existence, if we oversimplify, is to order this temporal world in a fitting and proper manner. But avoda zara, in which category Rambam includes such things as all magic, superstition, talismans, astrology, etc., interferes with this: Page 15:

An erroneous understanding of God, the First Cause, will hamper our ability to understand the true reality of our existence.

Page 17:

When confronted with a scientific mystery, for example. the effects of gravity or magnetism, instead of looking for an answer in the physical realm, it is explained away as a “spiritual” phenomenon [such as by Rashba, who declared magnetism to be supernatural]. Sickness is not biological but caused by bad “spirits” and has to be treated by removing evil spirits and replacing them with good ones. These purported solutions to physical mysteries become the accepted "truth" and any deviation from it is "kefirah." Thus, real knowledge and human advancement is stymied. "Infidelity", falsehood and ignorance invariably bring about intellectual dark ages. History can vouch for that. Anyone who has studied, even superficially, the development of science through the middle Ages and early Renaissance in the Western Hemisphere can attest to this.

When one believes in superstitions, it stultifies the mind, and turns one from practical efficaceous use of this world, and instead turns him to senseless and false imaginings that replace and impede the fulfillment of his duties. The proper perspective is found in page 17, that

As mentioned earlier in this article, Rambam in M[oreh]N[evuchim] 3:25 explains that man has an important role to play in ensuring the continuity of the whole of existence. With his ability to think abstractly, he can discover scientific truths and thus take control of his environment.

And page 18:

For one to have an accurate knowledge of the universe one has to have correct notions of God and the angels. One has to understand that there is an unbridgeable gap between the physical and transcendental. It is only then that science can advance and man can take control of his environment fulfilling his intended destiny and role.

And then, page 19:

Idolatry in its classical sense, the worship of idols, is only a symptom of a much deeper misconception of our existence. It teaches that there are "spiritual" forces that are involved in the physical world we live in. The gamut of ideas based on this misconception runs from spiritual forces directing every aspect of life on earth to only affecting certain events. As long as people can accept such thinking, the underlying root of avodah zarah has not been eradicated. This nefarious thinking is so deeply embedded in the human psyche, it is so compelling when man faces an environment that he cannot completely understand and therefore fully control, that 3,000 years of Torah have not been completely successful in eliminating it.

Now, we can truly understand why Rambam is so adamant that astrology and superstition is not merely prohibited by the Torah, but even wrong.

You need to know that the perfected philosophers do not believe in talismans. They laugh at them and at the people who believe that they have an influence [on the physical]. To explain this will be lengthy. I say this because I know that most people, indeed possibly all, are fooled by this great deception, and by many other similar things, considering them to be true. They are not. [The deception is so great] that even the best of the Chassidim [faithful] among our men [scholars] of Torah, think that they are true but forbidden because the Torah forbids them. They do not realize that they are nonsensical false things that the Torah warned against, just as it warned us against [believing in] falsehoods.

(Page 7, quoting Rambam's commentary to Mishna Avoda Zara 4:7.) For the mere belief in these matter stultifies the mind, spirit, and deed, even if one does not actually practice these superstitions.

Let us backtrack a little. The author has asserted that scientific progress was due to a rationalistic perspective. Indeed, Rabbi Dr. Leo Levi writes, in "Some Modern Implications of the Chanukkah Victory" at http://www.hra.jct.ac.il/judaica/dvarTorah/dt11.html

In a remarkable article concerning Chanukkah, Rabbi S.R. Hirsch points out that...[o]nly when the Judaic God-centered world view had conquered a whole culture, could modern science develop. In Rabbi Hirsch's own words there: "Only the torch lit by the spirit of Shem made possible the miracle of human insight which modern science celebrates." Let us consider this idea in some detail. To understand Judaism's contribution to modern science, consider science the way it was 3000 years ago. Already at that time science, especially astronomy, was amazingly well developed. Scientists noted that the sun rises each morning in the east and sets in the west. There are certain seasonal changes, but these too repeat themselves precisely. They accounted for this by assuming the existence of a sun-god who enforces this program on the sun. When they studied the path of the moon, they found a far more complex set of rules; but these, too, were strictly enforced. Logically, this was explained by positing a moon-god. When they observed rain coming down-drops never fall upwards-this obviously has no connection with the moon. So it was natural to ascribe it to a rain-god. And so on. Each different natural phenomenon was explained by another deity. This may sound quite primitive to us, but it really is not that stupid. If the results differ, presumably so do the causes. Thus was the science 3000 years ago, and it essentially remained so for millennia. The Greek philosophers mathematicized the explanations, but the basic flaw of lack of unity remained. It remained until, 300 years ago, there appeared a man by the name of Sir Isaac Newton and formulated the Law of Gravity. He wrote one simple equation, which gave the force each mass in the universe exerts on each other mass. This equation explained the path of the sun, the moon and why the raindrops fall. He discovered that the same law that governs the heavenly bodies, also governs the water droplet falling from the cloud and the dust particle floating through the air. An amazing discovery, this. It is this unity that characterizes modern science-one fundamental force accounts for a multitude of phenomena. We have not yet found a single force to account for all phenomena; we still need four fundamental forces, but work is continuing on unification. And now the crucial question: how did Newton discover the inherent unity in such disparate phenomena? It seems reasonable to argue that only because Judaism had taught Western culture the unity of the Creator, was Newton able to sense the unity in creation. Surely, unless he knew that one Creator formed the world, including sun, moon, and rain, it would never have entered his mind to search for this unity.

Rabbi Natan Slifkin, in like vein, says,

The scientific enterprise itself is rooted in Judaism. Professor Paul Davies, a renowned physicist, writes: "The Jews conceived of G-d as the Lawgiver. This G-d, being independent of, and separate from, His creation, imposed laws upon the physical universe from without." It never occurred to pagans to look for regularities in nature.

Judaism always believed in perceiving G-d through studying the natural world. This never meant "there is no scientific explanation for phenomena." Rather, it meant understanding that G-d was the One who decreed the laws of science in the first place.

...

Einstein wrote to a colleague:
"You find it surprising that I think of the comprehensibility of the world... as a miracle or eternal mystery. But surely, a priori, one should expect the world to be chaotic, not to be grasped by thought in any way... Even if the axioms of the theory are posited by man, the success of such a procedure supposes in the objective world a high degree of order, which we are in no way entitled to expect a priori. Therein lies the 'miracle' which becomes more and more evident as our knowledge develops. And here is the weak point of positivists and professional atheists, who feel happy because they think that they have pre empted not only the world of the divine but also of the miraculous."

And see Rabbi Asher Benzion Buchman, "U-Madua Lo Yeresem" (op. cit.), citing Sir Isaac Newton on page 22:

Four centuries later, Sir Isaac Newton was still trying to convince his fellow scientists that it is not "occult qualities" כח הסגלה) ) within individual objects that make them produce unique processes, but that general laws, with rules common to all matter, govern the workings of nature.

And the Aristotelians gave the Name of occult Qualities not to manifest Qualities, but to such Qualities only as they supposed to lie hid in bodies, and to be unknown causes of manifest effects: Such as would be the causes of gravity, and of magnetick and electrick attractions, and of fermentation, if we should suppose that the forces or actions arose from qualities unknown to us and incapable of being discovered and made manifest. Such occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy [emphasis mine], and therefore of late years have been rejected.

To tell us that every species of thing is endowed with an occult specific Quality, by which it acts and produces manifest effects, is to tell us nothing: But to derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal thins follow from these principles would be a very great step in philosophy. (Opticks: or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. 1704. Sir Isaac Newton. pp. 375-8)

And then, wondrously, Rabbi Dr. Leo Levi anticipates our present argument (viz. that faithful fulfillment of our duties depends on the consistency of natural laws, and our rational, not superstitious, appreciation for them), when he says,

The fulfillment of the Torah demands a world and rules that control it. To convince ourselves of the need for these laws, we need only try to imagine a world operating in an arbitrary fashion, without rules. Imagine if, when you sow seeds, you would have no idea whether wheat or weeds will come up. Or whether a particular effort will cause your hand to go up or down. Clearly, in such circumstances you would have no control, either of the world around you or of your own actions. You would feel like a puppet; your life would be totally passive. The laws of nature, then, are a condition for the commandments of the Torah to be operational. If God wants us to keep His commandments, He must give us the necessary tools, including reliable laws of nature. [Emphasis mine. - M. M.] This may have been one of the prophet's meanings when he said in God's name: "If not for My covenant, day and night, I would not have established the laws of heaven and Earth."

Rabbi Dr. Leo Levi (who is renowned as a Hirschian) is obviously basing himself on Rav Hirsch, as we can see in Rabbi Slifkin's saying,

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, pre-eminent Jewish thinker of the 19th century, explains:
"Judaism is most anxious to make its adherents aware that all the phenomena of nature are subject to certain unchanging laws. Since Judaism itself is a system of laws through and through, it attaches a profound ethical value to the study of the natural sciences. Judaism considers it vitally important for its adherents to become aware [Emphasis mine; it is vital for us to know this, as we saw Rambam too holds] that their entire universe is governed by well-defined laws, that every creature on earth becomes what it is only within the framework of fixed laws, and that every force in nature can operate only within specified limits.

Not by his whims of the moment but only by his own detailed knowledge of, and regard for, these laws can man make nature serve his purposes. [Emphasis mine.] Man himself, then, can exercise power only if he, in turn, obeys the laws set down for him and for his world."

And this is why the Rambam is so violently opposed to magic and superstition, and why he considers it not merely prohibited in practice, but even wrong and false in theory - because it is so fantastically destructive to the fulfillment of our human purpose of "tikkun olam".

Cf. Rav Kook in Igrot 79, translated in Tzvi Feldman, Rav A. Y. Kook - Selected Letters (Ma'aliot Publications of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe; Ma'aleh Adumim, Israel, 1986), pp. 26f ([] are the translator's, {} are mine):

As for other theories regarding matters of the soul that are beyond the limits of {i.e. irrelevant to} ethical and practical life, even though we are unable to refute them {so actually, Rav Kook might actually accept them in theory, contra Rambam}, still, we should not draw ways of life from them {i.e., we shouldn't base our practical deeds and life on them}. [This is forbidden], according to our holy Torah, which removed us from immersion in vague visions when it prohibited all sorts of sorcery and necromancy [Deuteronomy 18:10], forbade the priests to become impure from the dead, and tied all the commandments to life. And it is said in the Jerusalem Talmud "[So that you, your son, and your son's son may revere the Lord your God and follow], as long as you live, days that you are engaged in the living, and not days in which you are engaged in the dead." [Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot, Chapter 3. Verse is from Deuteronomy 6:2.]

A clarification: I'd translate as: [Quoting the verse] "as long as you live" - [that is to say, exegetically] - "days that you are engaged in the living, and not days in which you are engaged in the dead".

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Rabbi Israel Drazin, "Maimonides - The Exceptional Mind" -

http://nehora.com/index.cfm/product/6701/maimonides-the-exceptional-mind.cfm?CFID=37628269&CFTOKEN=20425136

http://www.amazon.com/Maimonides-Exceptional-Mind-Israel-Drazin/dp/9652294241

From the first URL:

Maimonides The Exceptional Mind is an examination of the remarkable penetrating mind of Moses Maimonides and to his rational eye-opening thoughts on many subjects. It includes ideas that are not incorporated in the usual books about this great philosopher because they are so different than the traditional thinking of the vast majority of people. It contrasts the notions of other Jewish thinkers, somewhat rational and others not rational at all.

The reader will be surprised, if not shocked, to learn that a host of beliefs that are prevalent among the Jewish masses have no rational basis. This does not suggest that Judaism itself is irrational and absurd. Just the opposite. But many Jews have opted to believe the unreasonable and illogical conventional ideas – what Maimonides would label non-Jewish sabian notions – because they have not been acquainted with Maimonides’ correct rational alternatives and taken the time to reflect upon it.

See the second (Amazon) for editorial reviews.