Maimonidean Controversy

But there were people opposing Maimonides in that window of time that was particularly stark.

And Don Yitzchak Abravanel sort of coming at the end of a 300-year period of anti-Maimonidean writings and, well, the era of the Maimonidean conflicts.

And Don Yitzchak Abravanel, people call him Abarbanel, 300 years later, still opposes the principles of faith that were introduced by Maimonides.

And he writes, this is from his Rosh HaMana, chapter 23.

Judaism is finally heading in an intellectual and academic direction.

But anyway, it was into that environment that Judeo-Sufism was born as a reaction to that stark Maimonidean codification and rationalization.

In Egypt, the descendants of Maimonides now, starting with Maimonides' son, Avraham ben Aramba, otherwise known as Avraham ibn Abraham, I mean, even Moshe, from the Rambam's own family, a whole line of descendants begins to emerge, going to five or six generations, direct descendants of Maimonides, who are not rationalists, they're not codifiers, They are staunch mystics.

So within the Rambam's own home, literally starting with his own son, Abraham, going down six generations at least over a period of 200 odd years, we have this bubble of Jewish mysticism, which is an admixture of Islamic Sufism.

This again becomes important to our discussion to see that this was the milieu in which Jewish Sufism was developed, and now you can understand why this was the case.

The Mamluks were untrusting of philosophy, which again ties in beautifully with what we're speaking about.

They didn't approve of Aristotelian philosophy, they didn't approve of Maimonidean rationalism, even though Maimonides was a physician, personal physician to the Sultan.

So there was this anti-philosophic climate and a pro-mystical climate in Mamluk Egypt.

let me clarify.

Anyone have Maimonidean associations to the phrase Adroshen Broshen?

No.

Yeah, that's the phrase the Rambam uses.

We imagine a redeemed world in the mystical tradition.

According to the Maimonidean tradition, who is building off Shmuel in the Talmud, good old Shmuley in the Talmud, he says, no, the nature of the world is the same.

Human nature is the same.

The only thing that's really changed is kind of respect for sovereignty, kind of a new level of human rights, an elevated human order in the world, whether that is nation states not constantly at war, whether that is a transcendence of the nation state model.