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Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind
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.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published September 20, 2008
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About the author
Israel Drazin
45 books9 followersBrigadier General (Ret.) Dr. Israel Drazin, Ph.D. (Aramaic Literature, 1981; M.A., Hebrew Literature, 1978; J.D., Law, 1974; M.Ed., Psychology, 1966; B.A., Theology, 1957), in an ordained rabbi, practicing lawyer, and retired U.S. Army chaplain. A recipient of the Legion of Merit, he completed his service in the active reserves in 1984 as Assistant Chief of Chaplains, the highest reserve officer position available in the Army Chaplaincy.
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December 21, 2025
Studying Maimonides With Rabbi Israel Drazin
"Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind" (2008) is the first of three volumes devoted to the thought of the great Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1135? -- 1204) by Rabbi Israel Drazin, (b. 1935), a scholar and prolific writer on Jewish subjects. Drazin and I have shared reviews and thoughts for several years beginning with comments on each other's reviews. He kindly offered me the opportunity to review his Maimonides trilogy. I learned a great deal from this first volume.
Maimonides is highly esteemed in Judaism, and his philosophy has had broad influence both within and without the Jewish tradition. His thought is difficult and controversial. This is a result both of its subtlety and depth and of Maimonides' stated reluctance to express his ideas openly without considerable circumlocution. Maimonides is almost always taken as the great "rationalist" thinker in Judaism, and Drazin so understands him. The difficulty is understanding the nature of rationalism. Drazin offers a dictionary definition at the outset which perhaps becomes fleshed-out is the book proceeds. He writes, contrasting "rationalism" with "faith":
"The dictionary defines rationalism as the principle or habit of accepting reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion, belief and conduct. Faith, on the other hand, can be defined as people's acceptance of a belief as the truth even when there is no scientific proof of its truth and the belief is not rational. Faith is harmful because it prevents people from enjoying life as God desires -- giving them mistaken ideas that stifle them from intellectual and emotional growth -- misleads them and keeps them from behavior that benefits them and society."
Drazin believes that many people, Jews and non-Jews, are governed by emotion and prejudice and by the teachings of their youth rather than by reason. He tries to explain the teachings of Maimonides, particularly as they are presented in his philosophical masterwork "The Guide of the Perplexed" as pointing the way towards rational religious belief and towards a good, happy life. The book covers a great deal in a short compass. It is simply and colloquially written. The book is presented in a series of short chapters, each of which begins with a brief introduction, followed by a list of questions to be addressed, a treatment of the questions, and a concluding summary. This presentation makes the book easy to follow at the price of simplification. The book can be read with benefit by those without much prior background in Maimonides or in Jewish thought. Every interpretation of Maimonides will be disputed. Drazin's understanding of this great thinker is controversial but well within the range of reasoned discussion of Maimonides' thought from Maimonides' own day to the present.
The book is in four parts. The first part offers an overview of Maimonides' thought. Drazin considers how Maimonides understands God and God's relationship to nature and to human beings. Broadly speaking, Drazin understands Maimonides as a deist -- not an atheist but also not a person with a belief in a personal, providential God. Maimonides's God for Drazin, created the world (not necessarily from nothing) but does not interfere with the operations of nature or with human affairs. Nature operates through laws discoverable through science. Human actions also are governed by laws and by a degree of free choice. Among other consequences, this view of God has no place for divine revelation, a chosen people, or miracles.
In subsequent parts of his book, Drazin compares and contrasts Maimonides with a range of other Jewish thinkers. Some of these thinkers he considers "rational" within his sense to a greater or lesser degree others he considers not rational. Again, Drazin's discussions are brief but fascinating. He considers, among others, Philo of Alexandria, Ibn Ezra, Rashi, Sadia Gaon, Crescas, Nachmanides, and Spinoza. It is a great deal for a short book. I have read in some of these thinkers and the book made me want to return to them.
The last two parts of Drazin's book explore various traditional Jewish practices which show the continued influence of non-rational beliefs, including belief in demons, evil inclinations, and superstitions with little basis in either the Jewish Bible or in reason. Drazin also explores the Jewish mystical tradition culminating in the Zohar and shows the great influence of superstition, polytheism, and irrationality in the work. Drazin is harsh on mysticism. I was attracted to mysticism many years ago and it brought me closer to Jewish practice for a time. It is difficult to parse through simply, but those who are interested in Jewish mysticism, including myself at one time, are likely not attracted to its teachings by the superstitions and crudities it undoubtedly contains that Drazin describes. It is altogether possible, as Drazin himself agrees, that "rationalism" is not monolithic in religion or anywhere else and that there can be a variety of rational approaches.
Drazin is in love with thinking and philosophy. I understand him as part of a longstanding tradition of philosophical religion which is separate form any particular religious practice, whether Jewish Christian, Moslem, or pagan. There is a religion of the mind which becomes realized in the concrete by religious traditions in which most people are not engaged in or especially interested in thinking religious matters through. Drazin eloquently describes what I take to be philosophical religion in a passage in the middle of his study captioned "Opting for an Uninvolved God". The discussion forms an apt conclusion to Drazin's treatment of Spinoza. Here is part of what Drazin writes:
"People at their highest level, say the philosophers, are able to leave the comforts and security of the proverbial Garden of Eden. They do not need to stroll with God among the Garden's fruit trees. They do not eat of the tree of good and evil .... that is, they do not worry about good and evil. They live instead at a higher stage of life. They are concerned about truth and falsehood. They seek to understand how the world functions..... They realize that they were born neither to weep or to laugh, neither to cling to a mother's breast nor to God. They must study and view the world with an open ever-observant mind and live in the world -- not stagnate in it -- and grow and be all they can be."
This is a vision shared by Maimonides, Spinoza, and Drazin.
Drazin's book will provoke thought and response regardless of whether the reader agrees. It will also encourage further thought and reading by those interested in the questions it raises. The book includes a good bibliography for further readings but no index. I am looking forward to reading Drazin's two following books on Maimonides.
Robin Friedman
"Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind" (2008) is the first of three volumes devoted to the thought of the great Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1135? -- 1204) by Rabbi Israel Drazin, (b. 1935), a scholar and prolific writer on Jewish subjects. Drazin and I have shared reviews and thoughts for several years beginning with comments on each other's reviews. He kindly offered me the opportunity to review his Maimonides trilogy. I learned a great deal from this first volume.
Maimonides is highly esteemed in Judaism, and his philosophy has had broad influence both within and without the Jewish tradition. His thought is difficult and controversial. This is a result both of its subtlety and depth and of Maimonides' stated reluctance to express his ideas openly without considerable circumlocution. Maimonides is almost always taken as the great "rationalist" thinker in Judaism, and Drazin so understands him. The difficulty is understanding the nature of rationalism. Drazin offers a dictionary definition at the outset which perhaps becomes fleshed-out is the book proceeds. He writes, contrasting "rationalism" with "faith":
"The dictionary defines rationalism as the principle or habit of accepting reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion, belief and conduct. Faith, on the other hand, can be defined as people's acceptance of a belief as the truth even when there is no scientific proof of its truth and the belief is not rational. Faith is harmful because it prevents people from enjoying life as God desires -- giving them mistaken ideas that stifle them from intellectual and emotional growth -- misleads them and keeps them from behavior that benefits them and society."
Drazin believes that many people, Jews and non-Jews, are governed by emotion and prejudice and by the teachings of their youth rather than by reason. He tries to explain the teachings of Maimonides, particularly as they are presented in his philosophical masterwork "The Guide of the Perplexed" as pointing the way towards rational religious belief and towards a good, happy life. The book covers a great deal in a short compass. It is simply and colloquially written. The book is presented in a series of short chapters, each of which begins with a brief introduction, followed by a list of questions to be addressed, a treatment of the questions, and a concluding summary. This presentation makes the book easy to follow at the price of simplification. The book can be read with benefit by those without much prior background in Maimonides or in Jewish thought. Every interpretation of Maimonides will be disputed. Drazin's understanding of this great thinker is controversial but well within the range of reasoned discussion of Maimonides' thought from Maimonides' own day to the present.
The book is in four parts. The first part offers an overview of Maimonides' thought. Drazin considers how Maimonides understands God and God's relationship to nature and to human beings. Broadly speaking, Drazin understands Maimonides as a deist -- not an atheist but also not a person with a belief in a personal, providential God. Maimonides's God for Drazin, created the world (not necessarily from nothing) but does not interfere with the operations of nature or with human affairs. Nature operates through laws discoverable through science. Human actions also are governed by laws and by a degree of free choice. Among other consequences, this view of God has no place for divine revelation, a chosen people, or miracles.
In subsequent parts of his book, Drazin compares and contrasts Maimonides with a range of other Jewish thinkers. Some of these thinkers he considers "rational" within his sense to a greater or lesser degree others he considers not rational. Again, Drazin's discussions are brief but fascinating. He considers, among others, Philo of Alexandria, Ibn Ezra, Rashi, Sadia Gaon, Crescas, Nachmanides, and Spinoza. It is a great deal for a short book. I have read in some of these thinkers and the book made me want to return to them.
The last two parts of Drazin's book explore various traditional Jewish practices which show the continued influence of non-rational beliefs, including belief in demons, evil inclinations, and superstitions with little basis in either the Jewish Bible or in reason. Drazin also explores the Jewish mystical tradition culminating in the Zohar and shows the great influence of superstition, polytheism, and irrationality in the work. Drazin is harsh on mysticism. I was attracted to mysticism many years ago and it brought me closer to Jewish practice for a time. It is difficult to parse through simply, but those who are interested in Jewish mysticism, including myself at one time, are likely not attracted to its teachings by the superstitions and crudities it undoubtedly contains that Drazin describes. It is altogether possible, as Drazin himself agrees, that "rationalism" is not monolithic in religion or anywhere else and that there can be a variety of rational approaches.
Drazin is in love with thinking and philosophy. I understand him as part of a longstanding tradition of philosophical religion which is separate form any particular religious practice, whether Jewish Christian, Moslem, or pagan. There is a religion of the mind which becomes realized in the concrete by religious traditions in which most people are not engaged in or especially interested in thinking religious matters through. Drazin eloquently describes what I take to be philosophical religion in a passage in the middle of his study captioned "Opting for an Uninvolved God". The discussion forms an apt conclusion to Drazin's treatment of Spinoza. Here is part of what Drazin writes:
"People at their highest level, say the philosophers, are able to leave the comforts and security of the proverbial Garden of Eden. They do not need to stroll with God among the Garden's fruit trees. They do not eat of the tree of good and evil .... that is, they do not worry about good and evil. They live instead at a higher stage of life. They are concerned about truth and falsehood. They seek to understand how the world functions..... They realize that they were born neither to weep or to laugh, neither to cling to a mother's breast nor to God. They must study and view the world with an open ever-observant mind and live in the world -- not stagnate in it -- and grow and be all they can be."
This is a vision shared by Maimonides, Spinoza, and Drazin.
Drazin's book will provoke thought and response regardless of whether the reader agrees. It will also encourage further thought and reading by those interested in the questions it raises. The book includes a good bibliography for further readings but no index. I am looking forward to reading Drazin's two following books on Maimonides.
Robin Friedman
January 24, 2012
Rating: four surprised stars of five
It isn't often that a twelfth century Jewish sage gets this kind of attention from a twentieth century non-Jew. I read "Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind" with the kind of absorbed attention that I am accustomed to paying to secular historical figures' biographies. I am not possessed of a God gene, it would seem, so I tend to avoid books about figures I associate with any religion; fortuately, this book made it under the radar.
Maimonides wrote, at the end of the twelfth century, a book called "The Guide of the Perplexed." It was a signal contribution to world culture in that it specifically enjoins its readers to engage with the world they find themselves in, not a fantasy world of demons, angels, and magic such as the majority of Maimonides's contemporary co-monotheists inhabited. His book encouraged the use of rational philosophy in parsing the religious foundation texts used by Jews, and all other cults.
This book, while I give it four stars based on its content of explicatory and expository information about Maimonides, isn't for a casual reader. It is structured like a textbook, with section titles and section content questions; it's not written in particularly fluid prose, though it is certainly not poorly written at all; it is, in short, a teaching book. This is a noble and wonderful thing to be. It isn't likely to make the volume or the subject into a bestseller, though. It's well, well worth the time to acquaint yourself with the rationalist's mystic and the mystic's rationalist. It's easy to do this with this clear, concise, and elegant text.
It isn't often that a twelfth century Jewish sage gets this kind of attention from a twentieth century non-Jew. I read "Maimonides: The Exceptional Mind" with the kind of absorbed attention that I am accustomed to paying to secular historical figures' biographies. I am not possessed of a God gene, it would seem, so I tend to avoid books about figures I associate with any religion; fortuately, this book made it under the radar.
Maimonides wrote, at the end of the twelfth century, a book called "The Guide of the Perplexed." It was a signal contribution to world culture in that it specifically enjoins its readers to engage with the world they find themselves in, not a fantasy world of demons, angels, and magic such as the majority of Maimonides's contemporary co-monotheists inhabited. His book encouraged the use of rational philosophy in parsing the religious foundation texts used by Jews, and all other cults.
This book, while I give it four stars based on its content of explicatory and expository information about Maimonides, isn't for a casual reader. It is structured like a textbook, with section titles and section content questions; it's not written in particularly fluid prose, though it is certainly not poorly written at all; it is, in short, a teaching book. This is a noble and wonderful thing to be. It isn't likely to make the volume or the subject into a bestseller, though. It's well, well worth the time to acquaint yourself with the rationalist's mystic and the mystic's rationalist. It's easy to do this with this clear, concise, and elegant text.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews