An open library of thought
Understand the Law without betraying reason.
Because God is absolutely one and beyond comparison, positive attributes cannot describe the divine essence; God is known through negations and through attributes of action that name effects in the world.
Saying that God is not powerless removes an imperfection without claiming to grasp what divine power is.
Biblical words such as image, place or seeing carry several meanings; identifying the intended sense dissolves anthropomorphism without discarding the text.
In “Let us make man in our image”, image refers to the intellect, not to a bodily shape.
Prophecy is an emanation from God, through the active intellect, onto a well-prepared intellect and imagination; preparation is required, yet God may withhold the gift, and the prophecy of Moses stands apart.
A learned person with a weak imagination may become a philosopher without becoming a prophet.
The Law aims at the welfare of the body and the perfection of the soul, so most commandments have intelligible purposes, some of them historical, such as weaning a people from idolatry.
Maimonides explains the sacrificial cult as a gradual concession to the worship habits of the ancient world.