Maimonidean Monism - Unpacked

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Maimonidean Monism

Being Absolutely Infinite,

  Only You Absolutely Exist!

All other existences,

  Draw their existence from You!

As You are the Only stream,

  From where else can they drink?

You are their very wellspring,

  Their fountain of existence.

You give it gushing forth,

  Without relinquishment;

As nothing can be added,

  Nor subtracted from You.

As that's what it truly means,

  To be Absolutely Infinite.

All those upon whom,

  You confer existence,

Receive without detaching,

  From Your own Existence.

They remain One with You,

  In Absolute Seamlessness!

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The poem above is inspired by a teaching from Maimonides. If read in a certain way this teaching offers a surprise. It indicates that not only was the Maimonides a prime theological and philosophical champion of Monotheism, but, he was very likely a Monist as well. To clarify, Monotheism is the belief that there's only One God. Monism is a specialized version of Monotheism which believes that there's Only God; i.e. only God exists and all else is somehow One with Him.

The poem is written in a way which attempts to mirror the imagery and philosophical language used in Maimonidean period Islamic culture (of course as it came to me via English and Hebrew source materials).

The teaching which inspired the poem is found in "Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah" 2:9 and is very specifically focused on the words, "...all exists by force of the truth of His Existence." I am aware that exactly how to translate this passage can be a subject of discussion. However, I believe my understanding of how it should be translated to be simple, reasonable and matching with the likely intent of its esteemed author.

This understanding is also shared by, the 19th Century Torah personality and Kabbalist, Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shpielman.  Please see Tal Orot, Section I, Chapter 8. In the new edition it's on the top section of the right hand column of P. 47.

The advantage of this particular approach into Monism is that it does not employ imagery of space. Typically, I have most often heard the claim for Monism presented as follows: If God is Infinite then how is there "space" for anything else? So, it must be that only God exists.

This claim has a weakness because "space", as a later creation, should have nothing to do with substantiating Monism. In this poem, expanded out from the words of the Maimonides, Monism is substantiated on "existence" alone. Which makes sense because (at least philosophically) existence is something which applies to God. Every believer proclaims, "God exists!"

The notion of “existence” I am working with is “is-ness”. It is, so it exists. This might be a bit different from the way the word “existence” is used in classical philosophy. Honestly, I do not know how the term was classically employed. I just got hints in my past studies, here and there, that the word may have been used a shade or two differently than I am used to. So to avoid entangled meanings and connotations, I clarified my usage of the word.

How does any entity acquire “is-ness” or “existence”? Only God Absolutely Exists. He’s identical with His own Existence. Since He’s the only Source Existence, all existences derive from His own.

It’s a basic logical principle that nothing can be added or subtracted from Absolute Infinity. If something’s subtracted, it’s no longer Infinite. If something’s added, it was never Infinite to begin with. Therefore, when the Infinite Being, God, shares existence with other entities, what’s shared never leaves Him. It’s not subtracted from Him. It remains One with Him.

Since all entities are identical with their own existence and their existence is not subtracted from Him, neither are they. They remain One with Him, Seamless so; as His Oneness is most perfect ~ and hence, Absolutely Seamless.

The notion of “it is” is a great equalizer. In the same breath one can proclaim, “Humans exist!” and, “Rocks exists!” Evidently when comparing two entities’ core existence levels, the ladder of life becomes irrelevant. Though on vastly different levels of life, a human does not exist any more than a rock does.

Since all “existences” are really Seamlessly One with God, it means that existence itself, “is-ness”, is seamlessly indivisible ~ absolutely undifferentiated!  The core existence factor is not any different for an angel than it is for a stone. It must be more primal than the levels along the ladder of life are; even the highest of levels.

So, how does simple, undifferentiated, “is-ness” bring about such amazing variety, including various levels of life and kinds of life?

For a model to explain this, I turn to a teaching by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (see “Igeret HaKodesh”). He teaches that soil has a unique quality, as it can sprout forth a wide variety of plants. Assuming all soil is uniformly nutriated, one seed can bring out the soil’s potential to produce a tomato vine and another seed can bring forth a grape vine. The same soil which can transform into the main bulk of one plant can transform into the main bulk of the other plant. Even if one wants to claim that each plants’ bulk is enhanced by other factors as well (like rain, CO2 and sunlight), still even these other factors are uniform elements, which are uniformly available to both plants grown on the same patch of soil.

Logically speaking, to tease out variety from uniformity requires uniformity to latently bear the potential for that variety. This potential is usually seamless and undetectable on the uniform level; like a spark still within the flint or a ray still within the sun. In a similar sense, Pure Existence latently bears the potential for all the existences ~ which remain latent even while revealed!

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