Although the medieval philosopher and scholar Moses Maimonides is generally seen (with good reason) as the epitome of Jewish rationalism, and his thought the antithesis of mysticism, Adam Afterman—the author of a recent book on the idea of mystical union with the deity in Jewish texts—argues that Maimonides made an important contribution to the history of Kabbalah. (Interview by Alan Brill.)

Maimonides more than any other medieval Jewish thinker was instrumental in the development of forms of mystical paths that end in mystical union. Maimonides internalized into his vision of Judaism the basic Aristotelian formula of knowledge and union, which was used to explain the contemplative transformation of the human intellect into an angelic intellect. . . . [This idea later] was adopted [by Jewish mystics] to explain how a human can integrate or assimilate into the Godhead.

The idea is that spiritual transformation in this life leads to the soul’s integration into spiritual realms associated [in prior Jewish literature] with the world to come, and eventually with the Godhead itself. [The Maimonidean theory of knowledge] helped the kabbalists explain how a human can integrate into God and how God may integrate into the human.

I must stress that I don’t think Maimonides himself was a mystic. And I don’t think he thought that man can unite with God. But Maimonides developed a worldview that divided the universe into two realms—the material and the non-material metaphysical realm. The metaphysical realm is considered to be unified in itself as pure thought. Thus the religious path that leads us from material existence to [a sort of mental union with angelic beings] is at the same time a movement from multiplicity to unity, a transformation from the corporeal to the union of intellect.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.