In the conventional view, the great rabbi and philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) was the archetypal rationalist, whose theology stands in stark contrast to that of the mystics who preceded and followed him. Yet, argues David Fried, while Maimonides’ thinking cannot accommodate the existence of a mystical universe mediating between God and physical reality—a core doctrine of Kabbalah—it nevertheless has a deeply mystical strain in its focus on achieving union with the Divine, the ultimate goal of all mysticism. Fried draws on a passage near the end of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed outlining seven levels of human perfection to make his point:

Human perfection, [for Maimonides], begins with the intellectual knowledge of God, but the higher goal is not the knowledge itself but the experience of love and awe brought about by meditation and reflection upon that knowledge. . . .

The sixth [of Maimonides’ seven levels of perfection] is that attained by individuals who have mastered the study of metaphysics, [whom] Maimonides exhorts to strive for the ultimate achievement in human perfection. . . . [T]he path that Maimonides advises to ascend from the sixth level to the seventh is clearly meditative, a training of the mind to dwell exclusively on God and not merely intellectual study. . . .

[According to Maimonides’] general theory of knowledge. An intellect that is not actively cognizing is merely a potential intellect. However, when one actively cognizes the form or essence of a thing, the form enters one’s mind . . . and “in such a case the intellect is not a thing distinct from the thing comprehended.” . . .

We can now apply Maimonides’ general theory of knowledge to [his seven levels of perfection]. The intellect that understands the idea of God, but is not actively cognizing it, knows it only in potential. True knowledge occurs only during the moments when one is actively cognizing. It further follows that just as when we cognize the form of a tree our intellect becomes identical with the form of the tree, so too when cognizing the idea of God, our intellect becomes identical with Him. What more powerful expression of mystical union with the Divine could there be?

Additionally, there is a key difference between cognizing trees and cognizing God. Obviously, when cognizing the form of a tree, our intellect does not become a tree, for a physical tree is not the same as the ideal or form of the tree. Physical objects consist of matter that can reflect form only to greater or lesser degrees. God, on the other hand, does not consist of matter, and therefore the idea of God is not separate from the essence of God, as Maimonides explains [on two separate occasions], “He is the knower; He is the known; and He is the knowledge itself.”

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.