Maimonides on an Island

Rounding out a journey through rabbinic literature for my Survey of Judaism class, I decided to present my students with some RaMBaM. And we've done the usual before, forays into the Mishna Torah, with the rabbi's definitions of God and laws for study of Torah and the like. Time to kick things up a notch, I thought.

Bam!

I picked up my copy of the Guide for the Perplexed, and sorted through my notes to find a few of his more interesting chapters. In a 400-page treatise attempting to define and prove everything that is existence, it's not too hard to find interesting things.

But this day brought me to one chapter in particular, Book III: Chapter 27. Maimonides is trying to explain the nature and purpose of Torah, in his words, Law. Why do we have it? Why is it written in the way that it is? What does it accomplish?

The answer to his questions produce two definitions: True Truths and Necessary Truths. What? How can a truth be anything other than true? What does he mean? What is he talking about?

I read the chapter and am dumbfounded, speechless. I've read this before, but this time it makes so much more sense. I get it. It's brilliant! I have to teach it. I did.

On an Island is a button. The button is connected to a timer. Every 108 minutes the timer counts down to zero. At four minutes to zero, the timer starts to beep. At one minute, it beeps louder. At zero, all hell breaks loose.

You see, every 108 minutes, when the timer is within four minutes of zero, the button must be pressed. When it is the timer returns to 108 minutes. If the button is not pressed, the world will end.

That's right. Push the button every 108 minutes or be responsible for the destruction of humanity.

For years on-end, men spend their lives pressing the button. They take shifts. They contemplate the button's meaning. Sometimes they get so depressed with their pitiful existence that they consider letting the timer reach zero.

One man is now alone, pressing the button each day. His name is Desmond. But along come new pioneers in the task. A priest, Mr. Echo, and a bald man, John Locke.

Locke takes on the task of button-pushing quickly. He is convinced it is his fate, he has faith in his purpose. Mr. Echo too believes this and is diligent in his work.

Over time, they continue to press the button faithfully. They wonder its meaning. They are convicted in its purpose. They fulfill their roles dutifully, based on nothing more than faith.

One day, Locke and Mr. Echo find a video. This video suggests that the button is just a button, that nothing will happen if it is not pressed. It says that they are part of an experiment.

Desmond continues to believe that pushing the button is important. He does not know the truth of this video. He no longer wants to be the button-pusher, but, ultimately, believes that the world will end if the button is not pressed. To Desmond, the button is true.

Locke is furious. He looses faith because of the knowledge of this video. The button is a lie, something pulled over our eyes to shield us from reality. He is so certain in this that he wants to keep the button from being pressed. To Locke, the button is false.

Mr. Echo, is the oddball. He knows the truth of the button. He also knows the truth of the video that proves the untruth of the button. Nonetheless, he is as committed as ever, maybe even more committed than ever, to pushing the button because of the video. He will do everything in his ability to keep pressing the button. To Mr. Echo, the button is true and the video is true.

Mr. Echo's knowledge of the untruth of the button does not challenge his faith in the purpose of the button-pressing. He is a Maimonidean thinker in the fullest.

You see, Rambam's definitions of truth (true truths and necessary truths) explain a situation just like this.

The masses, Rambam believes, are generally incapable of serious thinking. They need laws to keep society functioning. They need truths to prove things. They need a button. They don't question it. It doesn't matter. They will spend all their lives pushing the button because they are told to - because they learned they are supposed to. The masses are Desmond, or Radzinsky, or Kelvin.

The button is a necessary truth.

But necessary truths are necessarily metaphor. They are not actually true. God does not have a back, though we need to believe that Moses saw it. A few special people are smart and committed enough to internalize philosophy and move beyond the necessary truth.

Locke, a philosopher like Maimonides but limited in his ability, is unable to see past the disappointment of learning true truth, of learning from the video, learning that the button isn't actually true. His faith is shaken by reality.

He no longer believes. True truth, for Locke, is too hard to handle. He would rather have never learned the truth at all. But now that he has, he wants nothing to do with the button.

The message of the video is true truth.

Mr. Echo knows the necessary truth and the true truth. He knows the law of the button, and he knows the truth behind the law of the button. But the truth behind the truth does not shake his faith in either truth. Rather, they are mutually fulfilling. They build off of each other.

This is what Maimonides asks of us.

If we are capable of living in the modern world, of knowing that there is more truth than the Law's truth, if we are able to actually understand God and the world around us, then we either allow true truth to buttress the necessary truths or to shatter them.

God doesn't have a back, can either lead me to rebel against Torah or find added meaning in why I say that Moses saw God's back. The former leaves me angry, faithless, and, like John Locke, generally without purpose. The latter gives my life new meaning, allows me think outside of the box, and go even further with my theology.

Somehow, a thousand years ago, Maimonides knew all this. He understood man well enough to predict how we act. And Lost is brilliant enough of a television show to encapsulate this lesson in an entire season's story line. (Will Season 4 start already!?)

Knowing all we know, what do we do? Can you set aside reason? Can you internalize faith? Can you push the button? Do you?

Comments

[Josh Levin]

3 things:

1. 108 and 4 minutes, just for fun?
2. If this is an accurate representation of wait RaMBaM wrote, bravo. It's lucid even to me.
3. What show?

[David]

Really!?

Come on... I'm disappointed bro.