Rethink.

Let­ter to Oba­diah the Pros­e­lyte (from A Mai­monides Reader, ed. Isadore Twer­sky. West Orange: Behrman House, 1972)
Mai­monides

Thus says Moses, the son of Rabbi Mai­mon, one of the exiles from Jerusalem, who lived in Spain:

I received the ques­tion of the mas­ter Oba­diah, the wise and learned pros­e­lyte, may the Lord reward him for his work, may a per­fect rec­om­pense be bestowed upon him by the Lord of Israel, under whose wings he has sought cover.

You ask me if you, too, are allowed to say in the bless­ings and prayers you offer alone or in the con­gre­ga­tion: “Our God” and “God of our fathers,” “You who have sanc­ti­fied us through Your com­mand­ments,” “You who have sep­a­rated us,” “You who have cho­sen us,” “You who have inher­ited us,” “You who have brought us out of the land of Egypt,” “You who have worked mir­a­cles to our fathers,” and more of this kind.

Yes, you may say all this in the pre­scribed order and not change it in the least. In the same way as every Jew by birth says his bless­ing and prayer, you, too, shall bless and pray alike, whether you are alone or pray in the con­gre­ga­tion. The rea­son for this is, that Abra­ham our Father taught the peo­ple, opened their minds, and revealed to them the true faith and the unity of God; he rejected the idols and abol­ished their ado­ra­tion; he brought many chil­dren under the wings of the Divine Pres­ence; he gave them coun­sel and advice, and ordered his sons and the mem­bers of his house­hold after him to keep the ways of the Lord for­ever, as it is writ­ten, “For I have known him to the end that he may com­mand his chil­dren and his house­hold after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do right­eous­ness and jus­tice” (Gen. 18:19). Ever since then who­ever adopts Judaism and con­fesses the unity of the Divine Name, as it is pre­scribed in the Torah, is counted among the dis­ci­ples of Abra­ham our Father, peace be with him. These men are Abraham’s house­hold, and he it is who con­verted them to righteousness.

In the same way as he con­verted his con­tem­po­raries through his words and teach­ing, he con­verts future gen­er­a­tions through the tes­ta­ment he left to his chil­dren and house­hold after him. Thus Abra­ham our Father, peace be with him, is the father of his pious pos­ter­ity who keep his ways, and the father of his dis­ci­ples and of all pros­e­lytes who adopt Judaism.

There­fore you shall pray, “Our God” and “God of our fathers,” because Abra­ham, peace be with him, is your father. And you shall pray, “You who have taken for his own our fathers,” for the land has been given to Abra­ham, as it is said, “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give to you” (Gen. 13:17). As to the words, “You who have brought us out of the land of Egypt” or “You who have done mir­a­cles to our fathers” — these you may change, if you will, and say, “You who have brought Israel out of the land of Egypt ” and “You who have done mir­a­cles to Israel.” If, how­ever, you do not change them, it is no trans­gres­sion, because since you have come under the wings of the Divine Pres­ence and con­fessed the Lord, no dif­fer­ence exists between you and us, and all mir­a­cles done to us have been done as it were to us and to you. Thus is it said in the Book of Isa­iah, “Nei­ther let the son of the stranger, that has joined him­self to the Lord, speak, say­ing, ‘The Lord has utterly sep­a­rated me from His peo­ple’” (Is. 56:3). There is no dif­fer­ence what­ever between you and us. You shall cer­tainly say the bless­ing, “Who has cho­sen us,” “Who has given us,” “Who have taken us for Your own” and “Who has sep­a­rated us”: for the Cre­ator, may He be extolled, has indeed cho­sen you and sep­a­rated you from the nations and given you the Torah. For the Torah has been given to us and to the pros­e­lytes, as it is said, “One ordi­nance shall be both for you of the con­gre­ga­tion, and also for the stranger that sojourns with you, an ordi­nance for ever in your gen­er­a­tions; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord” (Num. 15:15). Know that our fathers, when they came out of Egypt, were mostly idol­aters; they had min­gled with the pagans in Egypt and imi­tated their way of life, until the Holy One, may He be blessed, sent Moses our Teacher, the mas­ter of all prophets, who sep­a­rated us from the nations and brought us under the wings of the Divine Pres­ence, us and all pros­e­lytes, and gave to all of us one Law.

Do not con­sider your ori­gin as infe­rior. While we are the descen­dants of Abra­ham, Issac, and Jacob, you derive from Him through whose word the world was cre­ated. As is said by Isa­iah: “One shall say, I am the Lord’s, and another shall call him­self by the name of Jacob” (Is. 44:5).

Com­ment:

The audi­ence of the let­ter is fairly obvi­ous; a Gen­tile has con­verted to Judaism and is won­der­ing how he fits in. “May a per­fect rec­om­pense be bestowed upon him by the Lord of Israel, under whose wings he has sought cover” — the ref­er­ence is per­haps to Psalm 91, which is about the pro­tec­tion the Lord offers against many things, includ­ing the “many” itself (Psalm 91:7).

The audi­ence is won­der­ing about him­self and whether he belongs with regards to seven things that are said in a “pre­scribed order.” There’s mak­ing procla­ma­tion to God/God of our fathers; being sanc­ti­fied through the com­mand­ments; being sep­a­rated; being cho­sen; being inher­ited; being deliv­ered and finally hav­ing mir­a­cles given to one’s ances­try. The list moves in a cir­cle to where it started, “God of our fathers.” The cen­tral ele­ment, though, is “choice.”

Inas­much as “choice” hints at the con­cept of rea­son, it does not cease to be a theme in this letter:

…Abra­ham our Father taught the peo­ple, opened their minds, and revealed to them the true faith and the unity of God; he rejected the idols and abol­ished their ado­ra­tion; he brought many chil­dren under the wings of the Divine Pres­ence; he gave them coun­sel and advice, and ordered his sons and the mem­bers of his house­hold after him to keep the ways of the Lord forever…

Teach­ing and the open­ing of minds are pre­req­ui­site to the “true faith” and “unity” of God; the rejec­tion of the idols is a rejec­tion of what is false. The “wings of the Divine Pres­ence” is again cen­tral, but it does not merely pro­tect. It exer­cises pru­dence (“he gave them coun­sel and advice”), and estab­lishes some­thing like law (“ways of the Lord”). For Mai­monides, Moses is the great­est prophet because he is the only law­giver of the prophets. It seems only with the law can one estab­lish the peace nec­es­sary for the­o­ret­i­cal spec­u­la­tion and man’s true perfection.

But Abra­ham is him­self cen­tral in this let­ter, per­haps because he points at the estab­lish­ing of house­holds, at bring­ing peo­ple to the faith and not tak­ing a her­itage for granted. Thus: “Abra­ham… is your father:” the pater­nity is direct, if that wasn’t clear from Gen. 18:19: “For I have known him to the end that he may com­mand his chil­dren and his house­hold after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do right­eous­ness and jus­tice.” Abra­ham him­self was only known by God to the end that he did and com­manded “right­eous­ness” and “jus­tice.” The impli­ca­tion is com­pli­cated; the moral life gives a peo­ple unity, gives them faith. But is it prior to rea­son, or is it ratio­nal­ity that is point­ing back at the heart of the moral life? “Known… to the end” sounds a bit more than vaguely Aris­totlean to this hearer. Note that the “land” and its “length” and “breadth” belong to the con­vert; he can­not deny his inheritance.

Where the con­vert can change the words is with regards to spe­cific mir­a­cles. Mir­a­cles are tied to the imag­i­na­tion, which is a fac­ulty lower than rea­son, but crit­i­cal to both prophecy and pol­i­tics (the issue of the Divine Law again). “The wings of the Divine Pres­ence” now is invoked for a third and final time, and is beyond the pro­tec­tive, beyond the polit­i­cal. It stands out­side of time — unlike mir­a­cles them­selves — and means that the mirac­u­lous can be extended to any­one, since the Lord should do the same for all who con­fess Him. The rest of the let­ter is an argu­ment for unity in God Him­self, against more par­tic­u­lar con­sid­er­a­tions. Mil­ton spec­u­lated that at the end of time, there would not be any fac­ing God, since God would be “all in all.” Alfarabi held to the neces­sity of a plu­ral­ity of vir­tu­ous reli­gions: one can­not say he has reversed “out of many, one” since there is unity in seek­ing right­eous­ness and truth. One won­ders if it is pos­si­ble to say the uni­ver­sal char­ac­ter of rea­son — for Mai­monides — is faith itself.

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