13 principles of faith

Rambam

• born in Cordova, Spain in 1135, died in Egypt in 1204 aged 69

• Studied Torah under his father amid persecution by the almohads

• Fleeing Spain, his family settled in Morocco

13 principles

1. I believe in perfect faith that god exists

2. I believe in perfect faith that god is one and unique

3. I believe in perfect faith that god is incorporeal

4. I believe in perfect faith that god is eternal

5. I believe in perfect faith that prayer is to be directed to god alone and no other

6. I believe in perfect faith that the words of the prophets are true

7. I believe in perfect faith that Moses prophecies are true, And Moses was the greatest of the prophets

8. I believe in perfect faith that the written and oral Torah were given to moses

9. I believe in perfect faith that there will be no other torah

10. I believe in perfect faith that god knows the thoughts and deeds of man

11. I believe in perfect faith that god will reward the good and punish the wicked

12. I believe in perfect faith that the messiah will come

13. I believe in perfect faith that the dead will be resurrected

The purpose

• The Rambam created the 13 principles of faith in Judaism to provide a clear and concise summary of essential Jewish beleifs

• Amidst challenges to Jewish identity and faith, particularly during his time of persecution by the almohads, he aimed to consolidate and clarify the core tenants of Judaism

• These principles served to strengthen Jewish identity and provide a doctiunal framework and assist in educating and unifying the Jewish community

Principle 1

I believe in perfect faith that god is the creator and ruler of all things. He alone has made, does make and will make all things

Implications:

• belief in the existence of god

• This god brought everything else into existence

• This god is perfect in every way

• All existence depends on him

• Only god is totally self sufficient

Scriptural basis - principle 1

• Genesis 1:1 - “in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth”

• Shemot 20:2 - “i am the lord you god who took you out of the land of egypt”

• Devarim 2:35 - “there is nothing else beside him”

• Jeremiah 10:10 - “the lord, god, is real”

Principle 1 - development in Judaism

• the rise of science has challanged the traditional understanding of gods providential ability

• Science thus reveals that nature is government by complex laws

• Others however argue that god works through natural causes: as creator of all, he established the laws which regulate the natural order

Principle 1 - progressive view

• Reform agrees with this

• The 1999 statement of principles says:

• “We affirm the reality and oneness of god, even as we may suffer in our understand of the divine presence”

Principle 1 - objections

• Some medieval authorities believed that god created the world from eternal matter

• Thus, according to these scholars, it would not be true to say that god is the cause of all that exists

Principle 2

I believe in perfect faith that god is one. There is no unit that is in any way like he is. He alone is our god - he was, he is, and he will be

Principle 2 - implications

• Cause of everything is one

• He is not a thing that can be divided up into parts

• There is no other unity like him

Principle 2 - scriptural basis

• Shemot 20:3-6 - “you shall not have the odds of others in my pressance. You shall not make for ourself a graven image or any likeness which is in the heavens above, which is on the earth below, or which is in the water beneath the earth”

• Devarim 6:4 - “listen Isreal, the lord is our god, the lord is one”

Principle 2 - developments in Judaism

• Recital o the shema 3 times a day

• Reform agrees with this as the previous quote from the statement of principles said: “we affirm the oneness of god”

• Reconstructionist Jews - “god is a trance dance which does no infringe on the natures of law”

• Humanist jews:

  • Reject the belief in god

  • Denies supernaturalism

  • Remove references to god in their prayers

  • Torah was man made - unreliable guide to the history of the Jewish poeple

  • Intent on living a Jewish lifestyle

Principle 3

I believe with perfect faith that god does not have a body. Physical concepts do not apply to him, there is nothing whatsoever that resembled him at all

Principle 4 - implications

• God is non-physical

• God has no body

• God therefore does not move/rest/exist in any place

Principle 3 - scriptural basis

• Devarim 4:!5 - “you have not seen any image”

• Yohoshuah 2:11 - “… for the lord your god he is god in heaven above and on the earth below”

• Isaiah 40:25 - “‘now, to whom will you compare me tat i should be equal?’ Says the holy one”

Principle 3 - developments in Judaism

• Reform does not dictate a form for god, noting: “we may differ in our understanding of the divine presence”

• For almost all Refrom Jews, god is treated as without semblance or body

Principle 3 - objections

• In the Mishnah Torah, miamonodies asserts that anyone who believes that god is corporeal is a heretic. In reference to this, the rabad comments that people greater than miamonodies have believed that food has a physical form. Rabad himself does not subscribe to this view, but one to to the claim that those who do are heretics

• In addition, Moses ben Hasdai Taku, a tosafist, believed that god could take a physical form. Finally Samuel David Luzzao, a 19th century scholar, defended the idea that god has a body, commenting tha an embodied god was the only god conceivable to most poeple

• Ironically, Maimonides himself seems to share this view. In the guide to the perplexed he writes: “for the multitude perceive nothing other than bodies as having a firmly established existence as being indubitably true”

Principle 4

I believe with perfect faith that god is first and last

Principle 4 - implications

• god is eternal

• In the beginning,. Only god existed

• God created time

Principle 4 - scriptural basis

• Devarim 33:27 - “… the above for the god who precedes all”

• Isiah 44:6 - “i am the first and i am the last; besides me there is no god”

Principle 4 - developments in Judaism

• Through the centuries, Jews have been convinced that god was, is, and will forever be

• Reform doctrine does not contradict this statement

• At the end of all synagogue services, no matter the denomination, jews voice their commitment that god is eternal in Adon Olam

Principle 4 - objections

• The Ibin Ezra suggest that the word Bara (created) implies cutting or setting a boundary

• Scholars such as Joseph Tov Elem and David Arama understood this to mean that the Ibin Ezra believed that god sculpted the world from eternal matter

• Gersonidies also believed that the world was created from eternal matter

Principle 5

I believe with perfect dash that it is only proper to pray to god. One may not pray to anyone or anything else

Principle 5 - implications

• God is the only one who we should pray to

• All our thoughts should be directed at him

• We cannot pray to anything that is beneath him

• All forms of idolatry are forbidden

Principle 5 - scriptural basis

• shemot 20:3-6:

  • “You shall not have the foods of others in my pressance

  • You shall not make yourself graven image or any likeness which is in the heavens above, which is on the earth below, or which is in the water beneath the earth

  • You shall neither prostrate yourself before them nor worship them….”

• Devarim 4:19:

  • “And lest you lift your eyes up to heaven, and see the sun, ad the moon, and the stars, and the hot of heaven, which the lord your god assigned to all peoples under the entire heaven. And be drawn away to prostrate yourselves before them and worship them”

• Devarim 11:16

  • “Beware, lest your heart be misled, and you sutra away and worship strange gods and rostrate yourselves before them”

Principle 5 - development in Judaism

• Reform Jews agree with this

• The fact that prayer should be directed to god is captured in the 1999 statement of principles in the line:

  • “We respond to god daily: through public and private prayer”

• The statement makes no statements, but ones not contradict the eternal nature of god

• It does state: “we trust in our traditions promise that, although god created us as finite beings, the spirit within us is eternal”

• Jews pray 3 times a day

• There are 3 different parts of prayer, and Jewish people use all of them

• These are prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of praise, and prayers that ask for things

Principle 5 - objection

• Some of the sleichot prayers and the 3 paragraph of shalom aleichem, sung prior to Shabbat Kiddushin are directed to angels

• In addition, one of the geo I’m defended the use of angels to intercede with god. He added that angels could sometimes fulfill the use of angels to itnercede with god. He added that angels could sometimes fulfill the petitions of a prayer without consulting god

• Jacob Amden is among some of the others who have approved of petitioning angels to intercede on ones behalf

• Nissam Gerondi maintained that there is one specific angel whom one may pray to

Principle 6

I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true

Principle 6 - scriptural basis

• Vayikrah 12:6:

  • He said, “please listen o my words. If there be prophets among you, i the lord will make myself known to him in a vision; i will speak to him in a dream”

• Devarim 18:15:

  • A prophet from among you, from your brothers, like me, the lord, your god, will set up for you; you shall listen to him

• Devarim 18:18:

  • “I will set up a prophet foe them from Among their brothers like you, and i will put my words into his mouth, and he will speak to them all that i command him“

• Shmuel 10:6:

  • And the spirit of the lord will pass over you, and you will prophecy with them, and you will be turned into another man

Principle 6 - development in Judaism

• the principle that “god communicates to mankind through prophecy” remains a foundation of Judaism

• A lesser form of prophecy, known as ‘ruach hakodesh’ (divine inspiration), remains amongst the rightous of all generations

• According to tradition, one of the greatest prophets, Elijah, never died, and will herald the coming of moshaich

• Moshaich himself is a prophet and in the messianic era, prophecy will become. Universal phenomenon

• Reform Jews agree with this, as it holds with divine inspiration

Principle 7

I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses is absolutely true. He was the cheif of all prophets, both before and after him

Principle 7 - implications

• Moses was the chief of all the prophets

• Superior to all other prophets

  • Moshe spoke ‘mouth to mouth’ without an intermediary

  • Did not receive his prophecies through visions/dreams

  • Moses could achieve prophecy whenever he wanted

Principle 7 - scriptural basis

• Shemot 33:11:

  • When the lord would speak to Moses face to face

• Vayikrah 7:89:

  • When Moses would come into the tent of meeting to speak with him, he would hear the voice speaking to him from the 2 cherubim above the covering which was over the ark of testimony, and he spoke to him

• Vayikrah 12:8:

  • With him i speak mouth to mouth

• Devarim 34:10:

  • And there was no other prophet who arose in Isreal like Moses, whom the lord knoew face to face

Principle 7 - development in Judaism

Orthodox:

• Moses is traditionally regarded as the author, or transcriber at least. Hence the Torah alternative name: the 5 Books of Moses

• Moses received both the written and oral law which continues to be studied today

• “Moses was 120 years old when he died”, and no one knows his burial place to this day

• “May you live to 120“ has become a common blessing amongst Jews

Reform:

• Reform agrees (in some sense) with the first clause, but has replaced the second clause with the theory of progressive reevaluation

• For reform Jews, the prophet of Moses was not the highest degree of prophecy; rather his was the first in ling chain of progressive revaluations in which mankind gradually began to understand the will of god better and better

• As such, the laws of Moses are not held as strongly binding as they are in traditional movements, and it is today’s generation that must assess what god wants of them. This view has been affirmed from classic Refrom to the present

Principle 7 - objections

• Nachmanadies and Gersonodies believed that the messiah would gain more knowlage of god than Moses

• Shneur saman of Lyady, the first lebavitcher rebbe, notes that Moses prophetic abilities weren’t as great as those of Issac Lucia, the renowned cabalist

Principle 8

I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that we have now is that which was given to Moses

Principle 8 - implications

• The Torah was given to Moses by god

• Moses wrote down the words of god

• Every verse in the Oprah is equally holy

• The oral law was also transmitted to Moses explaining the mitsvot in the Torah

Principle 8 - scriptural basis

• Shemot 24:12:

  • And the lord said to Moses, “come up to me to the Mountain and remained there, and i will give you the stone tablets, the law and the commandments, which i have written to instruct them”

Princple 8 - development in Judaism

• Traditional Jews remain committed to the Torah that was written as well as the oral Torah that was imparted by god to Moses at Sinai

• This act of revelation serves as the basis for the entire Jewish legal system as well as ore beleifs bout god

• Whereas traditional Jews view the written Torah as the same that Moses taught, for practical reasons, plus or minus scribal errors, Refrom take a different approach

• The liberal movement accept the results of biblical scholarship, and archeological and linguistically readership

• They accept that the core of the Torah may indeed have come from Moses, but that the document that we have today has been edited together from several documents, and assumed the final form that we know in the time of Ezra (440 BC)

Principle 8 - objections

• The Talmud relates that Johoshua wrote the last 8 verses of the Torah

• The Ibin Ezra believed that johoshua wrote the last 12 verses

• The midrash Tanhuma, a rabbinic text, sites cases of taken soferim, instances where he scribes of the great assembly (the leaders of the Jews during the Persian exile) embedded in the bible - including the Torah

• Menacham ben Solomon Ha-Meiri mentions the “masoteric works” instead of a singular “mastoeric text”

• The rashba discussed when we should change our Torah to accord with the Talmuds version

• Areyeh Loeb Gunezberg opined that the commandment that every Jew should write a Torah scroll no o get applies because of our doubts about how certain words are to be written

• Similarly, Moses Sofer believed that there’s no need to say a blessing before writing a Torah because, perhaps, the Talmuds version is correct and the Torah being written is invalid

Principle 9

I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be changed, and that there will never be another Torah given by god

Principle 9 - implications

• The Torah is gods permeant word

• Nothing can be added to both written and oral laws

• It is impossible to improve upon perfection

• To add to gods words is implying that god has ‘fallen short’

Principle 9 - scriptural basis

• Devarim 13:1

  • Everything i command ou tha you shall be careful to do it. You shall neither add to it, not subtract to it

• Devarim 29:28

  • The hidden things belong to the lord, our god, but the revealed things apply to us and to our children forever; that we must fulfill all the words of this Torah

• Devarim 30:11-12

  • For this commandment which I command to you this day, is no concealed from you, nor is it far away

  • It is not in heaven, that you should say, “who will go up to heaven for us nd fetch it for us, to tell i to us, so that we can fulfill it?”

• Malachai 3:22

  • Keep in remembrance the teaching of Moses my servant - the lakes an ordinances which i commanded him in Horeb for all of Isreal

Principle 9 - development in Judaism

• refrom - the idea that the Torah was not given by god directly allows doe the changing of the law and reinterpretation of gods word based on the needs of socially

• 1999 statement of principles:

  • “We cherish the truths revealed in road, gods ongoing revelation to our people and the record of our peoples ongoing relationship with god”

• For Orthodox Jews the laws have stayed the same throughout the generations

• Concept of ‘pick and choose’ Judaism

Princple 9 - objections

• Joseph also suggested that, in theory, if a prophet came whose mission could be verified in the same way Moses could, then commandments - except for the 10 commandments - could be abolished

Principle 10

I believe with perfect faith that god knows all of Mandy’s deeds and thoughts. It is thus written (Tehillim 33:11), “he has moulded every heart together, he understands what each one does”

Principle 10 - implications

• God knows everything we do

• God knows our thoughts

• God does not ignore the things we do

Principle 10 - spiritual basis

• Tehillim 33:15

  • He who forms their hearts together, who understands all their deeds

Principle 10 - development in Judaism

• We mention the idea that god knows not only all that we have dine, but all that motivated us to do it, in the Yom Kippur services

• “You know the secrets of the universe, and the hidden mos mysteries of all the living. You prove the innermost chambers, and test thoughts and emotions. Nothing is hidden from you and nothing is concealed from your eyes” - Yom Kippur amidah

Princple 10 - objections

• According to the Ibin Ezra, “the whole [god] knows the individual in a general manner rather than in a detailed manner”

• Some interpreted this to mean that god knows the general actions of humans, but not the particular details

• Gershonodies developed this idea fully: God knows universals but not everything

Princple 11

I believe with perfect faith that god rewards those who keep his commandments and punishes those who transgress his commandments

Principle 11 - implications

• God rewards those who obey the commandments of the Torah

• Greatest possible reward is the Olam Habah

• Greatest punishment is to be cut off from it

• God knows both he obedient and the sinner, rewarding one and punishing the other

Principle 11 - scriptural basis

• Shemot 32:32-33

  • “If you will, then forgive their sin, but if not, then extinguish me… the one who has sinned against me, him will i erase from my book”

Principle 11 - development in Judaism

• Jews affirm this beleif in their daily prayers - Shema Koleinu in the Amida/shema

• Adherence to gods commandments will bring “the ring of the land in its seasons”; disobedience will cause him “to shut up the heaven, that there will be no rain, and the land will not yield her fruit” (Devarim 11:13-21)

• Weekly parashot:

  • Noah and the flood

  • Destruction of Sodom and Gommorah

• For some Jews, beleif in punishment in the world to one has been discarded because divine retribution no longer seems credible

Principle 12

I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the messiah. No matter how long it takes, i will await his coming every day

Principle 12 - scriptural basis

• Yirimiyahu 23:5

  • Behold, days are coming, says the lord, when i will set up of David a righteous shoot, and he shall reign a king and prosper and he shall preform judgement and righteousness in the land

• Yirimiyahu 33:15

  • In those days and in that time, i will cause to grow for David a plant of righteousness, and he shall execute uptime and righteousness in the land

Princple 12 - development within Judaism

• Constant theme in Jewish prayer

• Refrom Jews saw the liberation of Europe in the 19th century as the final step towards the realisation of the messianic dream - no need to pray for a return to Isreal

• Reform holds its a concept of a messianic age, as opposed to an individual. Th tradition messianic notions is not part of refrom

• Secular zionists saw the return of Isreal as the legitimate conclusion to be drawn from the realities of Jewish life in western countries, thereby viewing the state of Isreal as a substitute for the messiah exists

• Some Orthodox Jews believe in a personal messiah who will bring about the messianic age and the ultimate fulfilment of Jewish history