Philosophy at Etz Ahaim from Hebrew University prof
By Lauren Matthew
March 14, 2008

Special To The Jewish StateHighland Park's Congregation Etz Ahaim recently hosted three classes led by a visiting professor, offering a new spin on the shul's Wednesday night "Classes for the Masses" series.

The discussions were led by Meir Buzaglo, a member of the department of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of the books The Logic of Concept Expansion and Solomon Maimon: Monism, Skepticism and Mathematics.

"We're very lucky to have him," Rabbi David Bassous said at the beginning of the Feb. 27 class. "He's at Rutgers for a year, and he's got a very, very impressive rŽsumŽ."

Buzaglo's focus that night was on two of Jewish philosophy's biggest names -- Maimonides (or RamBam) and Rabbi Yehuda Halevi. It is possible, he said, to take an entire year to talk about Halevi, but his goal was to discuss him in the context of the coming of the messiah and the end of days.

"Rabbi Yehuda Halevi is perhaps the greatest poet of the Jewish people... he was the greatest poet that we had. He was really adored," Buzaglo said.

So much so, he noted, that the Vilna Goen complimented Halevi's work to the utmost. "The principles of the Jewish faith are in this book," he wrote.

"What is unique in him is his yearning and love [of] Israel," Buzaglo said. "No poet in the Jewish world has expressed the love of Israel in the way Halevi did. No one."

But Halevi didn't start off this way. His first work, Buzaglo said, was not about God. Only gradually did Halevi develop into "something like a saint." His philosophy, Buzaglo explained, was "anti-philosophy." Some people, he said, may think that Halevi was only a great poet, not a great philosopher. This, Buzaglo said, is not true.

Maimonides was a philosopher who admired Aristotle, Buzaglo said, and his view of Judaism has something universal in it as a result. Halevi is different.

"For Halevi, Am Yisroel has a uniqueness. The Hebrew language has a uniqueness," Buzaglo said. "This is not a universalistic philosopher."

Buzaglo examined Halevi's point of view through his writing, specifically through Yedidi Hashachahta.

"This is a song that is [sung] in all Moroccan traditions," he said, "it's a very important song."

Within Yedidi Hashachahta, Halevi discusses redemption and love. "I will praise God who has created the soul," Halevi wrote.

The book that Halevi wrote, The Kuzari, is a treaty of Halevi's philosophy, Buzaglo said, and was written as a defense of Judaism. The book is based on the legend that a king...-- Al Khazari -- had a dream in which God told him that his intentions were good, but his deeds were not. As a result, the king went to various religious leaders, among them Muslims and Christians, to find answers on how to improve in this regard.

"Then he went to the Jews," Buzaglo said.

In the book, Halevi explains Judaism. He explains it so well, in fact, that the Vilna Goen once said that if one was looking for an explanation of the religion, one should go to Halevi.

"It is very strange that Ha Goen de Vilna did not say ‘go to Maimonides'," Buzaglo noted.

In the book, he continued, Israel is compared to the heart of a working body, and is also called the most important part and most vulnerable. The heart, Halevi wrote, is at the same time the weakest and strongest part of the body.

"The heart is sick because it is the first organ to feel something," Buzaglo explained. And this, he continued, is a direct comparison to Israel. When something is wrong with the Jewish people...-- or even with any part of the world as a whole -- "the first one that is going to feel it is Am Yisroel... Everything is alive because of Israel. If something terrible happens, Israel is the first to feel it," he said.

There is an intimacy and connection, Buzaglo said, between God and Israel that is not found between God and other nations. The connection to other nations that God has, he explained, is through Israel.

"There is no prophecy not related to Eretz Yisroel," he said. "God has a secret and wise design concerning us."

Additionally, Halevi compares Israel to a seed that will produce a tree. Christians and Muslims are spread out all over the world, but gradually they will discover that they are part of this, too. "We are the roots," Buzaglo said, "and they are the branches... the hope is that everyone will recognize that we are one tree, and then they will reveal their roots."

In this specific sense, he continued, Halevi is not like Maimonides. Here, there is hope that at the end of days, there will be unity between all three faiths.

In the Mishnah Torah, Maimonides wrote that Jesus of Nazareth was alluded to in Daniel's prophecies. In them, it said that he would fail and "stumble." Maimonides called Christianity a stumbling block for the Jews; for him, redemption at the end of days is more complicated, and must progress from a national point to a point where it encompasses all humankind. Ultimately, Maimonides concludes, Christianity and Islam will end up paving the way for Moshiach, Buzaglo said.

"Islam and Christianity are a stage, preparation for the messiah," he said. This, Buzaglo said, is the same line of thought as Halevy. All of humankind will be blessed -- through Israel. But no Jew sees himself as higher, he notes, because the uniqueness of Israel stems from the mission of the Jews among all of man, not because of a sense of superiority.

Comparing and contrasting Halevi and Maimonides reveals, he said, many similarities in thought, as well as differences.

"They are great, both of them," Buzaglo said. "You read one, you understand the other... They complete each other... I read one, and then I think that he's the hero, and then I go back to the other."

"Sometimes, he says in two lines the whole of philosophy," Buzaglo said of Halevi. "People just didn't pay attention to it."

Etz Ahaim's "Classes for the Massses" series meets Wednesday night at 8 p.m., 230 Denison St., Highland Park. More information about that class and other class offerings can be found at www.etzahaim.org. To hear Yedidi Hashachata, visit www.piyut.org.