No Body

In Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah, 1:7, The Rambam introduces the important concept of God’s Oneness. Even though Rambam, in Halacha Hay has already stated that God is one in the general sense, in that there are no other God’s beside Him, here we are told this one God is not a unit like any other unit we can imagine. Rambam binds together God’s uniqueness with God’s in-corporeality. In fact, one could argue, that it is God’s lack of body that is the essential point Rambam is trying to make in this halacha. While it is obvious that, for the Rambam, it is very important to remove the possibility of a corporeal God from the minds of the masses, for Rambam, the body represents anything that is identifiable as separate, whether physically or spiritually. Anything identifiable as separate must have a limit and for Rambam the very definition of a limit is not-God. The schism between God and creation is not one just laid out on the physical vs. spiritual plane, but even human spirituality, as long as it retains some identifying mark, is dissimilar to the in-corporeal nature of God.

• Consider Halacha Yud Beit, where the Rambam forbids attributing any emotional or intellectual attribute or change to God based on the fact that He has no body. Here the limit being avoided is not physical, but the limit of distinct personality.

• Look at Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah, 2:5, where the Rambam discusses how the angels who are only form and not matter are distinguished from each other. While all bodies must have limits, we see from this that even body-less beings can have limits as long as they are capable of being distinguished in some way from one another. This leads us to question why in 1:7 does the Rambam use God’s limitlessness, as illustrated by His strength, specifically to deny God a body, and then defend God’s lack of division with the assertion that, as He has no body, He can have no divisions? Why not skip the step with the body and use God’s limitlessness to prove…His limitlessness? Considering that the physical proof of the spheres given by the Rambam is an argument for limitlessness founded on something that is limited itself (the physical world), it seems clear that this is a proof for the masses. It might be that for the masses the body represents limit, and limitlessness cannot be understood except when seen through that lens.

•  See Hilchot Tshuvah, 3:7. Here Rambam lists the beliefs that cause one to be considered a Min and forfeit their share in the world to come. Notice that one of the categories is one who believes in one God but that this God has a body. See the Ravid, who reprimands the Rambam due to the fact that there have been Gedolim who believed in God’s corporeality. 

•  See Moreh Nevuchim Part One Chapter 57. Here the Rambam explains that even to call God one is misleading, as is every other attempt at applying characteristics to God. In the Morah, Rambam is discussing one as a unit of counting, while in Halacha Zayin, Rambam is using the term one as in singular—unique.

• Learn the second chapter of the Moreh, which relates Rambam’s interpretation of the story of Adam HaRishon. This is an example, one among many, of how Rambam considered man’s journey in life to be one away from the physical towards the spiritual (the opposite of Adam’s downfall).