json/Jewish Thought/Rishonim/Guide for the Perplexed/English/Rabbi Dr. David Mevorach Seidenberg, from Kabbalah and Ecology.json

{
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Guide for the Perplexed",
    "versionSource": "http://www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Ecology-Image-More-Than-Human-World/dp/1107081335",
    "versionTitle": "Rabbi Dr. David Mevorach Seidenberg, from \"Kabbalah and Ecology\"",
    "status": "locked",
    "versionTitleInHebrew": "רבי וד״ר דוד מבורך סיידנברג, מתוך ״קבלה ואקולוגיה״",
    "shortVersionTitle": "Rabbi Dr. David Mevorach Seidenberg, 2015",
    "actualLanguage": "en",
    "languageFamilyName": "english",
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    "direction": "ltr",
    "heTitle": "מורה נבוכים",
    "categories": [
        "Jewish Thought",
        "Rishonim"
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    "text": {
        "Introduction of Ibn Tibon": [],
        "Letter to R Joseph son of Judah": [],
        "Prefatory Remarks": [],
        "Part 1": {
            "Introduction": [],
            "": [
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                    "The human being is made unique by a very wondrous thing that is in him, as it is not to be found in anything else that exists under the sphere of the moon, namely, intellectual apprehension. In the exercise of this [apprehension], no sense, no part of the body [is] used . . . and therefore this apprehension was likened unto the apprehension of the deity, which does not require an instrument. It was because of this something, I mean because of the divine intellect conjoined with man, that it is said of the latter that he is “in the image of God and in His likeness,” not that God, may He be exalted, is a body and possesses shape."
                ],
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                    "... For the intellect that God made overflow unto man and that is the latter’s ultimate perfection, was that which Adam had been provided with before he disobeyed. It was because of this that it was said of him that he was created in the image of God and His likeness."
                ],
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                    "",
                    "[A]fter he had attained human perfection . . . it was said of him: And he begot a son in his own likeness, after his image. You know that whoever is not endowed with this form . . . is not a man, but an animal having the shape and configuration of man. Such a being, however, has a faculty to cause various kinds of harm and to produce evils that is not possessed by the other animals. For he applies the capacities for thought and perception . . . to all kinds of machinations entailing evils . . . and engendering all kinds of harm."
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                    "... And you will see My back’ means you will apprehend what follows Me, has come to be like Me, and follows necessarily from My will – that is, all the things created by Me."
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                    "...  [Moshe would] apprehend [the] nature [of all existing things] and the way they are mutually connected..."
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                    "I have already let you know that there exists nothing except God, may He be exalted, and this existent world and that there is no possible inference proving His existence, may He be exalted, except those deriving from this existent taken as a whole and from its details. Accordingly it behooves one to consider this existent as it is and to derive premises from what is perceived of its nature.\n"
                ],
                [
                    "Know that this whole of being is one individual and nothing else. [The whole of Creation is] a single being which has the same status as Zayid or Omar...",
                    "",
                    "",
                    "",
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                    "",
                    "... Accordingly, it behooves you to represent to yourself the whole of this sphere as one living individual in motion and possessing a soul. For this way of representing the matter to oneself is most necessary . . . for the demonstration that the deity is one . . . By means of this representation it will also be made clear that the One has created one being.",
                    "",
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                    "Know that it is not because of all that we have mentioned (about organs and such) in comparing the world to a human individual that it has been said about humanity that [each person] is a small world. For this whole comparison can be consistently applied to every individual animal that has perfect limbs but you never hear that one of the ancients has said that an ass or a horse is a small world. This has been said only about a human being. This is because of that which [belongs to humanity] only, namely, the rational faculty – I mean the intellect, which is the hylic intellect... one finds in man the rational faculty in virtue of which he thinks, works, and prepares by means of various arts his food, his habitation, and his clothing...",
                    "[T]here exists in being something that rules it as a whole and puts into motion its principal part . . . [I]t is in virtue of this thing that the existence of the sphere and of every part endured. This thing is the deity, may its name be exalted. It is only with a view to this that it is said specifically about a human being that he is a small world, inasmuch as there subsists in him a certain principle (the intellect) that governs the whole of him. And because of this, Hashem, may he be exalted, is called in our language the life (lifeforce) of the world / chiyut ha`olam..."
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        },
        "Part 2": {
            "Introduction": [],
            "": []
        },
        "Part 3": {
            "Introduction": [],
            "": [
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                [
                    "... all the existent individuals of the human species . . . are things of no value at all in comparison with the whole [of Creation] that exists and endures ..."
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                    "... It should not be believed that all the beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of something else. Thus even according to our view holding that the world has been produced in time, the quest for the final end of all the species of beings collapses . . . In respect to every being He intended that being itself; and whenever the existence of some thing was impossible unless it was preceded by some other thing, He first brought that thing into existence.... Similarly [to the heavenly bodies, which give light and rule over time by their nature], it says of man, And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and so on, which dictum does not mean that humanity was created for the sake of this, but merely gives information about man’s nature with which He, may He be exalted, has stamped him ... all the beings have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of something else, [nor] for the sake of the existence of man ..."
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                    "... What led to all this was ignorance of the nature of coming-to-be and passing-away and neglect of the fundamental principle: namely, that the entire purpose [of creation] consists in bringing into existence the way you see it everything whose existence is possible."
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                    "It is forbidden to slaughter [an animal] and its young on the same day, this being a precautionary measure to avoid slaughtering the young animal in front of its mother. For in these cases animals feel very great pain, there being no difference regarding this pain between humankind and the other animals. For the love and the tenderness of a mother for her child is not consequent upon reason, but upon the activity of the imaginative faculty, which is found in most animals just as it is found in humankind."
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                    "... [T]he human perfection / sh’leymut ha’adam in which a person can truly glory himself is [when one] reaches His apprehension, may He be exalted, according to his capacity and he knows His providence over His creations, how it [operates] in their coming into being and in their being guided/governed. And the ways of such a person, after such apprehension, will be directed continually toward lovingkindness, righteousness, and justice, to become (conduct) himself a like (aligned) with His actions / l’hitdamut b’ma`asav, may He be exalted."
                ]
            ]
        }
    },
    "schema": {
        "heTitle": "מורה נבוכים",
        "enTitle": "Guide for the Perplexed",
        "key": "Guide for the Perplexed",
        "nodes": [
            {
                "heTitle": "פתיחת אבן תיבון",
                "enTitle": "Introduction of Ibn Tibon"
            },
            {
                "heTitle": "איגרת אל ר' יוסף ש\"ץ ב\"ר יהודה",
                "enTitle": "Letter to R Joseph son of Judah"
            },
            {
                "heTitle": "פתיחת הרמב\"ם",
                "enTitle": "Prefatory Remarks"
            },
            {
                "heTitle": "חלק א'",
                "enTitle": "Part 1",
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                    {
                        "heTitle": "הקדמה",
                        "enTitle": "Introduction"
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            {
                "heTitle": "חלק ב'",
                "enTitle": "Part 2",
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                        "heTitle": "הקדמה",
                        "enTitle": "Introduction"
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            {
                "heTitle": "חלק ג'",
                "enTitle": "Part 3",
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                        "heTitle": "הקדמה",
                        "enTitle": "Introduction"
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