Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon) was one of the greatest of Jewish medieval sages. He lived circa 1135-1204 AD, having been born in Cordoba, Spain. He sojourned in many places in North Africa, the Middle East, and then in Egypt. He was heavily influenced by Greek philosophical thought, especially that of Aristotle. Although he was ferociously condemned by standard Pharisaism of the time for having written the Mishnah Torah and then moreover declaring that is was a substitute for studying the extensive and often hard-to-understand language and wording of the Talmud, he is now, of course, regarded as one of the greatest sages. . .typical— Kill the prophets and then adorn their sepulchers.

Anyway, Rambam, as he is known (Jews have a penchant for acronyms), distilled 13 points which he felt were a basic minimum for Jewish faith. While some are now contested by some factions within Judaism, they have remained for a long time; and more importantly for the topic under discussion they represent an outcropping of the changing Pharisaism since the Second Temple Period, though they reflect the same methodology of “study” (talmud) to extract points instead of clear language. 

God exists
God is one and unique
God is incorporeal
God is eternal
Prayer is to be directed to no one else than God alone
The prophets spoke by the spirit of God and their words are true
Moses was the greatest of the prophets, and his words are true.
The Written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and Oral Torah (teachings contained in the Talmud, etc.) were given to Moses as well.
There will be no other Torah
God knows the thoughts and deeds of men
God will reward the good and punish the wicked
The Messiah will come
There will be the resurrection of the dead.

    Everything above is, of course, based on Scripture except 2 glaring points. Those are: God is incorporeal. The statement is true. God is spirit. But man in his finite understanding doesn’t really know what “spirit” is. All we know is that we have a spirit and it is indeed separate from our flesh, yet confined to this tabernacle of flesh while we live. At the Resurrection we receive our bodies again, and our spirit— all that we are, our minds and personalities— will dwell again in our bodies and not be separated again.

   However, incorporeal is often used to say that “God cannot appear in a bodily form” to us. This is inaccurate. Scripture is clear that the Lord appeared with two companions before Abraham. It is also certain that angels appear remarkably like we do. (They do not have wings; that is a medieval Catholic superstition based on all the winged statues of the Roman goddess Victory; supposedly only the cherubim have wings, and they constantly flank the throne of God.) Also, Moses saw the “backparts” of God, which means he saw some form. The Song of Moses in the Torah is also clear that “that prophet” who was to come (The Messiah) would stand on the earth and raise his right hand toward heaven and declare “there is no god but me. I live forever.” See Men & Brethren)

   It is clear that God can very easily create a body for his spirit, and walk among us. It is almost humorous to consider the words of the late Rabbi Chaim HaLevy Donen in his book on “How to be a Jew.” He said it was impossible for God to come in the flesh because that would leave him open to being killed. The jab was meant solely for the Christians, a need felt by Donen perhaps because of Judaism’s increasing skepticism that the Pharisaical heritage has been accurate, plus the growing view that Judaism missed something somewhere.

   It sadly revealed Donen’s and many Rabbi’s knowledge of Scripture— as did Donen’s claim that Abraham “chose God.” That is a little backwards, to say the least.

   The bald face facts are that God appeared to Moses from a burning bush. Since a bush can be pruned, did that leave God vulnerable to be pruned and destroyed while his spirit was speaking from that bush? Hardly. The Temple is made of mortar, stone, gold, marble . . .and yet it was burned. Did that mean God was destroyed? Hardly. God does not dwell in houses made by man. Yet he said he would put his spirit there and we were to call upon him there. In like manner God can fashion himself a body— a tabernacle of flesh— and walk among us. How much greater is this than a temple, since God speaks to us directly through a body?

   Can God be killed? Hardly. No human being has ever lost his spirit. No spirit has gone into oblivion. Even the evil are preserved for judgment. The spirit of Moses lives, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and the spirits of great men who perhaps never believed in God await the judgment, including Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Kahn, etc. NO ONE’S spirit has ever been lost to oblivion.

   God’s spirit cannot be destroyed if the temple is burned, if a bush is pruned, or if he should walk among us in a body. Psalm 40: 6 “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; but a body thou hast prepared me; whole burnt offering thou didst not require. Then I said, Behold, in the volume of the book it is written concerning me, I desire to do thy will, O my God, and the law in the midst of mine heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I will not refrain my lips! O LORD, thou knowest my righteousness. I have not hid thy truth within my heart, and I have declared thy salvation; I have not hid thy mercy and truth from the great congregation.”

   What must one conclude from the Song of Moses and from the Scriptures? Indeed, God can most easily come in bodily form. His spirit cannot be destroyed. No man’s spirit can be destroyed except by God himself.

   Two is really a hideous lie: That the oral law of the Pharisees was given to Moses and he merely did not write it down. That is an almost primitive improvisation meant to keep people in line. Qumran’s sectarian documents show the Jews there regarded the pharisaical practice of talmud to extrapolate “false laws.” (See Phariseeism) Obviously, these oral teachings were also not even around in Isaiah’s time, considering Isaiah 28 and how it clearly speaks of God’s curse upon those who use scripture to find nothing but precepts.

   To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he interpret the message? Those who are weaned from milk, and taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.
   But by men of strange lips and with another tongue will he speak to this people, to whom he said: “This is the rest, give rest to him that is weary, and this is the refreshing; yet they would not listen. Therefore the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little— so that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

     Once again, the Essenes were very spiritual, fanatical Jews, and they poked fun at the Pharisees and “their talmud.” Their sect existed for hundreds of years. There were also the Karaites who even a couple of hundred years after the Second Temple Period rejected talmudic teachings and kept only to the Torah. Obviously, the Oral Torah is the invention of Pharisees, and the idea it was given to Moses was a later invention. Parts of the Talmud even preserve exchanges between the Sadducees and the Pharisees over disputes on certain points, which clearly shows there was no definite authoritative transmittal of any oral law since Moses. Can you imagine if the Pharisees had tried to make the assertion during the Second Temple period that their laws were given to Moses as well ? It might have provoked civil war. Now it is Judaism.

   As to “There will be no other Torah”— Moses made it clear that anybody who would not hear “that prophet” who was to come would have vengeance taken on them by God. Since Christ basically said the same thing about the Torah, and the Apostles enforced that principle (Acts 21), there is little need for discussion. However, Moses’ clear instructions to the children of Israel that a greater prophet was coming through whom God would speak direct obviously implies Moses was not allowed or worthy to speak direct for God. Therefore even if one does not believe that “that prophet” was the first prophecy of the Messiah, one must still admit that Moses said a greater would come. His book of Job and his song make it clear that “that prophet” is the Redeemer.

   The reason for keeping the Torah is where the big difference lies. The Pharisees kept it for appearances’ sake, whereas the true believer was to keep it out of a right heart, for the good of all, knowing that God gave it for that purpose. He did not give it as compote to be turned into whatever convenient thing the pedantic and self-righteous wanted to make it. It is better for the world that we live in such a society as God would create if man kept to the Torah.

   But to extrapolate “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk” to haranguing a person and giving them a guilt trip for having a cheeseburger is not what it is about. And there is no righteousness in eating a hamburger plain. Society does not rise or fall on such things, nor is the righteousness of God confirmed by such petty actions.

   Man may not by study extrapolate laws that do not exist by command. There is no such thing as “Command inference.” Any use of the Scripture by the Lord was to rely on clear situational instances, such as in the case of where David was clearly not punished for eating the shewbread when he and his men were hungry. This is not extrapolating a word or sentence, but adhering to a precedence set by God. Any other use was by logical progression of direct command, such as in the case of Exodus 23: 4-5. If you are to help your enemy for the basest of reasons (like his animals need help), how much more are you to help him if his son is hurt and injured?