Emanation

This chapter evaluates the application of the Neoplatonic idea of emanation, as expounded by Maimonides himself in The Guide of the Perplexed, to the understanding of the structure of Mishneh torah. The first ten books are arranged according to a hierarchy of value, corresponding to the hierarchy of the successive levels of hypostases in the Plotinian system, as adapted by Alfarabi, but with the ultimate criterion of rank being the religious value of holiness. Furthermore, those first ten books form a pattern that is a projection of ‘Laws of the Foundations of the Torah’, expressing the idea that books 2 to 10 emanate from book 1, the Book of Knowledge. The Neoplatonic hierarchy in Mishneh torah suggested a way of reconciling the treatment of sacrifices in that work with their treatment in the Guide, evaluating them synchronically rather than diachronically. The underlying model or metaphor for emanation is a flow of water: water flowing downhill, and water flowing outwards from a source. This metaphor surfaces explicitly in ‘Laws of Immersion Pools’ at the end of the Book of Purity, and again at the end of Mishneh torah as a whole, pointing up the work's cosmic architecture and adding to it a dynamic element that brings a new level of significance.