Resumo de "eight Chapters" By The Rambam

The Rambam (Rabi Moshe ben Maimon) lived in the Middle Ages, died in 1230 in Egypt and was interred in Tiberias to his request. He wrote this book in the age of 25, when living in Spain, before his family was forced to immigrate to Fez, Morocco.
Those days, Spain was dominated by the Christians, and later by the Moslems, which where then more moderate.
This book, "Eight Chapters", was written as an introduction for the "forefather chapters" (Pirkey Avot). Its uniqueness is in the absence of bibliographic sources for the ideas expressed in the book.
This is a book about the soul, its' forces and problems that often arise in it.
Today we know that similar ideas were written by Aristotle in the year of 340BC, in his book "Ethics", describing the appropriate way of living, grading the human needs, more or less what is known today as the "Maslow pyramid of needs".
The difference between the Rambam and Aristotle is that the ancient Greeks weren't monotheists whereas the Rambam came to settle the argument between the Greek philosophy which was customary then, and the wisdom/Torah of Israel.
The Rambam's ideas are reinforced by the ideas of sages like Ibn Tibon, which try to settle the argument between monotheism and paganism.
The Rambam deals with the parts of the soul and its' resources, as the human being strives for life of significance and wholeness.
According to the Rambam, the soul is endowed with five main forces which are: Thinking, Imagination, Will, Feelings and the one Senses, which operates and allows change/repair things in the world.
The most frequently used force is Thinking, which the human being does most of the day, but the most important force is the Will, which enables the human being to fulfill the 613 Mitzvoth, and on the other hand could lead him to sin.
After we learn about the human's spiritual and mental forces, the Rambam leads us to chapter 4, in which he notes problems or diseases liable of hurting the soul as well as the body. The same way that a doctor can heal the body - the wise (seems that the Rambam meant a psychologist) can cure the soul.
The most important thing to achieve a healthy soul and mind according to the Rambam, is the golden way, meaning moderateness rather than extremism.
The Rambam walks in Aristotle's footsteps, grading the human needs by their significance.The most inferior amongst them is pursuit of easy profits, greed, in which people are sunk most of their lives.
The second is preserving good health. These two needs deal with the Human itself.
The third one, the "superiority of mankind" is called "attributes" - and refers to the human's interaction with his environment, his family, his community, etc.
The last and most important "Wholeness" is the worshipping of god, a deed that one must fulfill as much as he can, each and every man - according to his understanding of Worshipping.
From chapter 6 the book explains the levels of faith and of the believers from "a follower" through a "mediocre" to a "prophet". Even among the prophets there's a division by the prophet's contact with god, starting with those who only dreamt of an interaction with god and ending with Moses, who had the revelation of the burning unidentified bush.

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