The Essence of Praise

In "The Rambam's Fifth Principle - Part 1", I explained the view of Rav Sherira Gaon, that it is, in fact, permissible to address certain prayers to angels, as the angels themselves have some sort of free will. The Rambam clearly rejects this view in his fifth principle. I already presented Abarbanel's explanation as to why the Rambam felt that this is one of the fundamental beliefs of Judaism, and in a future post, I plan on presenting one more reason, what I believe to be to underlying reason, based on the Rambam himself in the first chapter of הלכות עבודה זרע. Coming soon...
My next post was going to discuss יהושע bowing to the מלאך, followed by a post on מכניסי רחמים and other פיוטים that are apparently addressed to מלאכים, but my brother-in-law has sent me on a tangent: The Rambam himself attributes some sort of free will to מלאכים in מורה הנבוכים. It might take me a while to get through everything the Rambam says, and I may or may not have anything to say about it at the end of the day but for now I present some comments from what I have learned so far, albeit unrelated to the fifth principle.

After presenting Aristotle's perspective of the universe and celestial spheres, the Rambam begins to weigh Aristotle's opinion against the perspective of the Torah. The first idea he presents is that of the celestial spheres being בעלי הגיון. The Rambam cites numerous examples from תנ"ך and the חכמי התלמוד, the first being a פסוק in תהילים which we should be familiar with - השמים מספרים כבוד אל ומעשה ידיו מגיד הרקיע.

A common understanding (or at least how I understood it at first) is to intepret these words non-literally. The שמים and רקיע do not actually utter praise for God's handiwork. Rather, man, through his perception of the שמים and רקיע via the senses, comes to a greater appreciation of God's universe, and thus, he himself is inspired to sing God's praise. The Rambam apparently disagrees - and not only that - he maintains that only a fool or a stubborn person would understand the פסוק that way.

רמב"ם (מו"נ ח"ב פרק ה') וז"ל לענין שהגלגלים חיים בעלי הגיון, כלומר, משיגים, הרי זה אמת ונכון גם מצד התורה, ושהם אינם גופים מתים כאש וכארץ כמו שדמו הסכלים, אלא הם כמו שאמרו הפילוסופים, בעלי חיים, נשמעים לאלוהיהם, משבחים ומהללים אותו שבח מסויים והלל מסויים. אמר, השמים מספרים כבוד אל ומעשה ידיו מגיד הרקיע וגו'. וכמה רחוק מהשכיל את האמת מי שחשב כי זה בטוי המצב, והוא, כי לשון הגדה וספור אין הלשון העברי מניחם יחד כי אם על בעל דעה. והראיה הברורה שהוא מתאר מצבם בעצמם, כלומר מצב הגלגלים לא מצב למידות בני אדם בהם, אמרו אין אמר ואין דברים בלי נשמע קולם. הרי באר ופירש שהוא מתאר את עצמם שהם משבחים לה' ומספרים נפלאותיו בלי מלים של שפה ולשון, והוא הנכון כו' עכ"ל.

The Rambam is adamant that the פסוקים mean to say that the celestial spheres actually praise God and speak of His wonders, though without uttering any words. But that's not all. In the next few lines, the Rambam outlines a fundamental understanding of what praise really is.

וזה לשונו: והוא הנכון, כי המשבח במלים אינו אלא מודיע מה שהצטייר לו, ועצם אותו הציור הוא השבח האמיתי, אבל הבטוי בו הוא ללמד לזולת, או לברר לעצמו שהוא השיג, וכבר נאמר אמרו בלבבכם על משכבכם ודמו סלה, כמו שבארנו. וזו ראיה תוריית לא יכחישנה כי אם סכל או מתעקש כו' עכ"ל.

The essence of praise resides not in the words that we express, but in the intellect of the one uttering that praise. Our words are only an expression of that which we are thinking. So why do we express our praises with language? Either to share it with somebody else, or to confirm and solidify the praise in our mind. The celestial beings epitomize praise - according to the Rambam, they are intellectual beings, and even have some form of free will, but they do not have the power of speech. Hence, the praise of השמים מספרים כבוד אל is absolute, pure, unadulterated praise. They have no way of praising somebody for ulterior motives.

The ramifications of this Rambam can be astonishing. Suppose one were to offer words of praise to somebody for some accomplishment, while in his mind, he does not actually care, and perhaps does not even think that the accomplishment is praiseworthy. According to the Rambam, these words would not be words of praise - they would be a simple lie.

A similar idea can be found in the very first piece in חדושי רבנו חיים הלוי על הרמב"ם, in הלכות תפילה. Rav Chaim Soloveitchik famously explains the ruling of the Rambam, that if one is not cognizant of the fact that he is עומד לפני השם during any part of שמונה עשרה he has not fulfilled his obligation of תפילה, as follows: The essence of תפילה is to be עומד לפני השם. One who does not realize this, has not simply failed to fulfill his requirements of תפילה - he was never engaged in תפילה to begin with! Though with other מצוות we say מצוות אין צריכות כוונה, when it comes to תפילה, the entire essence of the מצוה is כוונה. Similarly, in our case, there is no such thing as insincere words of praise. If the words are insincere, they are essentially transformed from words of praise to words of deceit. You have not praised your friend - you have lied to him.

Now that we are no longer "stubborn fools" who insist on interpreting the פסוקים non-literally, perhaps we can feel a little better knowing that our original interpretation of השמים מספרים כבוד אל ומעשה ידיו מגיד הרקיע wasn't so far off after all. R' Yosef Kapach points out in his footnotes on the מורה that the Rambam is clearly arguing with Rav Saadya Gaon in אמונות ודעות מאמר ב' פרק י and in his פירוש על תהילים פרק יט. And a quick look in a מקראות גדולות edition of תהילים will add a few more big names to each side of the equation.