This chapter begins with “On considering the Divine acts, or the processes of Nature, we get an insight into…”. The Arabic goes “إذا تاملت الأفعال الإلهي أعني الأفعال الطبيعية”. Even though this phraseology gives us a tantalizing piece of a larger philosophy, one that would be developed most fully by Spinoza, the content of this chapter is quite different.

In this chapter, Maimonides begins by making the scientific observation that Nature prefers to develop things gradually — for example, when babies are born, their ability to consume solid food does not come pre-programmed, so to speak, but must be developed over time. Similarly, he conetnds that spiritual development, too, cannot happen all of a sudden, and must take place in stages. This is why certain ritualistic practices were enjoined in the Torah — animal sacrifice, the temple, etc. — as a continuation of pre-Mosaic practices as a means of gradually teaching man to worship the One God in the correct way. Simply put, because people were used to these forms of worship, they were “allowed to continue”; to have ordered a sudden breach from the old forms of worship “would have been contrary to the nature of man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used”.

He transferred to His service that which had formerly served as a worship of created beings, and of things imaginary and unreal, and commanded us to serve Him in the same manner; viz., to build unto Him a temple (Exod. 25:8); to have the altar erected to His name; (ibid. 20:21); to offer the sacrifices to Him; (Lev. 1:2) … He has forbidden to do any of these things to any other being … By this Divine plan it was effected that the traces of idolatry were blotted out, and the truly great principle of our faith, the Existence and Unity of God, was firmly established; this result was thus obtained without deterring or confusing the minds of the people by the abolition of the service to which they were accustomed and which alone was familiar to them.

Maimonides is aware that this way of viewing history — schockingly modern — will be peculiar to a religious reader, who will find it strange that God commanded ritual forms of worship not for their own sake but merely as means to an end. However, Maimonides is convinced that his explanation for the ritual forms of worship is the correct one, and he makes an analogy with the Israelite’s exodus from Egypt:

“God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt; but God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea,” etc. (Exod. 25:8). Here God led the people about, away from the direct road which He originally intended, because He feared they might meet on that way with hardships too great for their ordinary strength; He took them by another road in order to obtain thereby His original object.