In this chapter, Maimonides clarifies that hikmat, Hebrew חוכמה, in Scripture can mean one of four things:

  1. “knowledge of those truths which lead to the knowledge of God”
  2. technique, i.e., wisdom in terms of knowing how to do or make something
  3. “acquisition of moral principles”
  4. “cunning and subtlety”

and he explains that “a person that has a true knowledge of the whole Law is called wise in a double sense”, i.e., he is wise because of reason 1 and because of reason 3. As we can imagine, Maimonides affords the clearly higher rank to (1) than to (3):

as the truths contained in the Law are taught by way of tradition, not by a philosophical method, the knowledge of the Law, and the acquisition of true wisdom, are treated in the books of the Prophets and in the words of our Sages as two different things; real wisdom demonstrates by proof those truths which Scripture teaches us by way of tradition. It is to this kind of wisdom, which proves the truth of the Law, that Scripture refers when it extols wisdom, and speaks of the high value of this perfection, and of the consequent paucity of men capable of acquiring it, in sayings like these: “Not many are wise” Job 32:9; “But where shall wisdom be found” ibid. 28:12.

For Maimonides, there is a “right order”, or hierarchy, in which man must acquire wisdom:

  1. “we must first learn the truths by tradition”
  2. “after this we must be taught how to prove them”
  3. “and then investigate the actions that help to improve man’s ways.”

Maimonides then switches gears to talking about four different kinds of perfection.

  1. Perfection as regards worldly posessions and power, e.g., becoming a rich and powerful person
  2. Perfection of the body, i.e., the shape, constitution, and even-temperedness of man’s body
  3. Perfection of morals, i.e., the degree of excellency of man’s character
  4. Perfection of the intellect, leading to ‘correct metaphysical notions about God.

The first three, to varying degrees, stem from the body; the fourth depends not on the body — concern of which man shares with other animals — but on the intellect.

The fourth kind of perfection is the true perfection of man: the possession of the highest, intellectual faculties; the possession of such notions which lead to true metaphysical opinions as regards God. With this perfection man has obtained his final object; it gives him true human perfection; it remains to him alone; it gives him immortality [Pines has “permanent perdurance”], and on its account he is called man. Examine the first three kinds of perfection, you will find that, if you possess them, they are not your property, but the property of others; according to the ordinary view, however, they belong to you and to others. But the last kind of perfection is exclusively yours; no one else owns any part of it, “They shall be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee” (Prov. 5:17). Your aim must therefore be to attain this (fourth) perfection that is exclusively yours, and you ought not to continue to work and weary yourself for that which belongs to others, whilst neglecting your soul till it has lost entirely its original purity through the dominion of the bodily powers over it.

For Maimonides, the ordering of these four kinds of perfection explains the order in Jeremiah, when the Prophet says: “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me” Jer. 9:22.

But this is not all; Maimonides isn’t done! He points out that Jeremiah doesn’t stop at the above passage, but continues in the next verse, 9.23, to extol man to act with the three characteristics of God that Maimonides identified in chapter 53; “We are thus told in this passage that the Divine acts which ought to be known, and ought to serve as a guide for our actions, are, ḥesed, “loving-kindness,” mishpat, “judgment,” and ẓedakah, “righteousness.”” Maimonides reads great significance into every word of this verse, particularly into the phrase in the artz, אֶרֶץ, أرض: “[the use of this phrase] teaches, as has been taught by the ‘Master of those who know’ (سيد العالمين) in the words, “The earth is the Lord’s” (Exod. 9:29), that His providence extends to the earth in accordance with its nature, in the same manner as it controls the heavens in accordance with their nature.”

Thus, chapter 54 suggests that the way to “know God” in this post-Eden world is to emulate the characteristics of God, in fulfillment of Moses’ request to “show me now thy ways” Exodus 38:13.

the perfection, in which man can truly glory, is attained by him when he has acquired — as far as this is possible for man — the knowledge of God, the knowledge of His Providence, and of the manner in which it influences His creatures in their production and continued existence. Having acquired this knowledge he will then be determined always to seek loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, and thus to imitate the ways of God.

Commentary This chapter represents the fruition of Maimonides’ painstaking explanation to his ‘Perplexed’ pupil, who was not sure about where to place the Law in relation to what we can call Science. Maimonides is not so conflicted; he in fact is very clear about the relative importance he ascribes to these two things. “The religious acts prescribed in the Law, viz., the various kinds of worship and the moral principles which benefit all people in their social intercourse with each other, do not constitute the ultimate aim of man, nor can they be compared to it, for they are but preparations leading to it.”

For what it is, Maimonides has a two-part answer. The first part, given his philosophical bent of mind, is to be expected: acquiring knowledge of God. the second part, however, is a bit surprising: it is ‘imitate the ways of God’. This seems to run counter to much of what he has said about what God is and what the actions of God mean, but it rings very Ghazalian in his synthesis of philosophy and sufism.