Study Questions for Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed

According to Maimonides:

1. What kind of people should read the Guide? What is the perplexity that troubles them, and how can this treatise help to relieve it?

2. Why did the Sages teach divine science in parables and riddles?

3. Why is it less objectionable to credit God with actions than to credit Him with other kinds of attributes? Explain how God’s actions might be compared, speaking loosely, with the actions of fire.

4. When we attribute some moral quality like mercy to a human being, we mean that the person’s actions come from a certain kind of affection (or “passion”). What do the Sages mean when they attribute mercy to God?

5. Why is it impossible for humans to have a resemblance or likeness to God?

6. Some people think that God has essential attributes, such as the attributes of living, knowing, and willing, though they add that these attributes are more perfect in Him than they are in us. Why are they mistaken in making this kind of comparison?

7. God is one not only in the sense that there are no other gods but also in the sense that God is “simple” – that is, in no way a composite or “multiplicity.” How does this second sense of “oneness” lead to the conclusion that God’s existence is necessary, not merely contingent (or “accidental”)?

8. Why are people speaking loosely when they describe God as eternal?

9. Why is God correctly described only through negations like “not dead”?

10. In what way can negations bring us closer to the apprehension of God?

11. How is affirming positive attributes of God tantamount to idolatry?

12. How can someone’s silence be praise to God?

13. What is “the true human perfection,” and why is it so desirable?

14. Why is it important to acquire moral virtues?

15. If passions are evil, how can it be good for us to act with loving-kindness?