Do you include Kant, Hegel in the category of Metaphysics that the Rambam requires. I think so. It is the subject matter and its development that the Rambam is thinking about. [However I do not know how to decide between them. What I assume about Kant and Hegel is that it is similar to the debate between Plato and Aristotle in this way. Philosophy tends to come up to some kind of problem once in about 1000 years. It takes a long time until the problem is understood and even longer to come to any kind of solution. Thus the problem of change was formulated by Parmenides and answered by Plato and Aristotle. But the difference between them led to new problems until the synthesis of Neo Platonic thought. I assume this same kind of process is going on with Kant and Hegel with the Mind-Body problem. There is a lot of tension between these two streams of thought.
[The Rambam's opinion about this is in הלכות תלמוד תורה where he says the עניינים הנקראים פרדס that he explained in the first four sections of Mishne Torah are included in learning the Gemara. He is much more open about this in the Guide, but it come up throughout his writings. It is not something he decided only when he was older,-- but rather he held by this approach from the beginning.]
Some people were upset with the Rambam because his opinions offended their sensibilities. However "faith in the wise" require us to hold with the wise even when we imagine that we know better. In any case, I think it is safe to assume that the Rambam had a fairly decent understanding of what Torah is all about. In any case the Rambamis safely within the Neo Platonic school of Plotinus. But how would he stand in regard to the issues raise by Kant and Hegel?]
This is not all that different than when the Rambam requires learning Physics. I do not think that I have to learn Attic Greek and the set of books, The Physics by Aristotle. Rather I think it refers to the subject matter.
On the other hand, the Rambam limits severely the subjects one ought [or is allowed] to learn. The Rambam does not give a free pass into modern day pseudo sciences.
He also has a large category of what you would call ספרים חיצוניים "outside books" that one is not allowed to learn- Does he decide like R Akiva that one loses his portion in the next world by reading them? I do not see him bring down R Akiva as law. Still there the plenty of things he forbids to read. And what is most interesting is the opinion of the Rif and Rosh that say ספרים חיצוניים outside books are books that explain the Torah not like דרשת חז''ל [the way the verses are explained in the Midrash and Gemara.] That would mean that to understand the meaning of Torah one would have to go into the many Midrashim מדרש רבה מדרש תנחומא ספרי ספרא וכו
I actually had a learning partner in the Mir that spent all his free time learning Midrash. [Eventually he became rosh yeshiva in Leningrad and later in Jerusalem.] If I had been smart I would have done the same thing.
Midrash however is sometimes hard to get. For example, many amoraim [sages of the Talmud] take a highly negative view of Job. That is a bit hard to swallow. However there is a another sage of the Talmud that says Job was greater than Abraham the Patriarch.
[The Rambam's opinion about this is in הלכות תלמוד תורה where he says the עניינים הנקראים פרדס that he explained in the first four sections of Mishne Torah are included in learning the Gemara. He is much more open about this in the Guide, but it come up throughout his writings. It is not something he decided only when he was older,-- but rather he held by this approach from the beginning.]
Some people were upset with the Rambam because his opinions offended their sensibilities. However "faith in the wise" require us to hold with the wise even when we imagine that we know better. In any case, I think it is safe to assume that the Rambam had a fairly decent understanding of what Torah is all about. In any case the Rambamis safely within the Neo Platonic school of Plotinus. But how would he stand in regard to the issues raise by Kant and Hegel?]
This is not all that different than when the Rambam requires learning Physics. I do not think that I have to learn Attic Greek and the set of books, The Physics by Aristotle. Rather I think it refers to the subject matter.
On the other hand, the Rambam limits severely the subjects one ought [or is allowed] to learn. The Rambam does not give a free pass into modern day pseudo sciences.
He also has a large category of what you would call ספרים חיצוניים "outside books" that one is not allowed to learn- Does he decide like R Akiva that one loses his portion in the next world by reading them? I do not see him bring down R Akiva as law. Still there the plenty of things he forbids to read. And what is most interesting is the opinion of the Rif and Rosh that say ספרים חיצוניים outside books are books that explain the Torah not like דרשת חז''ל [the way the verses are explained in the Midrash and Gemara.] That would mean that to understand the meaning of Torah one would have to go into the many Midrashim מדרש רבה מדרש תנחומא ספרי ספרא וכו
I actually had a learning partner in the Mir that spent all his free time learning Midrash. [Eventually he became rosh yeshiva in Leningrad and later in Jerusalem.] If I had been smart I would have done the same thing.
Midrash however is sometimes hard to get. For example, many amoraim [sages of the Talmud] take a highly negative view of Job. That is a bit hard to swallow. However there is a another sage of the Talmud that says Job was greater than Abraham the Patriarch.
