[129]. Introduction to Zera’im; see also Foundations of the Law, chaps. ix. and x.
[130]. Guide, III., chap. li.
[131]. See R. Shem-Tob’s Commentary on the Guide, loc. cit.
[132]. Ibid.
[133]. Maimonides himself describes the contemporary state of culture among his people in several places. See, for instance, the Treatise on Resurrection.
[134]. Emunoth v’ Deoth, Preface.
[135]. R. Jehudah Halevi, despite his profound knowledge of contemporary philosophy, says categorically: “He who accepts this [the Law] completely, without scrutiny or argument, is better off than he who investigates and analyses” (Cuzri, II., xxvi. [Dr. Hirschfeld’s translation]).
[136]. Guide, I., chap. lxxi.
[137]. As to the state of mind of the forced converts at that time see what Maimonides says in the Treatise of the Sanctification of the Name and the Iggereth Teman.
[138]. See Section II. above. Note especially what Maimonides says about prophecy in the Introduction to his Commentary on the Mishnah (written at the time when he lived among the forced converts). Some of this is quoted in Section II. He writes there with such incisive force as to make it clear that he has left the realm of pure speculation and theory, and has a practical object connected with actual circumstances which had stirred him deeply at the time.