The Sechel - Part II

In summation, according to Maimonides acheiving intellect is central in religious life. It is; a) a way of serving and communing with God, b) the cause for Divine providence, c) the way to gain immortality of the soul.
The common understanding of the Rambam was that he was teaching a dry intellectualist path to God and bliss. However there were those who understood his teachings more mystically. The Rambam’s own descendants espoused a spiritual devotional path while not veering from the Rambam’s way. The kabbalist R. Abraham Abulafia developed his own mystical path whereby one used a variety of new meditative techniques to reach communion and revelation, but his theoretical basis for what these techniques achieve follows Maimonidean philosophy. These techniques are all ways to cleave to the active intellect. Some of the early kabbalists in Spain too claimed to be consistent with the Ramabam’s philosophy. R. Asher ben David, of the Provencal school of R. Isaac the Blind, writes that the ten Sephirot of the kabbalists and the ten Intellects of the philosophers are one and the same.
One person who prima facie would be a highly unlikely candidate for being a follower of Maimonides is R. Nachman of Breslov. In his talks to his disciples he explicitly denounces the Rambam and other rationalistic Jewish thinkers. He was quoted as mocking Rambam’s proposed reasons for Mitzvot. He told his Chassidim to stay away from the Guide and from the the philosophic parts of Mishneh Torah. He said, “ I can tell on a person’s face if he had studied the Guide or not, because if he did his face would have changed for the worse.” Yet we have evidence in his writings that he accepted and taught some of the these intelletualist doctrines of the Rambam. It is these seeming contradictions that I would attempt to analyze.
The term Sechel (mind-intellect) is to be found all over R. Nachman’s magnum opus, Likutei Moharan. Most of those references to the mind are positive; advice on how to cultivate and grasp intellect. For example he writes, “The renewal of the Sechel is the renewal of the soul.” One of the identifying features of R. Nachman’s writings is that there is a constant equation of concepts one to the other; a is an aspect of b and b is an aspect of c and so on. The Sechel is equated to Moses, to the Messiah and to the revelation of the Tora of the World to Come. R. Nachman used the term Sechel with the full awareness of its meaning in medieval Jewish philosophy. Namely that it describes a metaphysical entity not just an aspect of the human organism. In one discourse he describes the world in terms of Medieval cosmology , “...The movement of the Spheres is caused by the Intellects, who are the angels. Every sphere has its own Intellect, that is angel, that controls it.... All these Intellects receive from one General Intellect that is the soul that leads them all.”
As we will further demonstrate, R. Nachman taught a Metaphysics in which the cognitive mind was very central, merely having religious feelings is not enough. The mind is needed to in order to cleave to God. The following is a passage where this is stated quite clearly, and will introduce the subject of the immortality of the intellectual soul.
“Eternal life is to God alone, for he lives for ever, and he who is incoporates into his source, namely Him may He be blessed, also lives forever, because since he is included in the One, and he is one with God, he too will live eternal life... And the main ways one is included in the One is via knowing Him may He be blessed, as is the saying of the wise; “If I would know Him I would be Him.” For the essence of Man is the mind [sechel], hence, in the place where the mind is thinking there is the place of the entire person. When he knows and perceives the knowledge o God he is actually there. The more he knows the more he is included in the source, that is Him may He be Blessed.”

To be continued with the help of God.