Q&A: Why do I need to attain knowledge of God?
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Why do I need to attain knowledge of God?
Question
Maimonides says the following in Eight Chapters: “A person should keep before his eyes at all times one goal alone, namely the apprehension of God, blessed be He, to the extent of his ability to know Him.” And he goes on to explain how all actions are supposed to be directed toward knowledge of God. My question is: why should I make that my goal if I already believe in God and in the Torah of Moses? Isn’t the goal supposed to be to serve Him?
Answer
Maimonides understood that the essence of serving God is knowing Him. What is the problem with that? It is of course not necessary, but I do not see any difficulty here.
It could be that according to Maimonides, if you have not attained knowledge of God, then it is not God that you are serving, but rather a concept of God that is not the true God, only an image that exists in your consciousness—and it turns out that you are really serving yourself. In addition, it may be that in his view only through this can one unite with the Active Intellect.