- Look at Maimonides's levels of Tzedakah. Do you agree with his ranking? Are there any other levels you might add?
- Maimonides was also a great philosopher. He thought that one could only define God by saying what God is not (i.e. God is not a physical being.) Come up with a list of 5 things that you can agree on that God is Not.
- Maimonides spent a lot of his time organizing Jewish thought and practice to make it easier for Jews to have access to those ideas and traditions. This value is called Seder, or Order. How are you at making Seder in your life? What is some part of your life where you want to be more organized? Less organized?
Things To Do:
- Based on Maimonides' ranking of levels of Tzedakah, choose one as a family to do together.
- Play a Maimonides version of 'Negative 20 Questions'. One person chooses an object that the rest of the group will have to guess what it is. The guesses have to make negative statements "It is not blue, it is not big", etc.) to guess what the object might be.
- In the spirit of the value of Seder or Order that Maimonides did so well, choose a part of your house that does not have a lot of Seder and work together to bring some Seder to it.
Things to Read, Watch or Listen To Learn More:
- Some more information about the Rambam/Maimonides from myjewishlearning.com, jewishvirtualibray.com and his major works: the Mishneh Torah and the Guide For the Perplexed.
- A more pithy exploration of the Rambam, a review of the book: Maimonides: Life and Thought
- Some reflections and readings on the value of Seder/Order.