IN THIS CHAPTER I analyse the way in which Rabbi Aharon Kotler (1891–1962) presented Maimonides’ thought. Rabbi Kotler played a crucial role in the shaping of the ḥaredi world view in the twentieth century. To each generation its exegetes, to each commentator his Maimonides; in twentiethcentury Orthodox Judaism, different elements have endorsed Maimonides as an authority granting legitimacy. As noted above in the Introduction, both the Lubavitcher Rebbe (Menachem Mendel Schneerson, 1902–94) and the ‘Leibowitzer Rebbe’ (Yeshayahu Leibowitz, 1903–94), as is well known, considered themselves Maimonides’ contemporary spokesmen. The dovish Meimad movement in Israeli politics adopted him, as did their hawkish religious-Zionist opponents, while a pale kabbalistic hue colours the Maimonides of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. No wonder, then, that Rabbi Kotler too understands Maimonides as if he were a supporter of his own positions. I will argue that not only does Rabbi Kotler read Maimonides as if the Great Eagle had grown up in east European yeshivas (which is not at all startling), but he also loads (ma’amis) upon Maimonides notions that, ostensibly, he should have known are entirely alien to him. Rabbi Kotler's disciples compiled his lectures, shiurim, letters, eulogies, and other occasional writings in the four volumes of Mishnat rabi aharon. We will examine several of Rabbi Kotler's references to Maimonides in these writings.

Innovation and Independent Enquiry in Torah Study

In Mishnat rabi aharon, Rabbi Kotler invokes Maimonides when he discusses how one should understand the Torah: