181 NINE Maimonides in the Crucible of Zionism: Reflections on Yeshayahu Leibowitz’s Negative Theology Paul Mendes-Flohr In 1997, a Jerusalem publisher issued a posthumous Hebrew volume entitled Conversations with Yeshayahu Leibowitz on Maimonides’ Guide to the Per- plexed. 1 This prodigious volume of close to nine hundred pages bears the dedication: “A Monument in Memory of our teacher Reb Yeshayahu the son of Mordecai Leibowitz, who until the very moment of his death did not cease to warn against the sanctification of the secular (kiddush ha-ḥolin) and the desecration of the holy (ḥilul ha-Kodesh).” 2 Based on the transcripts of Leibowitz’s discussions on Maimonides, conducted with a variety of groups, mostly Israeli high school and university students, the volume is indeed a fit- ting homage to the philosopher, who died in 1994 at the age of ninety one. For five decades and more he stood at the gates of Jerusalem warning of the dangers of idolatry that he saw sweeping the land of Israel. With prophetic intonations, he fulminated against observant Jews who ascribed religious meaning and value to the state and who cynically exploited the instruments and accoutrements of political power to advance pragmatic, sectarian inter- ests. With equal vigor he resolutely admonished the secular custodians of the state for mobilizing religious sentiments and symbols to justify secular decisions and actions. Citing Maimonides, Leibowitz regarded these abuses of Israel’s ancient faith as tantamount to idolatry, ‘ avodah zarah, the worship of alien gods. The enfant terrible of Israeli political culture, Leibowitz had a public image that was refracted through the many legends spun about his phenomenal learning. Some say that he had five doctorates, others six, even eight. In truth he had but two: one in chemistry from the University of Berlin and another in medicine earned at the University of Basel. He did, however, study phi- losophy extensively at various German universities. In his native Latvia, he acquired a firm and broad knowledge of the classical texts of Judaism before