The Guide For The Perplexed Maimonides

The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides most well-known work, asserts that any Jew who believes that a person can lack free will is a heretic. He goes on to explain that, “According to this principle man does what is in his power to do, by his nature, his choice, and his will; and his action is not due to any faculty created for the purpose” (Ben Maimon, The Guide for the Perplexed, 1186, p. 286). This statement is supported by quotations drawn from many holy Judaic texts including Genesis, Genesis Rabbah, Isiah, Proverbs, Psalms, and numerous others (Ben Maimon, The Guide for the Perplexed, 1186). However, the DSM is full of psychiatric disorders that can seemingly “cause” a person to sin. One of the chief offenders is impulse-control disorders

Pathological Gambling, is characterized by irrational urges to continue gambling despite its negative effects (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). This disorder may cause someone to gamble, a prohibition that Maimonides draws out from the verse, “Do not withhold that which is due to your neighbor” (Ben Maimon, Description and Explanation of commandments from the Rambam, c. 1167/1990). Similarly, pathological lying is characterized by the impulse to tell lies, most of which are to no benefit of the speaker and to outlandish to believe. (Dike, 2008) A pathological liar definitely transgresses the commandment to “Distance yourself from falsehood” (Exod.

A person who has an ICD cannot be judged in the same way as a regular sinner because their free-will points are inherently different. Someone with an ICD’s free-will point is low through no fault of oneself. This differs from the regular sinner because he or she had to arrive at one’s low free-will point instead of possessing it naturally. This can occur because the free-will point of a person is not stagnant, but can be elevated or lowered. Therefore, unlike the ICD inflicted person, who arrived at his or her predicament through frontal lobe and/or limbic system malfunctions or a hormonal imbalance (Schreiber, Odlaug, & Grant, 2011), a regular sinner probably had to attain his or her lowered free-will