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In the book “Persecution and the Art of Writing”, Leo Strauss dedicates a chapter to Maimonides [1].
Maimonides was a Medieval Jewish theologian and philosopher. His writing were adopted, after some debate by the Jewish religious establishment. Leo Strauss chose to write about him and seems to present him as the model religious leader (for philosopher and leader are the same under Strauss platonic conceptualization).
While dealing for the greater part of the chapter on various different subjects, Leo Strauss give him most radical and central understanding of Maimonides in page seventy six of “Persecution and the Art of Writing” where he states that Maimonides fails in his “Guide for the Perplexed” to mention the immortality of the soul and thus actually hides his true belief that the soul perishes when the body does (according to Strauss’s reading of Maimonides). In that Strauss ignores other explanations for the ommiting of the soul’s immortality, like for example was suggested by a parable in “Hakuzari” [2] to which Strauss dedicated another chapter [3].
What makes Maimonides the model for all religious men for Leo Strauss is the fact that he manages to hide his unorthodox ideas that would be unacceptable by the masses, keeping it only for those who can decipher his secret writings while accomplishing entry and reinforcement of mainstream religion with innovations the multitude can absorb.
This makes him the model religious leader to Strauss and worthy of Strauss’s admiration and place in his writings.
The neocon angle of this is quite clear: The leader should reinforce conventional orthodox religion and religious ideas (and innovate within their boundaries) [4] while keeping his private unorthodox beliefs a secret for him and the few elect that can understand and contain them.
The dialogues of Ben Zoma and much more in the book "The Dialogues" - by Guy Shaked
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[1] Leo Strauss, Persecution and the Art of Writing, Chicago: Uni of Chicago Press, 1988, pp. 38-94
[2] Guy Shaked, Immanuel the Roman's critique of Dante's Divine Comedy and Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, Morrisvile, Lulu, 2007, p. 15
[3] Leo Strauss, Persecution, pp. 95-141
[4] In “Mishneh Torah” Maimonides replaced the Talmud with clear-cut definitions and no debate thus reinforcing more consensus. See: Moshe Halbertal, People of the Book: Canon, Meaning and Authority, Cambridge Mass.: Harvard Uni. Press, 1997, p. 72
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Jacques Derrida's interpretation of Plato's Phaedrus (Plato's Pharmacy)
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