Yigdal and Maimonides’ 13 Principles

The hymn Yigdal is a song found in the Siddur prayer book and sung in synagogues on Shabbat, holidays, and other occasions. It is based on Maimonides’s thirteen principles of Judaism, in his Commentary on the Mishnah, Introduction to Perek Chelek. There is a third version, Ani Ma’amin (I believe), in the Siddur. However, Yigdal and Ani Ma’amin differ from what Maimonides wrote. The three versions are significant because they contain ideas that Maimonides thought the average Jew needed to believe, even though he and most rationalists only accepted the first few.

The version of Yigdal used by Ashkenazic Jews, Jewish people whose ancestors lived in Central and Eastern Europe, including areas like Germany, Poland, and Russia, contains thirteen lines sung, one for each Maimonidean principle.

Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardim, are a Jewish ethnic group whose history and traditions are rooted in the Iberian Peninsula. While historically associated with Spain and Portugal, Sephardic Jews also include descendants of Jewish communities in North Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the world who were influenced by Sephardic customs. They add a 14th and 15th line: “These are the thirteen fundamentals; they are the foundation of the religion of God and His faithful. The Torah of Moses and his prophecy are true. Blessed for eternity be His praised Name.”

No one knows who composed Yigdal. The founder of Academic Jewish studies, Leopold Zunz (1794-1886), contended that it was written by the fourteenth-century scholar Daniel ben Yehudah Dayan during eight years from 1396 to 1404. Others suggest other names and dates.

The two versions of Maimonides’ principles, Ani Ma’amin and Yigdal, were composed after Maimonides wrote the principles. Yigdal has many melodies. In 1950, Leonard Bernstein set the hymn to music.

Maimonides’ 13 principles

1. God exists, is eternal, is perfect in every way, and caused all existence.
2. God is an absolute unity.
3. God is incorporeal; He has no body or body parts.
4. God existed before other beings and created the world from nothing.
5. Only God should be worshipped – not angels, stars, or other beings.
6. God communicates to certain people through prophecy.
7. Moses was the greatest of the prophets.
8. The Torah was divinely revealed; the Torah in our hands today is precisely the same as the Torah that Moses presented to the Israelites.
9. The Torah will never be changed in whole or in part.
10. God knows people’s actions.
11. Reward and punishment exist.
12. The messiah will come.
13. The dead will rise from their graves to live again.

My Translation of Yigdal

1. The living God is exalted. He existed forever. No one can say when He appeared.
2. He is unique. No one is as unique. It is inscrutable. Nothing is like it.
3. He has no body or any semblance of a body. There is no comparison to His distinction.
4. He preceded all that was made. He was before everything.
5. He is the master of the universe, which displays His greatness and mastery.
6. He gave prophecy to His chosen, splendid people.
7. No prophet arose in Israel like Moses, who understood Him.
8. God gave His people a true Torah through His most trusted prophet.
9. God will never alter or amend His law for another.
10. He watches and knows our secrets and outcomes before they occur.
11. He awards people for their good deeds with love and punishes the wicked for their wickedness.
12. He will send our Messiah at the end of days to save those awaiting salvation.
13. God will revive the dead because of His loving-kindness, blessed be He forever.

In The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised, Rabbi Dr. Marc B. Shapiro examines the thirteen principles.  He shows that many scholars, including many Orthodox Jews, are convinced that Maimonides only believed the first three Principles were true. He wrote the remaining ten for the average Jew who needed to believe these ideas to feel happy and secure.

How could Maimonides know the three principles?

Exodus 33:18-23 states that we cannot know anything about God. Moses requested God to tell him what He is. God replies that he will pass before Moses, but you cannot see My face because humans cannot see Me and live. God placed Moses behind a rock. He covered Moses so he could not see Him when He passed. God removed the covering after passing, and Moses saw His back.

These acts can be understood as follows: Moses wants to understand what God is. God has done certain things, but humans cannot see God or how He acts. However, they can think about it, learn the sciences and philosophy that describe what happened and is happening in the world. This will give them ideas about God.

Thus, we understand that Maimonides does not know the first three principles. He is only saying he has some vague idea about them. For example, based on philosophy, it is inconceivable that God would be more than a single entity. So, Maimonides can assert that God is “a unity,” but at the same time, he must acknowledge that how God is “a unity” is beyond his comprehension.