A fascinating pattern in Middle Eastern culture is the art of finding ways to honor the law while technically working around it

Example of this trick can be found in Maimonides' “Guide for the Perplexed.” Here’s how Leo Strauss describes his clever maneuver:

“The very same law, the secrets of which Maimonides attempted to explain, forbids their explanation. According to the ordinance of the talmudic sages, Ma'aseh Merkavah (מעשה מרכבה) ought not to be taught even to one man, except if he be wise and able to understand by himself.

As a matter of fact, the Guide is written in the form of letters addressed to a friend and favorite pupil, Joseph. By addressing his book to one man, Maimonides made sure that he did not transgress the prohibition against explaining מעשה מרכבה to more than one man. Moreover, in the Epistula dedicatoria addressed to Joseph, he mentions, as it were in passing and quite unintentionally, that Joseph possessed all the qualities required of a student of the secret lore”.