An Understanding Heart

This is the first of an occasional series on Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed for those who find it, well, perplexing. My goal is not to wade into all manner of dense scholarly arguments, but to provide interesting and accessible insights from this very important work of Judaic learning. So, I'm labeling these posts "A little bit less perplexed". It is not a systematic presentation, but sort of "a taste of".  I will begin by posting a link to a brief overview of the book and its impact by Rabbi Dr. Nissan Mangel: http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/107784/jewish/Philosopher-and-Mystic.htm.   A few apologies: The Guide was written in Arabic, which I don't read, so I'm relying on several Hebrew translations (Ibn Tibbon, Kapach, Schwartz) and the English one by Shlomo Pines. I'm hoping comparing multiple translations will help get me to the heart of the various matters. There are also many variant texts from different manuscripts