 For Strauss, the work of a truly critical philosophy is to grasp problems, and not to provide solutions. What is the absolute problem at the heart of esotericism, according to Strauss? The problem concerns the self-sufficiency of reason or, put another way, the inescapable and necessary tension between theory and practice. The theological-political predicament of modernity stems from the modern commitment to the self-sufficiency of reason that, Strauss argues, results in reason’s self-destruction. Esotericism is a means toward preserving the limits of philosophy and revelation (or law) vis-à-vis one another. The law comes up against its own limitations in the quest to articulate the philosophical foundations of the law. But at the same time, philosophy comes up against its own limits in recognizing that the philosopher is always already within society (or the law) and for this reason dependent upon the law. Strauss thus makes the seemingly immoral move of revealing Maimonides’ art of writing for the sake of saving the possibility of both revelation and philosophy.