 Although he does not apply it to Strauss, Halbertal provides a more helpful rubric under which we may better understand Strauss’s conception of esotericism. Strauss’s view of esotericism is not “instrumental” but instead “essential,” which means that, to quote Halbertal, esotericism “is not the result of a strategy adopted by philosophy in its relation toward society, but is part of the essence of the philosophical realm” (CR, p. 57). As Halbertal notes, this position leads to a skeptical position that Shlomo Pines (a professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1952–1990 and the translator of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed into English for which Strauss provided the introduction) attributed to Maimonides (in an article which, incidentally, he published after Strauss’s death). While Pines’ concern was specifically with Maimonides’ account of language, Strauss saw esotericism as a more generalized form of philosophical skepticism. To return to Strauss’s abiding interest in the relation between theory and practice, Strauss’s skepticism was also skeptical of itself in recognizing the limits, political, moral, and philosophical, of skepticism. This recognition, for Strauss, is the work of a truly critical philosophy.