  He makes this point in the Introduction to the Guide when he says that what Jewish tradition taught under the guise of ma’aseh bereishit (the account of the beginning) is what Greeks thinkers taught as physics, while what Jewish tradition taught under the guise of ma’aseh merkavah (the account of [Ezekiel’s] chariot) is what Greek thinkers taught under the guise of metaphysics. In short, Jewish tradition has always been philosophical. The problem is that these subjects are too difficult for the average worshipper to grasp and must be expressed as parables or metaphors that the educated few will interpret at one level and the average worshipper at another (Stern 2013).