Biografije
SAADIA GAON
Saadia Gaon lived in Babylonia from 882-942 CE under Muslim rule. Much of what we know about his work comes from letters and materials found in the Cairo Geniza. Saadia was apparently one of the only geonim successful in proving that world Jewry viewed Babylonia's religious leader as more authoritative than Israel's. There had been tension between Babylonia and Palestine for generations with Babylonia obviously gaining ascendency because of their Talmud scholarship.
Aaron ben Meir, the gaon of the Jewish community in the Land of Israel, tried reclaiming some of that authority in 921 CE by introducing a new three-year Jewish calendar which changed the date of both Passover and Rosh HaShanah. This was a real challenge to Saadia's authority
Saadia wrote a civil letter asking that ben Meir not go changing things which had worked so well for the past 400 years and were not of Israel's business anyway. Ben Meir, feeling that his authority was being threatened, restated the change in stronger language: all true Jews would celebrate Passover on Sunday in 921 CE, not Tuesday. Saadia, always ready for a fight, blasted him. Letters flew back and forth between Sura and the rest of the Jewish world, each hotter and angrier. Tension mounted, literally around the world as Passover approached.
On Sunday of the first year of ben Meir's new calendar, many Jews in The Land of Israel and some Jews outside of Babylonia held their Passover festival. The Jews of Babylonia did not. On Tuesday, the Jews of Babylonia held their Passover Seder, and most of the Jewish world followed their lead including some Jews in The Land of Israel. That Rosh HaShanah, the vast majority of the Jewish world accepted Babylonia's calendar.
Aaron ben Meir knew when he was beaten, and he retracted his calendar. This marked the high point of the Babylonian gaonate's world authority.
During Saadia's life, the Jewish intelligentsia of Babylonia spoke Arabic and were fairly easily accepted into the Arab culture. They found the Arab world very attractive, and Saadia had the job of keeping upper-class Jews Jewish. This was not an easy task.
Wealthy Jews in Babylonia, North Africa, and Iberian Peninsula in the tenth century, were in a similar situation like the Jews of Alexandria, who were attracted to the rediscovered Greek philosophers and many were considering rejecting their Jewish practices.
Saadia met this cultural crisis head-on and won. The high points of Muslim culture were its beautiful use of Arabic and its fondness for the Greek philosophers. Saadia wrote a philosophic work, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions, in magnificent flowing Arabic. In it, he defended the rational underpinnings of Judaism and showed logically that every rational Jew could believe in the Torah as well as Aristotle and Plato.
By applying both the accepted philosophical methodology and the language revered by the Muslim culture, Saadia succeeded in refocusing many semi-assimilated Jews back on Torah and Halachah.
However, it was a radical change in Babylonian Jewish tradition. Previously, the gaon had limited his work to Talmud and halachic teachings. Saadia's book of philosophy caused quite a stir.
Saadia didn't stop there. He wrote the first Hebrew grammar book which explained how the holy language worked. He provided a Hebrew dictionary plus a compendium of rhyming words for Hebrew poets. He was the first to write an Arabic translation of the Bible. He included commentaries, explanations, and grammatical notes as well. His translation continues to be the authoritative Bible for Jews in Arab lands.
Saadia thus brought a new rich understanding of Jewish tradition to the Babylonian academies and the Jews living in the Muslim world. His philosophical work paved the way for future Jewish thinkers, and his approach to Torah influenced a century of Jews.
His most important accomplishment, however, was his confrontation with the Karaities.
He issued articles, letters, and responsa attacking the doctrine of the Karaites, and even declared that they were not Jews. One of his primary targets was Aaron ben Asher. The fury of his attack must have shocked the Karaites. They responded with their own letters and attacks, but their Arabic wasn't as good as Saadia's, and their defenses were less convincing. Saadia successfully defended rabbinic authority against the Karaite philosophical invasion.
Saadia didn't win all of his fights. The Exilarch during Saadia's youth was David ben Zakkai (no relation to Yochanan ben Zakkai). David ben Zakkai was involved in some (apparently shifty) land deals which came to court. He, as head of the community, was expected to judge the case. He asked for the signatures of the gaon and his colleague to make his decision appear legitimate and free from prejudice. Saadia suspected that something was not right, and, on legal grounds, he refused to sign. David ben Zakkai was furious. He wrote angry letters, threatening to have Saadia's position taken away from him. He went so far as to assign another scholar to Saadia's post.
Saadia proceeded to name a new exilarch, an incredibly chutzpadik thing to do. News of the controversy came to the ears of the caliph. Not liking to see splits in his community, he took matters into his own hands. He informed Saadia that the exilarch had right of way. Saadia quietly obeyed and was dismissed from his post.
He was still considered the authority in the Jewish world on Talmud and Halachah, and continued to answer legal questions.
JEHUDA HALEVI
(o. 1075-1141) filozof i pjesnik. Rođen u Tudeli.
Youth
As a youth, Ha-Levi lived a life of pleasure. He mixed pleasure with learning. It is possible that Judah's father, Samuel "the Castilian," sent Judah, who was his only son, to Lucena to be educated in the various branches of Jewish learning at the school of Isaac Alfasi. On the death of his master, Judah composed an elegy. It was probably in Lucena, too, that Judah won the friendship of Alfasi's most prominent pupils, Joseph ibn Migas and Baruch Albalia.
Judah chose medicine as his profession; but he quickly displayed an aptitude and love for poetry. The early ripening of his poetic talent aroused the admiration of his friend and senior, the poet Moses ibn Ezra, who accorded him enthusiastic praise.
He was well acquainted with the productions of the Arabic and the Castilian poets; yet the muse spoke to him in the old and sacred language of the Bible (Biblical Hebrew), in which "he sang for all times and places, soon becoming the favorite of the people". His earliest writing followed the structures of Arabic poetry, and dealt with popular Arabic themes: wine, women, and song. He became versed in Greco-Arabic philosophy also. His personal style was characterized by wit, irony, humor and inventiveness with language. It is astonishing to consider that Hebrew was not his native spoken language. The fluid and lively style of his verse reads as if Hebrew was a living language (which was not the case in the Middle Ages).
After completing his studies, which he, being in easy circumstances, had been able to pursue deliberately, Judah returned to Toledo, where he soon acquired so large a practice that he complained in a letter to his friend David Narboni of a lack of tranquility and leisure. He married in Toledo; and from allusions in some of his poems it is evident that his only child was a daughter, through whom he had a grandson, also named Judah.
Journey to the Holy Land
Judah ha-Levi does not seem to have been contented in Toledo; for he re-moved to the Muslim city of Córdoba. Even here, he did not feel at ease. Though personally he occupied an honored position as a physician, he felt the intolerance of the Almoravid fanatics toward his co-religionists, his "people". He had long yearned to relocate to the Holy Land. This yearning was deepened by his intense application to his religio-philosophical work, and by his resulting clearer insight into Judaism; and at length he decided to set out on a journey to the Land of Israel. For himself at least, he wished "to do away with the contradiction of daily confessing a longing, and of never attempting to realize it"; and therefore, on the death of his wife, he bade "fare-well" to daughter, grandson, pupils, friends, rank, and affluence.
After a stormy passage, he arrived in Alexandria, Egypt, where he was enthusiastically greeted by friends and admirers. At Damietta, he had to struggle against the promptings of his own heart, and the pleadings of his friend Ḥalfon ha-Levi, that he remain in Egypt; which also was Jewish soil, and free from intolerant oppression. However he resisted the temptation to remain there, and started on the tedious land route, trodden of old by the Israelite wanderers in the desert. He traveled to in Tyre and Damascus. Although authentic records fail, Jewish legend has taken up the broken threads of history and woven them further. It is related that as he came near Jerusalem, overpowered by the sight of the Holy City, he sang his most beautiful elegy, the celebrated "Zionide," "Zion ha-lo Tish'ali." Legend claims that at that instant, he was assaulted and killed by an Arab, who dashed forth from a gate; this, however, is only a legend with no physical evidence to support it.
His work
The life-work of Judah ha-Levi was devoted to poetry and philosophy. His poetry is usually classified under the heads of "secular and religious", or, as in Brody's new edition of the "Diwan," under "liturgical and non-liturgical". Such a division, however, can be only external; for the essential characteristic of Judah's poems is the expression of a deeply-religious soul, which is the lofty key to which they are attuned. Even in his drinking- and love-songs, an attentive reader may hear the vibrations of religion's overtones.
The position of Judah ha-Levi in the domain of Jewish philosophy is parallel to that occupied in Islam by Ghazali, by whom he was influenced. Like Ghazali, Judah endeavored to liberate religion from the bondage of the various philosophical systems in which it had been held by his predecessors, Saadia, David ben Marwan al-Mekamez, Gabirol, and Bahya. In a work written in Arabic, and entitled "Kitab al-Ḥujjah wal-Dalil fi Nuṣr al-Din al-Dhalil" (known in the Hebrew translation of Judah ibn Tibbon by the title "Sefer ha-Kuzari," Judah ha-Levi expounded his views upon the teachings of Judaism, which he defended against the attacks of non-Jewish philosophers, Karaites, and those he viewed as "heretics".
The life-work of Judah ha-Levi was devoted to poetry and philosophy. His poetry is usually classified under the headings "secular and religious", or, as in Brody's new edition of the "Diwan," under "liturgical and non-liturgical". Such a division, however, can be only external; for the essential characteristic of Judah's poems is the expression of a deeply-religious soul, which is the lofty key to which they are attuned. Even in his drinking- and love-songs, an attentive reader may hear the vibrations of religion's overtones.
Secular poetry
The first place in his secular or non-liturgical poetry is occupied by poems of friendship and eulogy. Judah must have possessed an attractive personality; for there gathered about him as friends, even in his earliest youth, a large number of illustrious men, like Levi al-Ṭabban of Saragossa, the aged poet Judah ben Abun, Judah ibn Ghayyat of Granada, Moses ibn Ezra and his brothers Judah, Joseph, and Isaac, the vizier Abu al-Ḥasan, Meïr ibn Kamnial, the physician and poet Solomon ben Mu'allam of Seville, and Samuel ha-Nagid of Málaga, besides his schoolmates Joseph ibn Migas and Baruch Albalia.
He was associated also with the grammarian Abraham ibn Ezra. In Córdoba, Judah addressed a touching farewell poem to Joseph ibn Ẓaddiḳ, the philosopher and poet. In Egypt, where the most celebrated men vied with one another in entertaining him, his reception was a veritable triumph. Here his particular friends were Aaron ben Jeshua Alamani in Alexandria, the nagid Samuel ben Hananiah in Cairo,[5] Ḥalfon ha-Levi in Damietta, and an unknown man in Tyre, probably his last friend. In their sorrow and joy, in the creative spirit and all that moved the souls of these men, Judah sympathetically shared; as he says in the beginning of a short poem: "My heart belongs to you, ye noble souls, who draw me to you with bonds of love".
Especially tender and plaintive is Judah's tone in his elegies. Many of them are dedicated to friends. Besides those composed on the deaths of the brothers Judah (Nos. 19, 20), Isaac (No. 21), and Moses ibn Ezra (No. 16), R. Baruch (Nos. 23, 28), Meïr ibn Migas (No. 27), his teacher Isaac Aifasi (No. 14), and others, one of the most affecting is that on Solomon ibn Farissol, who was murdered on May 3, 1108. The news of this friend's death suddenly changed Judah's poem of eulogy (Nos. 11, 22) into one of lamentation (Nos. 12, 13, 93 et seq.), which for grandeur and loftiness of tone has been compared to David's lament over Jonathan (see David and Jonathan).
Love songs
Joyous, careless youth, and merry, happy delight in life find their expression in his love-songs. Many of these are epithalamia; and are characterized by a brilliant near-eastern coloring, as well as by a chaste reserve. In Egypt, where the muse of his youth found a glorious "Indian summer" in the circle of his friends, he wrote his "swan-song".
Wondrous is this land to see, With perfume its meadows laden, But more fair than all to me Is yon slender, gentle maiden. Ah, Time's swift flight I fain would stay, Forgetting that my locks are gray.
Drinking songs and enigmas in rime by Judah have also been preserved.
Religious poetry
After living a life devoted to worldly pleasures, ha-Levi was to experience a kind of "awakening"; a shock, that changed his outlook on the world. Like a type of "conversion" experience, he turned from the frivolous life of pleasure, and his poetry turned to religious themes.
It seems that his profound experience was the consequence of his sensitivity to the events of history that were unfolding around him. He lived during the First Crusade and other wars. There was a new kind of religio-political fanaticism emerging in the Christian and Muslim worlds. Holy wars were brewing, and ha-Levi may have recognized that such trends had never been good for the Jews. At the time, life was relatively "good" in Spain for the Jewish community. He may have suspected things were about to change for the worse, however.
If one may speak of religious geniuses, then Judah ha-Levi must certainly be regarded among the greatest produced by medieval Judaism. No other writer, it would seem, drew so near to God as Judah; none else knew how to cling to Him so closely, or felt so safe in His shadow. At times the body is too narrow for him: the soul yearns for its Father in Heaven, and would break through the earthly shell. Without God, his soul would wither away; nor is it well with him except he prays.The thought of God allows him no rest; early and late He is his best beloved, and is his dearest concern. He occupies the mind of the poet waking and sleeping; and the thought of Him, the impulse to praise Him, rouse Judah from his couch by night.
Patriotism
Next to God, the Jewish people stands nearest to his heart: their sufferings and hopes are his. Like the authors of the Psalms, he gladly sinks his own identity in the wider one of the people of Israel; so that it is not always easy to distinguish the personality of the speaker.
Often Judah's poetic fancy finds joy in the thought of the "return" of his people to the Promised Land. He believed that perfect Jewish life was possible only in the Land of Israel. The period of political agitation about 1130, when Islam, so intensely hated by the poet, was gradually losing ground before the victorious arms of the Christians, gave Judah reason to hope for such a return in the near future. The vision of the night, in which this was revealed to him,remained indeed but a dream; yet Judah never lost faith in the eventual deliverance of Israel, and in "the eternity" of his people. On this subject, he has expressed himself in poetry:
Lo! Sun and moon, these minister for aye; The laws of day and night cease nevermore: Given for signs to Jacob's seed that they Shall ever be a nation - till these be o'er. If with His left hand He should thrust away, Lo! with His right hand He shall draw them nigh.
Analysis of his poetry
The remarkable, and apparently in-dissoluble, union of religion, nationalism, and patriotism, which were so characteristic of post-exilic Judaism, reached its acme in Judah ha-Levi and his poetry. Yet this very union, in one so consistent as Judah, demanded the fulfillment of the supreme politico-religious ideal of medieval Judaism-the "return to Jerusalem". Though his impassioned call to his contemporaries to return to "Zion" might be received with indifference, or even with mockery; his own decision to go to Jerusalem never wavered. "Can we hope for any other refuge either in the East or in the West where we may dwell in safety?" he exclaims to one of his opponents (ib.). The songs that accompany his pilgrimage sound like one great symphony, wherein the "Zionides" - the single motive ever varied - voice the deepest "soul-life" alike; of the Jewish people and of each individual Jew.
The most celebrated of these "Zionides," with its remarkable monotony, is found in every Jewish liturgy, and is usually repeated in the synagogue on the Ninth of Ab.The following is the English translation by Nina Davis (l.c. p. 37) of the opening lines:
Zion, wilt thou not ask if peace's wing Shadows the captives that ensue thy peace, Left lonely from thine ancient shepherding?
Lo! west and east and north and south - world-wide - All those from far and near, without surcease, Salute thee: Peace and Peace from every side."
Synagogal poetry
The poems of Judah ha-Levi, which have been adopted into the liturgy, number (in all) more than 300. The longest, and most comprehensive poem is a "Kedushah," which summons all the universe to praise God with rejoicing, and which terminates, curiously enough, in Ps. ciii. These poems were carried to all lands, even as far as India (Zunz, "Ritus," p. 57); and they influenced the rituals of the most distant countries. Even the Karaites incorporated some of them into their prayer-book; so that there is scarcely a synagogue in which Judah's songs are not sung in the course of the service. The following criticism of Judah's synagogal poems is made by Zunz:
As the perfume and beauty of a rose are within it, and do not come from without, so with Judah word and Bible passage, meter and rime, are one with the soul of the poem; as in true works of art, and always in nature, one is never disturbed by anything external, arbitrary, or extraneous.
Judah by his verses has also beautified the religious life of the home. His Sabbath hymns should be mentioned here; one of the most beautiful of which ends with the words:
On Friday doth my cup o'erflow, What blissful rest the night shall know, When, in thine arms, my toil and woe Are all forgot, Sabbath my love!
'Tis dusk, with sudden light, distilled From one sweet face, the world is filled; The tumult of my heart is stilled - For thou art come, Sabbath my love!
Bring fruits and wine and sing a gladsome lay, Cry, 'Come in peace, O restful Seventh day!'
Judah used complicated Arabic meters in his poems, with much good taste. A later critic, applying a Talmudic witticism to Judah, has said: "It is hard for the dough when the baker himself calls it bad." Although these forms came to him naturally and without effort, unlike the mechanical versifiers of his time, he would not except himself from the number of those he had blamed. His pupil Solomon Parḥon, who wrote at Salerno in 1160, relates that Judah repented having used the new metrical methods, and had declared he would not again employ them. That Judah felt them to be out of place, and that he opposed their use at the very time when they were in vogue, plainly shows his desire for a national Jewish art; independent in form, as well as in matter.
Judah was recognized by his contemporaries as "the great Jewish national poet", and in succeeding generations, by all the great scholars and writers in Israel.
As a philosopher
The position of Judah ha-Levi in the domain of Jewish philosophy is parallel to that occupied in Islam by Ghazali, by whom he was influenced. Like Ghazali, Judah endeavored to liberate religion from the bondage of the various philosophical systems in which it had been held by his predecessors, Saadia, David ben Marwan al-Mekamez, Gabirol, and Bahya. In a work written in Arabic, and entitled "Kitab al-Ḥujjah wal-Dalil fi Nuṣr al-Din al-Dhalil" (known in the Hebrew translation of Judah ibn Tibbon by the title "Sefer ha-Kuzari," Judah ha-Levi expounded his views upon the teachings of Judaism, which he defended against the attacks of non-Jewish philosophers, Karaites, and those he viewed as "heretics".
For a discussion of ha-Levi's philosophical work, see Kuzari, considered one of the finest works in Jewish literature.
Ha-Levi's legacy
Three of the most influential thoughts have led to ha-Levi being widely read, particularly in Kabbalist circles:
1.The Hebrew language contains mysterious divine attributes; the words themselves help connect to God
2.The Torah has a supernatural character; it is a kind of "gift from God", containing not just "words" or "laws" or "teachings", but the very "presence of God."
3.There is a special function of the Jewish people in God's plan: to help to bring about the Messianic kingdom, and redemption of the whole world
More than any other Jewish philosopher, he is the most widely- accepted, and is considered representative of 'true' Jewish teachings.
RAMBAM / MAIMONIDES
Kratka biografija
Rambam je rođen u Kordobi (Iberski poluotok), 14. nisana 4895. godine (30. travnja 1135. godine)17 u uglednoj obitelji rabinske tradicije. Tek mu je bilo 13. godina kada Kordoba pada u ruke Almohada, fanatičnih zelota iz Maroka koji pod geslom «Kuran ili mač», protjeruju i/ili ubijaju one koji se tom geslu nisu željeli pokoriti. Obitelj se, nakon višegodišnjeg lutanja Poluotokom, konačno smješta u Fesu (Maroko). Za vrijeme tih lutanja Rambam započinje rad na prvom od svojih velikih djela - Komentar na Mišnu. Gotovo 1000 godina ranije Rabin Jehuda ha-Nasi/Juda Princ je sastavio Mišnu (najstariji dio Talmuda) korpus koji čini osnov svih kasnijih talmudskih spisa, iako je bila napisana krajnje sažetim jezikom bila je iznimno teška za razumijevanje. Rambam je poduzeo pisati prvi jasan komentar ovog djela dostupan i razumljiv svima, stoga ne čudi što je djelo odabrao napisati na arapskom, govornom jeziku mediteranskih Židova onoga doba. Upravo u Komentaru na Mišnu Rambam prvi puta objavljuje Trinaest Principa vjere, koji su razrada i objašnjenje desetog poglavlja Sanedrina gdje Mišna stipulira osnovna uvjerenja judaizma.
Svoj rad nastavlja i za vrijeme ponovnih progona koji su dostigli Fes, te obitelj i on bježe u Izrael 1165. godine, gdje tek kratko žive u Jeruzalemu i Hebronu. No ustanovivši da je život u Izraelu surov, sele se u Egipat i nastanjuju u Fostatu. Tamo stupa s bratom u posao trgovca draguljima, te svaki slobodno trenutak koristi kako bi završio svoj corus magnum. Završava rad na Mišne Tora 1168. godine, i objavljuje ga pod arapakim naslovom Kitah as Siraj («Knjiga Svjetlosti»). Ovaj je rad i po svojoj složenosti, kao i po svojem stilu no i po povijesnoj situaciji, zauzelo centralno mjesto u judaizmu, te ga se nedugo nakon objavljivanja uključuje u svako izdanje Talmuda budući se smatra najjasnijim tumačenjem Mišne. U 33. godini Rambam je već stekao ugled vodećeg rabinskog autoriteta u Egiptu a uskoro je i postavljen za glavnog rabina Kaira i duhovnog vođu svih egipatskih Židova.
Rambamova liječnička vještina postaje sve prepoznatija pa tako 1170.g, postaje osobni liječnik Alfadhila, Saladinovog velikog vezira. Rambam se uz sve to posvećuje jednom od najzahtjevnijih ciljeva - uređivanju i strukturiranju Gemare18. Na tom je zborniku od 14 tomova radio 12 godina ( završen je 1180.g), te ga je nazvao Mišne Tora (Zbornik propisa Tore) poznatog i kao Jad Hazaka19 (Čvrsta ruka). Upravo ga to djelo stavlja kao najvećeg halahičkog20 židovskog autoriteta svoga doba, čija veličina nije umanjena ni do današnjih dana.
Iako mu liječnička praksa oduzima sve više vremena (1185. godine postaje ljekar kraljevskog dvora Saladina, sultana Egipta i Sirije), ipak svoj literarni rad ne ostavlja sa strane već započinje pripremu pisanja svoga trećeg velikog djela. Ono je također napisano na arapskom a objavljeno je 1190. godine, pod nazivom Dalalat al Hairin, a poznatije je po svom hebrejskom nazivu More Nevuhim - Vodič za zabludjele. To djelo postaje prepoznato ne samo kao najveće djelo židovske filozofije već postaje i prekretna točka izbačaja židovske filozofije u opći filozofski dijalog svoga vremena, a osim toga ulazi u biblioteku kao nezaobilazan filozofski klasik.
Četvrto veliko djelo Rambama, bilo je Sefer HaMicvot (Knjiga Zapovijedi), knjiga koja pobrojava 613 zapovijedi iz Tore i također je pisana na arapskom. Uz sve ove publikacije, objavljuje i knjige iz medicine i astronomije, te sudjeluje u mnogim prepiskama i savjetodavanjima. Snaga ga počinje napuštati te umire 20. teveta 4963. godine (13. prosinca 1204.) u Fosfat. Oplakivali su ga svi Židovi svijeta a sahranjen je u Tiberiji. Okolnosti Rambamovog života umnogome će nam olakšati razumijevanje motiva za kodifikaciju Principa te ću u daljnjem tekstu, gdje je nužno, referirati na upravo iznesenu biografiju.21
Rambamov Manuskript: arapski pisan hebrejskim pismom
Biography
If one did not know that Maimonides was the name of a man, Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, one would assume it was the name of a university. The writings and achievements of this twelfthcentury Jewish sage seem to cover an impossibly large number of activities. Rambam was the first person to write a systematic code of all Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah; he produced one of the great philosophic statements of Judaism, The Guide to the Perplexed; published a commentary on the entire Mishna; served as physician to the sultan of Egypt; wrote numerous books on medicine; and, in his "spare time," served as leader of Cairo's Jewish Community. It is hardly surprising that when Shmuel ibn Tibbon, the Hebrew translator of The Guide to the Perplexed (which had been written in Arabic), wrote Rambam that he wished to visit him to discuss some difficult points in the translation, Rambam discouraged him from coming:
I dwell at Fostat, and the sultan resides at Cairo [about a mileandahalf away].... My duties to the sultan are very heavy. I am obliged to visit him every day, early in the morning, and when he or any of his children or any of the inmates of his harem are indisposed, I dare not quit Cairo, but must stay during the greater part of the day in the palace. It also frequently happens that one of the two royal officers fall sick, and I must attend to their healing. Hence, as a rule, I leave for Cairo very early in the day, and even if nothing unusual happens, I do not return to Fostat until the afternoon. Then I am almost dying with hunger. . . I find the antechamber filled with people, both Jews and gentiles, nobles and common people, judges and bailiffs, friends and foes-a mixed multitude who await the time of my return.
I dismount from my animal, wash my hands, go forth to my patients and entreat them to bear with me while I partake of some slight refreshment, the only meal I take in the twentyfour hours. Then I go forth to attend to my patients, and write prescriptions and directions for their various ailments. Patients go in and out until nightfall, and sometimes even, I solemnly assure you, until two hours or more in the night. I converse with and prescribe for them while lying down from sheer fatigue; and when night falls I am so exhausted that I can scarcely speak.
In consequence of this, no Israelite can have any private interview with me, except on the Sabbath. On that day the whole congregation, or at least the majority of the members, come to me after the morning service, when I instruct them as to their proceedings during the whole week; we study together a little until noon, when they depart. Some of them return, and read with me after the afternoon service until evening prayers. In this manner I spend that day.
Rambam's full name was Moses ben Maimon; in Hebrew he is known by the acronym of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, Rambam. He was born in Spain shortly before the fanatical Muslim Almohades came to power there. To avoid persecution by the Muslim sect - which was wont to offer Jews and Christians the choice of conversion to Islam or death - Rambam fled with his family, first to Morocco, later to Israel, and finally to Egypt. He apparently hoped to continue his studies for several years more, but when his brother David, a jewelry merchant, perished in the Indian Ocean with much of the family's fortune, he had to begin earning money. He probably started practicing medicine at this time.
Rambam's major contribution to Jewish life remains the Mishneh Torah, his code of Jewish law. His intention was to compose a book that would guide Jews on how to behave in all situations just by reading the Torah and his code, without having to expend large amounts of time searching through the Talmud. Needless to say, this provocative rationale did not endear Rambam to many traditional Jews, who feared that people would rely on his code and no longer study the Talmud. Despite sometimes intense opposition, the Mishneh Torah became a standard guide to Jewish practice: It later served as the model for the Shulkhan Arukh, the sixteenthcentury code of Jewish law that is still regarded as authoritative by Orthodox Jews.
Philosophically, Rambam was a religious rationalist. His damning attacks on people who held ideas he regarded as primitive - those, for example, who understood literally such biblical expressions as "the finger of God" so infuriated his opponents that they proscribed parts of his code and all of The Guide to the Perplexed. Other, more liberal, spirits forbade study of the Guide to anyone not of mature years. An old joke has it that these rabbis feared that a Jew would start reading a section in the Guide in which Rambam summarizes a rationalist attack on religion, and fall asleep before reading Rambam's counterattack-thereby spending the night as a heretic.
How Rambam's opponents reacted to his works was no joke, however. Three leading rabbis in France denounced his books to the Dominicans, who headed the French Inquisition. The Inquisitors were only too happy to intervene and burn the books. Eight years later, when the Dominicans started burning the Talmud, one of the rabbis involved, Jonah Gerondi, concluded that God was punishing him and French Jewry for their unjust condemnation of Rambam. He resolved to travel to Rambam's grave in Tiberias, in Israel, to request forgiveness.
Throughout most of the Jewish world, Rambam remained a hero, of course. When he died, Egyptian Jews observed three full days of mourning, and applied to his death the biblical verse "The ark of the Lord has been taken" (I Samuel 4:11).
To this day, Rambam and the FrenchJewish sage Rashi are the most widely studied Jewish scholars. Contemporary yeshiva students generally focus on the Mishneh Torah, and his Book of Commandments (Sefer haMitzvot) a compilation of the Torah's 613 commandments. Rambam also formulated a credo of Judaism expressed in thirteen articles of faith, a popular reworking of which (the Yigdal prayer) appears in most Jewish prayerbooks. Among other things, this credo affirms belief in the oneness of God, the divine origins of the Torah, and the afterlife.
Rambam was one of the few Jewish thinkers whose teachings also influenced the non-Jewish world; much of his philosophical writings in the Guide were about God and other theological issues of general, not exclusively Jewish, interest. Thomas Aquinas refers in his writings to "Rabbi Moses," and shows considerable familiarity with the Guide.
RAMBAN / NAĤMANIDES
(R. Moše ben Nachman, 1194-1270)
Ramban was born at Girona (hence his name "Gerondi") in 1194, and died in the Land of Israel about 1270. He was the grandson of Isaac ben Reuben of Barcelona and cousin of Jonah Gerondi; his brother was Benveniste de Porta, the bailie of Barcelona. Among his teachers in Talmud were Judah ben Yakkar and Meïr ben Nathan of Trinquetaille, and he is said to have been instructed in Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) by his countryman Azriel.
Ramban studied medicine which he practised as a means of livelihood; he also studied philosophy. During his teens he began to get a reputation as a learned Jewish scholar. At age 16 he began his writings on Jewish law. In his Milhamot Hashem (Wars of the Lord) he defended Alfasi's decisions against the criticisms of Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona. These writings reveal a conservative tendency that distinguished his later works - an unbounded respect for the earlier authorities.
In the view of Ramban, the wisdom of the rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud, as well as the Geonim (rabbis of the early medieval era) was unquestionable. Their words were to be neither doubted nor criticized. "We bow," he says, "before them, and even when the reason for their words is not quite evident to us, we submit to them" (Aseifat Zekkenim, commentary on Ketubot). Ramban' adherence to the words of the earlier authorities may be due to piety, or the influence of the northern French Jewish school of thought. However, it is thought that it also may be a reaction to the rapid acceptance of Greco-Arabic philosophy among the Jews of Spain and Provence; this occurred soon after the appearance of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. This work gave rise to a tendency to allegorize Biblical narratives, and to downplay the role of miracles. Against this tendency Ramban strove, and went to the other extreme, not even allowing the utterances of the immediate disciples of the Geonim to be questioned.
Attitude toward Maimonides
Called upon, about 1238, for support by Solomon of Montpellier, who had been excommunicated by supporters of Maimonides, Ramban addressed a letter to the communities of Aragon, Navarre, and Castile, in which Solomon's adversaries were severely rebuked. However, the great respect he professed for Maimonides (though he did not share the latter's views), reinforced by innate gentleness of character, kept him from allying himself with the anti-Maimonist party and led him to assume the role of a conciliator.
In a letter addressed to the French rabbis, he draws attention to the virtues of Maimonides and holds that Maimonides' Mishne Torah - his Code of Jewish Law - not only shows no leniency in interpreting prohibitions within Jewish law, but may even be seen as more stringent, which in Ramban' eyes was a positive factor. As to Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, Ramban stated that it was intended not for those of unshaken belief, but for those who had been led astray by the non-Jewish philosophical works of Aristotle and Galen. (Note that Ramban's analysis of the Guide is not the consensus view of modern scholars.)
"If," he says, "you were of the opinion that it was your duty to denounce the Guide as heretical, why does a portion of your flock recede from the decision as if it regretted the step? Is it right in such important matters to act capriciously, to applaud the one to-day and the other tomorrow?"
To reconcile the two parties Ramban proposed that the ban against the philosophical portion of Maimonides's Code of Jewish law should be revoked, but that the ban against the study of the "Guide for the Perplexed", and against those who rejected allegorical interpretation of the Bible, should be maintained and even strengthened. This compromise, which might have ended the struggle, was rejected by both parties in spite of Ramban' authority.
The Iggeret ha-Kodesh: Letter on Sexual Relations
Ramban was popularly attributed with writing a letter on marriage, holiness, and sexual relations, Iggeret ha-Kodesh. In it the author criticizes Maimonides for stigmatizing as a disgrace to man; man's sexual nature. In the view of the author, the body with all its functions being the work of God, is holy, and so none of its normal sexual impulses and actions can be regarded as objectionable.
Views on death, mourning and the resurrection
In Ramban's Torat ha-Adam, which deals with mourning rites, burial customs, etc., Ramban sharply criticizes writers who strove to render man indifferent to both pleasure and pain. This, he declares, is against the Law, which commands man to rejoice on the day of joy and weep on the day of mourning. The last chapter, entitled Shaar ha-Gemul, discusses reward and punishment, resurrection, and kindred subjects. It derides the presumption of the philosophers who pretend to a knowledge of the essence of God and the angels, while even the composition of their own bodies is a mystery to them.
For Ramban, divine revelation is the best guide in all these questions, and proceeds to give his views on Jewish views of the afterlife. He holds that as God is immanently just, there must be reward and punishment. This reward and punishment must take place in another world, for the good and evil of this world are relative and transitory.
Besides the animal soul, which is derived from the "Supreme powers" and is common to all creatures, man possesses a special soul. This special soul, which is a direct emanation from God, existed before the creation of the world. Through the medium of man it enters the material life; and at the dissolution of its medium it either returns to its original source or enters the body of another man. This belief is, according to Ramban, the basis of the levirate marriage, the child of which inherits not only the name of the brother of his fleshly father, but also his soul, and thus continues its existence on the earth. The resurrection spoken of by the prophets, which will take place after the coming of the Messiah, is referred by Ramban to the body. The physical body may, through the influence of the soul, transform itself into so pure an essence that it will become eternal.
Commentary on the Torah
His commentary on the Torah (five books of Moses) was his last work, and his most well known. It frequently cites and critiques Rashi's commentary, and it usually provides alternative interpretations. He was prompted to write it by three motives: (1) to satisfy the minds of students of the Law and stimulate their interest by a critical examination of the text; (2) to justify the ways of God and discover the hidden meanings of the words of Scripture, "for in the Torah are hidden every wonder and every mystery, and in her treasures is sealed every beauty of wisdom"; (3) to soothe the minds of the students by simple explanations and pleasant words when they read the appointed sections of the Pentateuch on Sabbaths and festivals.
His exposition, intermingled with aggadic and mystical interpretations, is based upon careful philology and original study of the Bible. As in his preceding works, he vehemently attacks the Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle, and frequently criticizes Maimonides' Biblical interpretations. Thus he cites Maimonides' interpretation of Gen. 18:8, asserting that it is contrary to the evident meaning of the Biblical words and that it is sinful even to hear it. While Maimonides endeavored to reduce the miracles of the Bible to the level of natural phenomena, Ramban emphasizes them, declaring that "no man can share in the Torah of our teacher Moses unless he believes that all our affairs, whether they concern masses or individuals, are miraculously controlled, and that nothing can be attributed to nature or the order of the world." See further on this debate under Divine Providence.
Next to belief in miracles Ramban places three other beliefs, which are, according to him, the Jewish principles of faith, namely, the belief in creation out of nothing, in the omniscience of God, and in divine providence.
Attitude toward Abraham ibn Ezra
Ramban was an adversary of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, an influential Jewish Bible commentator. Ramban criticises him with harsh expressions that are not in keeping with his usual temper. He is especially bitter against ibn Ezra for deriding Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), which Ramban thought to be a divine tradition. However, we know that Ramban showed ibn Ezra considerable respect. This is evident from Ramban' introduction to his commentary on the Bible.
Ramban in the land of Israel
Ramban left Aragon and sojourned for three years somewhere in Castille or in southern France. In 1267 he emigrated to the land of Israel and came to Jerusalem. Here he established a synagogue in the Old City that exists until present day. His establishment in Jerusalem is important since that day marked the beginning of almost 700 consecutive Jewish years in Jerusalem until the War of Independence. Ramban then settled at Acre, where he was very active in spreading Jewish learning, which was at that time very much neglected in the Holy Land. He gathered a circle of pupils around him, and people came in crowds, even from the district of the Euphrates, to hear him. Karaites were said to have attended his lectures, among them being Aaron ben Joseph the Elder, who later became one of the greatest Karaite authorities.
It was to arouse the interest of the Israeli Jews in the exposition of the Bible that Ramban wrote the greatest of his works, the above-mentioned commentary on the Torah. Although surrounded by friends and pupils, Ramban keenly felt the pangs of exile. "I left my family, I forsook my house. There, with my sons and daughters, the sweet, dear children I brought up at my knees, I left also my soul. My heart and my eyes will dwell with them forever."
During his three years' stay in the Holy Land Ramban maintained a correspondence with his native land, by means of which he endeavored to bring about a closer connection between Judea and Spain. Shortly after his arrival in Jerusalem he addressed a letter to his son Nahman, in which he described the desolation of the Holy City, where there were at that time only two Jewish inhabitants - two brothers, dyers by trade. In a later letter from Acre he counsels his son to cultivate humility, which he considers to be the first of virtues. In another, addressed to his second son, who occupied an official position at the Castilian court, Ramban recommends the recitation of the daily prayers and warns above all against immorality. Ramban died after having passed the age of seventy-six, and his remains were interred at Haifa, by the grave of Yechiel of Paris.
His works
Ramban' wrote glosses on the whole Talmud, made compendiums of parts of Jewish law, after the model of Isaac Alfasi.
Ramban' known halakhic works are: "Mishpetei ha-Cherem," the laws concerning excommunication, reproduced in "Kol Bo"; "Hilkhot Bedikkah," on the examination of the lungs of slaughtered animals, cited by Shimshon ben Tzemach Duran in his "Yavin Shemu'ah"; "Torat ha-Adam," on the laws of mourning and burial ceremonies, in thirty chapters, the last of which, entitled "Sha'ar ha-Gemul," deals with eschatology (Constantinople, 1519, and frequently reprinted).
To the Talmudic and halakhic works belong also Ramban' writings in the defense of Simeon Kayyara and Alfasi. These are: "Milhamot HaShem," defending Alfasi against the criticisms of Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona (published with the "Alfasi," Venice, 1552; frequently reprinted; separate edition, Berlin, 1759); "Sefer ha-Zekhut," in defense of Alfasi against the criticisms of Abraham ben David (RABaD; printed with Abraham Meldola's "Shiv'ah 'Enayim," Leghorn, 1745; under the title "Machaseh u-Magen," Venice, 1808); "Hassagot" (Constantinople, 1510; frequently reprinted), in defense of Simeon Kayyara against the criticisms of Maimonides' "Sefer ha-Mitzwoth" (Book of Precepts).
"Derashah", sermon delivered in the presence of the King of Castile
"Sefer ha-Ge'ulah", or "Sefer Ketz ha-Ge'ulah", on the time of the arrival of the Messiah (in Azariah dei Rossi's "Me'or 'Enayim Imre Binah," ch. xliii., and frequently reprinted)
"Iggeret ha-Musar", ethical letter addressed to his son (in the "Sefer ha-Yir'ah," or "Iggeret ha-Teshuvah," of Jonah Gerondi)
"Iggeret ha-Chemdah", letter addressed to the French rabbis in defense of Maimonides (with the "Ta'alumot Chokmah" of Joseph Delmedigo)
"Wikkuach", religious controversy with Pablo Christiani (in the "Milchamot Chovah")
"Perush Iyyov", commentary on Job
"Bi'ur" or "Perush 'al ha-Torah", commentary on the Torah
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