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Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition Studies in Jewish History and Culture Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition Studies in Jewish History and Culture Editor-in-Chief Giuseppe Veltri Editorial Board Gad Freudenthal Alessandro Guetta Hanna Liss Ronit Meroz Reimund Leicht Judith Olszowy-Schlanger David Ruderman VOLUME 34 The titles published in this series are listed at www.brill.nl/sjhc Aryeh Leo Motzkin Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition Lectures and Essays by Aryeh Leo Motzkin Edited by Yehuda Halper LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Motzkin, Aryeh Leo, 1934–2006. Philosophy and the Jewish tradition / lectures and essays by Aryeh Leo Motzkin ; edited by Yehuda Halper. p. cm. — (Studies in Jewish history and culture ; v. 34) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-21770-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Judaism and philosophy. 2. Jewish philosophy. I. Halper, Yehuda. II. Title. III. Series. B154.M68 2011 181’.06—dc23 2011030776 ISSN 1568-5004 ISBN 978-90-04-21770-6 Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. For Daphne and Sharon CONTENTS Preface by Eva Brann ................................................................... ix Introduction by Yehuda Halper ................................................... xi A. The Intellectual Development of Aryeh Leo Motzkin ...... xi B. Jewish and Philosophical Works of Aryeh Leo Motzkin .... xv PART I PLATONIC AND ARISTOTELIAN PHILOSOPHY Introductory Poem: Solomon Ibn Gabirol, “A Reply of His to One Who Inquired of Him about the Essence of Being,” trans. Aryeh Leo Motzkin ........................................................ 3 Chapter One Plato and Aristotle on the Vocation of the Philosopher ............................................................................... 5 Chapter Two Halevi’s Kuzari as a Platonic Dialogue ............... 19 Chapter Three Maimonides and the Imagination ................... 37 Chapter Four Elia del Medigo, Averroes and Averroism .......... 51 Chapter Five Paduan Averroism Reconsidered ........................ 63 Chapter Six Philosophy and Mysticism .................................... 71 PART II MEDIEVALS AND MODERNS Chapter Seven Maimonides and Spinoza on Good and Evil ... 83 Chapter Eight A Note on Natural Right, Nature and Reason in Spinoza ................................................................................ 105 viii contents Chapter Nine Spinoza and Luzzatto: Philosophy and Religion .................................................................................... 111 Chapter Ten On the Interpretation of Maimonides: The Cases of Samuel David Luzzatto and Ahad Ha‘am ........ 125 Chapter Eleven Harry A. Wolfson as Interpreter of Medieval Thought ................................................................................... 143 Chapter Twelve On the Limitations of Human Knowledge .... 147 Bibliography of Aryeh Leo Motzkin’s Writings ........................... 153 Index ............................................................................................ 157 PREFACE by Eva Brann I met Aryeh Motzkin only twice in the flesh, both times in Jerusalem. And both were memorable occasions. Our acquaintance in America developed through phone calls. His academic life here was shadowy to me, and I had no interest in pursuing some circulating tales. Thus I knew him independently of any institutional affiliation, and I became fond of him quite aside from his scholarly accomplishments. I was drawn in most of all by his quick responsiveness in conversation, his human openness, and—how could I resist—his warm appreciation of my books. In fact it turned out that he’d gotten in touch with me because he had conceived the notion of placing a copy of each of these books in every library of higher education in Israel. Although I regard it as the luck of my life that I landed in America, I can imagine myself as an Israeli, especially since I have dozens of cousins of all degrees there. Therefore I was honored and pleased by his undertaking—although it soon appeared that I was to fund it. So for a while I would get monthly calls from my college’s bookstore manager. “Dr. Motzkin phoned,” he would say, and I would say, “How much?” Nonetheless I was grateful. Our first face-to-face meeting was, I believe, in the nineties, at his remarkable apartment at 34 Kaf-tet Benovember. We had only snippets of philosophical conversation, since I had two of my cousins along. But his home was a revelation: a large living room crammed with books and around it a gallery, similarly stuffed, and in the back room, too, journals, monographs, papers over everything. He found his way around this welter, for he had read it all. His learning was immense, and it was levigated by his love for music and poetry. Bold as he was in his entrepreneurial mode, he was modestly reti- cent about his scholarship, at least with me. If he feared falling short, he needn’t have worried. His learning exceeded mine by a factor of ten at least. He had gone through the trouble of procuring a sticky Teutonic confection, a Sachertorte, which he thought, rightly, would appeal to x preface my German-Jewish taste. It was a very hot Jerusalemite day, but I was touched by the attentiveness of it. Aryeh had put much effort into arranging a second face-to-face meeting. He got me invited to lecture at the Israel Academy of Sci- ences and Humanities. The exciting two days began with the hairy experience of driving up and down and to and fro in Jerusalem with Aryeh at the wheel. It ended with a seminar attended by students and teachers from the philosophy department of the Hebrew University, which made Aryeh glow with pride. What added to his exhilaration was a fact unknown to him when he initiated the invitation: that the great scholar in whose honor this lecture had been established, Shlomo Pines, had in fact been a pal of mine forty years ago in Princeton— we used to go on the town together with a third companion, Ernst Manasse, a Plato scholar. When we bid each other goodbye at the after-seminar lunch, Aryeh had tears in his eyes. Was it a presentiment? A few days later he was dead. When I wrote to his daughter, I expressed, along with con- dolences, a small fear that I might have been a contributing cause, because he had been so excited over the occasion; she replied very graciously and relieved my worry. Later on Aryeh’s grandson, Daniel Badgio, who is a student at my college, told me that when his grand- father died an open copy of one of my books was found beside him. I was much moved. When, in conclusion, I ask myself what aspect of Aryeh seemed most admirable, it is, indeed, this: his intensely human responsiveness. He was what in Jewish-American is called a mensch—one with a huge appetite for learning. St. John’s College Annapolis, Maryland INTRODUCTION by Yehuda Halper A. The Intellectual Development of Aryeh Leo Motzkin Aryeh Leo Motzkin was born in Jerusalem in 1934 and died in Jeru- salem in 2006. Though he spent most of his life outside of Jerusa- lem, it is as a Jerusalemite that he should be remembered. His vast erudition, cultural involvement, and singular personality made him most at home in a city where, in the words of Saul Bellow , “German Jews . often rest in a Kultur paradise, reading Homer and Plato and Goethe , and listening to Mozart.”1 At the time of his death Motzkin not only owned around 15,000 books but appeared to have read and become well versed in most of them. There was scarcely a topic in the humanities, including music and poetry, to which Professor Motzkin could not contribute expert knowledge. Professor Motzkin read and spoke at least eleven languages fluently, with moderate read- ing ability in at least four more. In addition to giving free translations of Greek, Latin, German, French and Arabic texts in his classes, Profes- sor Motzkin was also a regular contributor of translated poetry, which preserved the original meter, from a variety of languages to Israel’s leading newspaper, Haaretz. Perhaps, though, the most Jerusalemite aspect of Professor Motzkin was his lifelong dedication to understand- ing and elucidating the problems posed by the conflicts and interrela- tions of faith and reason, of religion and philosophy. Evidence of Motzkin’s interest in these problems can be found in his earliest class and paper notes saved from his undergraduate days at the University of Chicago, where his studies were strongly influenced by Leo Strauss . While at Chicago, Motzkin also took classes in Arabic and Near Eastern Studies with Benno Landsberger and Gustave E. von Grunebaum . Following his undergraduate studies, Motzkin continued on at the University of Chicago where he studied Maimonides under 1 Saul Bellow, To Jerusalem and Back: a Personal Account (New York: Avon Books, 1976), p. 40. xii introduction Strauss’s guidance, first in the Committee on the History of Cul- ture and later in the Committee on Social Thought. Later, Motzkin had a falling out with Strauss that led him to complete his Ph. D. with Shelomo Dov Goitein at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Motzkin spoke only very highly of Leo Strauss, never to my knowledge mentioning their falling out. Thus it is hard to ascertain what led to their dispute. Rumors speak of a fundamental disagreement between the two regarding the question of whether or not religion is a funda- mental characteristic of human beings. Motzkin reportedly argued for the necessity of religion to humanity, while Strauss reportedly thought that humankind could exist, perhaps even thrive without religion.
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