Kabbalah in Polemical Perspective Christian Kabbalah and Anti-Jewish Polemics: Pico in Context

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PART ONE KABBALAH IN POLEMICAL PERSPECTIVE CHRISTIAN KABBALAH AND ANTI-JEWISH POLEMICS: PICO IN CONTEXT Kocku von Stuckrad Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) has been the subject of much scholarly debate. On the one hand, it has been noted that this Renaissance intellectual, who became acquainted with Jewish mysti- cism through personal and friendly contact with Jews, was one of the most in uential mediators to effect a reception of Jewish kabbalah in Christian circles. On the other hand, it has been argued that Pico used the tradition of Jewish kabbalah as a weapon against the Jews, thus participating in an anti-Jewish campaign waged by representatives of Renaissance Christianity and preparing the way for anti-Semitic cur- rents in modern culture. The arguments for the latter proposition are easy to follow, consider- ing the strongly anti-Jewish dictums in his works and in the 900 theses Pico wanted to discuss in Rome with delegates from all over Europe. As is well known, the invitation to debate his theses was declined by Pope Innocence VIII, and Pico had to restrict himself to publishing the huge project.1 In his sevenfold commentary on the six days of Genesis, written in 1489 and published as Heptaplus, Pico’s anti-Jewish intentions culminated in sentences such as the following: ‘Against the stony hearts of the Hebrews it [i.e., Pico’s interpretation] will provide you with powerful weapons drawn from their own arsenals’.2 And after having used evidence from Jewish sources, particularly from the Talmud, Pico concludes: ‘If they [i.e., the Jews] continue impudently and stubbornly to deny this, let them listen to their own Talmudists, who strongly support our opinion’.3 The strategy is clear: On the one hand, Pico wants to show that the Jewish mystical tradition proves the 1 The theses went to press on 7 December 1486. For an in-depth study of Pico’s project see Farmer, Syncretism in the West. 2 ‘Vnde & uobis potentissima tela contra lapideum cor Hebr orum de armentarijs eorum petita subministrabuntur’ (Heptaplus, in Pico della Mirandola, Opera omnia, 51). All translations of quotations are mine, if not noted otherwise. 3 ‘[Q ]uod si impudenter & pertinaciter negare pertendant, audiant suos Thalmutistas nostram sententiam maxime roborantes’ (Heptaplus, in Pico della Mirandola, Opera omnia, 54)..

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