DOCSLIB.ORG

Religion and Science in Abraham Ibn Ezra's Sefer Ha-Olam

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Religion and Science in Abraham Ibn Ezra's Sefer Ha-Olam RELIGION AND SCIENCE IN ABRAHAM IBN EZRA'S SEFER HA-OLAM (INCLUDING AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE HEBREW TEXT) Uskontotieteen pro gradu tutkielma Humanistinen tiedekunta Nadja Johansson 18.3.2009 1 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Abraham Ibn Ezra and Sefer ha-Olam ........................................................................ 3 1.2 Previous research ......................................................................................................... 5 1.3 The purpose of this study ............................................................................................. 8 2 SOURCE, METHOD AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................... 10 2.1 Primary source: Sefer ha-Olam (the Book of the World) ........................................... 10 2.1.1 Edition, manuscripts, versions and date .............................................................. 10 2.1.2 Textual context: the astrological encyclopedia .................................................... 12 2.1.3 Motivation: technical handbook .......................................................................... 14 2.2 Method ....................................................................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Translation and historical analysis ...................................................................... 16 2.2.2 Systematic analysis .............................................................................................. 17 2.3 Theoretical framework: religion and science in history ............................................. 19 2.3.1 The conflict thesis ................................................................................................ 19 2.3.2 Reactions to the conflict thesis ............................................................................ 20 2.3.3 The complexity thesis and renouncing ethnocentrism ........................................ 21 2.3.4 Four different types of interaction ...................................................................... 22 2.4 Definitions: “science” and “religion” as medieval categories .................................... 26 2.4.1 Science ................................................................................................................. 26 2.4.2 Religion ............................................................................................................... 28 3 ABRAHAM IBN EZRA: LIFE, WORKS, VISION AND SOURCES ............................. 30 3.1 Ibn Ezra's life and works ........................................................................................... 30 3.1.1 Fifty years in Spain ............................................................................................ 30 3.1.2 Reasons for departure ......................................................................................... 32 3.1.3 Ibn Ezra in Latin Europe ..................................................................................... 33 3.1.4 The role of science and religion in Ibn Ezra’s life .............................................. 36 3.2 Religion, astronomy and astrology in Ibn Ezra's time and thought ........................... 38 2 3.2.1 The intellectual climate of medieval Spain ........................................................ 38 3.2.2 Religion and astronomy ....................................................................................... 40 3.2.3 Astrology and Astronomy .................................................................................... 43 3.2.4 Astrology and religion ......................................................................................... 46 3.3 Ibn Ezra and the sources of Sefer ha-Olam ................................................................ 50 3.3.1 Abu Ma'shar ......................................................................................................... 50 3.3.2 Claudius Ptolemy ................................................................................................ 53 3.3.3 Sefer Yetsirah ...................................................................................................... 55 3.3.4 The three Enochs ................................................................................................. 56 3.4 Religion and science in Ibn Ezra's life, thought and sources ..................................... 57 4 RELIGIOUS THEMES IN SEFER HA-OLAM ............................................................... 60 4.1 Three themes with religious background ................................................................... 60 4.2 Ruled by Saturn but saved by God - the astrological status of the Jews .................... 61 4.2.1 Astrological history ............................................................................................. 61 4.2.2 The Jews and the exemption from astrological rule ............................................ 63 4.3 When science fails - the problem of the length of the solar year ............................... 65 4.3.1 The solar year and mundane astrology ................................................................ 65 4.3.2 The calendaric controversy ................................................................................. 66 4.3.3 When science fails, turn to tradition .................................................................... 68 4.4 Divine symmetry - the 120 conjunctions ................................................................... 69 4.4.1 A combinatorial puzzle ....................................................................................... 69 4.4.2 The conjunctions and the Name of God .............................................................. 70 4.4.3 The Name of God and the great conjunction ...................................................... 71 4.5 Science and religion in Sefer ha-Olam ....................................................................... 73 4.5.1 Religious meaning in a scientific text .................................................................. 73 4.5.2 Types of interaction in Sefer ha-Olam ................................................................. 73 5 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................... 75 5.1 The results of this study .............................................................................................. 75 5.2 Suggestions for further research ................................................................................. 77 APPENDIX 1. ASTROLOGY…………………………………………………………….82 a. Basic astrological concepts .…………………………………………………...………. 82 b. Medieval mundane astrology………..………………………..…………………………..… 87 APPENDIX 2. SEFER HA-OLAM, AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION……..………89 a. Some preliminary notes on Ibn Ezra’s scientific terminology ...……………….………89 b. Translation of Sefer ha-Olam from the Fleischer edition (1937) with explanatory notes ….………………………………………………………………………………….. 90 SOURCES BY ABRAHAM IBN EZRA………………………………..………………112 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………….112 3 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Abraham Ibn Ezra and Sefer ha-Olam Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca 1096 – ca 1164) was a medieval Jewish polymath: a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, Biblical commentator, poet and grammarian. He was born in Tudela in northern Muslim Spain and received his education in the great centers of learning in Cordóba, Christian Toledo and Saragossa. When he was in his forties, he traveled to Rome, which was to be the first stop on a twenty-five year journey through Christian lands, taking him to France and England. During his travels, he made a living out of writing scientific and religious books for the Jewish communities in Christian countries, who did not have access to the Arabic texts that Ibn Ezra had studied. Whether or not he was aware of it at the time, Ibn Ezra played a prominent role in the transmission of Arabic science to the Latin West by translating Arabic texts into Hebrew and by composing his own texts in Hebrew on various subjects that he had learned in Spain. Although he was highly educated in the sciences, he did not make new and original discoveries in these fields, but his greatest achievements are his success in transmitting several vital pieces of information to the West and transmitting the general scientific world-view of medieval Arabic civilization. He is, for example, credited with being the first to introduce the numerical zero into the West. Because of his achievements in transmitting astronomical data (tables and translations as well as original texts), a crater on the moon is named after him: crater A Ben Ezra (O'Connor and Robertson 1999). In Jewish rabbinic tradition, Abraham Ibn Ezra holds a prominent place mainly because of his very popular Biblical commentaries. These commentaries achieved immediate renown, and more than a dozen “supercommentaries”, which commented on the commentaries, emerged in the 14th century. Today, Abraham Ibn Ezra's commentaries are included in the standard study Bibles, the Miqraot Gedolot, of rabbinic Judaism. Because of his extensive wanderings and his poverty, Ibn Ezra has also become something of a folk-hero, the subject of many strange and fantastic tales. In these folk-tales he is presented as the poor wandering sage, who appears suddenly where he is needed and saves a Jewish community, only to disappear again. Usually he is mocked for his poverty and ragged clothes,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • TALMUDIC STUDIES Ephraim Kanarfogel
    chapter 22 TALMUDIC STUDIES ephraim kanarfogel TRANSITIONS FROM THE EAST, AND THE NASCENT CENTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, SPAIN, AND ITALY The history and development of the study of the Oral Law following the completion of the Babylonian Talmud remain shrouded in mystery. Although significant Geonim from Babylonia and Palestine during the eighth and ninth centuries have been identified, the extent to which their writings reached Europe, and the channels through which they passed, remain somewhat unclear. A fragile consensus suggests that, at least initi- ally, rabbinic teachings and rulings from Eretz Israel traveled most directly to centers in Italy and later to Germany (Ashkenaz), while those of Babylonia emerged predominantly in the western Sephardic milieu of Spain and North Africa.1 To be sure, leading Sephardic talmudists prior to, and even during, the eleventh century were not yet to be found primarily within Europe. Hai ben Sherira Gaon (d. 1038), who penned an array of talmudic commen- taries in addition to his protean output of responsa and halakhic mono- graphs, was the last of the Geonim who flourished in Baghdad.2 The family 1 See Avraham Grossman, “Zik˙atah shel Yahadut Ashkenaz ‘el Erets Yisra’el,” Shalem 3 (1981), 57–92; Grossman, “When Did the Hegemony of Eretz Yisra’el Cease in Italy?” in E. Fleischer, M. A. Friedman, and Joel Kraemer, eds., Mas’at Mosheh: Studies in Jewish and Moslem Culture Presented to Moshe Gil [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1998), 143–57; Israel Ta- Shma’s review essays in K˙ ryat Sefer 56 (1981), 344–52, and Zion 61 (1996), 231–7; Ta-Shma, Kneset Mehkarim, vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Popular Astronomy Lectures in Nineteenth Century Britain
    Commercial and Sublime: Popular Astronomy Lectures in Nineteenth Century Britain Hsiang-Fu Huang UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in History and Philosophy of Science March 2015 2 I, Hsiang-Fu Huang, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Date of signature: 9th March 2015 Supervisors: Joe Cain (UCL) Simon Werrett (UCL) Examiners: Frank A. J. L. James (UCL / Royal Institution of Great Britain) Richard Bellon (Michigan State University) Date of examination: 16th December 2014 3 4 Abstract This thesis discusses the practitioners, sites, curriculums, apparatus and audiences of popular astronomy lecturing in nineteenth-century Britain. Lecturers who were active approximately between 1820 and 1860 are the focus. This thesis emphasises popularisers who were not scientific elites, including C. H. Adams (1803-1871), George Bartley (c. 1782-1858), and D. F. Walker (1778-1865). Activities of private popularisers are compared with those in scientific establishments, such as the Royal Institution. Private entrepreneurs were not inferior to institutional competitors and enjoyed popularity among audiences. Until the 1860s, popular astronomy lecturing was a shared arena of institutional and private popularisers. A theatrical turn occurred in the popular astronomy lecturing trade before 1820. Popularisers moved lectures into theatres and adopted theatrical facilities in performance. They developed large onstage devices, such as the transparent orrery, for achieving scenic and dramatic effects. These onstage astronomical lectures were a phenomenon in the early nineteenth century and were usually performed during Lent.
    [Show full text]
  • Readings on the Encounter Between Jewish Thought and Early Modern Science
    HISTORY 449 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA W 3:30pm-6:30 pm Fall, 2016 GOD AND NATURE: READINGS ON THE ENCOUNTER BETWEEN JEWISH THOUGHT AND EARLY MODERN SCIENCE INSTRUCTOR: David B. Ruderman OFFICE HRS: M 3:30-4:30 pm;W 1:00-2:00 OFFICE: 306b College Hall Email: [email protected] SOME GENERAL WORKS ON THE SUBJECT: Y. Tzvi Langerman, "Jewish Science", Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 11:89-94 Y. Tzvi Langerman, The Jews and the Sciences in the Middle Ages, 1999 A. Neher, "Copernicus in the Hebraic Literature from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century," Journal History of Ideas 38 (1977): 211-26 A. Neher, Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century: David Gans (1541-1613) and His Times, l986 H. Levine, "Paradise not Surrendered: Jewish Reactions to Copernicus and the Growth of Modern Science" in R.S. Cohen and M.W. Wartofsky, eds. Epistemology, Methodology, and the Social Sciences (Boston, l983), pp. 203-25 H. Levine, "Science," in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought, eds. A. Cohen and P. Mendes-Flohr, l987, pp. 855-61 M. Panitz, "New Heavens and a New Earth: Seventeenth- to Nineteenth-Century Jewish Responses to the New Astronomy," Conservative Judaism, 40 (l987-88); 28-42 D. Ruderman, Kabbalah, Magic, and Science: The Cultural Universe of a Sixteenth- Century Jewish Physician, l988 D. Ruderman, Science, Medicine, and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Europe, Spiegel Lectures in European Jewish History, 7, l987 D. Ruderman, Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe, 1995, 2001 D. Ruderman, Jewish Enlightenment in an English Key: Anglo-Jewry’s Construction of Modern Jewish Thought, 2000 D.
    [Show full text]
  • Moses: God's Representative, Employee, Or Messenger
    JSIJ 14 (2018) MOSES: GOD’S REPRESENTATIVE, EMPLOYEE, OR MESSENGER?UNDERSTANDING THE VIEWS OF MAIMONIDES, NAHMANIDES, AND JOSEPH ALBO ON MOSES’ ROLE AND ULTIMATE FAILURE AT MEI MERIBAH JONATHAN L. MILEVSKY* Introduction In his Shemonah Peraqim, Maimonides refers to Moses' sin in Numbers 20as one of the “misgivings of the Torah.”1In a digression from his discussion of virtues, Maimonides explains that the sin was unrelated to the extraction of water from the rock. Instead, it was the fact that Moses, whose deeds were scrutinized and mimicked by the Israelites, acted 1Maimonides, Shemonah Peraqim, chap. 5. There are numerous ancient and medieval Jewish perspectives on how Moses and Aaron erred at Mei meribah. For the various interpretations, see Jacob Milgrom, Numbers: JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 448.The wide variety of approaches can be attributed in part to a number of difficulties. These include the fact that it is a sin committed by the greatest of all prophets. Notice, for example how hesitant Shemuel Ben Meir is to describe Moses’ sin; making matters more difficult is the fact that Moses was not forgiven for what he did, as Joseph Albo points out, making the sin appear even more severe; also, the text bears some similarity to an incident described in the Bible in Exodus 17:6, which is why Joseph Bekhor Shor suggests that it is the same incident; further, the sin itself seems trivial. It hardly seems less miraculous for water to come from a rock when it is hit, than when it is spoken to, a point made by Nahmanides; finally, Moses pegs the sin on the Israelites in Deuteronomy 1:37.
    [Show full text]
  • Abraham Ibn Ezra's “Yesod Mora”
    139 Abraham ibn Ezra’s “Yesod Mora” By: H. NORMAN STRICKMAN Rabbi Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra (1092–1164) was one of the outstanding scholars produced by medieval Sephardic Jewry. He was a poet, mathematician, astrologer, and grammarian. Above all he was one of medieval Jewry’s greatest Bible commentators. Abraham ibn Ezra was born in 1092 C.E.1 in Tudela, Spain and passed away in 1164. It is unclear whether he died in Lon- don,2 Calahorra3 or Rome.4 1 According to a statement found in several codices, Ibn Ezra (hence- forth “I.E.”) died on Monday, the first day of Adar 1 4927 (January 23, 1167) at the age of seventy-five. If this date is accepted, then I.E. was born in 1092. See M. Friedlander, The Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah (London, 1873), p. xxvii, n. 54. However, Heinrich Graetz believes that I.E. was born between 1088 and 1089. See Heinrich Graetz, Divre Yeme Yisra’el, ed. and trans. S. P. Rabino- witz, vol. 4 (Warsaw, 1916), p. 212. 2 E.Z. Melamed, Mefareshei ha-Mikrah, vol. 2 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1978), p. 520. 3 Abraham Zakuta, Sefer ha-Yuhasin . _____________________________________________________ H. Norman Strickman is Rabbi emeritus of Marine Park Jewish Center, professor of Jewish Studies at Touro College, and past president of the Rabbinic Board of Flatbush. He received his M.H.L. from Yeshiva University, a PhD from Dropsie Universi- ty and was ordained at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Semi- nary. He is the recipient of the Histadrut Ha-Ivrit prize in He- brew Literature and his writings have appeared in Jewish Quar- terly Review, Midstream, Bitzaron and Ha-Darom.
    [Show full text]
  • Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies
    Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies Table of Contents Ancient Jewish History .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Medieval Jewish History ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Modern Jewish History ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Bible .................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Jewish Philosophy ............................................................................................................................................... 23 Talmud ................................................................................................................................................................ 29 Course Catalog | Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies 1 Ancient Jewish History JHI 5213 Second Temple Jewish Literature Dr. Joseph Angel Critical issues in the study of Second Temple literature, including biblical interpretations and commentaries, laws and rules of conduct, historiography, prayers, and apocalyptic visions. JHI 6233 Dead Sea Scrolls Dr. Lawrence Schiffman Reading of selected Hebrew and Aramaic texts from the Qumran library. The course will provide students with a deep
    [Show full text]
  • Adult Education 2017
    Adult Education 2017 Texts ● Culture ● Language ● Faith In troduction Dear Members and Friends, The ACT Jewish Community is proud to present 2017’s Adult Education program. In 2016 we had the opportunity to learn from a variety of amazing scholars, including visiting professors, authors, journalists, and culminating with our Scholar in Residence, Eryn London. This year, we have the opportunity to present a fantastic program that explores the full spectrum of Jewish life and learning. Throughout this document, you will find general information and explanations of each course on offer along with a timetable of all of our programs. Each course will be marked with one or more of the following four symbols; - Torah Scroll – This implies that there is a textual element to this course - Chamtza – This implies there is a cultural element to the course - Aleph – These courses will primarily be language based - Ten Commandments – These courses will include Jewish Laws and Customs and will focus on the religious aspect of Judaism As always, our programs are designed to broadly encompass different ideas, observances, and denominations. Last year we had a record number of attendees, this year we would like to aim for 100% participation. Please do join us, Rabbi Alon Meltzer Week at a Glance Sunday - Shabbat Cooking – 5 Sessions over the course of the year Monday - Jewish Journeys – Weekly (Semester 1) - Midrash for Beginners – Weekly (Semester 2) Tuesday - Paint Night (with wine) – 5 Sessions over the course of the year Wednesday - Café Ivrit – Weekly Thursday - Jewish Philosophy – Weekly (Semester 1) - Poems and Poets – Weekly (Semester 2) Shabbat Cooking Join Rabbi Meltzer for a practical cooking class that will explore different concepts and themes relating to Shabbat laws of the kitchen.
    [Show full text]
  • Opportunity Statement
    MAIMONIDES HEAD OF SCHOOL SEARCH 2022-23 OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT MAY 2021 “AT MAIMONIDES, WE ARE TAUGHT THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE, SELF-IMPROVEMENT, COMMUNITY, AND RESPECT. THESE VALUES ARE NOT JUST ABSTRACTLY SPOKEN ABOUT; THESE VALUES ARE UNDOUBTEDLY DISPLAYED BY TEACHERS, STUDENTS, PARENTS, AND ADMINISTRATION.” MAIMONIDES STUDENT We are thrilled to share the Maimonides School Head of School Opportunity Statement with you! Over the last few months, we have engaged extensively with our school community through surveys and numerous focus groups to best determine our aspirations for the future leader of Maimonides School. The information we have gathered from students, faculty and staff, current parents, the Board of Directors, community rabbis, alumni, and community members at large has vitalized us with a sense of great enthusiasm and optimism about the future of our school. We have composed this Opportunity Statement together with our dedicated and talented Search Committee and Faculty Advisory Committee, and we believe that it is reflective of both the current state of our school and our community’s hopes, desires, and excitement for our future and our next leader. We hope you will enjoy learning more about our amazing school and the unique and incredible opportunities that lie ahead for our new Head of School! Sincerely, Amy Goldman and Cheryl Levin Maimonides Head of School Search Co-Chairs MAIMONIDES HEAD OF SCHOOL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT Our School Maimonides School is proud to be the beacon of Modern Orthodox co-education in New England and welcomes and זצ״ל students from Early Childhood through 12th Grade. Established in 1937 by Rabbi Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Competing Tropes of Eleventh-Century Andalusi Jewish Culture*
    Competing Tropes of Eleventh-Century Andalusi Jewish Culture* Ross Brann Judaism and the Jews, whose very names are determined by ties of memory to a particular place (Judea), embraced the concept of diaspora out of political, religious, and historical necessity. Following the exile of Judean elites to Babylonia in 587 BCE, the idea of diaspora became enmeshed in a complex bundle of remembered and imagined experiences such as destruction and dispossession along with decidedly ahistorical aspirations such as redemption and return.1 Diaspora thus became a critical feature of the dialectic of Jewish history in that it described the current state of the Jews' dispersion and sense of rupture with a past "pristine age" yet reinforced their expectation and hope that it was destined to come to an end with the "ingathering of the exiles." Jews of very different literary, intellectual, and spiritual orientations treated Exile/Diaspora as the central trope of Jewish experience. How was this trope handled in Andalusi-Jewish culture?2 Here, I am concerned * This essay is a revised version of a talk presented at the University of California (Berkeley), the University of Washington (Seattle), King's College (London), Yale University, and Cornell University. 1 "Scattering," "dispersal" [Ezekiel 36:19: "I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries"], and recuperation [Ezekiel 36:24: "I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you back to your own land"] are already inscribed as tropes in the biblical literature of the first exile after 587 BCE.
    [Show full text]
  • What's in This Issue?
    A JPL Image of surface of Mars, and JPL Ingenuity Helicioptor illustration. July 11th at 4:00 PM, a family barbeque at HRPO!!! This is in lieu of our regular monthly meeting.) (Monthly meetings are on 2nd Mondays at Highland Road Park Observatory) This is a pot-luck. Club will provide briskett and beverages, others will contribute as the spirit moves. What's In This Issue? President’s Message Member Meeting Minutes Business Meeting Minutes Outreach Report Asteroid and Comet News Light Pollution Committee Report Globe at Night SubReddit and Discord BRAS Member Astrophotos ARTICLE: Astrophotography with your Smart Phone Observing Notes: Canes Venatici – The Hunting Dogs Like this newsletter? See PAST ISSUES online back to 2009 Visit us on Facebook – Baton Rouge Astronomical Society BRAS YouTube Channel Baton Rouge Astronomical Society Newsletter, Night Visions Page 2 of 23 July 2021 President’s Message Hey everybody, happy fourth of July. I hope ya’ll’ve remembered your favorite coping mechanism for dealing with the long hot summers we have down here in the bayou state, or, at the very least, are making peace with the short nights that keep us from enjoying both a good night’s sleep and a productive observing/imaging session (as if we ever could get a long enough break from the rain for that to happen anyway). At any rate, we figured now would be as good a time as any to get the gang back together for a good old fashioned potluck style barbecue: to that end, we’ve moved the July meeting to the Sunday, 11 July at 4PM at HRPO.
    [Show full text]
  • Intellectual Mysticism in the Visión Deleitable
    religions Article “El entendimiento con el qual me conoscan”: Intellectual Mysticism in the Visión Deleitable Michelle M. Hamilton Center for Medieval Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA; [email protected] Received: 6 October 2019; Accepted: 17 December 2019; Published: 20 December 2019 Abstract: Visión deleytable is a fictional tale based in the Aristotelian philosophical and Neoplatonic mystical beliefs of the Judeo-Arabic tradition of medieval Iberia. This fifteenth-century work of imaginative fiction, a “best-seller” among Iberian readers, tells of the ascent of the active intellect to the celestial spheres and an experience of God. In this narrative, knowledge of the Latin trivium and quadrivium are combined with that of the Arabo-Andalusi philosophic traditions. Particularly noteworthy is the author, De la Torre’s extensive use of Maimonides’ work, the Guide of the Perplexed, as a source for the wisdom revealed in the Visión deleytable. While Maimonides’ position on the mystic experience is debated by contemporary scholars, in the present study I explore how the concept of intellectual mysticism, applied to the Neoplatonic/Aristotelian model of the intellect’s conjunction with the divine as found in Maimonides’ work, also describes the goal toward which the protagonist (and reader) of the Visión deleytable strive. As such, the Visión deleytable reveals how this notion of human-divine union (most notably in the concept of the “prophet-angel”) from the Judeo-Andalusi tradition, transmitted in Arabic and Hebrew, was translated into Spanish and adopted into the Catholic and converso frameworks of the Visión deleytable in fifteenth-century Iberia. Keywords: spanish medieval literature; converso literature; Maimonides; early print works; alfonso de la torre; spanish intellectual history; manuscript studies; prophecy; andalusi philosophy; spanish allegory Alfonso de la Torre’s Visión deleitable (Visión), composed c.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theology of Nahmanides Systematically Presented
    The Theology of Nahmanides Systematically Presented DAVID NOVAK THE THEOLOGY OF NAHMANIDES SYSTEMATICALLY PRESENTED Program in Judaic Studies Brown University BROWN JUDAIC STUDIES Edited by Shaye J. D. Cohen, Ernest S. Frerichs, Calvin Groldscheider Editorial Board Vicki Caron, Lynn Davidman, Wendell S. Dietrich, David Hirsch, David Jacobson, Saul M. Olyan, Alan Zuckerman Number 271 THE THEOLOGY OF NAHMANIDES SYSTEMATICALLY PRESENTED by David Novak THE THEOLOGY OF NAHMANIDES SYSTEMATICALLY PRESENTED by DAVID NOVAK University of Virginia Scholars Press Atlanta, Georgia THE THEOLOGY OF NAHMANIDES SYSTEMATICALLY PRESENTED By David Novak Copyright © 2020 by Brown University Library of Congress Control Number: 2019953676 Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeriva- tives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact Brown Judaic Studies, Brown University, Box 1826, Providence, RI 02912. STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL JUDAISM Edited by Lenn E. Goodman To the Memory of Harry H. Ruskin (1905-1989) The righteous man lives in his faith. - Habakkuk 2:4 other works by David Novak Law and Theology in Judaism (2 volumes) Suicide and Morality The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism Halakhah in a Theological Dimension Jewish Christian Dialogue Contents Editor's Foreword ix Preface xi Introduction 1 Notes 17 Chapter 1 The Human Soul 25 Chapter 2 Faith 31 Chapter 3 Tradition 51 Chapter 4 Miracles 61 Chapter 5 Natural and Supernatural 77 Chapter 6 The Land of Israel 89 Chapter 7 The Commandments 99 Chapter 8 Eschatology 125 Bibliography 135 List of Abbreviations 136 Index of Names and Subjects 137 Index of Passages 141 Publishers’ Preface Brown Judaic Studies has been publishing scholarly books in all areas of Ju- daic studies for forty years.
    [Show full text]