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The Cambridge Companion to MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHY

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The Cambridge Companion to MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHY the cambridge companion to MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHY From the ninth to the fifteenth centuries Jewish thinkers livingin Islamic and Christian lands philosophized about Judaism. Influenced first by Islamic theological speculation and the great philosophers of classical antiquity, and then in the late medieval period by Christian Scholasticism, Jewish philosophers and scientists reflected on the nature of lan- guage about God, the scope and limits of human understand- ing, the eternity or createdness of the world, prophecy and divine providence, the possibility of human freedom, and the relationship between divine and human law. Though many viewed philosophy as a dangerous threat, others incorporated it into their understandingof what it is to be a Jew. This Companion presents all the major Jewish thinkers of the period, the philosophical and non-philosophical contexts of their thought, and the interactions between Jewish and non- Jewish philosophers. It is a comprehensive introduction to a vital period of Jewish intellectual history. Daniel H. Frank is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Judaic Studies Program at the University of Kentucky. Amongrecent publications are History of Jewish Philosophy (edited with Oliver Leaman, 1997), The Jewish Philosophy Reader (edited with Oliver Leaman and Charles Manekin, 2000), and revised editions of two Jewish philosophical clas- sics, Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed (1995) and Saadya Gaon’s Book of Doctrines and Beliefs (2002). Oliver Leaman is Professor of Philosophy and Zantker Profes- sor of Judaic Studies at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of An Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy (2002), Evil and Suffering in Jewish Philosophy (1995), and is editor of Encyclopedia of Asian Philosophy (2001) and Com- panion Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African Film (2001). He is co-editor, with Glennys Howarth, of En- cyclopedia of Death and Dying (2001). volumes in the series of cambridge companions AQUINAS Edited by norman kretzmann and eleonore stump HANNAH ARENDT Edited by dana villa ARISTOTLE Edited by jonathan barnes AUGUSTINE Edited by eleonore stump and norman kretzmann BACON Edited by markku peltonen SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR Edited by claudia card DARWIN Edited by jonathan hodge and gregory radick DESCARTES Edited by john cottingham DUNS SCOTUS Edited by thomas williams EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY Edited by a. a. long FEMINISM IN PHILOSOPHY Edited by miranda fricker and jennifer hornsby FOUCAULT Edited by gary gutting FREUD Edited by jerome neu GADAMER Edited by robert j. dostal GALILEO Edited by peter machamer GERMAN IDEALISM Edited by karl ameriks HABERMAS Edited by stephen k. white HEGEL Edited by frederickbeiser HEIDEGGER Edited by charles guignon HOBBES Edited by tom sorell HUME Edited by david fate norton HUSSERL Edited by barry smith and david woodruff smith WILLIAM JAMES Edited by ruth anna putnam KANT Edited by paul guyer KIERKEGAARD Edited by alastair hannay and gordon marino LEIBNIZ Edited by nicholas jolley LEVINAS Edited by simon critchley and robert bernasconi LOCKE Edited by vere chappell MALEBRANCHE Edited by stephen nadler MARX Edited by terrell carver MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHY Edited by daniel h. frank and oliver leaman MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY Edited by a. s. mcgrade MILL Edited by john skorupski NEWTON Edited by i. bernard cohen and george e. smith NIETZSCHE Edited by bernd magnus and kathleen higgins OCKHAM Edited by paul vincent spade PASCAL Edited by nicholas hammond PLATO Edited by richard kraut PLOTINUS Edited by lloyd p. gerson ROUSSEAU Edited by patrickriley SARTRE Edited by christina howells SCHOPENHAUER Edited by christopher janaway THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT Edited by alexander i. broadie SPINOZA Edited by don garrett WITTGENSTEIN Edited by hans sluga and david stern The Cambridge Companion to MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHY Edited by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman University of Kentucky CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521652070 © Cambridge University Press 2003 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2003 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The Cambridge companion to medieval Jewish philosophy / edited by Daniel H. Frank and Oliver Leaman. p. cm. – (Cambridge companions to philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 65207 3 – ISBN 0 521 65574 9 (paperback) 1. Philosophy, Jewish. 2. Philosophy, Medieval. 3. Judaism–History–Medieval and early modern period, 425–1789. I. Frank, Daniel H., 1950– II. Leaman, Oliver, 1950– III. Series. B755.C36 2003 181´.06 – dc21 2003041200 ISBN-13 978-0-521-65207-0 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-65207-3 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-65574-3 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-65574-9 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2005 contents List of contributors page x Preface xv Chronology xvii Note on transliteration xxi Glossary xxii PART I BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT 1 Introduction to the study of medieval Jewish philosophy 3 oliver leaman 2 The biblical and rabbinic background to medieval Jewish philosophy 16 david shatz 3 The Islamic context of medieval Jewish philosophy 38 joel l. kraemer PART II IDEAS, WORKS, AND WRITERS 4 Saadya and Jewish kalam 71 sarah stroumsa 5 Jewish Neoplatonism: Beingabove Beingand divine emanation in Solomon ibn Gabirol and Isaac Israeli 91 sarah pessin vii viii Contents 6 Judah Halevi and his use of philosophy in the Kuzari 111 barry s. kogan 7 Maimonides and medieval Jewish Aristotelianism 136 daniel h. frank 8 Maimonides and the sciences 157 tzvi langermann 9 Medieval Jewish political thought 176 menachem lorberbaum 10 Judaism and Sufism 201 paul b. fenton 11 Philosophy and kabbalah: 1200–1600 218 hava tirosh-samuelson 12 Arabic into Hebrew: The Hebrew translation movement and the influence of Averroes upon medieval Jewish thought 258 steven harvey 13 Philosophy in southern France: Controversy over philosophic study and the influence of Averroes upon Jewish thought 281 gregg stern 14 Conservative tendencies in Gersonides’ religious philosophy 304 charles h. manekin PART III THE LATER YEARS 15 The impact of Scholasticism upon Jewish philosophy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 345 t. m. rudavsky 16 Jewish philosophy and the Jewish–Christian philosophical dialogue in fifteenth-century Spain 371 ari ackerman Contents ix 17 Hasdai Crescas and anti-Aristotelianism 391 james t. robinson 18 The end and aftereffects of medieval Jewish philosophy 414 seymour feldman Guide to further reading in English 446 Index 464 contributors ari ackerman is Lecturer in Jewish Thought and Philosophy of Education at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem. In addition to his doctoral dissertation, “The Philosophic Sermons of Zerahia ben Isaac Halevi Saladin: Jewish Philosophic and Sermonic Activity in Late 14th and Early 15th Century Aragon” (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2000), he has published articles on other aspects of late medieval Jewish philosophy, including“The Composition of the Section on Divine Providence in [Crescas’] Or Hashem,” Da‘at 32–3 (1994), 37–45. seymour feldman is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Rutgers University. Amonghis publications are a complete translation of and commentary on Gersonides’ Wars of the Lord (3 vols. 1984–99), articles on several medieval Jewish philosophers and on Spinoza, and Philosophy in a Time of Crisis: Don Isaac Abravanel, Defender of the Faith (2003). paul b. fenton is Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at the Sorbonne. He has published extensively on Jewish civilization in the Islamic world, especially on the mystical tradition. Among recent publications is Philosophie et exeg´ ese` dans le jardin de la metaphore´ (1997), dealingwith the Golden Agein Spain. daniel h. frank is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kentucky. Amongrecent publications are History of Jewish Phi- losophy (edited with Oliver Leaman, 1997), The Jewish Philoso- phy Reader (edited with Oliver Leaman and Charles H. Manekin, 2000), and revised editions of two Jewish philosophical classics, x Contributors xi Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed (1995) and Saadya Gaon’s Book of Doctrines and Beliefs (2002). steven harvey is Professor of Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University. He has published extensively on the medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophers, with special focus on Averroes’ commentaries on Aristotle and on the influence of the Islamic philosophers on Jewish thought. He is the author of Falaquera’s “Epistle of the Debate”: An Introduction to Jewish Philosophy (1987) and editor of The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy (2000). barry s. kogan is Clarence and Robert Efroymson Professor of Philosophy and Jewish Religious Thought at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati. The author of Aver- roes and the Metaphysics of Causation (1985) and of articles on me- dieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy, he is currently preparingfor the Yale Judaica Series a new English translation of Judah Halevi’s Kuzari. joel l. kraemer is John
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