CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

R. JOSEPH ALBO

Crescas’s teaching did not enjoy the in uence that it deserved in its time, despite his status as the leader of the of his land, and although he grappled originally and convincingly with the problems of religious belief that were pressing issues of the time. Only part of the fault of this meager in uence may be blamed on the manner in which the Light of the Lord was written. It was written laconically in a dif cult technical language, devoid of literary grace. Even though the book is permeated with profound religious feeling and a spectacular ight of original thinking, it cannot be compared with the popular style of Halevi’s Kuzari, which enjoyed increasing in uence in the same period, whether among scholars who were searching for a middle path between Aristotelianism and , or among ordinary Jews. It certainly cannot be compared with ’s works, whether in terms of their literary-pedagogical structure or their clarity of style. But it seems that if we are speaking of the in uence on philosophers of the established school of his time, the main reason is rooted precisely in Cresca’s advantage as we perceive it today: his critical audacity and the originality of his thought. The Aristotelian was still the dominant school, and ordinary philosophers who were not innovators themselves hesitated to uproot Aristotelian physics without replacing it with another physical system. Philosophers considered Maimonides’s position preferable despite the problems it raised. In any case, it is a fact that in the generations immediately after Crescas they followed his lead only in rare instances. The only philosopher of whom we can say of a certainty that he was Crescas’s student, namely R. Joseph Albo, the author of the Book of Principles (Ikkarim),1 is no exception to this rule. To be sure, he did keep faith with his teacher in some matters, but overall his theoreti- cal presentation departs from Crescas’s in favor of more conservative

1 Albo, Joseph, Sefer Ha-Ikkarim: Book of Principles, translated by Isaac Husik, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia 1929 –30, 5 volumes. The modern Hebrew edition in the Ma4barot la-Safrut series was based on Husik’s edition. 424 chapter eighteen philosophical outlooks that he found for the most part in Maimonides or Halevi, and occasionally among the kabbalists. Thus instead of the uni ed, original system of Light of the Lord that astonishes us by its rigorous consistency, Albo offers an eclectic teaching, which borrows its conservative elements from different streams and binds them together into a doctrine of principles. It is clear that this kind of writing was more acceptable to the generations following Crescas. In any case, R. Joseph Albo is not a particularly original thinker, but clearly eclectic. Nevertheless, the Book of Principles found great acceptance in the Jewish community as a popular presentation with a decidedly conservative orientation. If some of Crescas’s ideas—uprooted from their context and stripped of their original profundity—were nevertheless exposed to a wide audience of readers, this was thanks to Albo’s help.

The Book of Principles as a Re ection of Its Age The historical importance of Albo’s Book of Principles requires us to devote attention to it in this survey. The Book of Principles was charac- teristic of its period and answered to its needs. Despite its mediocrity of thought, it made a certain innovative contribution on two topics that pertained directly to the problems of the philosophically-educated Jewish community during the time of transition: its development of the approach to dogma, and its summary of the Jewish-Christian debate that received a new twist in that period. In these two respects Albo’s book characterizes the developments in thought that were in uenced by the cultural-historical background that was described above.

Albo’s Life and Writings Joseph Albo was born around 1380 and died in 1444. He served as in the communities of Daroca and Soria in Christian , and he was Crescas’s student. Also important background for understanding his work is the fact that he was appointed as one of the representatives of the Jewish community in the great disputation that took place in Tortosa, with the Jewish apostate Joshua Lorki on the Christian side, before Pope Benedict III in 1413–14. Incidentally, in this disputation Albo showed himself to be of a ery and stormy temperament. He did not mince words, and he launched erce verbal attacks at the Christian interlocutor, which frightened and angered his Jewish comrades. The