chapter 4 From Denunciation to Appreciation: Gersonides in the Eyes of Members of the Ibn Shem Ṭov Family Doron Forte Alongside Isaac Albalag and Moses ben Joshua of Narbonne (Narboni), Ger- sonides has been one of the most controversial of the medieval Jewish Aris- totelians. Although his biblical commentaries and other (mostly lost) writings pertaining to the Oral Law have to some extent improved his standing,1 his untraditional views were strongly criticized.2The present article examines how Gersonides was perceived by the four well-known members of the Ibn Shem Ṭov family, all of whom served as heads of yeshivas in fifteenth-century Spain.3 An examination of their writings makes it clear that their attitude towards him 1 See Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet, Sheʾelot u-teshuvot 1:45; ed. D. Metzger (Jerusalem, 1993), 51. The author refers to Gersonides as “ḥaḵam gadol ba-talmud” (a great talmudic scholar), who wrote a fine commentary on theTorah and the Prophets. On his halakhic responsa see Pinchas Roth, “The Responsa of Gersonides and their Reception,” in the present volume (I thank Dr. Roth for showing me a prepublication draft of his article). According to Isaac de Lattes, who praised Gersonides, he composed commentaries on “all” the Written and Oral Torah. See Shaʿarei ṣiyyon, ed. S. Buber (Yaroslav, 1885), 48. Solomon ben Simeon Duran, a relative of Gersonides, attributed to him a commentary on the aggadic portions of tractate Bava Batra. See Milḥemet miṣvah, ed. Yeruḥam Fishel (Leipzig, 1856), 23. Gersonides himself mentions a commentary he wrote on tractate Beraḵot (see his commentary on Deut. 3:11) as well as on Nedarim (see Roth, “The Responsa of Gersonides,”). Shaʿarei ṣedeq, although attributed to Gersonides in all extant sources, has been shown to have been written by someone else. See Aviram Ravitsky, “ʿAl zemano shel sefer Shaʿarei ṣedeq ha-meyuḥas la-Ralbag,” Tarbiẓ 68 (1999): 401–410, on 401–403. See there, 402 n. 7, for a bibliography of Gersonides’ presumed halakhic writings. 2 For a bibliography of Gersonides’ critics, see Menachem M. Kellner, “Gersonides and his Cul- tured Despisers: Arama and Abravanel,” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 6 (1976): 269–296, at 270 n. 5. 3 Shem Ṭov Ibn Shem Ṭov’s yeshiva was presumably located in Valladolid. See Erez Peleg, “Between Philosophy and Kabbalah: The Criticism of Jewish Philosophy in the Thought of Rabbi Shem Ṭov ben Shem-Ṭov,” Ph.D. diss., University of Haifa, 2002, 32–33 (Heb.). For the philosophical activity in the academies of the Shem Ṭov family, see Colette Sirat and Marc Geoffroy, “The Modena Manuscript and the Teaching of Philosophy in Fourteenth and Fif- teenth Century Spain,” in Study and Knowledge in Jewish Thought, vol. 1, ed. Haim (Howard) Kreisel (Beer Sheva, 2006), 185–202, on 197–200. For a general account of the Jewish Castil- ian academies in the fifteenth century, see Abraham Gross, “Qavvim le-toledot ha-yeshivot be-qasṭilya ba-meʾah ha-ṭet-vav,”Peʿamim 31 (1987): 3–21. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004425286_005 92 forte was influenced, in varying degrees, by their notion of the borders of legiti- mate theoretical speculation within a religious worldview and by their specific stances towards philosophy. 1 Shem Ṭov Ibn Shem Ṭov The cultural atmosphere of Jewish society in fifteenth-century Spain included several intellectual currents that were often in disharmony or even outright confrontation. The devastating events that befell the communities and the mass apostasy that followed produced growing suspicion of and animosity towards philosophy. Traditionalist rabbis tended to accuse the philosophers of weakening the people’s loyalty to religion and blamed their rationalistic views for facilitating rejection of the fundamental tenets of Jewish belief. Shem Ṭov Ibn Shem Ṭov, a self-taught kabbalist, was one of the most blatant and uncom- promising opponents of Jewish Aristotelianism. He was born around 1380 and seemed to have died (inValladolid?) in the 1430s.4 He witnessed the pogroms of 4 Solomon Ibn Verga quotes a passage attributed to Shem Ṭov: “In the year 150 of the sixth mil- lennium in Spain, in the days of King Enrique, when he was a youth, many nations rose up to בשנת מאה וחמשים לאלף הששי בספרד, בימי המלך) ”remove the Israelites from [their] faith See Sheveṭyehudah; ed. I. Baer .(אנריקי, בהיותונערקמועמיםרביםלהוציאאתישראלמכללהדת (Jerusalem, 1947), 119 (“48th forced conversion”). This testimony led many to designate 1380 as -youth) refers to him; it seems much more reason) נער ShemṬov’s date of birth, assuming that able that it rather refers to the king (Enrique [Henry III of Castile] was crowned in 1390, at the age of 11). See Mattityahu Strashun, “Miḵtav ʿal devar r[abbi] Shem Ṭov baʿal ha-ʾemunot ve- r[abbi] Shem Ṭov Falaqira,” in Mivḥar ketavim (Jerusalem, 1969), 121 (first published in Pirḥei ṣafon, ed. Eliezer L. Horowitz and Samuel J. Fuenn [Vilna, 1844], 77–89, 191–195). Although it is plausible that Shem Ṭov was born around 1380, there is no real evidence to confirm this date. For different views regarding the date of his death, see Peleg, “Between Philosophy and Kabbalah,” 41. There is also little support for his alleged blindness: his confession that “sins have caused him to never see light” should probably be understood metaphorically (Sefer ha-ʾEmunot 4:2 [Ferrara, 1556], 26b). See Peleg, “Between Philosophy and Kabbalah,” 32. In Shem Ṭov’s writings one can find additional statements in which darkness symbolizes lack of understanding. He writes: “and even in these days when on account of our sins only dark- ואפי׳ בזמנים אלו שאין) ”ness exists in the world and not light, and the eyes have darkened Sefer ha-ʾEmunot 8:13, p. 98a]); “here] בעונותינו בעולם נמצא כי אם חשך ולא אור וחשכו הרואות I am, poor in thought, impoverished in understanding. As I sat in darkness, … my heart led ואני הנני בדעה דל בתבונה,) ”(me to seek the path that leads to where light dwells (Job 38:19 It is worth mentioning that Shem .(בהיותי במחשכים … הניעני לבי לבקש אי זה דרך ישכון אור Ṭov’s son Joseph suffered at some stage from an eye disease. See Joseph Ibn Shem Ṭov, ʿEin ha-qoreʾ, New York, Jewish Theological Seminary, MS 10759, fol. 2r (formerly London Mon- tefiore 61; online at https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/Hebrew/digitallibrary/pages/viewer.aspx ?presentorid=MANUSCRIPTS&docid=PNX_MANUSCRIPTS000186424‑1#|FL50596274); also.