Anti-Maimonidean Demons "...the anti-Maimonideans are credited with stopping the tide of assimilation and standing in the frontline against “philosophy” and other “rationalistic” pursuits that, as it is well known, lead to religious laxity and apostasy. The purpose of this paper is to question this truism. In the ancient communities of Syria, Egypt, and Yemen, and throughout North Africa, where Maimonides’ works and intellectual tradition reigned supreme, none of the above took place. Why? For reasons having to do more with ideology than scholarship, historians failed to take into consideration the connection between the triumph of the anti-Maimonideans, the rise of Qabbala, and the decay of Jewish learning and leadership, leading to mass conversions and culminating in the Expulsion of 1492."
(Review of Rabbinic Judaism 6.1)
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Anti-Semitism in the Sepharadi Mind The concrete sense of all social and psychological interaction — as anti-Semitism happens to be — is determined not only by the aggressor, but also by the victim. Far from being a passive element, the victim is who interprets the aggressive act and determines its concrete sense. In his masterful opus Reflexions sur la question juive (1946), Jean-Paul Sartre allows us to see the level of « cooperation » that can be established between the aggressor and the victim: They both stimulate and identify as the « adversary » and the cause of his own disgraces. As we shall see, they mutually use this as an escape goat to evade all personal responsibility. Sometimes, as Borges dexterously points out, the aggressor ends-up acquiring the identity of the victim. In other occasions, thus demonstrated by Canetti, the victim acquires the role of the aggressor, in this manner passing the tormenting « sting » to others. (Translated by David Ramirez)
[Estrato dalla « Rassegna Mensile di Israel »; Augsto 1983 (Ijar-Elul 5743); pp. 394- 418]
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The Biblical Idea of Idolatry "The Biblical injunction against idolatry rests on two different premises: it violates the Covenant and it is useless. Since idolatry is explicitly forbidden by the Sinaitic pact, its transgression constitutes a violation of the Covenant. This conception of idolatry is based on the Biblical ideal of monolatry: God ought to be worshiped according to the rituals established by Him. To worship God according to rituals that were not prescribed by Him is an afront to His absolute omnipotence."
[The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 69, No. 1. (Jul., 1978), pp. 1-15.]
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Delocutive Expressions in the Hebrew Liturgy (Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Studies 16-17)
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Don Quixote - Talmudist and Mucho Mas Jews from Moslem Spain played a major role in the transmission of certain literary genres and motifs to Provence. In Christian Spain, Jews loathed Latin. It was the language of the Church or “la idolatría” as it was known among Jews and conversos. It had the odor of death and brought memories of killing and maiming and rape and pillaging and tearing of limbs and plucking of eyes: all made for the love of God. They rather write in the vernacular. Anyhow, Latin was used for serious stuff such as theology and philosophy, and thinkers with Jewish blood better tread carefully upon entering holy territory. What happened to Juan Luis Víves (1491-1540) and Fray Luis de León (1527-1591) and countless other thinkers was a warning to all New Christians. This is why conversos expressed their unique situation through literature – an area of little importance in the eyes of the Church. Nonetheless, caution was of the essence. Accordingly, camouflaged within the text were configurations of thought and emotion that could only be decoded by a chosen few. Hence the two dimensions of what eventually will be know as “modern literature” – the earmark of Western culture. It must be written in the vernacular and must contain a message decipherable only by a privileged public. In this precise sense, to be meaningful, literature – like Rabbinic hermeneutics – must be subversive; not by wrecking the normative, but by using it to point out at something beyond the ordinary. (Translated by David Ramirez)
[The Review of Rabbinic Judaism: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern; vol. 4,1, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2001; pp. 139-157.]
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Esoteric Knowledge and the Vulgar - Parallels Between Newton and Maimonides The impact of Rabbinic thought in general and that of Maimonides (1135-1204) in particular on the shaping of modern Europe is yet to be systematically explored. As a result of the dispersion of Iberian Jews and conversos, rabbinic doctrines and literature were disseminated throughout Europe. An important source for the spread of Jewish ideas was the study of Jewish culture and literature by Christian scholars. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries knew an unprecedented upsurge of first-rate Christian Hebraists, and the translation of many Jewish classics into Latin. Of momentous importance was the Latin translation of The Guide for the Perplexed by the renowned Hebraist Johannes Buxtorf (1599-1664), and its publication in 1629 (and to a lesser extent his translation and publication of the Kuzari by Yehuda ha-Levi in 1660). Many of Maimonides’s doctrines were particularly important to the Christian virtuosi in England who came to believe, like Maimonides, in the harmony of Scripture and science. Essential to this belief was the thesis that there are two levels to Scripture: an exoteric level accessible to the vulgar, and an esoteric level accessible only to the elite. Without this distinction, all attempts to reconcile the Scripture with science are impossible.
[Trumah: Studien zum jüdischen Mittelalter; Heidelberg, 2002; pp. 183-191]
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An Incident of Pum Bedita - The Status of Israeli Real Estate in the Diaspora (Hebrew) (Maaznei Mishpat 4, 5765)
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Intuitive Knowledge of God in Medieval Jewish Theology "Intuitive knowledge of God is one of the most significant subjects in medieval Jewish theology. It bears directly on issues such as the authority of reason and tradition, the qualitative difference between the knowledge of God of the Jewish people and that of the rest of mankind, the significance of the election of Israel, and ultimate effect of the the theophany at Sinai. And yet, the concept and function of intuition in medieval Jewish philosophy in general, and its theological implications in particular, have not been examined. One of the reasons for this is that the Arabic terms denoting intuition, as well as their Hebrew translations and equivalents, are not commonly known. Accordingly, significant references to the concept and function of intuition scattered throughout medieval Jewish texts have escaped the attention of the specialists."
[The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 67, No. 2/3. (Oct., 1976 - Jan., 1977), pp. 90-110.]
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Jewish and Western Historiographies: A Post-Modern Interpretation "Western historiography expresses the perspective of the persecutor. A factor of this tradition is the mimetic relationship 'persecutor/victim.' The victim must be voiceless. Knowledge of the victim, including its fundamental characteristics and peculiar points of view, can come only from the persecutor....From its early period and throughout the ages, Judaism expressed the perspective of the persecuted. The history of Israel, is the history of the persecuted people. The Hebrew Scripture and subsequent literature of the Jews, recounts the history of an oppressed society as perceived from the perspective of the persecuted - not the aggressor."
[Modern Judaism, Vol. 12, No. 1. (Feb., 1992), pp. 23-37.]
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Law and Hermeneutics in Rabbinic Jurispudence - A Maimonidean Perspective "Jewish jurisprudence is the oldest evolving legal system in history. It has existed since pre-biblical times, and continues in our own day both in the modern State of Israel and throughout the diaspora. Rabbinic tradition stands at the center of this system. This tradition perceives itself as the authoritative foundation and the historical bond linking the Jewish people from the dawn of time to the present. The rabbinic tradition functions as an apparatus that processes and catalogues data and opinions facilitating juridical interpretations and decisions. This Article examines that apparatus by exploring its underlying concepts of law and hermeneutics."
[Cardozo Law Review 14, no. 6 (May 1993)]
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The Legal Thinking of the Tosafot - A Historical Approach Franco-German Jewry was particularly sensitive to the flow of events and ideas of their times. The Jew was an integral part of the general environment of the land and was conditioned by the same patterns of thought and feelings that were affecting Medieval France and Germany. Examined in this light, the literary output of Franco-German Jewry in the fields of theology, biblical exegesis, and juridical interpretation reflect values and concerns that were grounded in the cultural and spiritual environment of their country. This was not the effect of deliberate borrowing or emulation. Rather it was an extension of a specific historical context embracing both Jews and Christians. Accordingly, in order to gain a proper perspective of the culture and contributions of Franco- German Jewry, an adequate understanding of their historical context is of the essence.
[Dine Israel, Volume VI (1975), pp. xliii-lxxii]
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Monolingualism and Judaism ""The dialogue with the Greeks," noted Arnaldo Momigliano (1908-1987), "happened because the Romans and Jews wanted it." Unlike the Hebrews and Romans who learned Greek, Greeks never had any curiosity to learn a foreign language. Romans and Jews translated their texts into Greek, but no Greek ever cared to translate any of his literature into a foreign language. The Rabbis allowed the use of a Greek scroll of the Torah in the synagogue services. "It would have been inconceivable for a Greek to have Homer recited in Hebrew!" A fundamental aspect of the monolinguistic mind is that it conceives of its own linguistic and cultural apparatus as universally valid categories of human thought; only its own peculiar form of thinking and value-system are legitimate. By virtue of speaking a different language, aliens reflect abnormality; the "other" is not another, but a subspecies exhibiting faulty standards of thought and culture."
[Cardoza Law Review. 14 (1933), pp. 1713-1744]
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Newton, Maimonidean "Newton's interest in Rabbinics and Maimonides was not mere intellectual curiosity. It affected his most intimate religious beliefs and his Christianity. "[T]here was something sinister in his religious beliefs," we are told. Bishop Horsley, who examined some of Newton's papers on theology, declared them unfit for printing. Sir David Brewster, Netwon's famous biographer, believed that bishop Horsley "exercised a wise discretion" in not allowing their publication. In the name of Christian charity, Brewster refused to formally declare Newton a "heretic.""
(Review of Rabbinic Judaism 6.2-3)
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Newton, Maimonides, and Esoteric Knowledge "With Maimonides, Newton believed that God not only reveals His will at an exoteric level, accessible to all, but, also, at an esoteric level: God encodes His will in riddles and cryptograms accessible to the intellectual elite alone. For Maimonides, not only does the Scripture itself contain such riddles and cryptograms, but also the physical realm. Indeed, Maimonides regarded the esoteric aspect of physical phenomena as one of the "great mysteries" of the universe ("Introduction"; 3:16-24), and he identified the study of ma'ase bereshit of the Rabbis with the esoteric study of physics (I, 33). Thus, there is a mystical and mysterious aspect to the Godhead, not revealed in the laws of nature, but, rather, encoded--in a specific Maimonidean style--in "riddles" and "cryptograms" that He had laid about in the universe, and that the initiate could decode."
[Cross Currents: The Journal of the Association for Religious and Intellectual Life 40 (1990) pp.527-38
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Of Cultural Intimidation and Other Miscellanea: Bar-Sheshakh vs. Raba "The purpose of this paper is to examine a story mentioned in theTalmud. It bears on a central issue: why a Jew would rather live in the Jewish community than as a member of the mighty monarchial Persian Empire under the Sassanides. The characters are Raba and bar-Sheshakh. Each represented the summit of what their respective cultures could offer. Raba was one of the most successful scholars of the Babylonian Talmud. Above all, he was per-sistent and unyielding. Bar-Sheshakh was the Persian Governor of the Pum be-Dita-Mahoza district. As we shall see in due course, bar-Sheshakh was an Epicurean in a three-fold sense: he believed in pleasure, he did not worship, and he rejected belief in the world tocome. Both men met before and knew each other well. “I am acquainted with him” (yada‘na beh), said Raba, indicating close contacts between them. The story we are about to examine centers around an eerie clash between bar-Sheshakh and Raba, ending in a bizarrely Freudian way. Underneath the façade of cordiality and good manners, these men loathed each other, not because of what they were but because of what they represented: two furiously opposed ideologies."
(Review of Rabbinic Judaism 5.1)
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Rhetoric and Hermeneutics - Vico and Rabbinic Tradition In his masterful work, Jerusalem and Athens (1997), Professor Jacob Neusner studied the parallel between the dialectic developed in the Babylonian Talmud (3rd – 4 th c.) and the dialectic of the teachers of the ancient Greek academies. Since it is difficult to establish direct or indirect links between these two, Neusner indicates that he only tries to study the "congruencies", that is, the similarities between both systems, not the historical links. The purpose of the present study is also to examine some congruencies between the rabbinic tradition – specifically that in the Babylonian Talmud – and Vico’s vision. It is obvious that there were not or possibly could have been direct links between the Talmud and Vico. One must point that the congruencies we here intend to examine rise in their own historical circumstances, and become defined within spaces that impose their own patterns and dynamics: Yet, they both coincide in displaying certain key ideas and institutions. To our understanding these parallels become more meaningful, precisely because these are mere congruencies: They belong purely to the human spirit more than presumed influences – an astrological term that particularly dominates modern historiography. (Translated by David Ramirez)
[Pensar para el nuevo siglo: Giambattista Vico y la cultura europea; vol. III, La Città del Sole, 2001; pp. 917-938]
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Sephardim in the Nineteenth Century: New Directions and Old Values [Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 44. (1977), pp. 29-52]
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Sepharadi Thought in the Presence of the European Enlightenment The ”Torá” (which includes the “Written Law” or text of the Hebrew Bible, and the tradition or the “Oral Law”), just as understood by Sepharadi Jewry, is a bidimensional system. One dimension corresponds to the “political” sphere: the public, legislative, administrative and judicial institutions of the Hebrew Nation. The other dimension is “spiritual:” the Hebrew Bible’s theological and humanistic rites and values, just as they were transmitted by Rabbinic and post-Rabbinic tradition. Both dimensions become conditioned and are mutually defined. To ignore one of these dimensions results in an atrophic and dysfunctional “Torá.” (Translated by David Ramirez)
[Pensamiento y mística hispanojudía y sefardí; Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, (Cuenca, 2001); pp. 323-337]
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The Targumim and Halakha "A basic question, affecting both Targumic and Rabbinic studies, concerns the authority of the Targumim. Are the views and traditions contained in the Targumim indicative of the actual views and traditions current among the Jews at the time, or do they merely express a personal view of the Meturgeman ('translator')? Specifically: When the Targumim do not conform with the Halakha, i.e., the normative view expressed in the Classical Rabbinic Texts, is it because the Targumim transmit a different and perhaps earlier Halakha, or is it because the Targumim are transmitting a "personal view," whereas the Classical Rabbinical Texts are transmitting an "authoritative opinion"?"
[The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 66, No. 1. (Jul., 1975), pp. 19-26.]
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The Tosefot of R. Asher to Tractate Berakhot (Hebrew) [Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 33. (1965), pp. 41-65]
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