Nahmanides
Nahmanides Moses ( Hebrew : acronym: " Ramban, Catalan : Greek : is a rabbi of the thirteenth century ( Girona , 1194 - Acre , 1270 ).
Figure as high among its peers as powerful, he is forced to become late in his life, the representative of the Jews during the disputation of Barcelona. His comments have been considered blasphemous toward Christianity, he was exiled to the land of Israel where he revived the Jewish presence.
Doctor , exegete of the Bible and Talmud , liturgical poet , philosopher and Kabbalist , he is considered the decision a major of his generation and one of the most prominent rabbinical authorities in the Middle Ages.
Summary |
Born into a famous family of rabbis, grand-son of Isaac ben Reuben of Barcelona, a cousin of Rabbeinu Yona , he studied Talmud under the rule of Judah ben Meir ben Yakar and Nathan Trinquetaille , and was introduced to Kabbalah by Azriel of Gerona. At the same time, he studied philosophy and medicine he practiced as a means of subsistence, in the image of Maimonides and Judah Halevi.
It is illustrated, and published his first works at age 16. Deeply influenced by the French school of Tosafists , expresses unqualified deference to the sages of the Mishna and Talmud , as well as Geonim who succeeded them, and the sages of France.
"The rabbis have joined Tzarfati of most Jews to their views. They are our masters in Talmud , and it is to them that we need to go to teach us "
This did not prevent some teachers say, the great specialists of casuistry, "they try to pass an elephant through the eye of a needle. "(Famous Talmudic proverb)
In 1263 he was appointed by King Jacques I of Aragon to compete with Pablo Christiani, a Jewish past to Christianity and became a Dominican friar. The results of this confrontation were recorded in a book, "The dispute over Barcelona. At the end of the confrontation the king offered him a sum of money and bowed his erudition. Although remportt trial, he had to suffer the wrath Dominican who obtained his banishment some time later. He sailed for the Holy Land, where he raised interest in Judaism and settled in Acre until his death.
Maimonides and Ramban
A great admirer of Maimonides , he nevertheless goes door-to-fake Jewish philosophers of his time, rather followers, if not the philosophy of the Master in his great work, the Guide of the Perplexed , of Averroes and Avicenna.
The Guide tends to reduce the prophetic biblical stories and allegories of the rank and miracles to natural phenomena, while Ramban sees absolutely no objection to read them in their simple meaning.
You just look at not just words but our experiences of the visible world: the Torah is full of hidden secrets (within the realm of nistar), he is prohibited from disclosing because they are just hidden.
In the controversy surrounding Maimonides, Ramban represented the moderate path:
"If you felt there was your duty to denounce the Guide as a heretic, why some of you show so little of care to implement this decision, as if they regretted? Is it sitting posture in matters as serious to act capriciously, to applaud one today and another tomorrow? " (Igueret ha'Hemda) He proposed a way to compromise to break the ban on Maimonides, but maintain or improve the one on his works. This view was rejected by both the proponents and by opponents of Maimonides. Nevertheless, himself in his comments often criticized the views of the Master, not hesitating to call it sinful even to read some, if not to his ears in hearing them.
If the quasi-homophony their acrostics (Ramba Ramba m and n) is coincidental, the fact that Maimonides and Ramban both bear an acrostic should however nothing to chance: each was a master, their many students called "Moshe Rabbeinu ". It was therefore necessary to differentiate them by stating that the first was the son of Maimon, the second of Nahman.
Nahmanides has many other points in common with his elder Maimonides, also Spanish. Like him, he was a medical doctor and rabbi in his "spare time", and both were major halachic their time; Nahmanides leaves a footprint only slightly less pronounced on his disciples (the most notable was the Rashba ) and those future generations.
However, if the first denoted by its rationalism, and spread the philosophy of Judaism in the second, Ramban, presented a marked propensity to mysticism , and was the first to introduce the midrash kabbalistic in its exegesis. Best known for his commentary on the Torah and the Talmud, he wrote over 50 works lucid and logical on more specific topics.
Ramban, though master of theology and philosophy, is not provided a "real" philosopher (except when it says Maimonides): God is approachable for him by intuition, surely not by reason.
ha-Kodesh Iggeret: The Letter "Sacred"
Although it has long been attributed to him, this work is not his. However it is assumed that it is indirectly connected with him, because it seems that one of his students had written.
She speaks of marriage, sanctity, and sex. She is however a Kabbalistic level, and the goal is to perfect to unite the spiritual level and to generate "perfect children" who will work to bring the Messiah. She scratches crossing the views somewhat severe and ascetic Maimonides on sexuality. This is indeed one of the functions of man, all functions of the body of man being God's work. She did nothing "wrong" and there is that its use can be good or bad.
Commentary on the Torah
Posted at Acre, after his life, he is arguably his most famous work Principles exegetical This is a analyzing method or the verses in their text, but also in their context, rational and balanced, drawing on four levels of interpretation of the Torah, which are Pshat (meaning single), Remez ( allusive sense), the Drash (allegorical sense), Sod (secret meaning), taking care not to favor any one of them. If someone analyzes the entire Bible with the 4 levels of interpretation it is said that he arrived at Pardes, Paradise. His comment is at first glance like a built supercommentaire of Rashi , wanting to explore it as philological Text. However, it is detached by analyzing verses in the text, but also the context, and tolerates "incongruities" text without the need for systematically midrash. Thus: He also strongly criticizes the literalists ( those who undertake the simple sense), as Rashbam or, especially, Abraham ibn Ezra (commentary on Genesis 11: 2), and does not hesitate to seek the meaning behind the simple The secret meaning of the word of God even the simple meaning would be clear and fully satisfactory by itself, and the secret meaning he would be "irrational", that is to say not grasped by the human mind. This is actually the first broadcast of lessons kabbalistic , esoteric traditions unknown at the time, because jealously preserved in secrecy. However, these lessons are virtually inaccessible to the uninitiated. Taking so-called mystical traditions, it can only roundly criticize the philosophers, and demolishes some interpretations of the Bible Maimonides. Thus in Genesis 18:8, he states that his opinion is contrary to the obvious meaning of the text, and it is sin that does not even hear it. Thus, it is reintroducing the miracles, declaring that one can not be part of the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu if we do not believe that all hazards, whether the responsibility of the individual or the masses are miraculously controlled, and that nothing can be attributed to nature or the world order. In this belief sine qua non plus three others: the belief in creation ex nihilo, the divine omniscience and divine providence. Moreover, as has been said above, and although it is rather focused on moderation and temperance, Ramban, as later Abravanel , most often criticizes the views of Abraham ibn Ezra, too focused on rationalism (or literally), disdainful of Kabbalah, the Ramban is a tradition received by Moses from the "Taste" of power. Rabbi of Girona , then spiritual leader of the Jewish community of Catalonia , the king's friend Jacques I of Aragon , it mediates many times between the crown and almajas. He enjoys the tranquility is shattered when, in 1263 , he was chosen for a disputation before the king with Pablo Christiani , on the order of Raymond of Penafort. Pablo Christiani, a Jew apostate brother became a Dominican (and responsible for inventions such as the yellow badge ), is known for trying to convert the community Jewish of Provence. Christiani's approach is original: the assumption that his opponent will remain tempered for fear of offending the sensibilities of Christian leaders, he expects not prohibit the Talmud, but rather use it to prove the truth of faith and message Christian. Indeed, he thinks he can attest from several passages adjoining the Haggadah , the Sages Pharisees thought the Messiah had lived at the time of the Talmud, and therefore it was Jesus. Nahmanides request, and obtains the complete freedom of expression over the four days that followed, the 20 to 24 July 1263. The objects of the hassle of Barcelona were to know: The attempt petered Christiani. The Ramban handed things in context, showing that if the rabbis had truly believed in Jesus the Messiah, they would have converted. His interpretations were so biased. Moreover, the Haggadah does not bind more Jews, Christians are bound to believe the sermons of the bishops. The Ramban says that the Jews were required to believe in the truth of the Bible , and did account the theological arguments of the Talmud that they influenced the religious practice. From this point of view, Jews are not required to believe any theological point of Talmud , especially when it Haggadah. A Jew was indeed more merit in observing the divine commandments in the Land of exile , under the yoke of Christian, in Land of Israel during the reign of the Messiah , where everyone would practice the Act naturally. The disputation was shortened at the insistence of the Jews of Barcelona fearing to excite the resentment of the Dominicans , and ended with the victory of Ramban, King up to donate 300-maravedis sign of respect. However, the Dominican clergy claimed to have won the game. Ramban was obliged to tell the Dispute in writing. Pablo Christiani used it and selected passages deemed blasphemous toward Christianity to forge the Tela Ignis Satan, or "Bonastruc da Porta, the Master of Gerona" is often caught short against the arguments full of truth and escapes that once such blasphemy. This fake a whole will continue to pursue the study of the Talmud recognized book heretical and anti-Christian, but it will mainly indictment Nahmanides. The king to convene a special commission to ensure the impartiality of the trial, held in his presence. Nahmanides admitted bringing several attacks on Christianity , but had said nothing other than the arguments made before the king, with enjoyment of freedom of speech. Although the king and the Committee acknowledged the correctness of its defense, the Dominicans were granted that the books be burned Nahmanides and be exiled for two years, commuted to banishment for life quickly. Nahmanides leaves the Aragon and stayed for three years in Castile or in the south of France. He sailed for the Holy Land in 1267 and, after a short stay in Jerusalem (where a synagogue bears his name) came to Acre , where he renewed interest in Jewish studies, much neglected in those days. He soon gathers a circle of disciples, and it comes from the Euphrates to listen. Even the Karaites , whose Aaron ben Joseph the Elder, future authority figure in this movement, in its courses. Is to stimulate interest in them, the Jews residing in the land of Israel, the Ramban writes the commentary on the Torah (see above). During the three years since his last stay in the land of Israel, he maintained extensive correspondence with Spain. Shortly after his arrival in Jerusalem, he tells his oldest son, Nachman, the state of desolation in which he found the Holy City, where only two Jews, dyers of their condition. It was from Acre he writes, always Nachman, the letter that we remained as the Epistle of Ramban in which he urged his son to cultivate the first of virtues, humility. In his second son, a dignitary of the court of Castile , he ordered to recite his daily prayers, and make it especially on guard against immorality. Rabbeinu Moshe ben Nachman died in 1270, and was buried in Haifa , near the tomb of Yehiel of Paris who has also tried to save the Talmud, a Jewish convert named Nicolas Donin. This article incorporates text from the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906, article "Moses ben Nahman GERONDE" by Joseph Jacobs , Wilhelm Bacher & Broyd Isaac , a publication now in the public domain.
He often leaves the door open: "It's a big secret that it is inappropriate to reveal" the "include intelligent", "that which deserves to understand."
Make no mistake, the ban does not reveal a secret of the search. This research is also initiated by the announcement that there is a secret, the secret is precisely characteristic of not being revealed or revealing. The argument of Barcelona, 1263
Nahmanides in the Land of Israel
His works
References
See also
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