Front Matter (PDF) - Stanford University Press

context for the publication of kabbalistic secrets is the great spiritual
The
that divided ProvencËal Jewry in the second half of the twelfth century:
turmoil
controversy over philosophy, and especially over the works of Rabbi Moses
the
(1135±1204). This con¯ict came to a head with the public burning
Maimonides
Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed (by the Dominicans, but possibly with
of
tacit approval of anti-Maimonidean Jews) in 1232. The surroundingstruggle
the
the intellectual life of the ProvencËal Jewish elite for several decades. As
engaged
era's great halakhic authority and codi®er of Jewish law, Maimonides'
the
commanded tremendous respect. In many writings of the age, he is
name
referred to as ``the Rabbi.'' But his works raised not a few questions
simply
his degree of theological orthodoxy. Did Maimonides go too far in
regarding
insistence that the Bible's ascription of emotions to God, as well as bodily
his
was a form of anthropomorphism that needed to be explained
attributes,
Was it right that he derived so much of his wisdom from non-Jewish
away?
the Greek and Islamic philosophical traditions? Was he correct in
sources,
ancient rabbinic references to ``The Account of the Chariot''
identifyingthe
``The Account of Creation'' with metaphysics and physics as the philosophers
and
taught them? Did he have a right to dismiss certain old Jewish esoteric
as inauthentic nonsense? Still more painful in this law-centered
speculations
how could the rabbi have given legal status to his own Aristotelian
culture:
views, seemingly insisting, in the opening section of his Code, that
philosophic
Jew who did not share them was either an idolator or a naive fool?
any
the heart of the Maimonidean controversy went deeper than all of these
But
touchingthe very heart of the philosophical notion of the God-
accusations,
Philosophy insisted on divine perfectionÐon the unchanging, all-knowinghead.
all-capable quality of God. If perfect and unchanging, this God was neces-
self-suf®cient and in no need of human actions of any sort. Why, then,
sarily
such a God care about performance of the commandments? How could
would
Torah centered on religious law, including so much of ritual performance,
a
the embodiment of divine will? Maimonides taught that indeed God
represent
no ``need'' for us to ful®ll the commandments. The chief purpose of religious
had
observance was educational, a God-given way of cultivating the mind to
toward God. But once the lesson had been learned, some suspected, there
turn
be those who would come to see the form itself as no longer needed.
would
it was rumored that in some circles of wealthy Jewry in Muslim
Moreover
the abstractions of philosophy had begun to serve as an excuse for a
Spain,
lax view of the commandments and the details of their observance.
more
rabbis of Provence were deeply loyal to a more literalist readingof the
Some
and midrashic legacy, one that left little room for the radical rationalization
Talmudic
of Judaism proposed by the philosophers. Others had been exposed
the esoteric traditions of the Rhineland and northern France, which stood in
to
with the new philosophy partly because they seemed to highlightÐ
con¯ict
Introduction
xxxvi
rather than minimizeÐthe anthropomorphic passages in Scripture and tradi-