161 Abraham Gross GERONA: A SEPHARDIC CRADLE OF ...

A Sephardic Cradle of Jewish Learning and Religiosity
thinking – be it in studying Talmud or in his religious-pietistic
Weltanschauung – is conspicuously
influenced by it, even if the extent of the distinct
marks of Haside Ashkenaz in his writings are still
a subject for debate. His pious stand in the controversy
over the philosophical writings of
Maimonides, his tendency to mysticism, his ethical
literary works, and his courageous struggle
against corrupted Jewish leadership in Barcelona
all point to his Ashkenazic education.
He return to Spain and – possibly after
spending some time in Gerona 11 – he became a
distinguished religious authority in Barcelona and
then in Toledo. As such he served as an important
ring in the historical chain – culminating in
the «easy absorption» 12 of Asher ben Yehi’el as
the rabbi of Toledo – that linked Spanish Jewry
with Ashkenaz. This changed in many ways the
religious complexion of Spanish Jewry, be it in
the curriculum of the study of Bible and Talmud
or in religious tendencies expressed eventually in
the readiness of some in 1391, and many in the
end of the 15 th century, to perform active martyrdom
in the manner which characterized
Ashkenazic Jewry.
One of the undisputedly giants of the Medieval
Jewish intellectual history is a Geronese
named Moses ben Nahman (Nahmanides). The
unparalleled breadth, depth, and originality
which characterizes his literary contributions
run almost the entire gamut of religious genres
and includes; peshat and mystical biblical
exegesis, talmudic super-commentaries,
Halakhah (including responsa), anti-Christian
polemics, liturgical and non-liturgical
poetry, sermons, ethical treatises, and
Qabbalah 13 .
Unlike Jonah Gerondi, Nahmanides’ life,
almost in its entirety, is bound with Gerona. His
two main teachers were Judah ben Yaqar, who
carried with him French traditions of learning
and spirituality, and Nathan ben Me’ir, who
brought with him Provencal methods, tendencies,
and traditions, including mystical ones.
It would be problematic, to say the least,
to attempt to summarize here such a versatile,
complex, and multi-faceted personality. However,
at the risk of sounding over-simplistic, I would
say that his stand on major issues of his time,
such as the controversy over the philosophical
writings of Maimonides, combined with his criticism
of philosophy on subjects such as Divine
Providence etc. reveal a conservativeparticularistic
religious attitude - never a militant
one - with a touch of ascetic piety.
Nahmanides, together with the qabbalistic
circle of Ezra, Azriel, Jacob ben Sheshet Gerondi
– an influencial author in his own right – and others
fortified Gerona as a firm anti-rationalist
center in the 13 th century.
This general conservative attitude, but without
the mystical element, which was rejected by him,
can describe Nissim Gerondi – the most important
Geronese talmudic scholar of the 14 th century – as
well. His method of study – as can be seen in his
major talmudic work, the commentary on Alfasi’s
Halakot – rests firmly on that of Nahmanides’ and
11 G. SCHOLEM, Te‘udah hadawah le-Toledot
Re’wit ha-Qabbalah, in Y. FICHMAN (ed.), Sefer
Bialik, Part II, Tel Aviv, 1934, p. 144. Chavel,
Ramban [above, n. 5], p. 58 n. 63.
12 I am using here Ta-Shma’s coined expression:
I. TA-SHMA, Hasidut Awkenaz bi-Sefarad:
Rabenu Yonah Gerondi ha-Iw u-Fo‘alo, in
A. MIRSKY, A. GROSSMAN, Y. KAPLAN (edd.), Galut
Ahar Golah: Studies in the History of the Jewish
People Presented to Professor Haim Beinart on the
Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, Jerusalem
1988, p. 171.
13 By the way, Gerona in this period represents
also a shift in secular poetry from conventions we
are accustomed to in the classical period of poetry
in Moslem Spain, through a “school” associated
with Nahmanides and Meshullam Dapiera. A
short insightful, though general, article by Ezra
Fleischer analyzes this attempt, and terms it as
«genuine, powerful, imaginative and daring».
Elements of it lived on in 14 th -15 th centuries poetry,
especially in the Aragonese circle of Solomon
Dapiera, Vidal Benvenist, Solomon Bonafed and
others: see E. FLEISCHER, The ‘Gerona School’ of
Hebrew Poetry, in I. TWERSKY (ed.), Rabbi Moses
Nah manides (Ramban): Explorations in His
Religious and Literary Virtuosity Cambridge,
Mass, 1983, pp. 35-50. See also, on Nahmanides,
M. IDEL e M. PERANI, Nah manide esegeta e
cabbalista. Studi e testi, La Giuntina, Firenze
1998.
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