History 282 Medieval Intellectual & Spiritual Trends.
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Transcript of History 282 Medieval Intellectual & Spiritual Trends.
History 282
Medieval
Intellectual & Spiritual
Trends
Two Worlds
• Babylonian via North Africa to Spain
• Palestinian via Italy to Central Europe and later to the East
• Overlap
Jewish & Outside Cultures
• Islamic world– High cultural level in the cities– Elements of openness under the impact of
philosophy– Language is shared; cultural competition
• Moses ibn Ezra in southern Spain (d. 1138?)
Jewish & Outside Cultures (2)
• Christian world– General level is lower until 12th/13th
century– Culture is clerical– Language is Latin
Jews and the Outside
• Both opportunity and challenge
• Translation
• Role as intermediary
Islamic world
• Polemic against Christianity and Islam force Jews towards “rationalism”
• Access to Arabic translations of Greek philosophical classics
• Saadia 882–942: – First autonomous system since Philo– Sefer Emunot ve-Deot (Beliefs & Opinions)– Both reason and faith are in text– Commandments: intellectual and authoritarian
Grammar and Language
• Importance of grammar – Menahem ibn Saruk– Dunash ibn Labrat
• Jewish poetry – Piyut and secular (Samuel ibn Naghrela)– Moses ibn Ezra (theoretical treatis)– Judah ha-Levi (1086–1145)– Makama (Judah al-Harizi) (1165-1234)
The Mirror
• Into my eyes he lovingly looked, My arms about his neck were twined, And in the mirror of my eyes, What but his image did he find?
• Upon my dark-hued eyes he pressed His lips with breath of passion rare. The rogue! 'Twas not my eyes he kissed; He kissed his picture mirrored there.
• Judah ha-levi
My Heart is in the East
• My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west. How can I find savor in food? How shall it be sweet to me? How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
• A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain - Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.
Al-Harizi
• Maqama
• Competition with Al-Hariri (Mahbarot Iti’el) leads to independent production (Takhkemoni)
Moses Maimonides
• 1135-1204• Cordoba, Spain to Fostat, Egypt• Systematization of Halakha
– Mishneh Torah (significance of the title)• Systematization of halakha• Integration of intellectualist elements
– Moreh Nevukhim (Guide to the Perplexed)• Audience
• Challenge to Isolationist Thinking • Parable of the Palace
Ashkenazi Europe
• Definition• Transfer of culture via Italy
– Kalonymids
• Development of Learning– RaSHI (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac) 1040-
1105– Parshandata; cumulative– Teacher in a book
Tosafists
• Jacob b. Meir (Rabenu Tam) c. 1100-1171
• System of jurisprudence
Hasidut Ashkenaz
• Mystical traditions
• Small number of families (elitist)
• Emphasis on morality
Exegesis
• Drash vs Pshat blurred
• Literary approach
• Rationalist vs non-Rationalist is a question of aims
Abraham Ibn Ezra
• I. Truth is the center; commentary is the circumference
• II. Truth is the center and they imagine they’re there (Karaites)
• III. Path of darkness (mystical; non-rational)• IV. Near the Center; Midrash taken literally• V. grammar-based; rational; traditional
Nahmanides
• Polemic relation with Rashi and Ibn Ezra
• Adds kabbala
Isaac Abravanel
• Intellectual investigation is serious business; dangerous
• Aristotelian justification for messianic speculation
Zohar
• Moses de Leon
• Rejects the literal
Collapse of the Medieval
• Challenges from the outside– World created by invasions and rigidly split
by religious affiliation will be disrupted by invasion (Berbers into Spain 11th & 12th cen.; Christian crusaders from late 11th cent. In Spain and the East) [as well as Mongols; Turks; etc.]
– Demographic pressures; migrations; as well as natural growth; Black Death
Collapse of the Medieval
• Challenges from Within– Urban growth challenges Jews’ place
• Shift to moneylending
– Religious Reform -- institutional and doctrinal
Expulsions
• Migration patterns to the north and east• Accelerated by expulsions; England
1290; France 1304+; Spain 1492• Forced conversions -- S. Italy, Aragon,
Castille, Portugal• Social-economic and religious factors;
greater emphasis on homogeneity
Invention of New Centers
• Poland
• Ottoman Turkey (fall of Istanbul 1453; Salonika 1478)
• Opens the way to Land of Israel– Safed
• New larger, multi-ethnic communities; new forms of organization
Conversos
• Mass conversions in Spain from 1391
• Purity of blood 1455 Toledo
• Inquisition 1478 – State, not Papal– Portuguese 1536– Irrelevant to Jews
• Problem for Spain
Returning Jews
• Are they Jewish?– Requirement ot convert
• Bring new ideas and relativist approach– Amsterdam: Orobio di Castro, Uriel d’Acosta,
Benedict Spinoza, – Venice: Samuel Aboab– Boundaries are tenuous; concepts are mixed (e.g.
circumcision and baptism)
Messianic Reaction
• Ottoman success seems to point to messianic era
• Religious excitement in Safed (Smicha)
• New forms of Kabbalistic thought– Isaac Luria (ARI)
Sabbetai Zevi
• Greatest messianic movement in Jewish history
• Informed by kabbalistic ideology; redemption through sin (Scholem)
• Zevi’s conversion 1666 & its aftermath– Survival groups– Question kehila authority?
• Did this lead to modernity? Tune in…