Levi ben Gershom
Levi ben Gershom, also known as Gersonides, was a medieval Jewish scholar active primarily in the regions of Orange and Avignon in Provence, a center for Jewish intellectual and cultural activity. His works, written in Hebrew, encompass fields like philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and biblical commentary, although details about his life remain sparse due to a lack of personal writings and limited references by peers. Scholars suggest he may have belonged to a family engaged in moneylending and possibly practiced medicine, as evidenced by his writings on health.
In astronomy, Levi ben Gershom challenged aspects of Ptolemaic theory and explored the behavior of celestial bodies, proposing innovative ideas about the universe's creation and God’s role within it. He is recognized for his commentaries on biblical texts, notably the "Commentary on Job" and the "Commentary on the Torah," which reflect influences from Arab and Greek philosophical thought. His philosophical views included a belief in an impersonal God with limited knowledge, diverging from traditional Jewish concepts of divine omniscience and chosenness. Although Levi ben Gershom faced criticism, particularly from Orthodox circles, his contributions are now recognized as significant in the history of medieval Jewish philosophy, earning him a place among the great intellectuals of his time.
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Levi ben Gershom
Jewish scholar and rabbi
- Born: 1288
- Birthplace: Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Languedoc, France
- Died: Probably April 20, 1344
- Place of death: Unknown
Levi ben Gershom’s biblical commentaries had a significant impact on Jewish theology of the Middle Ages and beyond, and his biblical writings are still included in standard rabbinic bibles. He also advocated the use of significant navigational and observational instruments such as the Baculus Jacob and the camera obscura.
Early Life
Levi ben Gershom (LEE-vi behn GUHR-shuhm) resided at Orange (Provence) and Avignon, spending most of his life at the former location. Provence, at the time, was regarded as a center of Jewish intellectual and cultural activity. It was there that Jewish philosophy, theology, mathematics, and astronomy flourished. Provence was in an ideal location. To its north were the French Jewish communities that thrived on Talmudic learning; to the south were the Jewish communities in Spain that were highly accomplished in philosophy, mysticism, and poetry. Levi ben Gershom wrote all of his works in Hebrew, and it was not clear how limited was his knowledge of Arabic and Latin. He did not leave much writing about himself, and his peers did not discuss him in great detail in their letters. He also did not occupy a high social position within the Jewish community. This makes it difficult for scholars of Levi ben Gershom to create a detailed account of his life. Some biographies are sketchy at best and are based on assumptions.
Scholars of Levi ben Gershom agree that his father was most likely Gershom ben Salomon de Beziers. Levi ben Gershom may have wed a distant cousin, but it is not known whether he had any children. In addition to being a scholar and rabbi (although he never accepted a rabbinical post), Levi ben Gershom may also have been a moneylender. This was his family’s occupation as well as a very common occupation for Jews during the Middle Ages. His family was known for its piety as well as its critical analyses of essays and texts. In addition to possibly being a moneylender and a scholar, historians suspect that Levi ben Gershom was also a physician because of an unpublished essay he wrote that dealt with gout and his references to medical writers in some of his works. These are not decisive pieces of evidence, but they do show that he had an interest in medicine and was well-read in that field. During the Middle Ages, one could study medicine, philosophy, and science at different points in one’s life and be engaged in all three occupations. Physicians did not require as much education during the Middle Ages as they would in later times.
Life’s Work
Levi ben Gershom had a significant impact in astronomy and mathematics. In a treatise on astronomy, Levi ben Gershom criticized several of Ptolemy’s fundamental principles of astronomy. He wrote highly technical discussions of eclipses of the Moon and Sun and of other astronomical bodies. He also discussed the construction and use of a navigational instrument called the Baculus Jacob, or Jacob’s staff. A Jacob’s staff measured the visual angles (and their angular distances) between two stars or planets. Levi ben Gershom also discussed the uses and importance of the camera obscura (dark chamber), used by astronomers to measure the apparent sizes of the heavenly bodies.
Levi ben Gershom was concerned not only about describing heavenly bodies but also about proposing why they behave the way they do. His interpretation had much to do with superior heavenly bodies versus inferior ones. For instance, he posited that the Sun (a superior body) was not made solely for humans (inferior bodies). However, he believed that the Sun’s light was made for humans. In the same vein, the Moon was not made for humans, but its gravitational power over Earth’s tides was. Thus, the Sun’s light and the Moon’s gravitational power were made for inferior entities such as humans. Levi ben Gershom clashed with Aristotle on the question of whether or not the universe was eternal. He did not believe, as did Aristotle, that the universe was eternal and that phenomena like the heavenly bodies, motion, and time are eternal. To Levi ben Gershom, if heavenly bodies were not eternal, the universe itself could not be eternal. If they are finite, they are created.
Even though Levi ben Gershom made significant contributions in the fields of astronomy and mathematics, he is primarily recognized as a biblical commentator. Many of his biblical writings are still included in standard rabbinic bibles. One of the very first Hebrew books to be printed was his Perush Iyob (Latin translation, 1476 or 1477; Commentary on Job, 1946). He also had some Talmudic authority, as is seen in his discussion of significant religious issues in his Perush al-ha-Torah (Latin translation, 1474; Commentary on the Torah, 1998). In addition to his commentaries on Job and the Torah, Levi ben Gershom wrote essays on Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ruth, the early Prophets, Daniel, and others. At Provence, Jewish scholars studied the works of Aristotle and Moses Maimonides and the works of Spanish Muslim philosophers such as Averroës. They translated works into Hebrew as well. It was not surprising, then, that Levi ben Gershom incorporated influences from these philosophers into his own works. He attempted to intertwine the beliefs and works of all these philosophers into a unique set of ideas that he could claim as his own. Among his greatest philosophical treatises was Sefer milhamot Adonai or Milhamot ha-Shem (1317-1329; The Wars of the Lord, 1984, 1987) and many other commentaries on Averröes’s essays of Aristotle.
Levi ben Gershom believed in limited theism. His god was an impersonal one with limited knowledge of world events. Aristotle’s influence can be clearly seen in this aspect of Levi ben Gershom’s beliefs. Levi ben Gershom placed limitations on God’s power, but he still alleged that God was in control of the universe. He believed that reason cannot conflict with religion and that matter is eternal. Therefore, he did not believe in an ex nihilo (out of nothing) creation. He stressed the importance of human freedom and maintained that the omniscience of God made genuine freedom possible. However, what God knows is limited, Levi ben Gershom advocated. For example, humans exercise free will, but Levi ben Gershom acknowledged that God is not aware of these actions because they are coming from the human mind, not the divine mind. God cannot influence any change in human free will. Consequently, God cannot prevent some types of human suffering because he has no control over them.
Because of Levi ben Gershom’s beliefs on the limitations of God’s power, he had concerns about the topic of miracles performed by God. He asked, How can God perform miracles if he cannot affect the natural order and if he has limitations on his power? Levi ben Gershom attempted to solve this problem by arguing that miracles are the result of impersonal laws that are activated on behalf of the person who has reached intellectual perfection. The thing that “performs” the miracle is called the Active Intellect. The Active Intellect plays and maneuvers natural laws. Because it has this power, it can break a rule of nature and substitute another for it. Levi ben Gershom admitted that some miracles as expressed in the Scripture, such as the sun standing still at Gideon, would be impossible.
Levi ben Gershom maintained that there were forty-eight intellects in the universe, also known as movers of the spheres (there were forty-eight orbs in the sky and forty-eight separate movements in the skies as well). Above all these intellects is God. God orders everything and is an intellect that is detached from matter. The Active Intellect is between God and the rest of the intellects. The Active Intellect unites the separate threads of the intellects and of their spheres. This intellect also disposes terrestrial objects.
Levi ben Gershom believed that everyone has an Active Intellect. The function of the Active Intellect is to develop the capacity of the material intellect to extract general ideas from memory images in the imagination so that it can be made into an actual intellect. The Active Intellect allows the material intellect to form images and ideas. It gives the material intellect an understanding of separate ideas and how they all relate to one another. Thus, human reason and the rational capacity of humans must reside in the Active Intellect. The Active Intellect is the divine force. Levi ben Gershom acknowledged that the Active Intellect can think for itself, and it acts with the aid of an instrument that is natural warmth, to which it gives a soul.
Levi ben Gershom also conflicted with Orthodox Jews with regard to his views on the afterlife. He alleged that human souls have two components: a material part and an intellect. These components make it possible for people to think, understand, and learn from their experiences. Levi ben Gershom was also concerned with prognostication. He deduced that there are three ways in which people can know the future: dreams, divination, and prophecy. He believed, however, that prognostication itself comprises a twofold aspect. Future events can be determined from the order of the heavenly bodies and by foretelling. The Active Intellect also takes part in the latter half of this two-pronged explanation of prognostication. The Active Intellect knows these events that are predicted in dreams, divination, and prophecy. This intellect then gives this knowledge to humans. The level of prophecy is higher in an individual whose intellect is more developed and perfected.
Where Levi ben Gershom conflicted most with traditional Jews was on the issue of Jewish chosenness. He did not believe that the Jews were God’s chosen people. A simple question that he asked set off a spark: How can the Jewish people be God’s chosen people if God is an impersonal being with limited powers? Additionally, how can there be a chosen people if God does not directly get involved in human and world affairs? Contemporary scholars know that Levi ben Gershom did have some relationship with Christian theologians and thinkers, but it is not clear to what extent the Catholic Church influenced him. One of the major issues that the Church refuted was the idea that the Jews were God’s chosen people.
Significance
Levi ben Gershom became a controversial figure after his death. He was sometimes vilified in academic circles, especially among Orthodox Jews, because of the intellectual positions that he maintained. There were many traditional Jewish scholars who disagreed with the unorthodox views that he expressed in works such as The Wars of the Lord. Many conservative Jewish philosophers began to attack his writings. There was a period of time when interest in Levi ben Gershom’s writings waned because of these literary attacks.
Recent scholars have rediscovered the value of Levi ben Gershom’s insights. He advocated that life on earth has meaning and that terrestrial events have order. Astrology, he believed, was the way to uncover that meaning. He is seen today as one of the greatest intellectuals of medieval times and, in terms of scholarship, he is considered second only to Maimonides, his great predecessor. He is rightfully portrayed as an insightful, genuine philosopher whose ideas transcended his time and the writings of his contemporaries.
Bibliography
Eisen, Robert. Gersonides on Providence, Covenant, and the Chosen People: A Study in Medieval Jewish Philosophy and Biblical Commentary. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. A study into Levi ben Gershom’s biblical interpretations of the Jews and their relations with God.
Husik, Isaac. A History of Mediaeval Jewish Thought. New York: Meridian Books, 1960. A general work on the predominant Jewish philosophers during the Middle Ages. The section on Levi ben Gershom is thorough and well-researched.
Hyman, Arthur. Essays in Medieval Jewish and Islamic Philosophy: Studies from the Publications of the American Academy for Jewish Research. New York: KTAV, 1977. A very enticing work that compares the religious and secular writings of significant Jewish and Islamic philosophers during the Middle Ages.
Levi ben Gershom. The Wars of the Lord: Book One: The Immortality of the Soul. Translated by Seymour Feldman. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1984. In addition to highlighting Levi ben Gershom’s beliefs, the translator’s lengthy introduction captures the essence of Levi ben Gershom’s life and works.
Levi ben Gershom. The Wars of the Lord: Book Two, Book Three, and Book Four. Translated by Seymour Feldman. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1987. This is the second analysis of Levi ben Gershom’s The Wars of the Lord, with notes by the translator.
Nadler, Steven. “Gersonides on Providence: A Jewish Chapter in the History of the General Will.” Journal of the History of Ideas 62, no. 1 (January, 2001). Argues that the concept of general will divine purpose and effect appears in the fourteenth century writings of Levi ben Gershom and thus did not originate during the seventeenth century, as previously believed.
Sirat, Colette. A History of Jewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages. London: Cambridge University Press, 1985. A general study of Jewish religious and secular thought and belief in the centuries constituting the Middle Ages.