Nahmanides

Jewish scholar and physician

• Born: 1194
• Birthplace: Gerona, Catalonia (now in Spain)
• Died: 1270
• Place of death: Acre, Palestine (now in Israel)

A creative and original scholar whose work synthesized many of the intellectual trends of his time, Naḥmanides mediated disputes within the Jewish world and was compelled to defend Jewish beliefs in a disputation with a Dominican friar in 1263. He spent the final years of his life in Palestine.

Early Life

Naḥmanides (Nahkh-MAHN-ih-dees) was born into a prominent scholarly family in Gerona, Catalonia, a major Jewish center in northeastern Spain, and he lived there most of his life as a teacher and community leader. Thirteenth century Catalonia had been reconquered by Christian forces from Muslim rule, and it was an important commercial center and cultural crossroads, particularly for the Jewish community. Its population included survivors of Muslim persecutions in southern Spain and North Africa and refugees from expulsions in northern France, along with a native Jewish community of considerable antiquity with close ties to the Jews of Provence. These diverse elements created a complex religious and intellectual milieu of competing traditions, including the philosophical rationalism and scientific approach of the Jews of Muslim lands, the strict talmudism and pietism of northern Europe, mystical teachings from Provence, and the pragmatic traditionalism of the indigenous Spanish-Jewish community.

All these trends are evident in the scholarship of Naḥmanides. While little is known about his early education, he apparently studied in Provence and Évreux, France, as well as in his native Gerona. Naḥmanides was also trained as a physician, and he earned his living, in part, through his medical practice.

Life’s Work

As a scholar and head of a yeshiva (Jewish academy for talmudic study) in Gerona, Naḥmanides produced a diverse and important body of writings, including commentaries on the Hebrew Bible and the Babylonian Talmud. His stature as an outstanding teacher and leader drew him into several public disputes, both within and beyond the Jewish community. These included his involvement in the controversy over the writings of Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) in the 1230’s and his participation in a forced debate with a Christian friar in the 1260’.

Contention over the legal and philosophical writings of Maimonides was an ongoing feature of Jewish life in thirteenth century Provence and Spain, beginning even during Maimonides’ lifetime. Controversial issues included the comprehensive ambitions of Maimonides’ legal code, the Mishneh Torah (1180; The Code of Maimonides, 1927-1965); his apparent rejection of the doctrine of bodily resurrection in his major philosophical work, Dalālat al-ḥa՚irīn (1190; Guide of the Perplexed, 1881); and general disagreement over the role that philosophy and other branches of secular learning should play in Jewish intellectual life. The disputes in which Naḥmanides played a role began in Montpellier in southern France over assertions that some Jews, influenced by Maimonides’ philosophical approach, were rejecting the precepts of Jewish law and interpreting biblical and talmudic texts allegorically. The “anti-Maimunists” took their accusations to the rabbis of northern France who prohibited reading the writings of Maimonides on pain of excommunication; the supporters of Maimonides’ work in Provence responded with a counterban, excommunicating their opponents. Both parties sought adherents in Spain. Naḥmanides allied himself with the traditionalists who saw the writings of Maimonides as a potential danger to Jewish piety and observance. Nevertheless, Naḥmanides recognized the very different cultural contexts of northern France, where secular studies and philosophy had no role in traditional Jewish learning, and of Spain, where Jews had long considered scientific and philosophical studies an essential part of a full education.

Naḥmanides attempted to mediate the dispute in a way that would preserve the larger Jewish community from the threats of both rampant rationalism and a catastrophic schism, while at the same time he wanted to protect Maimonides’ colossal contribution to Jewish learning. He appealed to both sides to moderate their extreme language and proposed the adoption of an educational program that would incorporate the progressive study of secular subjects side by side with traditional Jewish sources, which would vary based on the age and location of students. Unfortunately, Naḥmanides’ attempt to find a middle ground was not successful as extremists on both sides seized control of the debate. This phase of the quarrel ended with the public burning of Maimonides’ major writings in 1233, the same year the French anti-Maimunists apparently encouraged the involvement of representatives of the Inquisitorial branch of the Roman Catholic Church, which was already actively expunging the Christian Catharist heresy in Provence.

In 1263, some thirty years after his unsuccessful efforts to mediate the controversy over Maimonides’ writings, Naḥmanides, as the recognized leader of Catalan Jewry, was forced by King James I of Aragon (r. 1214-1276) to participate in a public disputation with a Dominican friar, a Jewish convert to Christianity who had taken the name Pablo Christiani. However, Naḥmanides agreed to do so only if the king would guarantee he could speak freely. The purpose of the debate, orchestrated by members of the Dominican order, was conversionary, based on the expectation that the force of Christian arguments in refuting Jewish claims would be sufficient to convince Jews of the errors of their ways and lead to their baptisms. Beginning in the thirteenth century, such disputations, together with sermons to which Jews were periodically compelled to listen, became increasingly common stratagems to convert Jews to Christianity.

The debate at Barcelona, held in the presence of royal officials, noblemen, church dignitaries, and Jewish leaders, lasted for four days. It was not a free and open exchange of views but a carefully orchestrated encounter limited to the question of whether or not rabbinic sources stated that the messiah had already come. Pablo offered rabbinic stories in which the messiah was an active participant, and Naḥmanides was compelled either to disprove or accept them, although without in any way questioning the truths of Christianity or offending the Christians present. A striking and innovative feature of this approach was its use of rabbinic literature against the Jewish faith, an approach that was possible because Pablo had been educated in talmudic studies prior to his conversion. Thus, Naḥmanides was doubly on the defensive; any refutations of apparent talmudic “truths” could call the entire rabbinic framework of medieval Judaism into question.

Two reports of the disputation survive. The rather terse Latin version describes the debate from a Christian point of view, ending in a resounding victory for Pablo and the discomfiture of Naḥmanides. The detailed Hebrew account by Naḥmanides, on the other hand, recounts in great detail Naḥmanides’ rebuttal of Pablo’s claims and the definitive defeat of the Christian challenger. A significant feature of Naḥmanides’ version is the distinction he establishes between the legal literature (halakhah) of the Talmud and its narrative passages (aggadah). Naḥmanides argued that whereas the halakhah is considered a part of divine revelation and binding on all Jews, the aggadah (or midrash) should be seen as exemplary literature, similar to the content of a sermon, and need not be taken literally. In arguing that rabbinic legends were simply meant as homilies and consolation texts, Naḥmanides was able to discount the legends by implying that the messiah had actually appeared in particular times and places. However, Naḥmanides diverged quite significantly from traditional Jewish views of the divine origin of all of rabbinic writings by making such qualitative differentiations among talmudic texts.

Scholars accept that it is impossible to reconstruct a precise version of what occurred at the debate because both extant narratives were written after the fact for partisan audiences. What is certain is that when Naḥmanides published his written account of the disputation in 1265, members of the Dominican order accused him of insulting the Christian faith and complained to both King James and to Pope Clement IV, demanding he be put on trial and punished. Although the king, who had a cordial and profitable relationship with the Catalan Jewish community, was inclined to protect the Jewish leader, it seems likely that fears of ecclesiastical prosecution impelled the elderly Naḥmanides to fulfil his long cherished aspiration of leaving Spain for Palestine, where he spent the rest of his life, first in Jerusalem and then in Acre where he died in 1270.

Naḥmanides was a prolific scholar. Among his many legal works, his novellae (legal innovations) on the Talmud are considered high points of Jewish religious creativity in Spain. They drew on earlier Spanish-Jewish talmudic scholarship, characterized by its elucidation of the halakhah for practical purposes, and they also introduced the methodology of the northern French analytic tradition of talmudic argumentation for its own sake, until Naḥmanides’ time little known in Spain. Naḥmanides’ works also incorporated the teachings of Provence, thus creating a threefold Spanish, French, and Provençal synthesis distinguished by its wealth of sources, clear and lucid style, and logical structure. Naḥmanides was also a biblical exegete; among other exegetical works he completed an extensive and influential commentary on the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) in his last years in Palestine. This commentary includes Naḥmanides’ conviction that the Torah, as the word of God, is the source of all knowledge, future as well as past; his exegesis is also noted for its incorporation of many elements from the Kabbalah, Jewish mystical tradition.

Like many Spanish Jews, Naḥmanides felt strongly the pain of living in exile in a foreign land and longed to return to the land of Israel; he taught that only in Israel was it possible to fully observe the commandments. He also understood the necessity of offering comfort to the Jews of Spain by emphasizing the truth of Jewish messianic beliefs and the certainty of their ultimate fulfillment. In his thirteenth century eschatological work, Sefer ha-Ge՚ulah (The Book of Redemption , 1978), Naḥmanides affirmed that the promised redemption of the Jewish people from exile and the advent of the messiah, a human king descended from King David who would reestablish a Jewish kingdom, were based on solid and certain biblical promises.

Significance

As a scholar, Naḥmanides enriched Spanish-Jewish intellectual life and literature by incorporating the talmudic dialectics of northern France and the mysticism of Provence into his many legal writings and his influential biblical commentaries. As a community leader, he sought to offer a moderate response to the attack on the writings of Maimonides that would guard against the growth of religious skepticism while maintaining the valuable contributions of philosophy and the secular sciences. His coerced participation in the Barcelona disputation of 1263, and its aftermath, altered the course of his final years, leading to his settlement in Palestine to avoid being persecuted by the Church. In a broader way, these events also presaged the increasingly perilous situation of Jewish life in Spain in the centuries to come.

Bibliography

Baer, Yitzhak. A History of the Jews in Christian Spain. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1961. The standard history of this period provides a great deal of information about Naḥmanides’ life and contributions in a larger historical and cultural context.

Chavel, Charles. Ramban: His Life and Teachings. New York: Feldheim, 1960. This biography by the editor and translator of many of Naḥmanides’ writings, describes Naḥmanides’ familial and educational background and details his scholarly oeuvre and major aspects of his thought.

Chazan, Robert. Barcelona and Beyond: The Disputation of 1263 and Its Aftermath. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. An analytical study of the famous disputation in the larger context of the Christian assault on Jews and Jewish beliefs in the later Middle Ages.

Henoch, Chaim. J. Ramban: Philosopher and Kabbalist: On the Basis of His Exegesis of the Mitzvoth. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1998. This volume evaluates Naḥmanides within the larger Jewish intellectual milieu of thirteenth century Spain and also demonstrates the significant extent to which Jewish mystical teachings permeated all of his writings, including his biblical exegesis and legal studies.

Idel, Moshe. “Naḥmanides: Kabbalah, Halakhah, and Spiritual Leadership.” In Jewish Mystical Leaders in the Thirteenth Century, edited by Moshe Idel and Mortimer Ostow. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1998. A detailed exposition by a major scholar of Jewish mysticism of Naḥmanides’ central role in the spread of the Kabbalah in Europe, a signal contribution that the author believes has been underestimated and misunderstood.

Margolies, Morris B. Twenty Twenty: Jewish Visionaries Through Two Thousand Years. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 2000. Provides biographies of leading visionaries in the Jewish tradition, including Naḥmanides and Maimonides. Also provides a bibliography and index.

Twersky, Isadore, ed. Rabbi Moses Naḥmanides (Ramban): Explorations in His Religious and Literary Virtuosity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983. An introduction (by the editor) and five scholarly essays on various aspects of Naḥmanides’ writings.