Joseph ibn Shem-Tov

Rabbinical Eras
To be distinguished from Joseph Albo (1380-1435)

Joseph ibn Shem-Tov (died 1480) was a prolific Judæo-Spanish writer born in Castile. He lived in various cities of Spain: Medina del Campo de Leon (1441); Alcalá de Henares (1451); and Segovia (1454).

Though it is not known precisely what office he held at court, he occupied a position which brought him in contact with distinguished Christian scholars. According to the custom of the time, he held public disputations with them in the presence of the court; this probably led him to study the polemical literature of the Jews. In the preface to his commentary on Profiat Duran's Al-Tehi ka-Aboteka, he recounts a disputation with a Christian scholar concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. He seems to have elaborated this disputation and to have used it later in various anti-Christian writings. In 1452 he was sent by the Prince of Asturia, Don Enrique, to Segovia to prevent an outbreak of popular rage at Easter against the Jews. He speaks occasionally in his writings of great sufferings which drove him from place to place, and of passing through a severe illness. Graetz (Gesch. viii. 422) has discovered, from a quotation in Joseph Jaabez's Or ha-Ḥayyim, that Ibn Shem-Ṭob died a martyr. The year of his passing was 1480.

Ibn Shem-Ṭob's numerous writings, a list of which was compiled by Munk and supplemented by Beer and Steinschneider, are divisible into (a) independent works and (b) commentaries.

Contents

Original works

Commentaries

Ethical views

The Kebod Elohim is Joseph's chief work. His leading ideas and principles, scattered throughout his other writings, are here brought together. In it he compares the ethical opinions of the Greeks, especially of Aristotle, with those of Judaism, a thing which had not before been earnestly or thoroughly done. For this purpose he gives many extracts ("peraḳim") from the Ethics of Aristotle, and translates chapters ix. and x., though from a Latin version. In answer to the question as to man's summum bonum he concludes it to be the Torah, which teaches and promises immortality, whereas the Greeks only speculate as to man's final goal. That the Torah and the philosophy of the Greeks have one and the same end, as some maintain, he denies, declaring the claim to be incompatible with the essence of positive religion; the Torah ordains the fulfilment of the 613 commandments, not the ethical teachings of Aristotle. Speculation within the bounds of the Torah is permitted, even commanded; and its province should be "the secret meanings of the Torah and of its rules, and the teachings of the Prophets." By this he probably indicates kabalistic dogmas. The divine commands are reasonable, although explanations based on reason, without the help of tradition often fail to explain the foundations of the commands.

Characterization

Joseph ibn Shem-Ṭob was one of the most learned writers of his time. His knowledge of science and philosophy was intimate, and he had a very thorough acquaintance with Aristotle, his chief commentator Averroes, and the prominent Jewish, Muslim, and Christian writers. At the same time he was an independent and outspoken critic. He not only passed judgment upon Christianity and Islam, but he criticized Maimonides, with whose fundamental ideas he was not in sympathy, and maintained that the claim made by the cabalists that Shimon bar Yochai was the author of the Zohar was baseless. Nevertheless, in a discussion as to the proofs of the unity of God, he prefers the arguments of the kabalists to those of the philosophers. His attitude might be termed "positive Jewish," with a remarkable mixture of rationalism and dogmatism. He would allow no obscurity or confusion of ideas, and emphatically asserted that religion and philosophy are not identical in their final aim: "The Aristotelian laws make men; Jewish laws make Jews."

In the strife then raging over the study of rationalistic sciences Ibn Shem-Ṭob took the following position: The Jew in possession of the divine revelation could dispense with the sciences, although their study was useful to him, since they perfected him as a human being; but their study should be deferred to an advanced age. In this he agreed with Solomon ben Adret. He thought it was the "sophistry" of "Greek wisdom," in which speculative knowledge was the chief end of life, which made materialists of so many prominent Jews, causing their defection from Judaism and the extinction of whole communities in Aragon and Castile. In other districts, he said, not affected by this spirit, there were thousands of Jews who would rather be killed than surrender their faith.

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

Notes

  1. ^ Hermann Zotenberg, "Cat. Hebr. MSS. Paris," No. 325, 2; Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 2052, 2.
  2. ^ The Rishonim: biographical sketches of the prominent early ... ed. Shmuel Teich, Hersh Goldwurm - 1982 p. 113 "these contacts probably prompted him to write a commentary on R' Profiat Duran's Igeres Al Tehi KeAvosecha (Constantinople, ca. 1577) and Daas Elyon, both refutations of Christianity, and to translate the work of R' Chisdai Crescas II, Bitul Ikrei HaNotzrim, from Spanish into Hebrew. R' Yosef composed a commentary on Lamentations, and some interpretations of Torah, which have not been published. He also wrote an unpublished commentary on R' Yedayah HaPenini's Bechinos Olam. In addition, he wrote a book of sermons, He also wrote an unpublished commentary on *R' Yedayah HaPenini's Bechinos Olam. In addition, he wrote a book of sermons, Ein HaKoreh; Sefeikos Belkkarim al Maaseh Yeshu HaNotzri, a critical examination of many Christian dogmas; "

References