502) Moshe haGoleh of Kiev: a critical devotee of Avraham Ibn Ezra

 

An early manuscript of Moshe haGoleh's Kabbalistic work, Shoshan Sodot.

Introduction

This article ꟷ based extensively on the research by Professor Eric Lawee[1] ꟷ examines a little-known and somewhat neglected exegete and commentator, R. Moshe ben Yakov (1448-1520) who compiled a super-commentary (i.e., a commentary on a commentary) based on R. Avraham Ibn Ezra (1089-1164) who had preceded him by almost four centuries. Moshe ben Yakov is also known as Moshe haGoleh (the ‘exile’) miKiev.^[2] 

Very few have ever heard of Moshe haGoleh, nor of the commentary he authored on Ibn Ezra entitled Otzar Nechmad, but he had some interesting things to say about Ibn Ezra and his relationship to Halacha, and to his 'opponent' Rashi. Moshe haGoleh also shed some light on the existence of diverse Rashi manuscripts. Additionally, he embarked upon a mission to convert Karaites to Rabbinic Judaism. Surprisingly, although Moshe haGoleh was an outspoken supporter of the rationalist Torah commentary of Ibn Ezra and engaged in the sciences and astronomy, he personally remained a Kabbalist. As an exegete, he was able to maintain a level-headed and even critical approach towards his ‘rabbi,’ Ibn Ezra. He is the only known Kabbalist to have written a super-commentary on Ibn Ezra. Yet, he remains: 

390) A History of Torah Observance: The widespread rejection of Judaism is certainly tragic. But is it unusual?

Photo by Federico Di Dio photography on Unsplash

A Guest post by Rabbi Boruch Clinton

Some appear to assume that the current state of Jewish observance - where only a small minority of Jews are Torah-loyal - is an historical anomaly. The centuries and millennia preceding the European Enlightenment, so the thinking goes, saw more or less universal halachic compliance, and it was only through a combination of hostile external and internal 18th Century forces that we lost most of our population.

But I'm not sure that's true. First of all, mass defections seem to have been common through most periods of Jewish history. And second, Jewish life could hardly be considered "settled" during the early modern period (c. 1450-1800) that preceded the Enlightenment. In other words, while things may not be great right now, I'm not sure they were ever all that much better. There has always been free will and bad choices have always been an option.

239) MAIMONIDES - A ‘SECRET KARAITE’?

RAMBAM THROUGH THE EYES OF THE KARAITES:

Writings of Aharon ben Eliyahu, a 14th century Karaite who produced a Karaite version of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. He was known as the 'Karaite Rambam'. 

INTRODUCTION: 

Maimonides is known as one of the fathers of Jewish law and rationalist philosophy, yet he is also variously depicted as a secret mystic; a convert to Islam [See Could Rambam Have Been Forced to Convert to Islam?];  the Lubavitcher Rebbe referred to himself as a follower of Rambam[1]; the Wissenschaft des Judentums of the Enlightenment Movement held Rambam up as their shining light; and even the Karaites claimed him as one of their own!

In this article, which I have based on the research of Professor Daniel J. Lasker[2], we will explore the Karaite claim that Rambam was a secret Karaite.

THE KARAITES:

The Karaite movement was started in the 8^th century in present-day Iraq. Its followers accepted the idea that the Torah was given to Moses at Sinai, but they completely rejected the notion of the Oral Tradition as it manifested through rabbinic Judaism. The Karaites (or Kara’im in Hebrew – from the word kara or mikra meaning ‘Scripture’) based their teachings exclusively on the Written Torah. 

There still are a substantial number of Karaite Jews today, and it appears that at one point in our history, they may have even formed the majority of our nation.

The Karaites often conflicted with the Rabbinites, although in Rambam’s 12^th century Egypt, the two communities had close connections.

[For more on the Karaites see here.]

ELIYAHU BASHYATCHI:

Although the Karaites relied mostly on the literal Torah text, they also had their version of an oral tradition and also had chachamim, halachists and decisors.  One such decisor during the 1400s was Eliyahu Bashyatchi[3] (1420-1490).

Bashyatchi was well-schooled in rabbinic and Talmudic Judaism. His Rabbinite teacher was the Rishon, R. Mordechai Comtino who was also the teacher of the Re’em (R. Eliyahu Mizrachi author of Sefer haMizrachi, a supercommentary on Rashi to the Torah). 

The Re’em became the Chacham Bashi or Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire, and both he and his teacher were known for their tolerant attitudes towards Karaites. Such was the unprejudiced milieu in which Bashyatchi found himself.

RAMBAM AND IBN EZRA – ‘SECRET KARAITES’?

Bashyatchi wrote that both Rambam as well as Avraham Ibn Ezra (who, in his commentary, openly referenced Karaite sources hundreds of times, see here) were:

“...among the great men of Israel...

Their occasional attacks on the Karaites were for external consumption only, but God knows what was in their hearts.

They revealed their secrets to special individuals, since it is improper to say the truth to everyone, but they told the truth to those to whom it was proper.” [4]

According to Bashyatchi, both Rambam and Ibn Ezra were ‘secret Karaites’!

RAMBAM’S ALLEGED ‘DISSILLUSIONMENT’ WITH RABBINIC JUDAISM:

Bashyatchi goes on to bring what he considers to be proof of Rambam’s general ‘disillusionment’ with the mainstream Rabbinite worldview:

“And thus said the sage Rabbi Moses the son of Rabbi Maimon...in the Guide [of the Perplexed]...concerning one of the dicta [statements] of the Rabbinites [irrelevant to our discussion but relating to brevity in prayer]:

‘Would that all [their] dicta were like it!’

It appears from this that he did not consider every dicta of the Rabbinites to be proper, as this one was.”

This quotation from Rambam, praising one particular Talmudic statement, seemed to indicate to Bashyatchi that Rambam openly preferred this Talmudic statement over most of the others, therefore - despite some negative references by Rambam about the Karaites - Rambam was an anti-Rabbinite and a secret Karaite!

Rambam’s actual words in his Guide of the Perplexed are as follows:

“You also know their famous dictum – would that all [their other][5] dicta were like it.”[6]

One can understand how Bashyatchi was happy to be drawn by Rambam’s reference to one Rabbinite statement (about brevity in prayer) as ‘their famous dictum’ – as if Rambam was distancing himself from ‘them’, the Rabbinites.

RABBINITE ‘INTIMIDATION’:

According to Bashyatchi, Rambam was too afraid of his coreligionists to openly admit the truth of Karaism - as were the Ashkenazim of Bashyatchi’s own day in the 1400s too afraid to admit to the truth of Karaism either. This was because, in Bashyatchi’s time, the Rabbinite masses were intimidated by the fact that their leaders would:

 “...eat garlic sauce, make lots of noise about wearing the tallit and tefillin, and wear long coats and decorated Russian hats.”[7]

Bashyatchi seems to imply that the Rabbinite leadership created a societal sub-culture which intimidated their followers into some form of cohesion if not submission.

Accordingly, he alleges that a type of ‘deep state’ existed among the Rabbinite leadership, which prevented the people from recognizing the truth of Karaism.

RAMBAM’S ANTI-KARAITE RHETORIC:

Daniel Lasker writes that the allegation by Bashyatchi that Rambam was a ‘secret Karaite’, is astonishing, considering that Rambam was known to have made some very strong anti-Karaite statements in his Letter to Yemen (although it is possible that Bashyatchi was unaware of the letter).

Rambam wrote:

“[B]e very careful and keep your eyes open lest any of the heretics [namely, the Karaites], may they be speedily destroyed, catch any of you, since that would be worse for you than apostasy...and know that it is permitted to slay them [the Karaites] in our opinion...”[8]

Evidently, Rambam was actually in favour of the death sentence for Karaites!

It even appears, from Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishna, that death sentences were actually carried out on some of the Karaites in Spain.[9]

WAS RAMBAM PRO OR ANTI-KARAITE?

Taking into consideration Bashyatchi’s claim, based on the Guide, that Rambam was a ‘secret Karaite’, and the above two Maimonidean sources depicting strong anti-Karaite rhetoric - was Rambam, in the words of Daniel Lasker a critic or a cultural hero of the Karaites?

THE DATING OF THE RAMBAM’S WRITING:

To answer this question we need to remember that Rambam’s anti-Karaite writings took place relatively early in his career. Rambam was born in 1135. His Letter to Yemen was written around 1172, and his Mishna Commentary was from around 1168. This placed Rambam in his early thirties when these anti-Karaite statements were made.

It does seem, however, that as he got older, he softened his stance against the Karaites.

RAMBAM’S LATER AND MORE TOLERANT WRITINGS:

In Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, written around 1180, he seems to regard Karaites (according to the printed texts) and heretics as victims of circumstances beyond their control, as if they were children taken captive by non-Jews and raised without any knowledge of their own heritage.[10]

Similarly, in one of Rambam’s responsa, he writes that as long as Karaites are respectful towards the tradition of Rabbinite sages, we too should be respectful towards them - and we may visit them in their homes, enjoy their wine, bury their dead and perform circumcision on their children even on Shabbat. 

Rabbi Kapach points out in his edition of the Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishna, that in Rambam’s own handwritten correctional notes in the margin, he himself had omitted the earlier reference to the death penalty for Karaites.

Besides Rambam changing his stance against Karaites as he got older, it is also possible that he became more tolerant of them after he had moved to Egypt around 1168 when he completed his Commentary on the Mishna, and saw just how integrated the Karaites were within the Egyptian Jewish community.

[For fragment evidence of interaction and even intermarriage[11] between Rabbinites and Karaites, see The Cairo Geniza.]

DID RAMBAM HAVE FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE OF KARAITES BEFORE MOVING TO EGYPT?

According to Daniel Lasker, it is possible that Rambam had never met Karaites before moving to Egypt - and his reference to executing Karaites in Spain (in his Mishna Commentary) may have been because the Spanish Karaite community, although quite vocally anti-Rabbinite, was very small and he may not have had first-hand association with them.[12] 

It is also unclear whether there even were Karaites living in Yemen at all, around the time Rambam sent his famous letter there.

KARAITES BEGIN ADOPTING RAMBAM AS THEIR ‘CULTURAL HERO’:

After Rambam had softened towards the Karaites, they correspondingly began to adopt more and more of his teachings into their literature.

13^th CENTURY:

AHARON BEN YOSEF HAROFEH:

The 13^th century Karaite halachic author, Aharon ben Yosef haRofeh, began to incorporate Maimonidean thought into Karaite texts.

14^th CENTURY:

AHARON BEN ELIYAHU:

The next authoritative Karaite who continued to incorporate Maimonides into his teachings, was Aharon ben Eliyahu (who was differentiated from his predecessor Aharon the Elder, by the title Aharon the Younger). He flourished in the 14^th century, and was so influenced by Maimonides that he was referred to as the ‘Karaite Maimonides’!

Aharon the Younger composed a work called Eitz Chaim which was a Karaite version of the Guide of the Perplexed.

He, for example, did not ascribe individual Divine Providence to animals but only to humans. This was in keeping with Rambam’s belief that G-d takes care of the various species or groups of animals, vegetation and inanimate matter as a whole but not of the individual within the cluster.

Thus hashgacha peratit (individual Divine Providence) applies only to humans - while hashagcha kelalit (general Divine Providence) would apply to all other creatures and also to inanimate objects.

[For more on this matter see ‘A Leaf Falls from a Tree’ – Accident or Providence?]

15^th CENTURY:

ELIYAHU BASHYATCHI:

The next major Karaite halachic decisor was the 15^th century Eliyahu Bashyatchi from whom we quoted at the beginning of the article, who claimed Rambam as one of their own and as a ‘secret Karaite’.

Daniel Lasker writes:

 “Taking things one step further, and turning Maimonides into a secret Karaite, was not such a large leap of faith for the Karaites who, in any event, were turning to the ‘Guide [of the Perplexed]’ for both religious and philosophical guidance.”

But amazingly, it was not only to the Guide of the Perplexed that the Karaites were turning, but even to Rambam’s halachic writings like the Mishneh Torah:

CALEV AFENDOPOLO:

Bashyatchi’s influential brother-in-law, Calev Afendopolo adopted the Rabbinite cycle of reading the Torah from Tishrei to Tishrei – thus changing the traditional Karaite custom which used to be from Nisan to Nisan.

In his Patshegen Ketav haDaat, he unexpectedly copies sections of Rambam’s Mishneh Torah verbatim.

Furthermore, Afendopolo’s treatment of the messianic era is also a copy of Rambam’s discussion of this matter in his various works.

The Karaites are now truly beginning to adopt Maimonidean texts.

18^th CENTURY:

SIMCHA YITZCHAK LUTSKI:

The Karaite leaders in the centuries that followed continued to heap praises on Rambam, and the 18^th century Simcha Yitzchak Lutski wrote:

“All the Torah laws which are written...are all collected by Maimonides...and he explained them at length in his great composition, called Yad haChazakah [or Mishneh Torah][13]. He who wishes to know them should look there.”

Referring to Simcha Yitzchak Lutski, Daniel Lasker makes the point that:

“He often made reference to Maimonides as an authoritative source of knowledge, blurring thereby the boundaries between Karaism and Rabbinism...

No preference is given to the Karaite worthies over the Rabbanite ones...

Lutski’s frequent explicit and implicit citations of Maimonides’ works throughout his own compositions indicate the central role Maimonides played in his thought.” 

THE KARAITE KABBALIST:

Fascinatingly, Simcha Yitzchak Lutski, who died in 1760 – the same year as the Baal Shem Tov passed away – also introduced mysticism and Kabbalah to the Karaites, making him an unusual Karaite Kabbalist.[14]

THE KARAITE SHIFT FROM RAMBAM TOWARDS KABBALAH:

During the early modern period, there appears to have been a shift away from the somewhat central role Rambam played in earlier Karaite thought. The reason given by Daniel Lasker is astonishing:

“If Maimonideanism was challenged by Karaites in the early modern period, it was because of the growing acceptance of the Kabbalah as an authoritative part of the Jewish tradition, even for Karaites.”

Thus we see that even Karaism was affected by a strong mystical influence in more recent times, to the detriment of the powerful Maimonidean rational, philosophical and even somewhat halachic influence of earlier times.

RAMBAM BECOMES A ‘SECRET KARAITE’ AND A ‘SECRET MYSTIC’:

In an astounding Karaite defence of Kabbalah over Rambam’s ‘rational anti-mysticism’, Simcha Yitzchak Lutski wrote:

“There is no doubt that had Maimonides...seen the Zohar which is the true wisdom of the Torah, received from the early sages of Israel...[who received it] from the prophets...he [Maimonides][15] would certainly have followed it...

\

Nevertheless, since [the Zohar] had not yet been revealed in his days, and he never saw it...he wrote that which he wrote.”

The Zohar was published about fifty years after Rambam’s passing. [See Mysteries behind the Origins of the Zohar.]

Most ironically, Simcha Yitzchak Lutski, the Karaite, agreed with some Rabbinite scholars who alleged that later in life, Rambam denounced his rationalism in favour of mysticism and became a mystic. [See Mysterious ‘Secret Document’ Attesting that Rambam was a Mystic.]

FROM PURITAN LITERALISTS TO SEMI-RAMBAMISTS TO MYSTICS:

Simcha Yitzchak Lutski also presented a most derisive denunciation of Maimonidean rationalism in favour of mysticism - unexpected from a Karaite - by his negative reference to Rambam as one who initially went outside of Judaism and “turned to the uncircumcised Greek philosophers...” instead of looking within.

This way the allure of the mystical tradition eventually even made inroads into the Karaite community.

---

[1] See https://youtu.be/GzXjCOnXczo

[2] Maimonides and the Karaites: From Critic to Cultural Hero, by Daniel J. Lasker.

[3] Also known as Bashyazi.

[4] Adderet Eliyahu, p. 6a (Odessa 1870).

[5] The translation is by Pines, parenthesis mine.

[6] Guide of the Perplexed 1:59, Pines edition Chicago 1963, p. 140. The nature of the actual Talmudic statement will be dealt with in detail in the next article.

[7] Adderet Eliyahu, p. 3b.

[8] Rambam’s Epistle to Yemen,

[9] Rambam, Commentary on Mishna, Chulin 1:2

[10] MT Hilchot Mamrim, 3:1-3.

[11] Rambam did not, however, encourage intermarriage with Karaites, because while he recognized their marriages, he was suspicious of the legality of their divorces. This created the possibility that a second marriage might create illegitimate children as the new mother may still have been legally married to her first husband.

[12] See Karaism in Twelfth-Century Spain, by Daniel J. Lasker, p. 179-195.

[13] Parenthesis mine.

[14] See Simhah Isaac Lutski, an Eighteenth-Century Karaite Kabbalist, by Daniel J. Lasker.

[15] Parenthesis mine.

159) RABBI ‘GIUSEPPE’ DELMEDIGO AND ‘RABBI’ GALILEO:

Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo, from the frontispiece to Sefer Elim

INTRODUCTION:

Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo (1591-1655) also known as Giuseppe Salomone di Candia Del Medigo, was a rabbi, physician, mathematician and music theorist.

Born on the island of Crete (then called Candia), he was also known as the Yashar miKandiya. ‘Yashar’, meaning honourable, is also an acronym for Yosef Shlomo Rofeh (doctor).

He spent much time amongst the Karaites[1] and he expressed the astounding view that most of Ibn Ezra’s Torah commentary had been taken from Karaite sources. (See KOTZK BLOG 158.) While in Cairo he came across a copy of Rambam’s Guide for the Perplexed and was greatly influenced by the work.

He became quite a celebrity after he defeated the renowned Arab mathematician, Ali b. Rahmadan, in a public disputation in Cairo concerning spherical trigonometry.

He travelled extensively throughout North Africa and Europe and he is buried in the famous Jewish cemetery in Prague, close to the Maharal of Prague.

SEFER ELIM:

It is estimated that R. Delmedigo may have written up to sixty books.

One of them, a book of over 400 pages on astronomy and mathematics, was entitled Sefer Elim (Palms). In it, amongst other issues, he discusses the sizes of the celestial bodies and their distances from earth.

 Illustration from Sefer Elim

The book was written in response to ‘12 general and 70 detailed questions’ sent to Delmedigo by a Karaite scholar, Zerach ben Natan, from Lithuania. These numbers coincidentally corresponded to the 12 fountains and 70 palm trees at Elim as mentioned in the Torah[2] and hence Delmedigo chose this as the name for his book.

The title page to Sefer Elim describes his occupation as a ‘propper’ (shalem) rabbi which implies an official form of smicha or rabbinical ordination.

Sefer Elim has been described as: “The most sumptuously illustrated of early scientific works in Hebrew, and unique in printed Hebrew literature before the modern period.”[3]

The book was heavily censored over the years and only sections remain today.

DELMEDIGO’S MISSION TO ‘EDUCATE AND UPLIFT ASHKENAZIM’:

His life’s mission was to introduce science to the religious Torah world of his day, particularly to the Askenazim.

Delmedigo made the observation that the Ashkenazim of his day were not interested in science because they were preoccupied solely with Talmud study to the exclusion of everything else - whereas the Sefardim and Karaites (who, at that time were more affluent and influential than the Rabbinites) were better able to merge with both worlds.

He appealed to the Ashkenazim to get more involved in science and philosophy. And he was particularly abhorred by the unsanitary conditions in the ghettos and the chaos that often ensued there because of their ignorance of worldly matters. He desperately wanted to uplift his people by a ‘renaissance’ of science and he encouraged the study of trades and professions so that they could become self-sufficient and live with dignity.

Of the Jews of Poland he writes:

“They understand neither science nor Torah. They have become enemies of science, and despise those who study it...”[4]

According to S. Pulver:

Delmedigo  “...is of historical, mathematical, and educational interest since he was one of the first in the Jewish world to attempt to integrate the new secular scientific knowledge into religious aspects of Jewish life...“[5]

While serving as the personal physician to Prince Radziwill of Poland, he wrote:

“...officers and deputies, young and old, arrive early at my door. They bring me from city to city, crowning me with honour and praise. (But) in truth I want nothing more than to write Hebrew books containing the entire body of science and wisdom in order to teach Jews.”[6]

‘RABBI’ GALILEO:

Delmedigo was, additionally, a student of Galileo, studying under him whilst in Venice.

He must have made an impression upon Galileo as he was given the unusual honour of using Galileo’s personal telescope, which Galileo had constructed himself.

 Galileo's Telescope, Museum of the History of Science, Florence

He wrote:

“My teacher Galileo observed mars when it lay close to the Earth. At this time its light was much brighter than that of Jupiter, even though Mars is much smaller. Indeed it appeared too bright to view through the telescope. I requested to look through the telescope, and mars appeared to me to be elongated rather than round...In contrast I found Jupiter to be round and Saturn to be egg-shaped.”

This observation in those times must have been like looking at images from the Hubble Telescope today.

Most fascinatingly, Delmedigo, in his Sefer Elim, refers to Galileo as ‘Rabbi Galileo’.[7]

DEFENDER OF KABBALAH?

There are two dissenting views as to whether R. Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo was a defender of Kabbalah or an opponent of it:

THE VIEW THAT HE WAS A DEFENDER OF KABBALAH:

According to one view, Delmedigo, although a scientist, saw no contradiction between science and mysticism and he authored a work called Matzreif leChachma, in defence of Kabbalah. 

This, in light of the fact that his great-grandfather, R. Eliyahu Delmedigo[8] - a loyal follower of the Maimonidean doctrine of rationalism - had launched an attack against the Kabbalah. R. Eliyahu Delmedigo believed that one had to "fight for rationality, sobriety and the realization of [his] human limitations."[9]

R. Eliyahu Delmedigo had challenged the authorship of the Zohar and denied it was written by R. Shimon bar Yochai. He claimed it was not known to the rabbis of the Talmud, nor to the Gaonim, nor to Rashi. He showed how it contained names of people who had lived after the death of R. Shimon bar Yochai. (See KOTZK BLOG 87.)

It is, therefore, most interesting that there is this view that his great-grandson, the student of Galileo, became such a staunch defender of Kabbalah. - Especially considering the publisher’s note in the preface of the book stating that when R. Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo was eighteen years old, and a student at the University of Padua in northern Italy, he would openly mock the Kabbalah. It is alleged, however, that he had a change of heart at the age of twenty-seven.

THE VIEW THAT HE WAS AN OPPONENT OF KABBALAH:

Then there is the counter view that his defence of Kabbalah was not his genuine personal view because he wrote his Matzreif leChachma on behalf of a patron in Hamburg, who by his own admission, commissioned him to write the book. In this sense, he was a ‘ghost writer’.

Apparently, he was ‘ashamed’[10] of this book and said that it was common practice for an author to not state his personal views when writing for a patron.

Furthermore, supporting the notion that Delmedigo was an opponent of Kabbalah is the fact that he was a close friend of R. Leon of Modena who was known as a fierce anti-Kabbalist.[11]

ANALYSIS:

Regarding his position with regard to Kabbalah, Delmedigo did certainly become a master of Lurianic Kabbalah whilst in Poland. Depending on the view one takes, he did this either to find mystical solutions to problems which science could not answer, or simply, to be qualified sufficiently to refute the mystical tradition.

Regarding R. Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo’s association with the Karaites may appear surprising although not that unusual in Jewish history. (See KOTZK BLOG 91.)                                        

In the Introduction to Sefer Elim, which was written by Delmedigo’s student, Moshe Metz, it states that although his teacher did associate with Karaites; ‘...it did not disturb him to be associated with any scholar, whoever he was, as long as he was interested in reason.”[12]

Finally, R. Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo’s description of the Ashkenazim of Poland is also interesting, as is his ‘solution’ to educate them in the sciences so that they may be uplifted from what he considered to be the chaos and unsanitary conditions of the ghetto.                              

In some way it appears that he may have been quite successful because a century later, Naftali Hetz Wessely (1725-1805)[13] provides an eyewitness account as to how well-read his books were:                                                                                                                                          

“We have seen among our Polish brethren... great Torah scholars who studied geometry and astronomy in their homeland by themselves, without the aid of a teacher. They knew the depths of these sciences to such an extent that the gentile scholars marvelled at their reaching such a level of knowledge without a teacher. They studied the few books that were written by scholars of our nation, such as Yesod Olam and Elim by Yosef Kandia.”[14]

AFTERWORD:

This is reminiscent of the view of the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797), who went so far as to actively encourage his students to study secular wisdom. He instructed his disciple Rabbi Baruch of Shklov to translate Euclid’s Elements into Hebrew so that the Torah world could better understand Geometry. 

The Gaon said that if one lacks a measure of secular knowledge, one will lose out on a hundred measures of Torah knowledge. He believed that Torah and secular wisdom were intertwined.[15] He also said that a Kiddush haShem was defined by a non-Jew being impressed by the professionalism and breadth of the secular knowledge of a Torah Jew. (See KOTZK BLOG 65.)

---

[1] It has been suggested that he befriended the Karaites because of their love for secular literature and also possibly because he may have been persecuted by some within the mainstream Jewish community. (See Jewish Virtual Library, Delmedigo, Joseph Solomon.)

[2] Numbers 33:9.

[3]National Library of Canada Catalogue.

[4] New Heavens and a New Earth: The Jewish Reception of Copernican Thought, by Jeremy Brown, p. 78.

[5]THE SYNCOPATED MATHEMATICAL WORKS OF JOSEPH SOLOMON DELMEDIGO, by Sandra M. Pulver. Pi Mu Epsilon Journal. Vol. 9, No. 2 (SPRING 1990), pp. 106-109.

[6] New Heavens and a New Earth: The Jewish Reception of Copernican Thought, by Jeremy Brown, p. 68.

[7] It is possible that this title was just a sign of respect but it is just as possible that Delmedigo knew something more about his teacher than was generally recorded.

[8] Author of the anti-Kabbalistic work Bechinat haDa’at.

[9] Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy.

[10] See JewishEncyclopedia, Delmedigo, Joseph Solomon.

[11] R. Modena actually used Delmedigo’s Matzreif leChachma as a basis for his own work, Ari Noham (‘Roaring Lion’) which was clearly and systematically anti-mystical.

[12] Introduction to Sefer Elim, p. 9.

[13] Wessely was a student of R. Yonatan Eybeschutz and was later regarded as one of the influential leaders of the Maskilim. He was threatened with excommunication by the German and Polish rabbinate, but the Italian rabbis came to his defence and supported him.

[14] See: Divrei Shalom veEmet, by Naftali Herz Wessely.

[15] “HaTorah vehaChochma nitzmadim yachad.”