About this Item
In Hebrew. Volume 1: 432 pages. Volume 2: 604 pages. 245 x 175 mm. Moses ben Nachman )Moses son of Nachman)(1194 Girona -1270 Israel), commonly known as Nachmanides (Greek for ?son of Nachman?), and also as Ramban,an acronym for Rabeinu Moshe ben Nachman. His Catalan name was Bonastruc ca Porta; literally "Mazel Tov near the Gate", was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Catalan rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator. He was raised, studied, and lived for most of his life in Girona, Catalonia. He is also an important figure in the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Jerusalem following its destruction by the Crusaders in 1099. Nachmanides was born, grew up and studied in Girona (hence he is also called Mosheh ben Nahman Gerondi, or "Moses son of Nahman the Gironan"). According to the responsa of Shlomo ibn Aderet Nachmanides studied medicine. During his teens he began to get a reputation as a learned Jewish scholar. At age 16 he began his writings on Jewish law. In his Milhamot Hashem (Wars of the Lord) he defended Alfasi's decisions against the criticisms of Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona. These writings reveal a conservative tendency that distinguished his later works, an unbounded respect for the earlier authorities. In the view of Nachmanides, the wisdom of the rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud, as well as the Geonim (rabbis of the early medieval era) was unquestionable. Their words were to be neither doubted nor criticized. Nachmanides' adherence to the words of the earlier authorities may have been a reaction to the rapid acceptance of Greco-Arabic philosophy among the Jews of Spain and Provence soon after the appearance of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. This work gave rise to a tendency to allegorize Biblical narratives, and to downplay the role of miracles. Against this tendency Nachmanides strove, and went to the other extreme, not even allowing the utterances of the immediate disciples of the Geonim to be questioned. Nachmanides, first as rabbi of Girona and later as chief rabbi of Catalonia, seems to have led a largely untroubled life. When well advanced in years, however, his life was interrupted by an event which made him leave his family and his country and wander in foreign lands. This was the religious disputation in which he was called upon to defend his faith in 1263. The debate was initiated by a Pablo Christiani, a Jewish convert to Christianity, who had been sent by the Dominican Master General, Raymond de Penyafort, to King James I of Aragon, with the request that the king order Nachmanides to respond to charges against Judaism. Pablo Christiani had been trying to make the Jews convert to Christianity. Relying upon the reserve his adversary would be forced to exercise due to fear of offending the feelings of the Christians, Pablo assured the King that he would prove the truth of Christianity from the Talmud and other rabbinical writings. Nachmanides answered the order of the King, but asked that complete freedom of speech should be granted. For four days (July 20?24) he debated with Pablo Christiani in the presence of the King, the court, and many churchmen. The subjects discussed were: whether the Messiah had appeared; whether the Messiah announced by the Prophets was to be considered as divine or as a man born of human parents; whether the Jews or the Christians were in possession of the true faith. Christiani argued, based upon several aggadic passages, that the Pharisee sages believed that the Messiah had lived during the Talmudic period, and that they ostensibly believed that the Messiah was therefore Jesus. Nachmanides countered that Christiani's interpretations were distortions; the rabbis would not hint that Jesus was Messiah while, at the same time, explicitly opposing him as such. He further said that if the sages of the Talmud believed that Jesus was the messiah then most certainly they would have been Christians and not Jews. . .
Seller Inventory # 017012
Contact seller
Report this item
