Sprache:
Hebräisch
Erscheinungsjahr:
2020
Titel der Quelle:
מורשת ישראל; כתב-עת ליהדות לציונות ולארץ ישראל
Angaben zur Quelle:
18,2 (תשף) 235-267
Schlagwort(e):
Animals Religious aspects
;
Judaism
;
Providence and government of God
;
Jewish philosophy Historiography
Kurzfassung:
According to Maimonides, “in the lower or sublunary portion of the Universe Divine Providence does not extend to the individual members of species except in the case of mankind. […] I agree with Aristotle as regards all other living beings, and a fortiori as regards plants and all the rest of earthly creatures. For I do not believe that it is through the interference of Divine Providence that acertain leaf drops [from a tree], nor do I hold that when a certain spider catches a certain fly, that this is the direct result of a special decree and will of God in that moment […]. In all these cases the action is, according to my opinion, entirely due to chance, as taught by Aristotle” (Guide for the Perplexed, III, XVII). This view was the consensus in the Jewish thought of the Middle Ages and had the supportof Nachmanides, the author of Sefer HaChinuch, Me’iri, Albo, R. Bechaye and other rabbinic authorities during this period. Only the Karaites believed then in the Muslim Mu’tazila idea that God supervises animals individually. The opinion that there is no special divine providence over animals continued to prevail in rabbinic thought, and was accepted by Kabbalists such as R. Moshe Cordovero (Ramak)and R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal). But at the end of the 18th century all of this was reversed, mainly through the influence of Hasidism. The argument that “a person must believe that even a straw on the earth is commanded by God, Who commanded it to be placed with its edges here and there,” has been attributed to the originator of Hasidism, the Ba’al Shem Tov, but it has taken over all elements of Ultra-Orthodox society today. It was asserted that “it is a decided halacha that there is not anything which is not supervised by Divine Providence,” and a ban was imposed on reading texts from the past that support Maimonides’ position.In this article I prove that the belief in special providence over animals, described by the Lubavitcher Rebbe as “one of the fundamental points in the theory of the Baal Shem Tov,” is actually not so new, and was already preached by Jesus in lectures to his disciples 2,000 years ago. Moreover, medieval Christian theologians attacked Maimonides for his position with the same arguments used against him today by Hasidic and Ultra-Orthodox theologians. Finally, I discuss how it happened that a Christian-Muslim-Karaite belief that was vehemently rejected by almost all Jewish authorities became the consensus in the Judaism of the modern era.
Anmerkung:
With an English abstract.
URL:
אתר את הפרסום בקטלוג המאוחד של ספריות ישראל
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