Language:
English
Year of publication:
2019
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Jewish Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
70,2 (2019) 276-297
Keywords:
Ezra ben Solomon,
;
Aggada Commentaries
;
Harranians
;
Cabala History To 1570
Abstract:
In his Commentary on the Talmudic Aggadot, Ezra ben Solomon of Gerona (d.c.1235), one of the first Kabbalists, claims that certain views of ‘philosophers’ and views of Kabbalists are identical, with the only differences between them being ones of nomenclature. These philosophic views, however, turn out to be views of the Sabians, a group that Maimonides erroneously believed was dominant during biblical times. Ezra was well aware of the Sabian origin of these views for he took his account of them almost verbatim from Maimonides’ description of Sabian belief and practice in The Guide of the Perplexed. Maimonides viewed Sabian belief as idolatrous and antithetical to Judaism and claimed that the Torah was determined to combat Sabianism. In arguing, therefore, for the identity of Sabian and Kabbalistic beliefs, Ezra intends to polemicize against Maimonides by rehabilitating sources that the latter rejected.
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