Yet another entry bearing the title of an individual’s magnum opus as its own title. In this case, the opus is Or Adonai (Light of the Lord), and the individual’s name is Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (1340-1410), the religious philosopher of great importance to Judaism, yet of little credit from his Jewish contemporaries and from an ungrateful Jewish posterity. The Christians, on the other hand, see him as an intolerant warrior bent on refuting Christianity, and by no means a sympathetic figure anyway. Yes, another underdog, and another reason for me to write a special entry.
My defense of Crescas starts with comparing him with Celsus, the earliest Greek anti-Christian philosopher of the 2nd century AD. I know that comparing two people spaced twelve hundred years apart may seem a bit awkward, but the point that I am making pays no attention to the time difference, as it concerns the principle itself. Celsus was a deliberate aggressor against Christianity when it was politically powerless and severely persecuted. He was indeed a sworn enemy of Christianity.
Crescas, however, was never an aggressor, but a defender. In his time the political power of Christianity was in full swing, and Judaism (as represented by the Talmud and other distinctive features of Jewishness) was a persecuted entity. Many Jews at the time were prepared to abandon Judaism as such “for the sake of peace” with the Christian superpower. Crescas was thus one of the few who actively rose against the retirement of Judaism and became one of its staunchest protectors and defenders. In doing this he may have gone too far, attacking all those perceived "collaborators" with the Gentile world who had been trying to introduce certain elements of Gentile thought, namely, Aristotelianism, into Judaism. He saw them as harbingers of a Jewish surrender, and assaulted them with all his intellectual might. Regrettably, the great Maimonides (long dead by then) was one of his biggest targets: an unforgivable crime on Crescas’ part in the eyes of contemporary and future Jewish intellectuals.
To recapitulate the above-said, Crescas was indeed a staunch defender of Judaism, but not so much against the Christian world per se, as against the “religious apostates” from within the Jewish community (whom he saw besmirching Judaism as a way for the Jews to make peace with the Christians). He also saw his work as a means of encouraging fellow Jews in their continued adherence to the much-troubled Jewish faith of those times.
Thus, Crescas’ momentous treatise Refutation of the Core Principles of Christianity was never designed to offend Christendom, but only to protect the rightful Jewish religious territory. And, logically, his great book Or Adonai (Light of the Lord) was a major exposition of the basic tenets of Rabbinical Judaism. Through his work, Crescas, displaying an exceptional intellectual boldness and originality, wanted to liberate Judaism from the influence of Aristotelianism, and from the perceived “heresies” of Maimonides and Gersonides. Whether he was right to go against the legacies of his great predecessors is beside the point. By doing this, Crescas serves the best purpose of genuine philosophy: generating a sharp debate over the issues he tackles, thus clarifying them for his contemporaries and for the future generations of thinkers. It is regrettable, though, that the Jewish scholars of his time and of posterity chose to mostly ignore Crescas’ works in their disserving defense of the assaulted authority of Rambam who, obviously, never asked for, nor needed such a defense, and would have strongly objected against the contemptible method of ignoring the opponent as a weapon of intellectual war.
There was, however, a supreme vindication for Crescas in the history of world philosophy. He is noted for exercising a major influence on the greatest Jewish philosopher of all time, Benedict/Baruch Spinoza. Note the tremendous, delicious irony in this: Crescas, the uncompromising fighter against the Westernization of Jewish philosophy deeply influencing the ultimate Jewish “Westerner.” Here you see philosophical genius at its best, no matter what those petty scholars and recycled thinkers might say.
…A lesson for today: only dissimilar people and contrarian nations can discern and appreciate each other’s greatest worth.
My defense of Crescas starts with comparing him with Celsus, the earliest Greek anti-Christian philosopher of the 2nd century AD. I know that comparing two people spaced twelve hundred years apart may seem a bit awkward, but the point that I am making pays no attention to the time difference, as it concerns the principle itself. Celsus was a deliberate aggressor against Christianity when it was politically powerless and severely persecuted. He was indeed a sworn enemy of Christianity.
Crescas, however, was never an aggressor, but a defender. In his time the political power of Christianity was in full swing, and Judaism (as represented by the Talmud and other distinctive features of Jewishness) was a persecuted entity. Many Jews at the time were prepared to abandon Judaism as such “for the sake of peace” with the Christian superpower. Crescas was thus one of the few who actively rose against the retirement of Judaism and became one of its staunchest protectors and defenders. In doing this he may have gone too far, attacking all those perceived "collaborators" with the Gentile world who had been trying to introduce certain elements of Gentile thought, namely, Aristotelianism, into Judaism. He saw them as harbingers of a Jewish surrender, and assaulted them with all his intellectual might. Regrettably, the great Maimonides (long dead by then) was one of his biggest targets: an unforgivable crime on Crescas’ part in the eyes of contemporary and future Jewish intellectuals.
To recapitulate the above-said, Crescas was indeed a staunch defender of Judaism, but not so much against the Christian world per se, as against the “religious apostates” from within the Jewish community (whom he saw besmirching Judaism as a way for the Jews to make peace with the Christians). He also saw his work as a means of encouraging fellow Jews in their continued adherence to the much-troubled Jewish faith of those times.
Thus, Crescas’ momentous treatise Refutation of the Core Principles of Christianity was never designed to offend Christendom, but only to protect the rightful Jewish religious territory. And, logically, his great book Or Adonai (Light of the Lord) was a major exposition of the basic tenets of Rabbinical Judaism. Through his work, Crescas, displaying an exceptional intellectual boldness and originality, wanted to liberate Judaism from the influence of Aristotelianism, and from the perceived “heresies” of Maimonides and Gersonides. Whether he was right to go against the legacies of his great predecessors is beside the point. By doing this, Crescas serves the best purpose of genuine philosophy: generating a sharp debate over the issues he tackles, thus clarifying them for his contemporaries and for the future generations of thinkers. It is regrettable, though, that the Jewish scholars of his time and of posterity chose to mostly ignore Crescas’ works in their disserving defense of the assaulted authority of Rambam who, obviously, never asked for, nor needed such a defense, and would have strongly objected against the contemptible method of ignoring the opponent as a weapon of intellectual war.
There was, however, a supreme vindication for Crescas in the history of world philosophy. He is noted for exercising a major influence on the greatest Jewish philosopher of all time, Benedict/Baruch Spinoza. Note the tremendous, delicious irony in this: Crescas, the uncompromising fighter against the Westernization of Jewish philosophy deeply influencing the ultimate Jewish “Westerner.” Here you see philosophical genius at its best, no matter what those petty scholars and recycled thinkers might say.
…A lesson for today: only dissimilar people and contrarian nations can discern and appreciate each other’s greatest worth.
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