Daniel J. Lasker | Ben Gurion University of the Negev (original) (raw)
Festschrift by Daniel J. Lasker
We would like to express our gratitude to our benefactors from the Ben-Gurion University of the N... more We would like to express our gratitude to our benefactors from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev for their valuable assistance in financing the publication of this volume: the University's Rector, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters (CSoC). Our thanks go to Katharine Handel for her meticulous and overall excellent editing work and to Yoav Meyrav for generously taking upon himself the task of reviewing the Hebrew and Arabic transliterations. We thank Asher Binyamin and The Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought for providing helpful administrative assistance. Finally, we are truly and deeply grateful to each and every contributor for willingly accepting our invitation to participate in this volume.
Articles by Daniel J. Lasker
I would like to thank Dobos Károly Dániel for his kind invitation to submit this article to Targum.
The medieval genre of Jewish anti-Christian polemical writings came about as the result of many d... more The medieval genre of Jewish anti-Christian polemical writings came about as the result of many different factors: a desire to define Jewish theology clearly, thereby delineating more explicitly Jewish self-perception; an attempt to refute Christian arguments that were considered offensive, especially in light of Christian appropriation of Jewish texts and beliefs; an effort at providing a little bit of humour to Jews, as a partial reaction to perceived Christian oppression; and a belief that convincing argumentation would keep wavering Jews from converting to Christianity.1 Most people usually associate these anti-Christian writings with the last factor only, seeing them as purely defensive. It is that factor I will discuss here, in the context of the question of what part was played by philosophy in the mass conversion of Jews in fifteenth-century Iberia. Assuming that some anti-Christian polemics were written to counteract the Christian mission and to keep Jews from converting, did they actually influence anyone? Do we know of people who rejected conversion to Christianity because they had read an anti-Christian polemic? Did conversos, who were often the targets of such literature in the later Middle Ages and early modern period, return to Judaism as a result of reading Jewish polemical works? Did any Jews convert to Christianity because they read a particularly convincing Christian missionary tract? Finally, one might ask even today whether
Hasdai Cresques was a major Jewish thinker, author and communal leader at the end of the fourteen... more Hasdai Cresques was a major Jewish thinker, author and communal leader at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries, whose works are studied closely in the academic world. Nonetheless, his impact upon the traditional Jewish community has been almost non-existent. He never finished his legal opus, which might have made an impression on traditional Jews. His extant philosophical writings are difficult to follow; only one of two vernacular anti-Christian polemics survives, in a Hebrew translation/paraphrase. Although Cresques was well remembered in the century after his death, one can already detect during this period the reasons for his subsequent neglect. An examination of the fifteenthcentury reception history of Cresques's oeuvre demonstrates the extent to which his polemical, dogmatic and philosophical stances were mostly rejected by those who followed him, including his close students. It is not surprising, then, that in subsequent centuries, Cresques's memory was almost erased from Jewish communal consciousness.
The earliest systematic Jewish polemical treatises against Christianity were written in Judeo-Ara... more The earliest systematic Jewish polemical treatises against Christianity were written in Judeo-Arabic by Jews living in Muslim ruled countries, most likely in the Syro-Iraq area, and Sarah Stroumsa has contributed greatly to our knowledge of these compositions.* The ninth-century Dāwūd al-Muqammaṣ, the first identifiable medieval Jewish philosopher, wrote two short treatises against Christianity, of which only fragments survive; in addition, he included much anti-Christian material in his pioneering philosophical work ʿIshrūn maqāla (Twenty Chapters). The anonymous Qiṣṣat mujadalat al-usqūf (rendered as "The Account of the Disputation of the Priest" in Lasker and Stroumsa, The Polemic of Nestor the Priest), also composed in the ninth century, is the earliest complete extant anti-Christian polemic. Other Jewish writers in the Islamicate world included criticisms of Christianity and defenses of Jewish doctrines against Christian claims in their theological and exegetical works. Thus, the history of Jewish anti-Christian polemics began in the Islamic period when there was no organized public Christian mission to the Jews.1
Maimonides and the Karaites When Maimonides was born in Córdoba in 1138, there was a significant ... more Maimonides and the Karaites When Maimonides was born in Córdoba in 1138, there was a significant Karaite Jewish population on the Iberian Peninsula. Although we have no specific demographic information, and this community left no literary remains, its importance can be seen in the lengths to which Rabbanite Jews (followers of rabbinic Judaism) went in combatting it. Most prominent twelfth-century Iberian Rabbanite authors polemicized against this alternative form of Judaism, sometimes in great detail, and they even enlisted the non-Jewish civil authorities in their conflict. Maimonides himself wrote in his Commentary on the Mishnah that although Jewish courts in the Diaspora were forbidden from dealing with capital cases, it was nevertheless permitted in his day to execute Karaites as heretics, and, indeed, such sentences were actually carried out in Iberia. 1 Despite this extreme antipathy, Karaism had an impact on Sephardic Rabbanism, as can be seen in the use of imported Karaite literature by Rabbanite authors. Notable examples of such influence are evident in the works of Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca. 1089-ca. 1164), who incorporated many Karaite exegetical insights into his own biblical commentaries. Judah Halevi (ca. 1075-1141) devoted around a tenth of his significant Book of Kuzari to a refutation of Karaism, and a number of other contemporary Iberian Rabbanite writings reflect the impact of Karaism in one way or another. 2 Karaite origins are unclear, but what became Karaism through the centuries seems to have emerged in the Islamic Middle East in the ninth century. 3 It is a form of Judaism that denies the existence of an Oral Torah, given by God to Moses simultaneously with the Written Torah and encapsulated in rabbinic literature, namely the Talmuds and the Midrashim. Most Jews observe a Judaism based on the deliberations of the Rabbis, but, in rejecting the Oral Torah, Karaites developed an alternative, non-rabbinic form of Judaism. Rabbanites considered the denial of the divinity and authority of the Oral Torah as heretical, and, accordingly, Maimonides listed belief in the divine origin of the Oral Torah as an element of one of the thirteen cardinal beliefs that determine who is a Jew. 4 When Maimonides arrived in Egypt in 1165, he found a vibrant Karaite community living as part and parcel of the larger Jewish community, often intermarrying with the Rabbanite majority. Undoubtedly, he felt it was important to reformulate his policy in dealing with the local dissidents in light of their communal status. On the one hand, he tried to distinguish between the groups by condemning those Egyptian Rabbanite Jews who had adopted certain Karaite practices that were easier to follow than the Rabbanite ones, especially in the realm of post-menstrual purification. On the other hand, Maimonides
In 1992, I published an article entitled, 1 "Aaron ben Joseph and the Transformation of Karaite T... more In 1992, I published an article entitled, 1 "Aaron ben Joseph and the Transformation of Karaite Thought." 2 I began the article by noting the great difference between the midtwelfth-century Karaite thought of Judah Hadassi, generally loyal to the classical Karaite Kalam theology of the Golden Age in the Land of Israel (late ninth-mideleventh centuries); and the Aristotelian-tinged philosophy two hundred years later of Aaron ben Elijah, known as the Younger (d. 1369). Aaron the Younger in his philosophical, exegetical and legal works may have defended his Karaite predecessors' intellectual integrity, but, as I argued contra the accepted wisdom, he did not agree with many of their Kalam philosophical or theological doctrines. 3 I suggested that the key to understanding the changes that had occurred in Byzantine Karaite thought could be explained by an examination of the works of Aaron ben Joseph, known as
![Research paper thumbnail of Daniel J. Lasker, “Karaite Mourning of Zion as an Ascetic Movement,” in Asceticism in Judaism and the Abrahamic Religions [=Jewish Thought, vol. 3] (Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 2021), 35-48](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/104200495/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Karaite Judaism developed in an Islamic environment in which there were Muslim movements which pr... more Karaite Judaism developed in an Islamic environment in which there were Muslim movements which preached asceticism (zuhd) as a religious value, perhaps in reaction to the temporal successes of early Islam. Their practice of asceticism included abstention in the areas of dress, food, drink, property, and sexual relations, in the hope of preparing the soul for the world to come in which the body would disintegrate and only the soul would remain. Among Rabbanite Jews, there were those who advocated an internal variety of zuhd, a sort of radical alienation from society, as a process of spiritual discipline. In the Land of Israel during the Golden Age of Karaism (end of the ninth-eleventh centuries), Karaites adopted ascetic practices (other than sexual abstinence), not in order to prepare the soul but as a way of bringing the Messiah. Those who adopted this ascetic way of life were referred to as the "Mourners of Zion." There may have been Rabbanite Mourners (rabbinic literature mentions mourning customs in light of the destruction of the Temple), but the vast majority of the Mourners of Zion movement in the Land of Israel were Karaites. Since Karaite asceticism was mainly political, namely in the service of hastening redemption, one can assume that the Karaites would have been happy to leave behind their mourning customs if the messiah had come and rebuilt the Temple. In addition to asceticism for political purposes, there were Karaites who believed that one should adopt such practices without a direct connection to the mourning of Zion. The outstanding representative of this position was Salmon ben Yeruhim, who argued in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes that King Solomon taught asceticism for spiritual purposes and not just for political ones. In addition, Salmon claimed that in certain Psalms, King David described his own ascetic lifestyle. Since David and Solomon were not mourning for the Temple, their asceticism had no relation to its destruction and one should adopt their practices without regard for any political considerations. After the destruction of the Karaite community in the Land of Israel during the First Crusade, the Karaite center moved to Byzantium, where mourning was not perceived as an attractive lifestyle. The last known Karaite identified with the Mourners of Zion was the Byzantine Judah Hadassi the Mourner in the middle of the twelfth century. Until this very day, Karaites refrain from eating meat in Jerusalem as a way of remembering the Mourners of Zion movement.
J udah Halevi (c. 1075-1141) was one of the most in uential medieval Jewish thinkers and a major... more J udah Halevi (c. 1075-1141) was one of the most in uential medieval Jewish thinkers and a major Hebrew poet. His one theological work is The Kuzari, a defense of Judaism at a time when Jews were the object of derision because of their poor temporal situation compared to the followers of the other two main western religions, Christianity and Islam. Halevi argues not only for the truth of the Jewish religion but also for the essential superiority of the Jewish people over other human beings. Jewish specialness includes a unique status for the Land of Israel, the Jewish religion, and the Hebrew language, which together serve as means of uniting with a special divine property, the divine order or thing (al-amr al-ilāhi). Halevi's yearning for the Land of Israel, as clearly seen both in his poetry and in his philosophy, led to his abandonment of his native Iberian Peninsula in favor of emigration to the Land, where he died soon after arrival in 1141. Although the central ideas of Halevi's thought are clear, there remain major issues in interpreting it fully. One of the important questions in the exegesis of The Kuzari is the extent to which Halevi believed that Jewish essentialism was tied to a biological or genetic trait, as compared with the possibility that it is connected to a metaphysical property not dependent solely on Jewish lineage. The present study will analyze this question from the point of view of Halevi's understanding of the relation between Jews and non-Jews in the context of his interpretation of the purpose of the commandments. 1
We would like to express our gratitude to our benefactors from the Ben-Gurion University of the N... more We would like to express our gratitude to our benefactors from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev for their valuable assistance in financing the publication of this volume: the University's Rector, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters (CSoC). Our thanks go to Katharine Handel for her meticulous and overall excellent editing work and to Yoav Meyrav for generously taking upon himself the task of reviewing the Hebrew and Arabic transliterations. We thank Asher Binyamin and The Goldstein-Goren International Center for Jewish Thought for providing helpful administrative assistance. Finally, we are truly and deeply grateful to each and every contributor for willingly accepting our invitation to participate in this volume.
I would like to thank Dobos Károly Dániel for his kind invitation to submit this article to Targum.
The medieval genre of Jewish anti-Christian polemical writings came about as the result of many d... more The medieval genre of Jewish anti-Christian polemical writings came about as the result of many different factors: a desire to define Jewish theology clearly, thereby delineating more explicitly Jewish self-perception; an attempt to refute Christian arguments that were considered offensive, especially in light of Christian appropriation of Jewish texts and beliefs; an effort at providing a little bit of humour to Jews, as a partial reaction to perceived Christian oppression; and a belief that convincing argumentation would keep wavering Jews from converting to Christianity.1 Most people usually associate these anti-Christian writings with the last factor only, seeing them as purely defensive. It is that factor I will discuss here, in the context of the question of what part was played by philosophy in the mass conversion of Jews in fifteenth-century Iberia. Assuming that some anti-Christian polemics were written to counteract the Christian mission and to keep Jews from converting, did they actually influence anyone? Do we know of people who rejected conversion to Christianity because they had read an anti-Christian polemic? Did conversos, who were often the targets of such literature in the later Middle Ages and early modern period, return to Judaism as a result of reading Jewish polemical works? Did any Jews convert to Christianity because they read a particularly convincing Christian missionary tract? Finally, one might ask even today whether
Hasdai Cresques was a major Jewish thinker, author and communal leader at the end of the fourteen... more Hasdai Cresques was a major Jewish thinker, author and communal leader at the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth centuries, whose works are studied closely in the academic world. Nonetheless, his impact upon the traditional Jewish community has been almost non-existent. He never finished his legal opus, which might have made an impression on traditional Jews. His extant philosophical writings are difficult to follow; only one of two vernacular anti-Christian polemics survives, in a Hebrew translation/paraphrase. Although Cresques was well remembered in the century after his death, one can already detect during this period the reasons for his subsequent neglect. An examination of the fifteenthcentury reception history of Cresques's oeuvre demonstrates the extent to which his polemical, dogmatic and philosophical stances were mostly rejected by those who followed him, including his close students. It is not surprising, then, that in subsequent centuries, Cresques's memory was almost erased from Jewish communal consciousness.
The earliest systematic Jewish polemical treatises against Christianity were written in Judeo-Ara... more The earliest systematic Jewish polemical treatises against Christianity were written in Judeo-Arabic by Jews living in Muslim ruled countries, most likely in the Syro-Iraq area, and Sarah Stroumsa has contributed greatly to our knowledge of these compositions.* The ninth-century Dāwūd al-Muqammaṣ, the first identifiable medieval Jewish philosopher, wrote two short treatises against Christianity, of which only fragments survive; in addition, he included much anti-Christian material in his pioneering philosophical work ʿIshrūn maqāla (Twenty Chapters). The anonymous Qiṣṣat mujadalat al-usqūf (rendered as "The Account of the Disputation of the Priest" in Lasker and Stroumsa, The Polemic of Nestor the Priest), also composed in the ninth century, is the earliest complete extant anti-Christian polemic. Other Jewish writers in the Islamicate world included criticisms of Christianity and defenses of Jewish doctrines against Christian claims in their theological and exegetical works. Thus, the history of Jewish anti-Christian polemics began in the Islamic period when there was no organized public Christian mission to the Jews.1
Maimonides and the Karaites When Maimonides was born in Córdoba in 1138, there was a significant ... more Maimonides and the Karaites When Maimonides was born in Córdoba in 1138, there was a significant Karaite Jewish population on the Iberian Peninsula. Although we have no specific demographic information, and this community left no literary remains, its importance can be seen in the lengths to which Rabbanite Jews (followers of rabbinic Judaism) went in combatting it. Most prominent twelfth-century Iberian Rabbanite authors polemicized against this alternative form of Judaism, sometimes in great detail, and they even enlisted the non-Jewish civil authorities in their conflict. Maimonides himself wrote in his Commentary on the Mishnah that although Jewish courts in the Diaspora were forbidden from dealing with capital cases, it was nevertheless permitted in his day to execute Karaites as heretics, and, indeed, such sentences were actually carried out in Iberia. 1 Despite this extreme antipathy, Karaism had an impact on Sephardic Rabbanism, as can be seen in the use of imported Karaite literature by Rabbanite authors. Notable examples of such influence are evident in the works of Abraham Ibn Ezra (ca. 1089-ca. 1164), who incorporated many Karaite exegetical insights into his own biblical commentaries. Judah Halevi (ca. 1075-1141) devoted around a tenth of his significant Book of Kuzari to a refutation of Karaism, and a number of other contemporary Iberian Rabbanite writings reflect the impact of Karaism in one way or another. 2 Karaite origins are unclear, but what became Karaism through the centuries seems to have emerged in the Islamic Middle East in the ninth century. 3 It is a form of Judaism that denies the existence of an Oral Torah, given by God to Moses simultaneously with the Written Torah and encapsulated in rabbinic literature, namely the Talmuds and the Midrashim. Most Jews observe a Judaism based on the deliberations of the Rabbis, but, in rejecting the Oral Torah, Karaites developed an alternative, non-rabbinic form of Judaism. Rabbanites considered the denial of the divinity and authority of the Oral Torah as heretical, and, accordingly, Maimonides listed belief in the divine origin of the Oral Torah as an element of one of the thirteen cardinal beliefs that determine who is a Jew. 4 When Maimonides arrived in Egypt in 1165, he found a vibrant Karaite community living as part and parcel of the larger Jewish community, often intermarrying with the Rabbanite majority. Undoubtedly, he felt it was important to reformulate his policy in dealing with the local dissidents in light of their communal status. On the one hand, he tried to distinguish between the groups by condemning those Egyptian Rabbanite Jews who had adopted certain Karaite practices that were easier to follow than the Rabbanite ones, especially in the realm of post-menstrual purification. On the other hand, Maimonides
In 1992, I published an article entitled, 1 "Aaron ben Joseph and the Transformation of Karaite T... more In 1992, I published an article entitled, 1 "Aaron ben Joseph and the Transformation of Karaite Thought." 2 I began the article by noting the great difference between the midtwelfth-century Karaite thought of Judah Hadassi, generally loyal to the classical Karaite Kalam theology of the Golden Age in the Land of Israel (late ninth-mideleventh centuries); and the Aristotelian-tinged philosophy two hundred years later of Aaron ben Elijah, known as the Younger (d. 1369). Aaron the Younger in his philosophical, exegetical and legal works may have defended his Karaite predecessors' intellectual integrity, but, as I argued contra the accepted wisdom, he did not agree with many of their Kalam philosophical or theological doctrines. 3 I suggested that the key to understanding the changes that had occurred in Byzantine Karaite thought could be explained by an examination of the works of Aaron ben Joseph, known as
Karaite Judaism developed in an Islamic environment in which there were Muslim movements which pr... more Karaite Judaism developed in an Islamic environment in which there were Muslim movements which preached asceticism (zuhd) as a religious value, perhaps in reaction to the temporal successes of early Islam. Their practice of asceticism included abstention in the areas of dress, food, drink, property, and sexual relations, in the hope of preparing the soul for the world to come in which the body would disintegrate and only the soul would remain. Among Rabbanite Jews, there were those who advocated an internal variety of zuhd, a sort of radical alienation from society, as a process of spiritual discipline. In the Land of Israel during the Golden Age of Karaism (end of the ninth-eleventh centuries), Karaites adopted ascetic practices (other than sexual abstinence), not in order to prepare the soul but as a way of bringing the Messiah. Those who adopted this ascetic way of life were referred to as the "Mourners of Zion." There may have been Rabbanite Mourners (rabbinic literature mentions mourning customs in light of the destruction of the Temple), but the vast majority of the Mourners of Zion movement in the Land of Israel were Karaites. Since Karaite asceticism was mainly political, namely in the service of hastening redemption, one can assume that the Karaites would have been happy to leave behind their mourning customs if the messiah had come and rebuilt the Temple. In addition to asceticism for political purposes, there were Karaites who believed that one should adopt such practices without a direct connection to the mourning of Zion. The outstanding representative of this position was Salmon ben Yeruhim, who argued in his Commentary on Ecclesiastes that King Solomon taught asceticism for spiritual purposes and not just for political ones. In addition, Salmon claimed that in certain Psalms, King David described his own ascetic lifestyle. Since David and Solomon were not mourning for the Temple, their asceticism had no relation to its destruction and one should adopt their practices without regard for any political considerations. After the destruction of the Karaite community in the Land of Israel during the First Crusade, the Karaite center moved to Byzantium, where mourning was not perceived as an attractive lifestyle. The last known Karaite identified with the Mourners of Zion was the Byzantine Judah Hadassi the Mourner in the middle of the twelfth century. Until this very day, Karaites refrain from eating meat in Jerusalem as a way of remembering the Mourners of Zion movement.
J udah Halevi (c. 1075-1141) was one of the most in uential medieval Jewish thinkers and a major... more J udah Halevi (c. 1075-1141) was one of the most in uential medieval Jewish thinkers and a major Hebrew poet. His one theological work is The Kuzari, a defense of Judaism at a time when Jews were the object of derision because of their poor temporal situation compared to the followers of the other two main western religions, Christianity and Islam. Halevi argues not only for the truth of the Jewish religion but also for the essential superiority of the Jewish people over other human beings. Jewish specialness includes a unique status for the Land of Israel, the Jewish religion, and the Hebrew language, which together serve as means of uniting with a special divine property, the divine order or thing (al-amr al-ilāhi). Halevi's yearning for the Land of Israel, as clearly seen both in his poetry and in his philosophy, led to his abandonment of his native Iberian Peninsula in favor of emigration to the Land, where he died soon after arrival in 1141. Although the central ideas of Halevi's thought are clear, there remain major issues in interpreting it fully. One of the important questions in the exegesis of The Kuzari is the extent to which Halevi believed that Jewish essentialism was tied to a biological or genetic trait, as compared with the possibility that it is connected to a metaphysical property not dependent solely on Jewish lineage. The present study will analyze this question from the point of view of Halevi's understanding of the relation between Jews and non-Jews in the context of his interpretation of the purpose of the commandments. 1
Medieval Jewish thinkers produced a large body of controversial literature devoted to polemical a... more Medieval Jewish thinkers produced a large body of controversial literature devoted to polemical arguments against Christianity. To the extent that this genre has attracted the attention of either scholars or laypeople, the assumption has been that it was composed in order to combat Christian missionary threats. Presumably, without an external stimulus, Jews would have been content with adopting an attitude of liveand-let-live towards Christianity: a religion which had appropriated the Hebrew Scriptures, the so-called Old Testament, and gave it an interpretation which is so radically different than the reading of the Rabbis, the authors of the Talmud.
Daniel J. Lasker, “Review of ‘The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls’, by Yoram Erde... more Daniel J. Lasker, “Review of ‘The Karaite Mourners of Zion and the Qumran Scrolls’, by Yoram Erder; ‘The Arabic Translation and Commentary of Yefet ben ‘Eli on the Book of Proverbs’, by Ilana Sasson; ‘Historical Consciousness, Haskalah and Nationalism among the Karaites of Eastern Europe’, by Golda Akhiezer,” European Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 15, no. 1 (December 2020): 169-176
guing characters but weak on plot. A great library catalogue, however, not only records the names... more guing characters but weak on plot. A great library catalogue, however, not only records the names of the books but also presents the plot in between the lines. The entries for each book can tell a story if the cataloguer is sufficiently adept and if the reader is suitably attentive to the catalogue's own narrative. We have before us two examples of exemplary catalogues, executed by leading experts in Jewish manuscripts, Benjamin Richler, the historian of the Jewish book, and Malachi Beit-Arie, the paleographer par excellence. Each book is chock full of very important information, going well beyond just a simple list of manuscripts and the compositions they include.
was the outstanding Jewish personality of the geonic period (eightheleventh centuries). His intel... more was the outstanding Jewish personality of the geonic period (eightheleventh centuries). His intellectual accomplishments cover the entire spectrum of Jewish
When the French conquered Algeria in 1830, they reconfirmed Jacob Bacri as muqaddam (which they t... more When the French conquered Algeria in 1830, they reconfirmed Jacob Bacri as muqaddam (which they transcribed as mokdem and mekdem). Officially styled chef de la nation juive (head of the Jewish nation), he was charged with oversight and administration of Jewish affairs in Algiers. In 1836 the French eliminated the office of muqaddam and replaced it with a Jewish adjutant to the mayor in each main town.
