HIS CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION

Rabbi Ben-Zion Cuenca was born in the old city of Jerusalem in 1867. His surname, Cuenca, corresponds to a province of Spain in the area of ​​Castilla-La Mancha. The family was part of the Jews expelled from Castile and Aragon in 1492. The family settled in Thessaloniki (Greece) and lived there for 3 centuries. His father, Abraham Cuenca, emigrated to Erets Israel around 1850. Before he was ten years old, the rabbis and teachers considered the young Ben-Zion as an ‘iluy (a child prodigy) and allowed him to wear the Tefillin at that age given his extraordinary knowledge and maturity. Aware of his son’s ability, his father devoted his resources to hiring the best teachers and mentors who also provided his son with a vast secular education, especially in the fields of Jewish history and languages.

RABBI OF RABBIS

Rabbi Cuenca got married at 15, something that was not uncommon in those days, to Esther, a second cousin, and they lived in the old city of Jerusalem. Then they moved to Yemin Moshe, the first Jewish neighborhood built outside the walled city sponsored by the famous philanthropist Sir Moshe Montefiore. At the age of 30, Rabbi Cuenca established a Yeshiba “Tiferet Yerushalaim”. In this Yeshiba, which also included general studies,  were educated among others Israel’s chief rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hay Uziel, the famous Sephardic Hebrew writer Yehuda Bourla, and Rabbi Moshe Nissim, the father of another Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Isaac Nissim. Rabbi Cuenca was also very active in the religious Zionist Mizrahi movement. He was the Head of the Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem and excelled also as a community leader. He founded, raised the funds for and directed the first Sephardic Nursing Home in modern Jerusalem.

THE MASSACRE OF 1929

The second holiest city in Israel is Hebron –acquired by Abraham Abinu 4,000 years ago–  which is the burial place of our patriarchs and matriarchs. In the 1920s, about 800 Jews and about 20,000 Arabs lived in Hebron. In August 1929 the Arabs spread false rumors in their communities saying that the Jews were carrying out “mass killings of Arabs.” Until that moment Jews and Arabs had lived in relative peace.  Sepharadim lived in Hebron for centuries (see below the testimony of a survivor). And the Ashkenazi Jews had recently arrived and established the famous Slabodka Yeshiva, also known as Yeshivat Hebron. On August 23, 1929, a Friday night, a massacre against the Jews began that lasted for three days. Shouting “Death to the Jews” thousands of Arabs armed with knives and axes looted Jewish houses, destroyed the Synagogues; tortured and murdered 67 Jews in cold blood: men, women and children, including rabbis of the two communities. The survivors moved to Jerusalem, and Hebron was left without Jews for the first time in hundreds of years.

STARTING OVER

Nine months after the massacre, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Abraham Kook and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yaakov Meir signed a statement calling for volunteers to return to Hebron: We call on “… all the people of Israel to support our request and rebuild the great Jewish community Hebron … For the holiness of our nation and for our establishment on this land, we are required not to let the blood of our brothers be spilled in vain: we have a duty as the people of Israel to respond to this call by rebuilding and reestablishing the city of the patriarchs”. In 1931 the Jewish settlement of Hebron was resumed and the rabbi who bravely lead that community was Rabbi Ben-Zion Cuenca. He lived in Hebron until 1936. That year the violent conflicts were renewed and the Jews had to leave. They only returned to Hebron 31 years later, after the Six Day War.

HIS LITERARY WORK

One of Rabbi Cuenca’s most important contributions was the creation of the extraordinary Halakha Journal called “haMe-asef,” a collection of halachic studies and articles by hundreds of rabbis, Sephardi and Ashkenazim from Israel and the diaspora. Presenting so many rabbis of different origins united in the same Journal was a very important positive innovation at that time. Rabbi Cuenca was in charge of all the stages of this publication, which was published for 19 years. The first volume appeared in 1897. Rabbi Cuenca was, of course, one of the main contributors. Two themes stand out in HaMeasef.

The first, everything related to the precepts associated with agricultural work. These commandments only apply in the land of Israel (terumot, ma’aserot, shemita, etc.) and therefore this theme remained dormant for centuries. But now, as the establishment of the Yehudim in the Yeshub of Israel took hold, these laws had to be applied again.

The second topic that interested Rabbi Cuenca was to give a rabbinical response to new inventions (electricity, new means of transportation, etc.). An example that can be seen in this link is the Rabbi’s response to the use of the train on Shabbat or Yom Tob.

At the beginning of each article Rabbi Cuenca introduces a brief biography of the writers, which given the tremendous lack of information we suffer from, especially about the Sephardic rabbis of the late 19th century, constitutes an invaluable contribution to modern Jewish history.

FINAL WORDS

Rabbi Yehuda Fishman Maimon wrote: “Rabbi Cuenca was a fervent Zionist, an extraordinary Rabbi and a man of the deepest faith… an illuminated Sage in Tora and Wisdom, who professed a tremendous love for the Creator and for humanity. And I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that there is no one left to replace him or no one who can imitate him…”.

Rabbi Cuenca died in Yerushalayim in 1937 and is buried in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives, Har HaZetim.

Testimony from a survivor of 1929 Hebron Massacre, Miriam Sasson (Hebrew)

RAISED BY HIS GRANDFATHER
Rabbi Isaac Abulafia was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1830. He came from a family of great luminaries dating back to the famous Ribbi Hayim Abulafia, who renewed the settlement of the Jews in the city of Tiberia at the beginning of the 18th century (see here). While still very young, possibly at the age of 10, Rabbi Isaac moved to Tiberia where he was raised by his grandfather, Ribbi Hayim Nissim Abulafia, who was also his Tora teacher. Soon after, Rabbi Hayim was chosen as Rishon LeZion, Chief Sepharadic Rabbi of Israel, so together with Rabbi Isaac and the rest of the family they moved to Yerushalayim. Soon Rabbi Isaac began to shine for his intelligence and his dedication to the Tora, and at age 23 he was sent to represent the Yeshibot of Israel in various Jewish communities around the world, where he was received with many honors for his knowledge, his honorable presence and his refined personality. From all over the world, including other cities in Israel, he received Halachic questions that he solved with his great illustration and his originality.

FAT COWS IN DAMASCUS
In 1861, when his grandfather died, Rabbi Isaac decided to return to Damascus where he served as one of the rabbis of the prestigious Rabbinical Court of the city. In 1873, when Chief Rabbi Rab Aharon Bagdadi passed away, Rabbi Abulafia was offered to serve as Chief Rabbi. At that time Damascus was a city with a vibrant Jewish community. A visitor from France, Rabbi Yerucham Ashkenazi who arrived in Damascus in 1859, wrote in his travel memoirs that many of Damascus’s Jews were affluent and famous for their generosity. The wealthiest had their own rabbinical library, which function as a small Yeshiba. Their greatest ambition was to support Talmide Hakhamim, Tora scholars, to study there.

SKINNY COWS
But in 1875 all this changed. The political situation was no longer the same, and the new government imposed higher taxes and more regulations that limited trade, especially imports and exports, which was what many Jews did there. Several of these affluent and generous community members left Damascus and went to Aleppo, Beirut (Lebanon) and other cities in the area. Rabbi Abulafia then decided that he had to create new opportunities to ensure the economic future of the young Jews of his community, helping them learning professions such as accounting, pharmaceutical, etc. so they do not depend only on trade. The Rabbi made a kind of alliance with the organization “Kol Israel Chaberim” which later became known as the “Alliance Israélite Universelle”;  this French-based Jewish institution provided funds for this purpose.

SCHOOLS WITH BENCHES!
Thus, in 1880 Rabbi Abulafia, with the approval of other Damascus rabbis, promoted the creation of a school where, apart from Tora, students would also learn to read and write in Arabic and French. Jewish schools were modernized and for the first time, students had benches to sit on, because until then they studied sitting on the floor. Rabbi Abulafia made sure that this type of education was also available for poor families. The most revolutionary thing Rabbi Abulafia did was also establishing a school for women, something very rare at that time. He was able to motivate parents by establishing a symbolic payment of “Half a Franc” to each family that sent their children to study there. 

SUCCESS OR FAILURE?
But in the long run this undertaking was not a 100% success… Over time parents and students demanded more and more training in secular matters, at the expense of Torah studies. But the more serious problem –that the Rabbis unfortunately noticed when it was already too late — was that the Alliance exerted an enormous influence causing the secularization of many Jews in Damascus and other Sepharadic communities in Turkey, Greece, the Middle East and North Africa. And although this should be the topic of a separate chapter, I will briefly relate what Rabbi Eliyahu ben Hayim SHELITA, who knew this subject first-hand, told his students in one of this recent classes: “In the Alliance, the teachers who taught mathematics or French language (secular European Jews or Gentiles) were young, dynamic, kind, and dressed in the latest European fashion. For Jewish studies, however, the Alliance would usually hire as a teacher an older man, generally poor and retired, who did not speak French, who had no modern pedagogical training and who was not dressed in a European style. The students naturally admired the secular teachers and aspired to become like them. This, inadvertently (or some believe that this was a sophisticated assimilationist strategy, that the rabbis at that time failed to foresee) the young students in the Alliance who did not admire the old Hakham, began to look at the Tora with those same eyes, and unfortunately religious practice became for them something to un-admire,  outdated and irrelevant. Rabbi Ben Hayim also explained that in virtually all communities where the Alliance arrived, secularization increased, and vice versa.

A JEW NEVER GOES TO ISRAEL. A JEW “RETURNS” TO ISRAEL.
Back to Rabbi Abulafia, he had only one daughter, who married the famous : “Señor” Hayim Moshe Laniado. Her son-in-law, who belonged to an aristocratic family, assisted the rabbi in publishing his books. Rabbi Abulafia’s most known work is “Pene Yitschaq,” a monumental six-volumes collection of Rabbinical Responsa (see the first volume of this book here).

In 1909 Rabbi Abulafia left the city of Damascus and returned to his beloved Eretz Israel to settle in Tiberia, the city of his ancestors, where he died a year later, on Adar 15, 1910.

(The story of his father, Rabbi Moshe Abulafia, is very sad, tragic and a bit complicated. So I will include it in the context of an article that I will dedicate especially to the subject: The Blood Libel of Damascus, 1840).

There is a very interesting letter that Maimonides writes for one of his students, Shemuel Ibn Tibon, who was translating “The Guide of the Perplexed” from Arabic to Hebrew. Ibn Tibon lived in Provence, France, and wrote to Maimonides in 1199, stating his intention to travel to Egypt to visit him, study with him for a few days, and asking him some questions regarding certain difficult passages of his Guide. Maimonides replied with a famous letter where he reveals his complex life and his extraordinary kindness.

“I live in Fostat and the sultan resides in Cairo…my obligations to the Sultan are many. I visit him every day, early in the morning; and when he or any of his sons, or any of the women in his harem are indisposed … I stay in the palace most of the day. It also often happens that one or two court officials become ill, and I must attend to them and heal them. Therefore, I usually arrived in Cairo very early in the morning and do not return to Fostat until late in the afternoon.

In our last article we discussed this aspect of Maimonides’ daily life, his work as a court physician of the famous Sultan Saladin.

DOCTOR WITHOUT BORDERS
What follows is less known. Maimonides relates in this letter what he did once he returned home, and after having worked all that day; today we would say: “in his free time”.

[Upon arriving at my house in Fostat] I’m starving… I find the hallways of my house full of patients, both Jews and Gentiles, nobles and common people, judges and bailiffs, friends and enemies, a mixed crowd waiting for the moment of my return. I dismount my animal, wash my hands, approach my patients and beg them to be patient with me while I take a light snack, the only food I eat in twenty-four hours. Then I go out to see my patients and write prescriptions and instructions for their various ailments. Patients come and go until nightfall, and sometimes, I solemnly assure you, up to two hours or more once night falls. I talk to them [about their ailments] and prescribe their medicines while I lie down from exhaustion and when night falls, I am so tired that I can hardly speak.

Maimonides had a “free” medical clinic at his home, where he cared for all kinds of patients: Jews, Gentiles, friends and enemies, poor and rich.

THE UNFINISHED WORK
Maimonides did not have extra time to waste. In fact, his literary work was still unfinished. Among his plans was to devote himself to writing a commentary on the Babylonian Talmud.
He also wanted to write a book on the Midrashim and Hagadot of the Talmud, where he would explain the logic behind the rabbinic metaphors and the Talmudic stories that seem to be fictions (something his son, Rabbenu Abraham, did briefly in his Ma-amar ‘al Hagadot Chazal)
But the most urgent thing he had to do was to protect the credibility of his most important work, “Mishna Tora”, the book that presents exhaustively all the articles of Jewish law. Some contemporary rabbis in Europe criticized this work because although it presented the final law, it did not show the specific sources from which there author had drawn his verdicts. And although leaving the sources out, and presenting the settled law was the deliberate intention of Maimonides’ code, he thought that the acceptance of his book by European Jews depended on quoting the sources of his Halakhot, and he intended to do so.
Now we can better appreciate the following point: how is it that with so much work left to do, Maimonides dedicated his free time to medicine instead of writing his books?

Because Maimonides decided that it was time to put into practice all that he had learn and taught in his innumerable writings. His precious time would now be devoted to something he could do better than any other man of his time: healing the sick.

HOW DID MAIMONIDES DIE?
Maimonides lived the final days of his life doing this monumental work of kindness, which costed him his life. Most of Maimonides’ biographers do not go too far explaining what the cause of Maimonides’ death was and merely indicate the exact date of his departure: December 13, 1204. Although a historian of the early twentieth century, De Goeje, points out that Maimonides died of “physical exhaustion”.
Hakham Yosef Faur z”l in his class on“ The Four Giants of Sepharad” reveals a very important detail, that today, in times of COVID19, we can appreciate better than ever: it is documented that Maimonides died as a result of an epidemic. Maimonides refused to stop caring for his patients, he became infected with a disease and after a while died for this reason (listen here, 1.17m)

Our Rabbis explain that the Tora begins with Chesed (benevolence) and ends with Chesed. And the examples of benevolence that the Sages bring are not acts of kindness performed by human beings, but by the Creator himself. In its beginning the Tora tells us that HaShem provided clothing for Adam and Eve, and providing cloths for those who do not have what to wear is indeed an act of Chesed, and the Tora ends by telling us that the Almighty buried Moshe Rabbenu. Burying the dead is another act of Chesed.

In the last years of his life, Maimonides reinvented himself. And he went from the studying to practicing the Tora, imitating God’s Chesed with His creatures.

I present below the “PRAYER FOR A DOCTOR” attributed to Maimonides . Thousands of doctors, Jews and Gentiles, in Israel, the United States and the rest of the world, recite this prayer every day, before beginning their medical work.

Master of the Universe, before I begin the sacred task of healing Your creatures, I express my plea before You, and beg You to grant me the courage and strength to do my medical work with integrity, and that the desire to accumulate wealth or gain fame won’t be guiding my work or blinding my eyes.

Master of the Universe, it is known by all Your subjects that You are the One who inflicts suffering to those who deserve it, and You are the One who takes pity on those who suffer. And with Your infinite Wisdom, You wanted me, Your humble servant of flesh and blood, made of dust and ashes, with my limited knowledge and my poor intellect, to have learned about the body and the mind of the human being that You created in this material world.

And behold, following Your orders and Your commandments and counting on Your help, I’m preparing myself to heal, according to the scope of my knowledge and knowing that ultimately, life, death and the cure of diseases are in Your hands and that it is You who determines the success or failure of my healing.

Lord of Heaven, Eternal King, may it be Your will to grant Your servant the strength and ability to continue learning the art of healing for the rest of my life from those who know more than I do.

Help me so that I never cease to feel compassion for all who suffer, and grant me the wisdom to assist those who come to consult my medical advice, without differentiating between the rich and the poor, the friend or the enemy, the good man and the bad man, so that when someone needs my help, that I only see the human being who suffers sickness and pain.

May my love for the art of healing give me the courage so that the truth may be the light that guides me, because I am aware that my negligence in my medical work can result in the suffering or death of the work of Your hands.

I beg you, Oh God, You compassionate and merciful, to grant strength to my body and courage to my mind, and implant in me a spirit of integrity.

Blessed are You, Master of all works, Creator of all living beings.

Apart from being one of the most important Talmudists and jurists in the history of the Jewish people, Maimonides was also a famous doctor. His father, Ribbi Maimon, was probably the one who introduced him into medicine, which was a very common profession among Spanish Jews until the time of the expulsion in 1492.
At an early age, Maimonides had to leave Cordoba, Spain, due to the religious persecutions of a fundamentalist Muslim group: the Almohades. Maimonides’ family arrived in the city of Fes, Morocco and remained there for seven years. In Fes Maimonides had the opportunity to deepen his medical knowledge by training with Jewish and non Jewish experienced physicians. In 1165 he arrived in Egypt. Maimonides always opposed practicing the rabbinate professionally, and for many years he supported himself thanks to his bother and business partner David, who traveled the world for this purpose. But after his brother tragically died when his ship sank, Maimonides dedicated himself to practicing medicine for a living. And he was extremely successful.

In Egypt, he was called to work as the main doctor at the court of Sultan Saladin the Great (1138-1193 , famous for his wars against the crusaders and for having reconquered Jerusalem. Upon the capture of Jerusalem, Saladin summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the Holy city). Being the court physician was not an easy job. In addition to examining and taking care of the Sultan Maimonides also had to take care of his entire family – his wives and children – and the officials of the royal court.
Maimonides was the most respected physician in all of Egypt. And many of Saladin court sages and advisers were very jealous of him and many times tried to conspire against him.

Many years ago my uncle Hakham Yosef Faur z ”l told me a few stories of Maimonides and the constant harassment he suffered from the envious sages of the court. I remember five stories. Let me share with you one of them.

In his medical books, Maimonides stated that blindness from birth could not be cured. The court sages and advisers challenged him and said that they had developed a surgical operation that could restore sight to the blind, and that they were ready to demonstrate their claim. They arranged for a special session where the Sultan and Maimonides were present. When the day came, the advisers brought a patient with his face and eyes covered and claimed that he was blind from birth, and had just undergone surgery. The bandage was removed and the man began to shout: “I can see, I can see! These sages have cured me! ” The sages then demanded the Sultan to expel Maimonides from the court for his ignorance and stubbornness. Maimonides asked the Sultan for permission to examine the patient. He asked him: “Sir, is it true that you are blind from birth?” And the man replied: “Yes! I was never able to see, since I was born until this very moment” Then Maimonides took a red handkerchief from his pocket and asked: “If you can really see, could you tell me what color is this cloth?” . “Red!” said the patient with great enthusiasm. “This cloth is red!”. Maimonides then told the Sultan : “Your majesty, a person who sees for the first time does not know the colors, and cannot possibly identify or describe them: this man is an impostor!”

Some of Maimonides’ medical works

1. “Excerpts from Galen or the art of healing”, a summary of the extensive writings of the famous Greek physician.
2. “Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates,” which Maimonides combines with his own views.
3. “Medical Aphorisms of Moses”, 1,500 guidelines describing various medical conditions.
4. “Treatise on Hemorrhoids” also discusses the mechanism of digestion.
5. “Treatise on Cohabitation” recommendations for a healthy sex life.
6. “Treatise on Asthma”, where he discusses how climate and diet affects asthma.
7. “Treatise on Poisons and Their Antidotes”, this toxicology book remained popular for centuries.
8. “A healthy regime” a discourse on healthy living and the mind-body connection.
9. “Discourse and explanation of moderation”, advocates for a healthy life and teaches that one of the fundamental principles of preventive medicine is to avoid excesses.
10. “Glossary of drug names” presents a pharmacopoeia with the names of a large number of drugs in Arabic, Greek, Syrian, Persian, Berber (Moroccan dialect) and Spanish.

As many of my readers might have noticed, in these last days I am writing in honor of my uncle the Hakham Yosef Faur haLevi z ”l, commenting on one of his classes called “Four Giants of Sepharad”. So far we have mentioned Rabbi Ibn Paquda, Rabbi Yehuda haLevi and Rabbi Abraham Eben Ezra. And now, in this last presentation, we will write about the “giant among the giants”: Maimonides.

Ribbi Moshe ben Maimon, also known as HaRambam or Maimonides, was born in the city of Córdoba, Spain, in 1135 and died in Egypt in 1204.

It is impossible and absolutely unfair to dedicate a simple email to describe the life and work of one of the most important rabbis of all time. Aside from being a great rabbi and community leader, Maimonides was also a famous philosopher, a great doctor – the pioneer of preventive medicine – and had a vast knowledge of mathematics and astronomy. But today we will focus on a different angle of his personality: Maimonides as a jurist and legislator.

THE TALMUDIC OCEAN
It is not possible to appreciate the monumentality of Maimonides’ work if one does not have a clear idea of ​​what the Talmud is (and vice versa).
The Babylonian Talmud, with its 63 treatises and 2,711 pages, records the Jewish oral tradition and is the basis of biblical and rabbinical jurisprudence. The Talmud or Gemara, cites the Mishna, the oldest edition of Jewish oral law, and then registers a large number of debates in which that Mishna is exhaustively analyzed in terms of its authorship, language, scope, application , its exceptions, etc. It is necessary to develop a special way of reasoning (which is acquired as one immerses himself in the Talmud) to understand the Talmudic thinking . And although today we have many good translations and explanations, it is not easy to keep up with the Talmudic methodology and rhetoric. Apart from that, a topic that has to do, for example, with the laws of Shabbat can be found or redefined not only in the tractate of Shabbat but also in a completely different treatise as the Talmud analyzes a case of damages or perhaps ritual sacrifices. And in order to establish what the law is, which is not normally presented in the Talmud, one not only needs to understand the specific text but to know the Talmud exhaustively, since, as we explain, the references might be in multiple texts. Maimonides, who had a superb memory and an exhaustive knowledge of the Babylonian Talmud (and the Jerusalem Talmud, and Tosefta, and Baraytot, and Midrashe Halakha, and Geonim, etc.) identified all the laws, formulated them in perfect and very clear Hebrew, and reorganized them in 14 treatises, with 1,000 chapters with an average of 16 Halakhot, or “articles of the law” in each chapter.

WAS MAIMONIDES AN ELITIST ?
In my own words, the Talmud is like a vast sea with tens of thousands of beautiful pearls that are very difficult to collect. The pearls, which are at the bottom of the sea, sometimes under layers of sand, are also scattered many kilometers apart. Maimonides did the impossible and the unimaginable. He dedicated his life to diving at the bottom of the vast ocean of the Talmud and he collected one by one “all the pearls of the Talmudic sea”. He brought them to the surface, processed them, examined them with extreme care, classified them by colors, size, shape, weight, etc. and finally presented us with a beautiful 14 volumes catalog with 1,000 categories and more than 16,000 specimens of the precious pearls.

One of the aspects that Hakham Faur discusses in this class, is Maimonides’ supposed “elitism”. When in fact it was the opposite. For centuries the common Jew had no direct access to Jewish law. There was no way to know the details of the Law that he or she so much wanted to observe and fulfill, because access to the Talmud was very limited and even if you would understand the Talmud, you still someone to delve into it and brought from the depth even the simplest Halakha. Maimonides, far from perpetrating what might be perceived as “elitism”, i.e., that only the Talmide Hakhamim ‘elite’ had access to the knowledge of the Halakha, , he codified and presented the law in a style and language that was accessible to ALL people, even to the simplest Jew. You cannot be less elitist than that!

WHAT DOES RATIONALIST MEAN?
Hakham Faur also demonstrates the fallacy behind Maimonides’ supposed “rationalism”. In his book “Homo Mysticus”, where Hakham Faur exposes Maimonides ideas and beliefs as per his “Guide for the Perplexed”, he explains this topic in detail.

There are 3 levels of “thought” or intellectualism. .

IMAGINATION

The vast majority of human beings are carried away by their imagination, impressions, feelings, irrational fears, impulses, herd culture, popular opinions, etc. Very few people stop to think in order to act strictly following their common sense. How many people, for example, eat using strictly common sense? Consuming “only” what is good for them and avoid eating anything that is not beneficial for their health?

RATIONALISM

On the next level, superior to the first, we find intelligent, rational people, who only do, say and act according to their intellect and reason. Not only do they “know” what is right: they also acquire the discipline to improve their character, control their impulses, and be guided by their reasoning. A person who is guided by his or her reason is a “rationalist”. The epitome of a rationalist was Aristotle.

REVELATION

But for Maimonides, although reason is a higher level than that of the imagination, it is not the highest level that a human being can reach. There is something above human reason, that is, Divine Revelation. The Creator’s Wisdom is revealed in the Tora. Divine Wisdom is not determined or limited by reason. Proof of this is that we Jews guide ourselves by commandments that we understand but also by Divine commandments that are beyond our limited reasoning. Maimonides was not a rationalist, he was post-rational man or a “revelationist” . In medieval Hebrew: “Torani” (guided by the Tora).

It is quite possible that those who imagined Maimonides as a rationalist were based on the fact that Maimonides strongly rejected all kinds of nonsensical “superstitions”, including religious superstitions, very fashionable in his time (some of which, incredibly, persist to this day). For Maimonides astrology, necromancy, divination, and other superstitions were vestiges of the ‘aboda Zara (idolatry) and represented the thinking of the most primitive, pre-rational man.

We continue with the presentation of the class “Four Giants of Sepharad” by Hakham Yosef Faur z”l, about four rabbis that deeply impacted the character and content of the Sephardic tradition.

HIS LIFE

Ribbi Abraham Eben Ezra was born in the city of Tudela, in Navarro, in northern Spain, in 1089. Ibn Ezra was very close to Ribbi Yehuda Halevi, who was about 14 years older than him, and his son Isaac married the daughter of Yehuda haLevi (or according to others, Ribbi Abraham married his daughter). He refused to accept money from others and materially, he was always very poor. He tried to engage in commerce but was never successful in his business. He wrote in. one of his poems that he was so unfortunate in business that if he would “starts selling shrouds, people will stop dying.”  Rabbi Eben Ezra traveled the world for more than three decades. First he visited North Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunes. Then he visited Europe: Italy, France and England. Then the Middle East: Egypt, Persia, Iraq. During his many trips he always visited and stayed in the local Jewish communities, that upon recognizing his great knowledge of Tora treated him with great respect. His journeys were not an impediment for his writing. Quite the opposite, it seems that Ribbi Abraham wrote particularly during his travels, and more than once dedicated his works to local communities or their patrons. It is said that in France he met Rabbenu tam (1100 – 1171) and in Egypt he met Maimonides (1135 -1204). He died in 1164 and according to Rabbi Abraham Zakuto in his Sefer haYohasin, he was buried in the land of Israel.

COMMENTARY TO THE TORA

Rabbi Eben Ezra wrote more than 60 books on many different subjects. His best known work is his commentary on the Tora (the Pentateuch). This work was innovative for its methodology. Analyzing the “peshat”, that is, the literal meaning of the text based on a rigorous linguistic analysis of the words. Rabbi Eben Ezra avoided the permanent reference to the Midrashim in his explanations, as Rashi does when he explains the Tora, since he considered that it was not necessary to repeat in a commentary what the reader can find in the Midrash. He also criticized some allegorical comments that, in his opinion, “go around the point in circles instead of focusing on the point itself”, that is, in the literal and grammatical sense of each word. The literal meaning should be carefully considered and should be examined not only by analyzing the root of the word but also the context, the location of the term in the verse, and the other instances in which that word appears in the Bible. This literal interpretation was an innovation. The Rabbi clarified that his (new) methodology did not apply to the words of the Tora that refer to any precept or commandment, since the interpretation in these cases is exclusively that which we received in the oral Tora and is recorded in the Talmud.

ASTRONOMYWhat is less known is that Rabbi Eben Ezra also wrote dozens of books on scientific subjects. For example, “The book of the foundations of the astronomical tables” a work that Rabbi Abraham originally wrote in Latin. This indicates that he had a very deep knowledge of this language, in which scientific wisdom was transmitted at that time. Rabbi Eben Ezra also belonged to the scientific community of his time.

NAVIGATIONHe also wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, an instrument that allows to muse the position of the stars for orientation, and which was essential for navigation. The astrolabe was in the Middle Ages what a GPS is today. The photo we posted above is an illustration showing Rabbi Eben Ezra (in the middle) with an astrolabe in his hands. The book was called in Hebrew: Keli HaNechoshet, “the copper instrument,” which was the metal used to build the astrolabe.

MATHEMATICS.He also wrote several books on mathematics, such as “The Book of Numbers,” which deals with arithmetic. In this work he presents the decimal system and the way it is used, anticipating by several decades the famous Italian mathematician Fibonacci (1170 -1240). It should be noted that thanks to his numerous trips around the world, Rabbi Eben Ezra became one of the main contributors to the popularization of the decimal system in the Jewish communities and in the Western world. He was also one of the first to present and explain the number “zero”, which he drew with a circle and called in Hebrew “galgal” (circle or wheel).
In his lecture on the giants of Sepharad the Hakham Faur z”l explained that for Eben Ezra the Tora and scientific knowledge are not contradictory: on the contrary, they complement each other and necessitate each other in order to appreciate the Wisdom of Creator. The fact that the universe can be understood and explained mathematically with predictable and unchangeable formulas and laws that are accesible to our God-designed mind reveals the existence of the Intelligent Creator of the Cosmos. Maimonides explored this idea in depth in Yesode HaTora, chapter 2, where he shows how this observation brings us closer to love and fear God. For more on the fascinating topic of mathematics /physics and the intelligent fine tuning of the Universe, I recommend the book “Just six numbers” by Martin Rees .

POETRYFinally, Rabbi Eben Ezra is also known as one of the great Jewish poets of all times. Some of the poems he composed 800 years ago are still well known to us and we continue to sing them to this day. For example, AGADELKHA ELOQE KOL NESHAMA. KI ESHMERA SHABBAT and LEKHA ELI TESHUKATI, a very profound poem with which we inaugurated the Yom Kippur liturgical service and which was also used to be recited as a Viduy in the last moments of life.

I continue sharing with you one of the classes of my dear uncle, Hakham Yosef Faur, z”l. Rabbi Faur had a passion for history and particularly the history of the Jews of Spain. In this class he referred to “Four Giants of Sepharad”. Previously, we spoke about Rabbenu Bahiya. Today we will talk about Ribbi Yehuda haLevi, born in Toledo (or Tudela), Spain, 1075.

THE CUZARI

Ribbi Yehuda was a prominent philosopher, and his most famous book is the Cuzari. A work written in the form of a dialogue, questions and answers, between King Bulan, from the Khazar empire and Rab Isaac haSangari. King Bulan, who did not practice any religion, summoned an Imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a philosopher (equivalent today to an atheist thinker) and asked each one to present their arguments. In the end, King Bulan thought that the rabbi’s arguments were the most convincing, and he decided to convert and convert the subjects of his empire to Judaism. The historical and philosophical principles that the Jewish Sage transmitted to King Bulan constitute the content of the book of “The Cuzari”. This widely documented mass conversion took place in the 8th century. And the Jewish empire of the Khazars (the first “independent Jewish state” after the destruction of the second Bet haMiqdash, sic.!) continued for around 200 years after this event.

POETRY AND THEOLOGY

Apart from his philosophical work, Ribbi Yehuda haLevi is also known for his poetic work. To understand the importance of poetry in 11th century Spain we need a brief introduction. For the Arabs the Quran is the most revered book. And the proof of the superiority of the Quran (and Islam over other religions) is the perfection of the Arabic language. “There is no Arabic more perfect than the Arabic of the Quran, and there is no language more perfect than the Arabic language.” But how can anyone prove that one language is superior to another? In the Middle Ages the answer was: “poetry”. The Arabic language has a certain plasticity, which Western languages, for example, ​​do not have. This allows to create a type of “metric” poetry, where the verses are written with mathematical precision.

A four words verse may be written, for example, in this way:

FIRST WORD (two syllables): 1. Half vowel, open syllable. 2. Long vowel, closed syllable.

SECOND WORD (two syllables): 1. Open syllable, long vowel. 2. Closed syllable, long vowel.

THIRD WORD (two syllables): 1. Half vowel, open syllable. 2. Short vowel, closed syllable.

FOURTH WORD (two syllables). 1. Long vowel, open syllable. 2. Short vowel, closed syllable.

In this type of Arabic poetry, the art is to write all verse maintaining the same structure. But to preserve this sophisticated structure, which among other things facilitates the adaptation of these poems to a wide variety of melodies, something had to be sacrificed: the content of the poem. In any case, this metric, impossible in other languages ​​such as Spanish, Latin or Greek, demonstrated the superiority of Islam.

DUEL OF THE POETS

Rabbi Faur explains that the Rabbis of Spain, then under Muslim rule, responded to this challenge that threaten the credibility of Judaism. The famous sages Yona Ibn Jannah, Hasday Ibn Shaprut, and many other grammarians of the Hebrew school of Córdoba (X and XI century) began formulating the grammatical rules of Biblical Hebrew and made it possible to compose metric poetry in Hebrew, something that until then was not very common. The Jewish Sages composed Hebrew poems that were as elaborate as the poems in Arabic. But with one advantage: Arabic poetry sounded very good, but it said nothing, since it was extremely difficult to force content into such closed structures. Hebrew poetry, however, in addition to preserving the sophisticated metric structure, was extremely rich in content. In fact, the four words example of metric poetry that I mentioned above corresponds to the first stanza of “A-don o-lam a-sher ma-laj,” a poem adaptable to a wide variety of melodies thanks to its perfect metric, with a very profound theological content (It was composed, according to some opinions, by the famous poet Ribbi Shelomo Ibn Gabirol, 1028 -1051).

A JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF RIBBI YEHUDA HALEVI

Rabbi Faur ends his exposition on Yehuda haLevi explaining that he developed a new genre of poetry (in Spanish is called: género sionida) that is, the poetry that expresses the love of the Jewish people for Zion, and the desire to return to Yerushalayim. Rabbi Faur says that in this way Ribbi Yehuda haLevi became the pioneer of modern Zionism.

One of Ribbi Yehuda haLevi’s most celebrated poems is “My heart is in the Orient”.

Let’s see one stanza of this beautiful and famous song.

לִבִּי בְמִזְרָח וְאָנֹכִי בְּסוֹף מַעֲרָב אֵיךְ אֶטְעֲמָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר אֹכַל וְאֵיךְ יֶעֱרָב אֵיכָה אֲשַׁלֵּם נְדָרַי וֶאֱסָרַי, בְּעוֹד צִיּוֹן בְּחֶבֶל אֱדוֹם וַאֲנִי בְּכֶבֶל עֲרָב יֵקַל בְּעֵינַי עֲזֹב כָּל טוּב סְפָרַד, כְּמוֹ יֵקַר בְּעֵינַי רְאוֹת עַפְרוֹת דְּבִיר נֶחֱרָב

«My heart is in the East [Israel]; while I am at the end of the West [Spain].

How could I feel the taste of what I eat; how could I enjoy sweetness [on my palate, while I’m not in the Land of Israel]?

How am I to fulfill my promises and vows [in the Bet haMiqdash] while Zion is under the yoke of Edom [= Christendom. During the first crusade, in 1099, Christians conquered Jerusalem], and I am here, trapped in the bonds of Arabia?

How easily I would abandon all the pleasures of Spain, to delight my eyes seeing the dust of the ruins of the destroyed Sanctuary… ”.

At the end of his days, and after a very difficult journey, Rabbi Yehuda haLevi fulfilled his dream and arrived in Jerusalem. It is said that as soon as his eyes finally saw the ruins of the Bet haMiqdash, he was killed by an Arab rider, near the Western Wall. It is for this reason that the stairs leading down from the Old City to the Kotel are named in his honor “Ma’alot Rabbi Yehuda haLevi” .