Don Isaac Abravanel Statesman and Philosopher

by Benzion Netanyahu

Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) was a major historical figure during the waning of the Middle Ages. Statesman, diplomat, courtier, and financier, he was, at the same time, a scholar of encyclopedic learning, a philosopher, an exegete, a prolific author, a mystic, and an apocalyptist. In Abravanel, B. Netanyahu suggests, two long lines of tradition met and that of medieval Jewish statesmen and that of medieval Jewish philosophers. In what is both a biography and an exploration of Abravanel's thought and influence, Netanyahu describes how Abravanel illuminated the grave crisis and profound transformation experienced by the Jewish people after the Spanish expulsion. First published in 1953, Don Isaac Abravanel has been out of print for several years. This new edition includes revisions in the text, notes, and bibliography.

Genres: History, Judaism, Jewish, Biography

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Benzion Netanyahu(Benzion Mileikowsky), (born March 25, 1910, Warsaw, Russian Empire [now in Poland]—died April 30, 2012, Jerusalem), Polish-born Israeli historian and Zionist activist who was the father of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a longtime advocate (and one-time secretary) of Vladimir Jabotinsky, whose uncompromising Zionist Revisionist movement was pivotal in the fight for the state of Israel. The elder Netanyahu rejected a “two-state solution” as well as the possibility of political compromise between Jews and Arabs, and he publicly criticized his son’s apparent willingness to make concessions to foster peace with the Palestinians. Netanyahu was the son of a Zionist rabbi who moved his family to British-mandated Palestine in 1920 and changed their name from Mileikowsky. He studied history at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (M.A., 1933) and at Dropsie College of Hebrew and Cognate Learning, Philadelphia (Ph.D., 1947). He spent his academic career teaching in Israel and the U.S., notably at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., from which he retired. He also served as the editor of the Encyclopedia Hebraica and other Jewish scholarly publications and wrote extensively, though his critics denounced him as an ideologue and his books as polemics. His best-known work was the massive The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain (1995), in which he argued that the persecution of the Jews during the Inquisition was based entirely on racial hatred and not on the belief (mistaken, in Netanyahu’s view) that they were not genuine Christian converts.

http://www.britannica.com/biography/B...

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isaac Abravanel was an important figure in the late 15th and early 16th Century among Spanish Jewry, because he was both a statesman and a philosopher. He was a courtier in Spain prior to the exile of the Jews. He became a courtier in Italy. His commentaries on the Bible are unique in that they express the political dimension not mentioned by other Jewish commentators. He was widely read in gentile philosophy, which adds to the unusual nature of his commentaries. This book is divided in two parts. The first part is a biography. The second part is a summation of his theology. This is the standard text to start with when studying Abravanel.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really is two books in one. The first half is a biography of Abravenel, who was exiled from Portugal to Spain to Italy, and was a financier and adviser to kings in all three places. The second half focuses on Abravenel’s Torah scholarship. I learned something from both of them.

In the first half, Netanyahu suggests that the oppression of Jews was not solely a matter of clerical fanaticism. The rising middle class saw the Jews as competitors, and the king saw that he could gain their support and get lots of short term wealth by confiscating their property; Netanyahu sees their Christian piety as a scam designed to hide their economic interests.

In the second half, Netanyahu discussed Abravenel’s philosophy and theology. He suggests that Abravenel was far more important in the centuries after his death than he is today; his willingness to discuss Christian commentators and his detailed rebuttal of Christian faith claims caused him to get lots of attention from Christian commentators (especially Protestants inspired by his interest in messianism). And because Abravenel creatively interpreted the Book of Daniel to suggest that the Messiah was coming soon, he may have inspired Jewish messianists of the 16th and 17th century.

On the other hand, Abravenel was not at all a rationalist: he assumed the literal truth of the Hebrew Bible, rather than trying to explain its miracles as natural phenomena. Like the medieval scholastics, his reasoning was limited by restricted dogma. Thus, he isn’t really as influential today. More liberal Jews ignore him because he’s not so relevant to a post-Enlightenment world, and haredim prefer Rashi, who was pithier and less interested in philosophy.

One other reason Abravenel is less relevant today is that, like medieval Christians, he doesn’t really believe in human progress. While some Jews believe the story of history is that of the Ascent of Man, he believes in the Fall of Man- not in one fell swoop (unlike Christian believers in Original Sin) but gradually, as man went from the spirituality of Adam to being “corrupted by the pursuit of the artificial.” For example, Abravenel explains the Tower of Babel story as an out growth of this: when people used natural things, they had the same name for everything. But the more they invented, more confusion they created as each family gave new objects a different name.

Abravenel also wrote about politics; while other Jewish thinkers thought the Torah commanded monarchy, Abravenel viewed the ideal government as a Sanhedrin, a theocratic government of the best (who of course would be clerics as well, since in the Middle Ages the most learned people in arts and sciences were clergy). Abravenel’s hostility to monarchy may have arisen from personal experience; he probably would have been executed by the king of Portgual had he not fled to Spain, and was then exiled by the kingof Spain for refusing to convert to Christianity. On the other hand he opposed rebellion against kings, because the first Biblical kings were appointed by prophets and thus ruled by Divine right.

[Yitzchok · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is two books in one. Part one is about R’ Abravanel’s life as a “Financier and Statesman”. Part two is about him as a “Commentator and Philosopher”.

I started reading part two first because my primary interest was to read about R’ Abravanel’s philosophy about astrology. The book did not disappoint, Pages 118-122 covered it well.

“To Abravanel astrology was in full harmony with his conception of the universe, his anthropocentric theory, as well as with the principle of predetermination in which, as we shall see, he firmly believed. Conceiving of the universe as of a hierarchic system, operating, on the whole, according to a discernible pattern, astrology was for him primarily the art of distinguishing the threads of which this pattern was woven. Consequently, it was not the element of blind fate that astrology signified for him, but rather the idea of a divine order to which all creation must necessarily yield.” – pg. 119

The rest of part two is heavy on philosophy and could get a bit dense at times. Chapter four about Messianism and his unique approach to it was quite interesting.

Then I started at the beginning of the book and it was fascinating to read about his incredible life! 1391 until the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 was an extremely difficult period for the Jews of Spain and surrounding areas. There was incredible pressure to convert to Christianity and then a horrendous campaign to uproot those who converted who secretly remained and practiced Judaism. It is heart wrenching to read about numerous Jewish leaders who succumbed and converted. R’ Abravanel’s weaved throughout this historical period in key powerful positions of leadership in the Jewish community and was embedded with the kings and nobleman of his time.

I really think you can make a movie of his life and it would be a grand epic. For certain periods of time he was the most favored by the king of Portugal and he became incredibly wealthy and influential. The king then dies of the plague and his son who took over turned merciless towards the nobleman and patrons of R’ Abravanel and he had to flee for his life and abandon most of his wealth. Where ever he landed R’ Abravanel used his financial skill and wisdom to help the local king and built himself up again, only to have the same thing happen again and have to flee and give up his fortune. All the while he advocated on behalf of the Jews and was a powerful example of standing up to the pressure to convert to Christianity. And if that was not enough he was a prolific writer and commentator on the Torah.

All in all a fascinating Jewish leader statesmen and philosopher!

“Abravanel, as we have seen, employed his efforts in three major fields: the general diplomatic-financial, the Jewish communal-political, and the scholarly-spiritual. In each Abravanel attained great heights, and in each he manifested, not only different propensities, but also a different measure of ability and achievement.” - Pg. 88

“It is only through Revelation, through G-d’s word to the Hebrew prophets, that man learned what he knew, and it is therefore on the foundations of revealed knowledge that all sciences rest. Since the Hebrew prophets were admittedly the first in whom Revelation was made manifest, all man’s knowledge must of necessity be traced to them.
So universal was the acceptance of this concept that we find, not only Jews, but also Christians and Moslems vying with each other in emphasizing it. This was true of all the categories of thinkers, regardless of their position in the conflict between Faith and Reason. Among the Moslems, a conservative theologian like Al-Ghazali was not alone in saying that “the Greeks stole their wisdom from Israel;” even a rationalists like Averroes stated that “there is no doubt that all sciences originated among the sons of Israel, the reason being the existence of prophecy among them which made their perfection in the sciences amazing.”

Like Averroes, Roger Bacon, one of the most advanced thinkers of the later Middle Ages, maintained that the patriarchs and prophets had knowledge of all the sciences, which G-d revealed to them directly, and it is from them that the ancient philosophers received it. Bacon merely reasserted here a traditional Christian thought that goes back to the early Church Fathers.
Thus, Justin Martyr repeatedly asserted that Plato had borrowed from Moses and the prophets.

Clement of Alexandria broadened this thesis by presenting Greek philosophy in its entirety as a plagiarism directly from the Hebrews, or indirectly through Chaldean and Egyptian sources. “The philosophy of the Hebrews,” he said, “will be demonstrated beyond all contradiction to be the most ancient of all wisdom.” Influenced by Clement’s vigorous and elaborate presentation on this point, Augustine, who carried the idea into the Middle Ages, made the sweeping assertion that all wisdom, including Greek philosophy, derived from the “prophetical doctrine” which “flowed from the fountain of Israel.”

Halevi summarized the same theory, as it was accepted in the Middle Ages, in the following brief passage: “The roots and principles of all sciences were handed down from the Hebrews first to the Chaldeans, then to the Persians and Medians, then to the Greeks and finally to the Romans. On account of the length of this period, and the many disturbing circumstances, it was forgotten that they originated with the Hebrews, and so they were ascribed to the Greeks and Romans.”

Abravanel’s position fully corresponds to that of Halevi, whose theory he accepts and elaborates. Revelation, as expressed in Holy Scripture, is for him a vital and fundamental source of man’s knowledge, in fact the only source possible. What man learns through his senses and by experience is at best but curtailed and partial knowledge. What he learns from Revelation is complete and wholly true. His major premise was: “There is no other wisdom which is more comprehensive and more ancient [and hence, more exalted] than that embodied in our law.”
Pgs. 99-100

[NovelShongololo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book which takes you into the intricacies of the life of Abarbanel very intimately despite the distance imposed by an academic retelling and recreation of his life. While mostly told from an objective historian's viewpoint, there are times when judgment seeps into the narrative - especially in how Abarbanel leads his congregation after the expulsion orders.

While I found the first part of the book detailing the history fascinating - the second part which detailed his philosophy and views was more challenging to get through. Possibly because of the dryness of the content and possibly because of the speculation surrounding how these views were formed.