Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (; he, חסדאי קרשקש; c. 1340 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

– 1410/11 in

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Province of Zaragoza, Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Ara ...

) was a Spanish-Jewish

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and a renowned halakhist (teacher of Jewish law). Along with

Maimonides Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...

("Rambam"),

Gersonides Levi ben Gershon (1288 – 20 April 1344), better known by his Graecized name as Gersonides, or by his Latinized name Magister Leo Hebraeus, or in Hebrew by the abbreviation of first letters as ''RaLBaG'', was a medieval French Jewish philosoph ...

("Ralbag"), and Joseph Albo, he is known as one of the major practitioners of the rationalist approach to

Jewish philosophy Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews, or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until modern '' Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcil ...

Biography

Hasdai Crescas came from a family of scholars. He was the grandson of the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

ist Hasdai ben Judah Crescas, and a disciple of the Talmudist and philosopher

Nissim ben Reuben Nissim ben Reuven (1320 – 9th of Shevat, 1376, he, נִסִּים בֶּן רְאוּבֵן) of Girona, Catalonia was an influential talmudist and authority on Jewish law. He was one of the last of the great Spanish medieval Talmudic scholars ...

, known as the ''RaN''. Following in the footsteps of his teacher he became a Talmudic authority and a philosopher of great originality. He is considered important in the history of modern thought for his deep influence on

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...

. After leaving Barcelona, he held the administrative position of crown rabbi in Aragon. p. 194 He seems to have been active as a teacher. Among his fellow students and friends,

Isaac ben Sheshet Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet (or Barfat) (1326–1408) ( he, יצחק בן ששת) was a Spanish Talmudic authority, also known by his acronym, Rivash (). He was born at Valencia and settled early in life at Barcelona, where he studied at the scho ...

(known as the ''RIBaSH''), famous for his

responsa ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars ...

, takes precedence. Joseph Albo is the best known of his pupils, but at least two others have won recognition, Rabbi Mattathias of Saragossa, and Rabbi Zechariah ha-Levi. Crescas was a man of means. As such he was appointed sole executor of the will of his uncle Vitalis Azday by the King John I of Aragon in 1393. Still, though enjoying the high esteem even of prominent non-Jews, he did not escape the common fate of his coreligionists. Imprisoned with his teacher upon a false accusation of host desecration in 1378, he suffered personal indignities because he was a Jew. His only son died in a massacre in Barcelona in 1391, a martyr for his faith, during the anti-Judaic persecutions of that period. Nevertheless, he kept his faith. Notwithstanding this bereavement, his mental powers were unbroken; for the works that have made him famous were written after that terrible year. In 1401-02 he visited Joseph Orabuena at Pamplona at the request of the King of Navarre, who paid the expenses of his journey to various Navarrese towns (Jacobs, l.c. Nos. 1570, 1574). He was at that time described as "Rav of

Saragossa Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributar ...

Works

His works on Jewish law, if indeed ever committed to writing – have not reached us. But his concise philosophical work ''Or Adonai'', ''The Light of the Lord'' became a classical Jewish refutation of medieval

Aristotelianism Aristotelianism ( ) is a philosophical tradition inspired by the work of Aristotle, usually characterized by deductive logic and an analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics. It covers the treatment of the so ...

, and a harbinger of the scientific revolution in the 16th century. Three of his writings have been preserved: #His primary work, '' Or Adonai'', ''The Light of the Lord''. #An exposition and refutation of the main doctrines of Christianity. This treatise was written in Catalan in 1398. The Catalan original is no longer extant; but a Hebrew translation by Joseph ibn Shem-Tov, with the title ("Refutation of the Cardinal Principles of the Christians"), has been preserved. The work was composed at the solicitation of Spanish noblemen. Crescas' object in writing what is virtually an apologetic treatise on Judaism was to present the reasons which held the Jews fast to their ancestral faith. #His letter to the congregations of Avignon, published as an appendix to Wiener's edition of "Shevet Yehudah" (see above), in which he relates the incidents of the persecution of 1391.

List of works

*''The Light of the Lord'' (Hebrew: ''Or Adonai'' or ''Or Hashem'') *''The Refutation of the Christian Principles'' (polemics and some philosophy) ** Daniel Lasker: ''Sefer Bittul Iqqarei Ha-Nozrim by R. Hasdai Crescas.'' Albany 1992. ** Carlos del Valle Rodríguez: ''La inconsistencia de los dogmas cristianos: Biṭṭul 'Iqqare ha-Noṣrim le-R. Ḥasday Crescas.'' Madrid 2000. *''Passover Sermon'' (religious philosophy and some halakha)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crescas, Hasdai 1340 births 1410s deaths 14th-century Catalan rabbis 14th-century Spanish philosophers 14th-century Jewish theologians 15th-century Catalan rabbis 15th-century Spanish philosophers Determinists Jewish apologists Jewish philosophers Medieval Catalan-language writers Philosophers from Catalonia Philosophers of Judaism Writers from Barcelona

Biography

Works

List of works

References

Further reading

External links