Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas (; ; c. 1340 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

) was a Spanish-Jewish

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and a renowned

halakhist ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

(teacher of Jewish law). Along with

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

("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 Joseph Albo (; ) was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived in Spain during the fifteenth century, known chiefly as the author of ''Sefer ha-Ikkarim'' ("Book of Principles"), the classic work on the fundamentals of Judaism. Biography Albo's bi ...

, 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 the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconc ...

Biography

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

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

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

Nissim of Gerona Nissim ben Reuven (1290 – 9th of Shevat, 1376, ) 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. He is also known by his Hebrew acronym, the ...

. Following his teacher's footsteps, he became a Talmudic authority and a philosopher of great originality. He is considered critical in the history of modern thought for his profound influence on

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 163221 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born in the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Enlightenmen ...

. After leaving Barcelona, he held the administrative position of crown rabbi of 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) () 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 school of Nissim of Gerona. ...

, 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 i ...

, takes precedence.

is the best known of his pupils, but at least two others won recognition, Mattathias of

and Zechariah ha-Levi. Crescas was a man of means. As such, he was appointed sole executor of his uncle's will, Vitalis Azday, by King John I of Aragon in 1393. Still, though enjoying the high esteem even of prominent non-Jews, he did not escape their fate. Imprisoned with his teacher upon a false accusation of

host desecration Host desecration is a form of sacrilege in Christian denominations that follow the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It involves the mistreatment or malicious use of a consecrated Sacramental bread, host—the bread used in ...

in 1378, he suffered personal indignities because he was a Jew. His only son was martyred in the

massacre of 1391 The Massacre of 1391, also known as the pogroms of 1391, refers to a murderous wave of mass violence committed against the Jews of Spain by the Catholic populace in the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, both in present-day Spain, in the year 139 ...

. Notwithstanding this bereavement, his mental powers were unbroken. The works that have made him famous were written after that terrible year. In 1401-02 he visited

Joseph Orabuena Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

Pamplona Pamplona (; ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Navarre, Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. Lying at near above sea level, the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood pl ...

at the request of

Charles III of Navarre Charles III (, ; 22 July 1361 – 8 September 1425), called the Noble, was King of Navarre from 1387 to his death and Count of Évreux in France from 1387 to 1404, when he exchanged Évreux for the Duchy of Nemours. As a young man, Charles was ...

, 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 Zaragoza."

Works

His works on Jewish law, if indeed he 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 Prior Analytics, deductive logic and an Posterior Analytics, analytic inductive method in the study of natural philosophy and metaphysics ...

and a harbinger of the

Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of History of science, modern science during the early modern period, when developments in History of mathematics#Mathematics during the Scientific Revolution, mathemati ...

of the 16th century. Three of his writings have been preserved: #His primary work, ''

Or Adonai Or Adonai (Hebrew: אור אֲדֹנָי), The Light of the Lord, is the primary work of Rabbi Hasdai Crescas (c. 1340 - 1410/1411), a Jewish philosopher. As some Jews prefer to not use even the respectful title ''Adonai'' (Lord) other than in pray ...

'' "Light of the Lord". #An exposition and refutation of the central doctrines of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. This treatise was written in 1398 in

Old Catalan Old Catalan, also known as Medieval Catalan, is the modern denomination for Romance varieties that during the Middle Ages were spoken in territories that spanned roughly the territories of the Principality of Catalonia, the Kingdom of Valencia, ...

. The original is no longer extant, but a Hebrew translation by

Joseph ibn Shem-Tov :''To be distinguished from Joseph Albo (1380-1435)'' Joseph ben Shem-Tov ibn Shem-Tov (died 1480) was a prolific Judæo-Spanish writer born in Castile. He lived in various cities of Spain: Medina del Campo de León (1441); Alcalá de Henares ( ...

, 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 Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

, published as an appendix to Wiener's edition of ''

Shevet Yehudah The ''Scepter of Judah'' ( ) was a text produced by the Sephardi historian Solomon Ibn Verga. It first appeared in the Ottoman Empire in 1550. It contains some 75 stories of Jewish persecution, and is a transitional work between the medieval and ...

'' of

Solomon ibn Verga Solomon ibn Verga or ''Salomón ben Verga'' (, 14601554) was a Spanish-born Sephardic Jewish historian, physician, and author of the ''Shevet Yehudah'' (Hebrew: – "'' Scepter of Judah''"). He was the nephew of Judah ibn Verga. Schudt (1718) ...

, in which he relates the incidents of the 1391 pogrom.

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 Iqqerei 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 Medieval Jewish philosophers Medieval Catalan-language writers Philosophers from Catalonia Philosophers of Judaism Writers from Barcelona 14th-century writers from the Crown of Aragon

Biography

Works

List of works

References

Further reading

External links