Ḥasdai Crescas: Light of the Lord (Or Hashem): Translated with Introduction and Notes — חסדאי קרשׂקשׂ אור השׁם

389 Pages·2018·2.08 MB·English

by  Ḥasdai Crescas

םשה רוא
Light of the Lord (Or Hashem)

OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,28/9/2018,SPi
translated with introduction and notes by
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OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,28/9/2018,SPi
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Translator’sIntroduction 1
Crescas’sLifeandWorks 4
StructureofLightoftheLord 6
Physics 7
ProvidenceandChoice 10
AbouttheTranslation 14
Introduction 16
Preface 26
BookI 30
PartI 31
PartII 70
PartIII 97
BookII 120
PartI 120
PartII 142
PartIII 166
PartIV 169
PartV 188
PartVI 205
BookIII:DivisionA 242
PartI 243
PartII 278
PartIII 282
PartIV 293
PartV 305
PartVI 309
PartVII 313
PartVIII 315
BookIII:DivisionB 321
PartI 321
PartII 325
PartIII 330
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,28/9/2018,SPi
vi  
BookIV 331
IssueI 331
IssueII 334
IssueIII 337
IssueIV 340
IssueV 342
IssueVI 345
IssueVII 347
IssueVIII 347
IssueIX 347
IssueX 349
IssueXI 351
IssueXII 352
IssueXIII 354
Bibliography 355
CitationsIndex 361
SubjectsandNamesIndex 369
Acknowledgments
A full year of concerted and undistracted effort was required to complete the first
draftofthistranslation.Foraffordingmeayear-longsabbatical,Iamindebtedtomy
home institution, Lehigh University. I thank the National Endowment for the
Humanities for its financial support, without which this project could never have
beencompleted.Severalcolleaguesandscholarshavebeenmosthelpfultome.First
and foremost—and in a category by himself—is Dr Leonard Levin, who conscien-
tiously and skillfully reviewed the entire manuscript several times, flagging errors,
offering suggestions for improvement, challenging me on substantive issues which
we then thrashed out together, and finding creative ways to make my task of
translation proceed more efficiently. I am indebted as well to Éric Smilevitch’s
masterful translation of Light of the Lord into French. Among those who read
sectionsofthemanuscriptandofferedusefulsuggestionsareDrWarrenZevHarvey,
DrCharlesManekin,andDrAriAckerman.DrDanielLaskeristhescholartowhom
IturnedwhenIneededhelpwiththemostrecalcitrantpassages.IamgratefultoMs
Leslie Rubin for her skilled preparation of the index, and to Sylvie Jaffrey for her
expert copyediting. I wish to acknowledge the encouragement and support of my
colleagues in the Lehigh University Philosophy Department, who worked through
severalsectionsofLightoftheLordwithmeatourweeklyfacultyseminarinSpring
2017. Twoclose friends provided valued criticisms and suggestions: Dr Alan Udoff
and Janette Rapp. Finally, I wish to express my appreciation to the many other
colleaguesandscholarswhogenerouslyofferedtheirtimeandassistance,andtomy
family,forwhomIamalwaysgrateful.

’
Translator s Introduction
ThebeginningofwisdomisfearoftheLord.(Ps.111:10)
H.asdai Crescas (c.1340–c.1410) was a man of simple piety—but by no means a
simple man. Suffused with an ardent and unwavering love for God and for the
Jewish people, Crescas produced, out of the depths of his love, the philosophic
masterpiece, Light of the Lord (םשה רוא; Or Hashem), a work of undisputed
sophistication, monumental in scope and ambitious in conception and execution.
Those acquainted with this work agree that it rivals the crown jewel of medieval
Jewish thought, Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed—“rivals” it, indeed, in two
senses: not only does it measure up to the Guide in range, brilliance, profundity,
thoroughness,erudition,andcertainlyinoriginalityandeconomyofexpression,but
italsocombatstheGuide’spervasiveAristotelianism.BecauseinhisviewAristotelian
physicsandmetaphysicsdeformanddistortJudaism,Crescasdarestoquestionthe
adequacy of the Guide’s arguments and to challenge its unflinching determination
to place God beyond human conception and understanding and to remove from
Him all anthropomorphism and anthropopathism. If there is a single driving aim
of Light of the Lord, it is to restore to Jewish thought its Jewish soul. Without
sacrificing intellectual honesty or rigor, it champions and defends traditional
religious belief and worship.Crescasapproaches thethorniestissues in thephilos-
ophy of religion—the origin of the universe, the nature of God, the relationship
between God and the world, the proper approach to Scripture and its command-
ments,humanchoice,divineprovidence,prophecy,thesoul,andimmortality—not
only with a keen and crisp intellect but with a unique religious sensibility, duly
recognizing the indispensability of the passional virtues of piety, reverence, and
love to the perfected human life.
Crescasisoneofthegreatsystematicphilosophers:alllinesofthoughtinLightof
theLordareinterconnected,convergingonthesingleunifyingthemeoflove.Loveis
attheheartofeveryissue:creation,infinityofspaceandtime,providence,freewill,
prophecy,theendoftheTorahandofhumanexistence,andthesoul’simmortality.
Anythingthatcannotbesubsumedunderlove,anythingthatliesoutsideorobstructs
thiscentraltheme,isrejected.OfthethreecomponentsofTorah—deeds,beliefs,and
love and fear of God—it is the last, Crescas asserts, which, though smallest in
quantity,isgreatestinimportance(LightoftheLord,II.vi.1).
ItisperhapsbecauseofthecentralityoflovetoLightoftheLordthatthebiblical
figure most prominent in it is not Moses, the man of intellect who at first resists
God’s call, but Abraham, the man of absolute devotion who faithfully follows God