Medieval Judaism Essay, Research Paper
MEDIEVAL JUDAISM
In a review of a Jews in Antiquity by Baile, Martha
Himmelfarb writes, “Biale does not minimize the Jews’ subjection
to local or distant lords. But, like Salo Baron before him, he
strives mightily to dispel the picture of Jewish, medieval life
as one long tale of ’suffering and learning.’ Hence the emphasis
upon the ‘considerable influence in high governing circles’ and
the significant degree of control over day-to-day life enjoyed by
many pre-modern Jewish communities. Hence, too, the attention to
‘the very active political struggles’ within those communities.
Normalization of Jewish political life, in this sense at least,
did not have to wait for the rise of Zionism” (Himmelfarb, 1994,
107).
According to Himmelfarb, Baile gathers a body of references
to Jewish wealth in antiquity, wealth that he insists would have
created anti-Jewish feelings. Yet given the silence of the
ancient sources, it is hard to imagine that writers would have
emphasized the role of economic factors in antiquity if it were
not for the significant role played by the activities of the Jews
as moneylenders and merchants in the development of anti-Semitism
in medieval Europe.
Another striking example of the problematic use of a model
drawn from the Christian Middle Ages is an emphasis on an
economic cause for popular animosity toward the Jews. Medieval
sources neglect to mention such a cause, but ancient historians
are rarely interested in economic causes. A clear observation
(rather than stereotype) of Jews throughout history reveals that
while the Jewish people inhabit all socioeconomic levels, they
tend to be successful at whatever they do. It doesn’t happen
just because they’re Jewish and therefore chosen, it happens
because practicing, committed Jews know all their traditional
history-it’s part of Jewish parents’ responsibility to teach
their children to continue the Jewish tradition and commitment:
These commandments that I give you today are to be upon
your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk
about them when you sit at home and when you walk along
the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie
them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your
foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses
and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:6-9, NIV).
More is known today about the Jewish philosophy of the time
than of specific Jewish life. Though there was a verbal battle
between two Islamic philosophers, Avicenna and al-Ghanzali,
regarding the validity of the Neoplatonism theory of God’s
relationship with and distance from mankind in general and
individuals in particular.
The premier Jewish philosopher of the era, Maimonides, was
highly gifted. He had gained knowledge of the Talmud,
philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. After his
father and brother died, he took up the practice of medicine as a
means of earning a livelihood. In time he became physician in the
court of Saladin, and an Arabic historian states that Richard the
Lionhearted offered him a similar position in London, which he
declined (Shapiro, 1993). In addition, Maimonides produced many
important rabbinical and philosophical writings, as well as a
number of medical works that reveal him to have had an
understanding of medicine far in advance of his times. His
writings are generally accepted by Orthodox Jews and form part of
the Orthodox synagogue service. His principal philosophical work
is the Moreh Nebuhim (1190; Guide for the Perplexed). His
object, and this became the main object of medieval Jewish
philosophy, was to unify faith with reason, and to reconcile
Judaism with the teachings of Aristotle, whom Maimonides admired
above all philosophers. By definition, if Maimonides supported
the philosophy of Aristotle, he was opposed to the growing
doctrine of Neoplatonism.
The Jewish people of the Middle Ages were generally on the
high end of their respective levels, as they tend to be at any
point in history. There is evidence of growing anti-Semitism,
but the term could well be simply a misnomer for jealousy and
envy.
328