Table Of ContentSeeing with Both Eyes
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Supplements to The Journal of
Jewish Thought and Philosophy
Edited by
Leora Batnitzky (Princeton University)
Christian Wiese (University of Sussex)
Elliot Wolfson (New York University)
VOLUME 2
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Seeing with Both Eyes
Ephraim Luntshitz and the Polish-Jewish Renaissance
by
Leonard S. Levin
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2008
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Levin, Leonard, 1946–
Seeing with both eyes : Ephraim Luntshitz and the Polish-Jewish renaissance / by
Leonard S. Levin.
p. cm. — (Supplements to the journal of Jewish thought and philosophy ; v. 2)
ISBN 978-90-04-16484-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Ephraim Solomon ben
Aaron, of Luntshits, 1550–1619. 2. Rabbis—Poland—Biography. 3. Jewish
philosophers—History—16th century. 4. Philosophy, Jewish—History—16th century.
5. Isserles, Moses ben Israel, ca. 1525–1572. 6. Jaffe, Mordecai ben Abraham,
ca. 1535–1612. I. Title. II. Series.
BM755.E68L48 2008
296.3092—dc22
[B]
2008005723
ISSN 1873-9008
ISBN 978 90 04 16484 0
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
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R. Johanan ben Dahabai says in the name of R. Juda b. Bathyra: Whoever is
blind in one of his eyes is exempt from appearing, as it says: ‘All your males shall
be seen’—in the manner that one sees, so shall one come to be seen. Just as it is
normal to see with both eyes, so one should come to appear with both eyes.
For physical seeing is when a man sees the things as they are written and the
practices as they are performed visibly through the sense of sight. But inner vision
is the seeing of the heart and intellect . . . Thus whoever is not complete in both
kinds of seeing—the physical and the intellectual—is called blind in one eye, to
wit, the intellectual.
Thus you should inquire and inspect up to the point that your intellect is capable
of reaching, according to the blessing of the Lord your God who has give you intel-
ligence and understanding—
—Gleanings of Ephraim Part II, Sermon 3
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ..................................................................... xiii
English and Hebrew Titles of Primary Works .......................... xv
Table of Abbreviations ............................................................... xvii
Introduction ................................................................................ 1
Chapter One Circles of Influence: Polish Jewish Thought in
the Age of the Late Renaissance ........................................... 5
Renaissance? Humanism? .................................................. 5
Reformation? Counter-Reformation? ................................. 8
Opportunities and Barriers ................................................ 9
Circles of Influence ............................................................ 13
Overview of the Period: Rumors of Philosophy ............... 16
Significance of the Polish-Jewish Renaissance ................... 18
Chapter Two The First Wave (1550–1580): Isserles, Jaffe,
and Horowitz .......................................................................... 20
The Isserles School ............................................................. 20
Moses Isserles and the Maimonidean Revival ................... 21
The Isserles-Luria Correspondence ................................... 24
Isserles’s Conservative Maimonideanism ........................... 29
Isserles’s Symbiosis of Philosophy and Kabbalah ............. 34
Isserles’s Final Position and Its Significance ...................... 35
Mordecai Jaffe’s Intellectual Program ................................ 36
Abraham Horowitz: Ethics and Intellectual Salvation ...... 39
Summary ............................................................................. 44
Excursus: Did the 16th Century Philosophical Renaissance
Build on the Legacy of the 14th Century Muelhausen
Circle? .............................................................................. 45
Chapter Three Young Ephraim: Ephraim’s Early Outlook
as Expressed in City of Heroes ................................................. 48
Ephraim’s Beginnings ........................................................ 48
The Influence of Solomon Luria ...................................... 49
A Conventionally Drawn Line .......................................... 51
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viii contents
“Why Start With Creation?” ............................................. 52
In Defense of Israel’s Specialness: Maharal on Genesis ... 55
The Purpose of Creation ................................................... 57
Environmental Influences? A Conjecture .......................... 60
Eliezer Ashkenazi Makes an Entrance .............................. 62
Ephraim’s Outlook in 1580 ............................................... 64
Chapter Four The Debate Between Eliezer and Maharal ..... 66
Status Quo in the 1570s .................................................... 66
Revising the Account of the Eliezer-Maharal Relationship 68
Mediating Bible and Philosophy ....................................... 69
The Tell-Tale Prefaces ....................................................... 76
Maharal Contra Eliezer ..................................................... 80
Conclusions ........................................................................ 90
Chapter Five Ephraim Discovers Philosophy
(Gleanings of Ephraim—1590) ................................................... 91
Unriddling Another Preface .............................................. 91
Core Sample: A Sermon for Sukkot ................................. 93
Philosophical Manifesto ..................................................... 99
Sermon 2: Devekut, Rationality, and the Reason for
Sacrifices ........................................................................... 101
Sermon 3: Seeing with Both Eyes ....................................... 106
The Festivals and the Golden Mean ................................... 111
Other Philosophical Statements in the Gleanings ................. 113
Chapter Six The Quest of Reason: The Outlook of the
Precious Ornament (Part 1) ......................................................... 116
The Place of The Precious Ornament in Ephraim’s
Oeuvre ............................................................................ 116
Climbing Jacob’s Ladder .................................................... 118
Intellectual Seekers after God’s Truth ............................... 120
Attributes of God: Divine Image ...................................... 128
Attributes of God: Simplicity, Immutability, Knowledge/
Human Free Will ............................................................ 131
Limits of Rational Explanation ......................................... 137
The Natural Order, Astrology, and Providence ................ 143
Moral Psychology ............................................................... 152
Women Have Intellect, Too ............................................... 157
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contents ix
Universal and Particular .................................................... 165
A Conjecture: Was Ephraim Influenced by the Polish
Reformation? .................................................................. 168
Chapter Seven Return To Origins: The Outlook of the
Precious Ornament (Part 2) ......................................................... 171
Mysticism: Questions of Method (Ephraim’s and Ours) .. 171
Ephraim’s Omphalos Myth ................................................ 174
The Letters of Creation ..................................................... 179
Primary and Secondary Process ......................................... 183
How They Play Out in Jewish Thought: A Thumbnail
Sketch .............................................................................. 185
Ephraim’s Use of Primary and Secondary Process .......... 189
Word-Play, Gematria, and the Invention of Wit ............... 191
Differences in Ephraim’s Use of Word-Play ...................... 195
Primary Process and the Ineffable ...................................... 200
The Divine-Human Relationship ....................................... 204
Conclusion .................................................................................. 209
Bibliography ................................................................................ 215
Appendix: The Polish Jewish Renaissance: A Source-Book ...... 221
Solomon Luria and Moses Isserles
Isserles—Luria Correspondence (~ 1550?, from Isserles
Responsa )
Isserles (from Responsum 5) ............................................... 223
Luria (from Responsum 6) .................................................. 225
Isserles (from Responsum 7) ............................................... 228
Solomon Luria
Sea of Solomon: Introduction to Tractate (cid:198)ullin (~ 1560?) ..... 231
Moses Isserles
Law of the Sacred Offering (1570)
Contents .............................................................................. 237
Part II, 2: Four Philosophical Propositions
First Proposition .............................................................. 250
Second Proposition ......................................................... 251
Third Proposition ........................................................... 255
Fourth Proposition .......................................................... 266
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