ISAAC ABARBANEL
Abarbanel's Philosophy and Biblical Commentaries.--Elias
Levita.--Zeëna u-Reëna.--Moses Alshech.--The Biur.
The career of Don Isaac Abarbanel (born in Lisbon in 1437, died in
Venice in 1509) worthily closes the long services which the Jews of
Spain rendered to the state and to learning. The earlier part of his
life was spent in the service of Alfonso V of Portugal. He possessed
considerable wealth, and his house, which he himself tells us was built
with spacious halls, was the meeting-place of scholars, diplomatists,
and men of science. Among his other occupations, he busied himself in
ransoming Jewish slaves, and obtained the co-operation of some Italian
Jews in this object.
When Alfonso died, Abarbanel not only lost his post as finance
minister, but was compelled to flee for his life. He shared the fall of
the Duke of Braganza, whose popularity was hateful to Alfonso's
successor. Don Isaac escaped to Castile in 1484, and, amid the friendly
smiles of the cultured Jews of Toledo, set himself to resume the
literary work he had been forced to lay aside while burdened with
affairs of state. He began the compilation of commentaries on the
historical books of the Bible, but he was not long left to his studies.
Ferdinand and Isabella, under the very eyes of Torquemada and the
Inquisition, entrusted the finances of their kingdom to the Jew
Abarbanel during the years 1484 to 1492.
In the latter year, Abarbanel was driven from Spain in the general
expulsion instigated by the Inquisition. He found a temporary asylum in
Naples, where he also received a state appointment. But he was soon
forced to flee again, this time to Corfu. "My wife, my sons, and my
books are far from me," he wrote, "and I am left alone, a stranger in a
strange land." But his spirit was not crushed by these successive
misfortunes. He continued to compile huge works at a very rapid rate. He
was not destined, however, to end his life in obscurity. In 1503 he was
given a diplomatic post in Venice, and he passed his remaining years in
happiness and honor. He ended the splendid roll of famous Spanish Jews
with a career peculiarly Spanish. He gave a final, striking example of
that association of life with literature which of old characterized
Jews, but which found its greatest and last home in Spain.
As a writer, Abarbanel has many faults. He is very verbose, and his
mannerisms are provoking. Thus, he always introduces his commentaries
with a long string of questions, which he then proceeds to answer. It
was jokingly said of him that he made many sceptics, for not one in a
score of his readers ever got beyond the questions to the answers.
There is this truth in the sarcasm, that Abarbanel, despite his
essential lucidity, is very hard to read. Though Abarbanel has obvious
faults, his good qualities are equally tangible. No predecessor of
Abarbanel came so near as he did to the modern ideal of a commentator on
the Bible. Ibn Ezra was the father of the "Higher Criticism," i.e. the
attempt to explain the evolution of the text of Scripture. The Kimchis
developed the strictly grammatical exposition of the Bible. But
Abarbanel understood that, to explain the Bible, one must try to
reproduce the atmosphere in which it was written; one must realize the
ideas and the life of the times with which the narrative deals. His own
practical state-craft stood him in good stead. He was able to form a
conception of the politics of ancient Judea. His commentaries are works
on the philosophy of history. His more formal philosophical works, such
as his "Deeds of God" (_Miphaloth Elohim_), are of less value, they are
borrowed in the main from Maimonides. In his Talmudical writings,
notably his "Salvation of his Anointed" (_Yeshuoth Meshicho_), Abarbanel
displays a lighter and more original touch than in his philosophical
treatises. But his works on the Bible are his greatest literary
achievement. Besides the merits already indicated, these books have
another important excellence. He was the first Jew to make extensive use
of Christian commentaries. He must be credited with the discovery that
the study of the Bible may be unsectarian, and that all who hold the
Bible in honor may join hands in elucidating it.
A younger contemporary of Abarbanel was also an apostle of the same
view. This was Elias Levita (1469-1549). He was a Grammarian, or
Massorite, i.e. a student of the tradition (_Massorah_) as to the
Hebrew text of the Bible, and he was an energetic teacher of
Christians. In the sixteenth century the study of Hebrew made much
progress in Europe, but the Jews themselves were only indirectly
associated with this advance. Despite Abarbanel, Jewish commentaries
remained either homiletic or mystical, or, like the popular works of
Moses Alshech, were more or less Midrashic in style. But the Bible was a
real delight to the Jews, and it is natural that such books were often
compiled for the masses. Mention must be made of the _Zeëna u-Reëna_
("Go forth and see"), a work written at the beginning of the eighteenth
century in Jewish-German for the use of women, a work which is still
beloved of the Jewess. But the seeds sown by Abarbanel and others of his
school eventually produced an abundant harvest. Mendelssohn's German
edition of the Pentateuch with the Hebrew Commentary (_Biur_) was the
turning-point in the march towards the modern exposition of the Bible,
which had been inaugurated by the statesman-scholar of Spain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ABARBANEL.
Graetz.--IV, II.
I.S. Meisels.--_Don Isaac Abarbanel_, _J.Q.R._, II, p. 37.
S. Schechter.--_Studies in Judaism_, p. 173 [211].
F.D. Mocatta.--_The Jews of Spain and Portugal and the Inquisition_
(London, 1877).
Schiller-Szinessy.--_Encycl. Brit._, Vol. I, p. 52.
EXEGESIS 16th-18th CENTURIES.
Steinschneider.--_Jewish Literature_, p. 232 _seq._
BIUR.
_Specimen of the Biur_, translated by A. Benisch (_Miscellany
of the Society of Hebrew Literature_, Vol. I).