When Maimonides’ philosophical writings finally reached western Europe in a language its Jews could read, his ideas met with intense and growing opposition. Though the great Jewish leader was deceased by then, Rabbi Moses son of Nahman took to his defense, calming the waters and preventing schism

Believe it or not, the renowned French Talmudic scholars known as the Tosafists banned the philosophical works of the great 12th-century Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides when they reached 13th-century France. Arousing the greatest opposition was his Guide of the Perplexed, but his Book of Knowledge – start of Maimonides’ fourteen-volume halakhic codex, Mishneh Torah – was also subjected to intense criticism. A relatively young community rabbi responded sharply to those who sought to outlaw these writings forever. His name was Rabbi Moses son of Nahman (acronym Ramban) – or Nahmanides – and he was then forty years of age. Ramban warned his colleagues:

Know full well, once and for all, that communities won’t hearken to the ban and oath […] when you decree that the books of the great rabbi should be suppressed, that each should abandon the object of his desire, separation from which is like severing the cord of life. For [people] study them and apply themselves to them, and who among those who use these as the basis of their Torah learning and delight in these books will change his position according to your instruction? Therefore, fellow rabbis, pay heed to [your minority status], and be deliberate in your judgment. The ban will be defied and the oath denied by a ram’s horn’s blast; the excommunication will be cancelled by other [rabbinic] courts, and the bill of ostracism scattered to the winds. (Nahmanides, Writings, ed. H. D. Chavel, vol. 1, pp. 348–49 [Hebrew])

This letter, somewhere between a firm request and an ultimatum, called for the ban of Maimonides’ works to be revoked.

Nahmanides’ daring defiance of the French rabbinical establishment, which included his own mentors and teachers, shows both his strength of character and his leadership position. Above all, though, it demonstrates his sense of historic responsibility at a critical juncture. 

 

Leader and Author

Rabbi Moses ben Nahman – or Bonastruc ca Porta in his native Catalan – was born in 1194 to one of Girona’s preeminent Jewish families. The town was part of Aragon, a Christian kingdom in northeastern Spain. (The southern Iberian Peninsula was still a hodgepodge of small, Islamic monarchies.) As he wrote very little about himself, and there are few external testimonies to his activities, biographical detail is thin. A physician, he spent most of his life in Girona and his final years in the land of Israel. We know of his two sons only through his letters to them.

In the 13th century, Girona’s Jewish community numbered only about five hundred within a population of roughly ten thousand. The Jews of Aragon and Catalonia enjoyed relative freedom and prosperity, holding senior posts in the royal court and playing important diplomatic roles. Although the Church constantly challenged the Jews’ position, their wealth and talents were too valuable to forgo. Jews served as doctors, translators, and negotiators, controlled the grain, olive oil, and cattle trades, and provided the interest-bearing loans that greased the wheels of commerce. Many members of the Jewish community became rich and successful, acquiring large estates.

James I of Aragon presided over most of this era of tolerance. His reign (1213–76) more or less overlaps with Nahmanides’ career. The two were friendly, and the king occasionally protected his protégé from Church persecution.

Young Rabbi Moses ben Nahman’s reputation as a halakhic authority and Talmudic scholar spread. His first responsa, dealing with intricate Talmudic arguments and their practical halakhic implications, date from his early thirties. During these years, he also completed a Talmudic commentary begun in his teens. Nahmanides’ main Talmudic works are War of the Lord and his novellae, Hiddushei Ha-Ramban, both written in Hebrew. His busy quill produced a slew of volumes, varying widely in theme but all marked by the author’s incisive insights. These works included commentaries on the Bible as well as essays, sermons, liturgical poetry, and polemics.  

In his last twenty years, Ramban labored over his greatest work, his commentary on the Pentateuch. The powerful concepts expounded in this masterpiece transformed biblical exegesis forever. (See “A Quizzical Commentator,” p. 34.) 

For most of his life, however, Nahmanides was not only a prolific author but the most prominent Spanish Jewish leader of the period. His position resulted in no few challenges, perhaps the most daunting being his 1267 summons to defend the cardinal principles of Judaism in a public disputation against a Church representative (see “Defending the Faith,” p. 31). His performance there precipitated his departure from Girona, whence he set sail to realize a long-deferred dream of settling in the land of Israel.

Ramban’s stay in Jerusalem produced one of the most moving prayers we have, to be recited over the ruins of the holy Temple. Rather than remain in the desolate city, Nahmanides settled in Acre (today’s Akko), then home to a large, vibrant Jewish community. He died there in 1270, just three years after his arrival, leaving behind a host of disciples and a body of works that would soon become classics.