Abstract
A leading rabbi of the generation that underwent expulsion from Spain in 1492, Arama is best known for his philosophical sermons and biblical commentaries that oppose the Aristotelianism of Maimonides and his followers: their subordination of revelation to reason; their belief in the eternity of the university; and its consequent necessity that excludes miracles and individual providence. Yet Arama is no fideist, and values reason and philosophy as ways of deepening human understanding of Scripture, expressed through allegorical interpretation. A critic of previous enumerations of the basic beliefs, dogmas, or articles of faith of Judaism, Arama proposes his own list of six principles whose primary principle is creation which entails the possibility of miracles and individual providence. Arama’s major work, the Aqedat Yitzhaq (“The Binding of Isaac”), a collection of philosophical sermons that bring together philosophical argument and scriptural exegesis, was very popular and exercised a significant influence on subsequent Jewish thinkers, especially Isaac Abrabanel.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Primary Literature
Arama, Isaac. 1522. Aqedat Yitzhaq (The binding of Isaac), ed. H. Pollack, Pressburg, 1849; English trans. E. Munk, Aqaydat Yitzchaq, Jerusalem: Feldheim, 1986, 2 volumes; Jerusalem and New York: Lambda Publishers, 3rd. rev. ed. 2001. (The Hebrew edition also contains Arama’s other biblical commentaries and his polemical treatise. The English translation is the only extended translation in English of Arama’s thought but it must be used with caution.).
Secondary Literature
Bettan, I. 1939. Studies in Jewish preaching: Middle ages. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press; repr. Lanham, MD, and London: University Press of America, 1987) (The classic study of Arama’s homiletics).
Heller-Wilensky, Sarah O. 1956. R. Yitzhaq Arama Umishnato (Isaac Arama and his philosophical teachings) (Heb.), Jerusalem/Tel Aviv: Bialik/Dvir Publishing House (a systematic reconstruction of Arama’s philosophy).
Kellner, M. 1976. Gersonides and his cultured despisers: Arama and Abravanel. Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 6 (2): 269–296, esp. 273–78 – rev. repr. in idem, Torah in the Observatory: Gersonides, Maimonides, Song of Songs (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010), 305–32.
Kellner, M. 1986. Dogma in medieval Jewish thought. New York/Oxford: Littman Library/Oxford University Press. (A good discussion of Arama’s dogmas).
Pearl, C. 1971. The medieval mind. London: Vallentine, Mitchell. (An accessible expositon of Arama’s philosophy).
Rony, M.N. 2006. Social and political ideas in early modern Jewish philosophical commentaries on the story of the Tower of Babel. In Tradition, heterodoxy, and religious culture: Judaism and Christianity in the early modern period, ed. Chanita Goodblatt and Howard Kreisel, 167–184. Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press.
Saperstein, M. 1989. Jewish preaching 1200–1800. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Septimus, B. 1999. Yitzhak Arama and Aristotle’s ethics. In Jews and Conversos at the time of expulsion, ed. Y.-T. Assis and Y. Kaplan. Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Stern, J. (2018). Arama, Isaac ben Moses. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_18-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_18-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities