David ben Judah Messer Leon
Encyclopedia
David ben Judah Messer Leon (Venice
, c. 1470 – Salonica, c. 1526) was an Italian
rabbi
, physician
and writer, who defended the value of secular disciplines and the Renaissance
humanities
as an important part of traditional Jewish studies.
in the school of his father, Judah Messer Leon, author of Libnat ha-Sappir, and received at the age of eighteen his rabbinical diploma
from German and French Talmudic authorities. Soon afterward he went to Padua
, where he studied under Judah Minz, who granted him a new rabbinical diploma. After further studies in Florence
, he returned to Naples in 1492, where he practised as a physician and taught in his father's academy. However, in 1495 the city fell to the French under Charles VIII
, and he fled east to the Ottoman Empire
to escape the violent pogroms that ensued, spending time in Istanbul
before moving sometime between 1498 and 1504 to teach Torah in Salonica, at that time in a state of intellectual vibrancy due to the settlement there of many Sephardi exiles forced to leave after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain
in 1492, Sicily
in 1493, and Portugal
in 1496.
It was while he was at Salonica that he completed his most major work, the Ein ha-Kore (Eye of the Reader), a sympathetic commentary defending Maimonides
' Guide for the Perplexed
, criticizing the commentary of Isaac Abravanel. The reputation of the book spread, and he was called to the rabbinate of Avlona
in 1510 at a salary of 70 florins
a year. The community possessed three congregations of various nationalities, and Leon officiated successively in the three synagogues on every third Saturday. In the very first year of his rabbinate dissensions on account of a ritual question arose which caused the separation of the Portuguese and Catalonian Jews from the Castilians. Toward the end of his second year in Avlona a quarrel broke out among the Sephardim and the Portuguese. Leon, who sided with the Portuguese, had for antagonists Abraham Ḥarbon and Abraham de Collier. Excommunications were launched by both parties even on the Day of Atonement
, before the Sephardim finally relented. Some time later R. David returned to Salonica, where he died whilst still writing his last book.
, in which he was an adept; but he was too much of a philosopher to become involved in the abysses of mysticism. In his kabbalistic work Magen David, still extant in manuscript, he freely quotes the Greek and the Arabic philosophers. For him Plato
was the greatest kabbalist. This philosopher, Leon claimed, lived at the time of the prophet Jeremiah
, who was his teacher.
Leon wrote also the following works: Abir Ya'aḳob, on medicine and other sciences; Sefer ha-Derashot, sermons arranged in the order of the sections of the Torah
(according to Neubauer, it is identical with the Tif'eret Adam quoted in Leon's commentary on Lamentations); Menorat ha-Zahab, also extant in manuscript, probably a haggadic commentary on Lamentations
; Ein ha-Kore, a commentary on the Moreh Nebukim, criticizing the commentary of Isaac Abravanel; Miktam le-Dawid, a kabbalistic work mentioned in the Ein ha-Kore; Sod ha-Gemul, in which he shows that the Israelites, unlike other nations, are not under a special sign of the zodiac
; refutations of Albo
's criticisms of Aristotle
; Shebaḥ ha-Nashim, still extant in manuscript (according to Steinschneider, "Hebr. Bibl." xix.83, identical with the commentary on Prov. xxxi); Tehillah le-Dawid (published by the author's grandson Aaron le-Bet David, Constantinople, 1577), in three parts: (1) on the excellence of the Law; (2) on the elements of faith, which latter is superior to speculative reasoning; (3) on the principles of God, the divine attributes, providence, free will, etc.; a halakic decision on the ritual question which caused the division of the various congregations of Avlona, published by S. Bernfeld, under the title Kebod Ḥakamim, Berlin, 1899 (Meḳiẓe Nirdamim).
Leon was considered as a high Talmud
ic authority, and was consulted on halakic
questions. Two of his decisions have been preserved (Elijah Mizraḥi, Responsa, No. 47; Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 834). In one of his works Leon mentions a commentary of his own on Moses of Coucy's Sefer Mitzvot Gadol ("Semag"). Parma MS. de Rossi No. 1395 ("Cat. Perreau," No. 19) contains a scientific treatise by Leon. In the introduction to this treatise Leon says that he wrote many poems in Hebrew and in the "Christian language," meaning thereby Latin or Italian. Shabbethai Bass, without indicating any source, gives, in his Sifte Yeshenim, the following titles of works attributed to Leon: Bet Dawid; Kisse Dawid; Nefesh Dawid; Ḳol Adonai ba-Koaḥ; and Naḥal 'Adanim.
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, c. 1470 – Salonica, c. 1526) was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and writer, who defended the value of secular disciplines and the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
as an important part of traditional Jewish studies.
Life
David ben Judah was educated at NaplesNaples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
in the school of his father, Judah Messer Leon, author of Libnat ha-Sappir, and received at the age of eighteen his rabbinical diploma
Semicha
, also , or is derived from a Hebrew word which means to "rely on" or "to be authorized". It generally refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism. In this sense it is the "transmission" of rabbinic authority to give advice or judgment in Jewish law...
from German and French Talmudic authorities. Soon afterward he went to Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
, where he studied under Judah Minz, who granted him a new rabbinical diploma. After further studies in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, he returned to Naples in 1492, where he practised as a physician and taught in his father's academy. However, in 1495 the city fell to the French under Charles VIII
Charles VIII of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...
, and he fled east to the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
to escape the violent pogroms that ensued, spending time in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
before moving sometime between 1498 and 1504 to teach Torah in Salonica, at that time in a state of intellectual vibrancy due to the settlement there of many Sephardi exiles forced to leave after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 1492, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
in 1493, and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
in 1496.
It was while he was at Salonica that he completed his most major work, the Ein ha-Kore (Eye of the Reader), a sympathetic commentary defending Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
' Guide for the Perplexed
Guide for the Perplexed
The Guide for the Perplexed is one of the major works of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or "the Rambam"...
, criticizing the commentary of Isaac Abravanel. The reputation of the book spread, and he was called to the rabbinate of Avlona
Vlorë
Vlorë is one of the biggest towns and the second largest port city of Albania, after Durrës, with a population of about 94,000 . It is the city where the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on November 28, 1912...
in 1510 at a salary of 70 florins
Italian coin florin
The Italian florin was a coin struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard. It had 54 grains of nominally pure gold worth approximately 200 modern US Dollars...
a year. The community possessed three congregations of various nationalities, and Leon officiated successively in the three synagogues on every third Saturday. In the very first year of his rabbinate dissensions on account of a ritual question arose which caused the separation of the Portuguese and Catalonian Jews from the Castilians. Toward the end of his second year in Avlona a quarrel broke out among the Sephardim and the Portuguese. Leon, who sided with the Portuguese, had for antagonists Abraham Ḥarbon and Abraham de Collier. Excommunications were launched by both parties even on the Day of Atonement
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur , also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue...
, before the Sephardim finally relented. Some time later R. David returned to Salonica, where he died whilst still writing his last book.
Works
Leon was a prolific writer, and produced works in many branches of secular science, as well as on distinctively Jewish subjects. With the exception of two, all remained unpublished. Most of them are no longer extant, and are known only from quotations. Leon preferred to clothe his philosophy in the garb of the KabbalahKabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
, in which he was an adept; but he was too much of a philosopher to become involved in the abysses of mysticism. In his kabbalistic work Magen David, still extant in manuscript, he freely quotes the Greek and the Arabic philosophers. For him Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
was the greatest kabbalist. This philosopher, Leon claimed, lived at the time of the prophet Jeremiah
Jeremiah
Jeremiah Hebrew：יִרְמְיָה , Modern Hebrew:Yirməyāhū, IPA: jirməˈjaːhu, Tiberian:Yirmĭyahu, Greek:Ἰερεμίας), meaning "Yahweh exalts", or called the "Weeping prophet" was one of the main prophets of the Hebrew Bible...
, who was his teacher.
Leon wrote also the following works: Abir Ya'aḳob, on medicine and other sciences; Sefer ha-Derashot, sermons arranged in the order of the sections of the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
(according to Neubauer, it is identical with the Tif'eret Adam quoted in Leon's commentary on Lamentations); Menorat ha-Zahab, also extant in manuscript, probably a haggadic commentary on Lamentations
Book of Lamentations
The Book of Lamentations ) is a poetic book of the Hebrew Bible composed by the Jewish prophet Jeremiah. It mourns the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple in the 6th Century BCE....
; Ein ha-Kore, a commentary on the Moreh Nebukim, criticizing the commentary of Isaac Abravanel; Miktam le-Dawid, a kabbalistic work mentioned in the Ein ha-Kore; Sod ha-Gemul, in which he shows that the Israelites, unlike other nations, are not under a special sign of the zodiac
Zodiac
In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...
; refutations of Albo
Joseph Albo
Joseph Albo was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived in Spain during the fifteenth century, known chiefly as the author of Sefer ha-Ikkarim , the classic work on the fundamentals of Judaism.-Early life:Albo's birthplace is generally assumed to be Monreal, a town in Aragon...
's criticisms of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
; Shebaḥ ha-Nashim, still extant in manuscript (according to Steinschneider, "Hebr. Bibl." xix.83, identical with the commentary on Prov. xxxi); Tehillah le-Dawid (published by the author's grandson Aaron le-Bet David, Constantinople, 1577), in three parts: (1) on the excellence of the Law; (2) on the elements of faith, which latter is superior to speculative reasoning; (3) on the principles of God, the divine attributes, providence, free will, etc.; a halakic decision on the ritual question which caused the division of the various congregations of Avlona, published by S. Bernfeld, under the title Kebod Ḥakamim, Berlin, 1899 (Meḳiẓe Nirdamim).
Leon was considered as a high Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic authority, and was consulted on halakic
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
questions. Two of his decisions have been preserved (Elijah Mizraḥi, Responsa, No. 47; Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." No. 834). In one of his works Leon mentions a commentary of his own on Moses of Coucy's Sefer Mitzvot Gadol ("Semag"). Parma MS. de Rossi No. 1395 ("Cat. Perreau," No. 19) contains a scientific treatise by Leon. In the introduction to this treatise Leon says that he wrote many poems in Hebrew and in the "Christian language," meaning thereby Latin or Italian. Shabbethai Bass, without indicating any source, gives, in his Sifte Yeshenim, the following titles of works attributed to Leon: Bet Dawid; Kisse Dawid; Nefesh Dawid; Ḳol Adonai ba-Koaḥ; and Naḥal 'Adanim.
Jewish Encyclopedia Bibliography
- Rossi, Dizionario, s.v.;
- Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 78;
- Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 867;
- idem, Hebr. Bibl. viii.64;
- idem, in Letterbode, xii.57 et seq.;
- Neubauer, ib. x.10b et seq.;
- Schechter, in R. E. J. xxiv.118 et seq.;
- Michael, Or ha-Ḥayyim, No. 727;
- Carmoly, Histoire des Médecins Juifs, § ciii;
- S. Bernfeld, introduction to Kebod Ḥakamim