Author: Racheli Haliva

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

"Isaac Polqar, who belonged to the Jewish Averroist School, was active in northern Spain in the first half of the fourteenth century. In addition to his main philosophical book 'Ezer ha-Dat (In Support of the Law), preserved in its entirety in a single manuscript, he wrote several other works, most of which are no longer extant. Among his lost works are commentaries on the books of Genesis, Ecclesiastes, and Psalms. In his extant works, Polqar does not provide details about his own life; however, his correspondence with his former teacher, Abner of Burgos, reveals the tense and complicated relationship between them. The two were in continuous debate, especially after Abner of Burgos converted to Christianity and used his expertise in Biblical, Talmudic, and philosophical texts to attack the faith of his birth.The present study is dedicated to Polqar's two extant works: 'Ezer ha-Dat, his main philosophical text, and Teshuvat Apikoros (A Response to the Heretic), a letter he wrote to Abner of Burgos, expressing his objection to Christianity. Polqar aims to defend three positions. The first is to defend hermeneutically and philosophically the superiority of Judaism over Christianity by arguing that Judaism accords with philosophical principles and is therefore a true religion, while Christianity, which possesses irrational doctrines such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, cannot be considered a true religion. The second is to defend Aristotelian philosophy as taught by Averroes. And the third is to defend his philosophical interpretation of Judaism against the accusations of Jewish sects, such as the Kabbalists.Influenced by Maimonides and Averroes, Polqar plays a unique role in giving a philosophical interpretation to Jewish principles. At first glance, Polqar appears to continue the Maimonidean project of reconciling Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Judaism. Yet, despite the appearance of congruence between his ideas and those of Maimonides, my study brings to light their moments of divergence. While Polqar did not wish to publicly contradict Maimonides, a close examination of Polqar's presentation of key concepts within the Jewish faith--the role of the commandments, creation vs. eternity of the world, and the difference between prophet and philosopher--shows that Polqar, owing to the influence of Averroes, consistently pushes Maimonides' ideas in a more radical direction.In addition to his initial goal of giving the principles of Judaism a radically naturalistic Averroistic interpretation, Polqar, in a more apologetic vein, sought to defend that interpretation from criticisms leveled against it by Christians and converts, as well as by members of his own Jewish community who held more traditional views. The tension between Polqar's radical views and those held by Jewish scholars with more traditional commitments often led him to employ Maimonides' method of directing contradictory messages to different audiences, as a preemptive defense against possible accusations of heresy. My research highlights the influence that Muslim thinkers such as al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Ibn Bājja, and Averroes had on Polqar, in addition to his Jewish teacher, Maimonides, and his contemporaries, Isaac Albalag and Moshe Narboni. His twofold project - preserving Jewish principles, and defending Aristotelian philosophy as taught by Averroes - often put his thought at the center of controversy. Polqar thus emerges, alongside Narboni and Albalag, as a major representative of the Jewish Averroist School--indeed, as arguably its most radical exponent." --