Abravanel, Isaac
ABRAVANEL, ISAAC (1437–1508), known as Abravanel, Abrabanel, and Abarbanel; Spanish-Portuguese biblical commentator, theologian, and philosopher. Born in Lisbon into a wealthy Jewish family from Seville, Isaac ben Judah Abravanel succeeded his father as the treasurer to Alfonso V, king of Aragon, but in 1483 for political reasons he had to flee to Castille, where he remained in the service of Ferdinand and Isabella until the expulsion of the Jews on May 31, 1492. He then moved to Naples in the service of King Ferrante I until a French invasion forced him to flee with the king to Messina in 1494. Isaac resided in Corfu until 1496; then moved to Monopoli (Apulia), and in 1503 settled in Venice, where he spent the last years of his life.
Isaac's earliest work, composed when he was in his teens, was Tsurot ha-yesodot (Forms of the elements). His next, completed around 1465, was ʿAteret zeqenim (Crown of the ancients). The first deals with ontology; the second covers divine providence and the nature of prophecy. Between 1483 and 1505 Isaac wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. In 1496 he completed a commentary on Deuteronomy titled Mirkevet ha-mishneh (The second chariot); another on the Passover Haggadah, Zevah pesah (The sacrifice of Passover); and a third on the tractate Avot in the Mishnah, Nahalot avot (Paternal inheritance).
Between 1496 and 1498 Isaac composed a set of three books known as "The Tower of Salvation." The first, Maʿyenei ha-yeshuʿah (The fountains of salvation), is a commentary on the Book of Daniel. The second, Yeshuʿot meshiho (The salvation of his anointed), is a study of midrashim and passages from the Talmud that deal with the Messiah and the messianic age. The third, Mashmiʿa yeshuʿah (Announcing salvation), is a commentary on the messianic prophecies found in all of the books of the prophets.
Isaac wrote three books that deal specifically with the philosophy of Maimonides (Mosheh ben Maimon, 1135/8–1204): Roʾsh amanah (The principles of faith; 1494), a detailed commentary (1505) on Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed, and the Maʾamar qatser (Short treaties; 1505), which discusses at length what Isaac considered to be the most difficult problems in the Guide. In 1505 Isaac also completed two works on creation, Shamayim hadashim (The new heavens) and Mifʿalot Elohim (The works of God).
Isaac's last written works were answers to questions raised by Shaʾul ha-Kohen of Candia. These responsa refer to two lost books: The Inheritance of the Prophets, an essay against Maimonides' theory of prophecy, and The Justice of the Universe, which deals with divine providence.
The dominant theme of Isaac's writings is his opposition to what he considered to be the excessive rationalism of the Jewish Aristotelians who followed Maimonides, particularly Gersonides (Levi ben Gershom). Isaac was motivated by the fear that this kind of sophisticated Jewish thought, given the threats to Jewish survival present in the exile, would undermine the faith of the simple Jew. Isaac rejected the claims of both Hasdai Crescas and Yosef Albo that it is possible to single out fundamental principles of Judaism. Isaac argued that Judaism has no conceptual axioms; every law and every belief in the Torah is equally fundamental.
Isaac opposed naturalistic interpretations of prophecy. He argued that all prophecy is produced directly by God and that the events reported in prophetic visions actually occurred in the physical world. Furthermore, prophetic knowledge differs qualitatively from natural knowledge. Natural knowledge at best yields claims that are merely probable, whereas revealed knowledge is necessarily true.
Isaac drew his political theory from the political structures of ancient Rome, the Venice of his day, and the Torah. He claimed that a political state is required only because of the human imperfection that resulted from the sin of Adam. Consequently, no political state is perfect. The best political order is that of theocracy; the next best is a monarchy, limited by the national laws of a superior court or Sanhedrin and the local laws of elected municipal lower courts.
Two cosmological judgments underlie Isaac's view of history. One is his rejection of the Aristotelian conception of the spheres as living entities. The other is his affirmation of a literal understanding of the doctrine of creation out of nothing. What philosophers mistakenly believe to be natural law is God's will made manifest through the actions of angels (God's agents for rewarding human beings) and demons (God's agents for punishing human beings), and/or the willed choices of human beings. Nothing occurs through impersonal, natural forces.
Isaac pictured the course of human history as a circle that began when humanity separated from God and that will end when humanity returns to God. However, after Adam's initial fall that began history, there was, is, and will be continuous disintegration until the messianic age. The penultimate state of history will begin when a revived Muslim empire in alliance with the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel will conquer the Christians and retake possession of Jerusalem. Next, the Messiah, who is not Jesus of Nazareth, will appear, and the Muslims will turn over Jerusalem to him. At that time all of the Jewish people will return to the Land of Israel, and the Messiah will rule the world. Then a reign will follow during which humanity will progressively improve until, in the end, the physical, human world will give way to a spiritual world of pure souls who eternally will contemplate God's essence. The two dates that Isaac cited for the coming of the Messiah are 1503 and 1531.
Messianism, Article on Jewish Messianism.
Bibliography
Guttmann, Jacob. Die religionsphilosophischen Lehren des Isaak Abravanel. Breslau, 1916.
Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Don Jizchak Abravanel. Berlin, 1937.
Levy, Solomon. Isaac Abravanel as a Theologian. London, 1939.
Minkin, Jacob S. Abarbanel and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. New York, 1938.
Netanyahu, Benzion. Don Isaac Abravanel. Philadelphia, 1953.
Sarachek, Joseph. Don Isaac Abravanel. New York, 1938.
Schmueli, Ephraim. Don Yitshaq Abarbanel ve-geirush Sefarad (Don Isaac Abravanel and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain). Jerusalem, 1963.
Trend, J. B., and Herbert Loewe. Isaac Abravanel: Six Lectures. Cambridge, U.K., 1937.
New Sources
Attias, Jean-Christophe. "Isaac Abravanel: Between Ethnic Memory and National Memory." Jewish Social Studies 2 (1996): 137–156.
Feldman, Seymour. Philosophy in a Time of Crisis: Don Isaac Abravanel, Defender of the Faith. London and New York, 2003.
Gaon, Solomon. The Influence of the Catholic Theologian Alfonso Tostado on the Pentateuch Commentary of Isaac Abravanel. Library of Sephardic History and Thought, vol. 2. New York, 1993.
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