Physical Description

Detail Description

R. Abba Mari b. Moses b. Joseph Astroc of Lunel (c. 1300), writer who opposed the teaching of Maimonides. R. Astruc lived in Montpellier where the dispute over Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed had broken out as early as 1232–33 and where the controversy between the philosophical and the traditionalist schools of thought persisted up to the beginning of the 14th century. In order to counteract the rationalistic method of biblical exegesis, which in his view undermined belief, R. Astruc laid down three basic principles of Judaism: the existence, unity, and incorporeality of G-d; the creation of the world by G-d; and G-d's special providence. In his polemical work Sefer ha-Yare'ah (yerah="moon"; an allusion to his native city Lunel), R. Astruc interprets biblical sayings and stories from the point of view of these three principles. As the leader of the traditionalists in the struggle against their opponents, Astruc conducted a vehement propaganda campaign and was able to induce R. Solomon b. Abraham Adret of Barcelona and R. Kalonymos b. Todros to combine in taking steps against the "corrupters of the holy tradition" (see Maimonidean controversy). After negotiations lasting three years, a 50-year ban was pronounced in the synagogue of Barcelona on the Sabbath before Ninth of Av, July 1305, against all those who before their 25th birthday engaged in the study of science and of metaphysics. In a special letter to the Provencal communities, this anathema was extended to include those who indulged in rationalistic exegesis and the philosophic interpretation of the aggadah. R. Astruc's opponents, led by R. Jacob b. Machir ibn Tibbon of Montpellier, realizing that this movement was directed against the writings and followers of Maimonides, issued a counterban. R. Menahem Meiri of Perpignan sent Astruc a sharp rejoinder, and R. Jedaiah ha-Penini Bedersi addressed himself in a like manner to R. Adret. R. Astruc obtained rabbinic opinions concerning the ban and counter-ban and received many favorable comments on his position, among others from the rabbis of Toledo, headed by R. Asher b. Jehiel. This controversy, however, came to an abrupt end when the Jews were expelled from France by Phillip the Fair in 1306. R. Astruc then moved to Arles and after that to Perpignan. His enemies sought to prevent his settling in that city. The leaders of the Jewish community, R. Samuel b. Asher and his son Moses, however, espoused his cause and befriended him. The letters and pamphlets of this controversy were collected by R. Astruc in his work Minhat Kena'ot (Pressburg, 1838). The halakhic correspondence between R. Astruc and R. Adret is contained in the responsa of the latter - She'elot u-Teshuvot ha-Rashba, 1 (1480; no. 167, 825, in conjunction with no. 413, 424–28; for the correspondence with R. Asher b. Jehiel, see the latter's Responsa no. 24). R. Astruc wrote a kinah for the Ninth of Av, as well as a commentary on a Purim song in Aramaic, composed by R. Isaac ibn Ghayyat (Venice, 1632). Presumably, the piyyut, published by R. S. D. Luzzatto in Kerem Hemed 4 (1839), 30, is also by R. Astruc (cf. Zunz, against this view, Lit Poesie, 537), and similarly the one written entirely in Aramaic, mentioned in Nahalat Shadal 2 (1879), 4, but omitted in Davidson's Ozar. R. J. Jabez, at the end of his book Or ha-Hayyim (1554) includes excerpts from Sefer ha-Yare'ah without mentioning R. Astruc, but occasionally referring to the author as "one of the disciples of Ben Adret" (Kerem Hemed, 9 (1856), 47).

Hebrew Description

מהרב ... אבא מרי משה ב"ר יוסף הירחי דון אסתרוק מחכמי לוניל, אשר ישב במונפיליע. הרבה מכתבים... מהחכם הנ"ל ומכל חכמי צרפת וספרד שכתבו אל הרשב"א ז"ל, ומה שהשיב להם ...וכמה שו"ת לענין דינא. ובו נכלל ספר הירח (מכתב נח) מהרב... אסטרוק הנ"ל... ובסוף הספר מכתב... על ... המורה נבוכים [מאת ר' שם טוב פלקירא]... נעתק מכתב ישן נושן אשר מצאתי בעיר פלורענץ באוצר הספרים לבית פיזרו... והביאותיו... להוציאו לאור, אני... מרדכי ליב מתושבי ק"ק בראד, בהמנוח... משה ביסליכיס...

רובו של הספר מכוון נגד לימוד הפילוסופיה ונגד הספר "מורה נבוכים". זיהויו של מחבר המכתב, ר' שם טוב פלקירה, נקבע על-ידי שטיינשניידר, .C.B , עמ' 2548. הסכמה : ר' משה סופר, פ"ב [פרשבורג], יו"ד למב"י [כה ניסן] תקצ"ז.

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