Conceptions of Astral Magic Within Jewish Rationalism in the Byzantine Empire

Dov Schwartz Conceptions of Astral Magic Within Jewish Rationalism in the Byzantine Empire In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Byzantine Empire straddled the crossroads between the Greco-Latin and Muslim worlds. The Byzantine-Eastern culture of the time cut across geographical and political boundaries and included Bulgaria, Crete, Turkey, the Crimean Peninsula, and so on. Jewish thought in late medieval Byzantium also reflects this geographical-cultural divide, in both positive and negative senses. On the one hand, a school of thought emerged that had its own unique characteristics and subject-matter, distinct in some respects from contemporary Spanish and Provençal philosophy, as we shall see. On the other hand, Jewish rationalists in Byzantium were remote from the main centers of the polemics for and against rationalism, which were concentrated in the distant west—Spain and Provence. For example , a Byzantine savant of the fourteenth century vented his wrath on the "rabbis and talmudists" who haughtily devoted all their efforts to studying the Talmud, as well as on the rationalists, who spent all I am indebted to Professors Joseph Hacker and I. Ta-Shma for their enlightening remarks.© Aleph 3 (2003) pp. 165-211165 their time pursuing philosophy, while neglecting the practical commandments . He added, though, that all these people are quite remote from him, being located "at the ends of the earth."1 The same scholar also described the state of absolute ignorance in his own neighborhood; but it is not clear whether he was documenting a real condition or affecting the elitist language common among medieval scholars and philosophers. In any case, there was clearly a considerable distance between Byzantine rational thought of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the dynamic and ramified rationalist activity in the West. Cultural Climate The remoteness of the centers of Spanish-Provencal culture and the dearth of philosophical books and sources had their impact on the nature of Byzantine-Jewish thought, which was frequently detached, lacking in philosophical precision and real scientific depth. For example, translations of Muslim philosophical works were almost unknown among the Jews. At most, one finds quotations from Abu-Nasr alFarabi and the names of classical Greek philosophers, purporting to testify to the authors' knowledge; but such claims were spurious, because the works of these philosophers were not available to them. Byzantine kabbalists expressed particular appreciation for the works of Abraham Abulafia, some of which were known to Byzantine mystics. Another expression of the paucity of ideas is the sparsity of Byzantine halakhic works from this period. During these waning years of the empire, the Byzantine style left a decisive imprint on Jewish creativity. A dominant feature of this culture was the tendency to exaggeration and externalization. The iconoclastic controversy of the early Middle Ages ended in victory for the veneration of icons (the councils of 787 and 843), after which representations of saints became a central motif in Byzantine visual art and literature. 166 Dov Schwartz Byzantine architecture created high-domed churches with interior and exterior decoration. Byzantine pseudepigraphic literature was given to pompous and inflated rhetoric; in fact, Byzantine poetry had always been characterized by convoluted rhyme schemes. At the same time, the Byzantines earned no fame as scholars and bearers of ancient philosophical traditions.2 This cultural climate impacted on Jewish rational creativity in the late Middle Ages both directly and indirecdy. Rationalist works were frequently verbose and exaggerated. Their main stylistic characteristics were repetitiveness, overlong and laboriously detailed introductions, and a compulsive display of trivial knowledge. As yet there has been no exhaustive study of Jewish rational thought in Byzantium, but only a few comments and monographs dedicated to several figures. A preliminary survey of Jewish work in this period (up to the fall of Constantinople in 1453) may be found in Steven B. Bowman's book on the Jews of Byzantium and in a few scattered, though important, studies by Joseph Hacker and Israel TaShma .3 None of these, however, provide an adequate picture of the foundations of Byzantine Jewish rationalism before the expulsion from Spain. 1 Yoreh Decah by "Avishai," MS Oxford Bodl. 267 (Opp. 212), fol. 3b. On the views of "Avishai," see D. Schwartz, "R. Kalonimus' Meïaret Mose...