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147 Philo and the Dangers of Philosophizing Louis H. Feldman Sometimes there is insight to be found in a joke. In ioco veritas. There is a story of a yeshiva bochur, a student in a yeshiva, who has reached that age when he should be thinking of getting married. And so arrangements are made for him to go out with a young lady. Since he knows nothing about such matters , he inquires as to what he is to talk about with her. Well, he is told, there are three topics—family, food, and philosophy. He meets the young lady and he is tongue-tied. But then he remembers: family . “Do you have a brother?” “No” is the answer. Well, that takes care of family. Then he remembers: food. “Do you like lokshen [noodles]?” “No” is the answer. Well, that takes care of food. But philosophy —what does he know about philosophy? Finally, he asks: “Tell me, if you did have a brother, would he like lokshen?” I remember that when I received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, my mother, of blessed memory, who had always wanted me to become a doctor, but a real doctor, not a fake, exclaimed in Yiddish, “Doctor fun Philosophy: vos far a krankeit iz philosophy” (What sort of sickness is philosophy?). Somehow, philosophy seems, at least for the most part, to be foreign to the classical sources of Judaism, the Bible, and the rabbinic literature. One thinks of the definition of philosophy ascribed to Mordecai Kaplan: philosophy is the immaculate conception of thought not sired by experience . Judaism seems to be centered on experience: how do you do it? Halakhah lemaaseh (the law in practice). And you know the definition of a philosopher: a person who uses many words to describe something that he or she does not quite understand. No wonder there is no treatise on philosophy in the vast Talmudic corpus. Isaac Husik, the historian of medieval Jewish philosophy, is once said to have remarked, “There are Jews, and there are philosophers, but there are no Jewish philosophers.” If there had been a Nobel Prize for excellence in philosophy 2,500 years ago, no Jew would have won it. ✳ ✳ ✳ To appreciate the uniqueness of Philo as a Jewish philosopher, one should examine how the rabbis of that and succeeding eras viewed philosophers. There are a number of passages in rabbinic literature referring to philosophers, and the rabbis clearly ascribe to them learning and cleverness, particularly in the questions that they ask.1 Thus they are quoted as asking the elders of Rome, “If your G-d has no desire for idolatry, why does He not abolish it?” (‘Avodah Zarah 54b). A good question, by the way. But the answer reduces it to absurdity: “If it was something of which the world has no need that was worshipped, He would abolish it; but people worship the sun, moon, stars, and planets; should He destroy the universe on account of fools?” Sometimes (e.g., Shabbat 116a) a philosopher is depicted as a heretic, perhaps a Christian. When the Talmud (Baba Qamma 82b, Sot ̣ah 49b, and Menah ̣ot 64b) imposes a curse on those who instruct their sons in Greek wisdom (h ̣okmah yevanit), a good guess is that this wisdom is philosophy, h ̣okmah being a translation of σοφία. 148 LOUIS H. FELDMAN Some light may be shed on this question by an intriguing passage in the Talmud (H ̣agigah 14b): Four men entered Pardes (Paradise, the Garden), namely Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma, Aḥer (Elisha ben Abuya), and Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva said to them: “When you arrive at the stones of pure marble [i.e., giving the illusion of water], say not ‘Water, water!’ [i.e., how can we proceed]. For it is said: ‘He that speaks falsehood shall not be established before my eyes’ (Ps. 101:7). Ben Azzai cast a look and died. Of him Scripture says: ‘Precious in the sight of the L-rd is the death of His saints’ (Ps. 116:15: that is, a mere glance at the subject is deadly). Ben Zoma looked and became stricken (i.e., afflicted with insanity). Of him Scripture says: ‘Have you found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for you, lest you be filled therewith, and vomit it’ (Prov. 25:16, the implication being that one should not attempt to look too deeply into such matters unless one is particularly well qualified). Aḥer (Elisha ben Abuya)2...

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