Torah and Sophia: The Life and Thought of Shem Tov Ibn Falaquera (review)

Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 138 Reviews to be an "improperly enforced divorce." The result is that battered wives in Israeli society are generally in a difficult situation. The last two articles in this part are S. Morell's "Profile of a Jurist: Joseph Ibn Lev's Rulings Regarding Agunot" (pp. 171-204) and R. K. Ryan's "And Then There Was One: An Analysis and Comparison of Polygamy among Jews and Mormons" (pp. 205-231). The latter offers an instructive survey of the history of polygamy in Jewish (including biblical) law and among the Mormons in the second half of the ninteenth century. The survey is followed by a succinct summary of similarities and differences between Jewish and Mormon polygamy laws and practices, the latter claiming to be a restoration of the former. Meir Malul Haifa University Haifa 31905 Israel TORAH AND SOPHIA: THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF SHEM TOV IBN FALAQUERA. By Raphael Jospe. Monographs of Hebrew Union College 11. Pp. 505. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1988. Cloth, $45.00. This book presents the most comprehensive research on the thought of a distinguished commentator and philosopher of the thirteenth century. It contains an annotated critical edition of the two principal texts composed by Falaquera: "Book of the Soul" and "The Perfection of Actions." The first chapter is a biographical sketch of Falaquera, his style, and his contribution to philosophy. In the second, Falaquera's works are listed in chronological order along with information concerning their contents, the manuscripts, and various editions. Jospe demonstrates the conformity between the chapters from "Fons Vitae" by Solomon Ibn Gabirol and "Selections from the Book Fons Vitae" by the same author, which were published by Falaquera. In addition, he reviews the structure of the work "Opinions of the Philosophers." The majority of the book is dedicated to FaJaquera's own philosophy and psychology. In this, the author manifests a thorough knowledge of all of Falaquera's works as well as the ability to classify and analyze Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 139 Reviews quotations. He also presents Falaquera's sources, ranging from Aristotle to Averroes (Ibn Rushd). A considerable number of quotations are translated into English. In some instances various versions of Falaquera's quotations are also compared. In my own, newly completed research of Falaquera's book "The Guide to the Guide" ("Rabbi Shem Tov ben Joseph Falaquera's More ha-More: A Philosophical and Philological Analysis with an Appendix Containing an Annotated Critical Edition" [Hebrew University Ph.D. dissertation], 1990), I found it essential to present a new annotated edition of that important work, as the only existing edition, by Moshe Leib Bislichis, was published more than 150 years ago. Moreover, Bislichis had no knowledge of Arabic, and the manuscripts he used were riddled with errors. The following comments are based on that work: (I) The appendix "Be>ur Nifla" ("A Marvellous Commentary"), which is mentioned in the edition by Bislichis, was not written by Falaquera, as Jospe himself indicates (p. 67) although he elsewhere refers to it as one of Falaquera's works (p. 21, n. 129; and p. 65, n. 134). (2) Jospe quotes the Bislichis edition of the "Guide to the Guide," some emendations of which are warranted. For example, Falaquera offers commentary on all the premises to Part II of the Guide, while the Bislichis edition includes only some of them. For example, among his citations of Ibn Ezra, Jospe does not mention the quotation: "And the late Rabbi Avraham says that the spheres move the soul," since Bislichis' edition (p. 34) erroneously reads the initials, not of Ibn Ezra, but of some other unknown author. Therefore, Jospe's quotations should be verified and amended in light of the variant versions presented in my thesis (e.g., Jospe, p. 135 should be compared with Shiffman, 11:230-231; pp. 101-102 with Shiffman, pp. 31-32; and p. 159 with Shiffman, p. 165). In Bislichis' edition (p. 28/2,5) the name of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) is mentioned, not as the introduction to a quotation from one of his works (see Jospe, p. 67), but within the body of a quotation from Ibn Rushd. (The source of this quotation...