Physics and Metaphysics in Ḥasdai Crescas (review)

THE JEWISHQUARTERLYREVIEW,XCII, Nos. 1-2 (July-October, 2001) 233-236 WARREN ZEVHARVEY, Physics andMetaphysicsinHasdai Crescas.Amsterdam :J. C. Gieben, 1998. Pp. xiv + 168. Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410/11) has long been a favorite of scholars of medieval Jewish philosophy despite his terseness of language, his limited literaryoutput, and his almost total lack of name recognition in the traditional Jewish community. An importantJewish communal leader in the wake of the Iberiananti-Jewishriots of 1391, in the course of which his only son was murdered,Crescas succeeded in composing only four treatises . One of those compositions, TheRefutationof the ChristianPrinciples (a vernacularanti-Christianpolemic based on philosophical arguments),is known only from its Hebrew paraphrastictranslation;anotherone (a vernacularanti -Christianpolemic based on biblical verses) is lost entirely;and half of anotherone, The Sermon on the Passover (the philosophical section ), was almost fully incorporatedinto his philosophical magnum opus, TheLight of the Lord (Or ha-Shem). A promisedhalakhictreatise, critical of Maimonides'codification in Misneh Torah,was never composed. Crescas ' literaryyield was thus ratherlimited, and althoughphilosophical successors argued against him for a few centuries after his death, Crescas' resonanceamong traditionalJews was never very high. Crescas fared better in the scholarly community, which was impressed by his incisive thought, his trenchantanti-Aristotelianism,and his possible impact on the course of early modernscience andphilosophy. TheLight of the Lord became partof the academic, philosophical canon of Jewish philosophy , andmany researchershave devoted much attentionto deciphering its secrets. Among those researchers,prideof place in the last quartercentury undoubtedly goes to WarrenZev Harvey, who has been assiduously at work on a critical edition of this composition. Such an edition, much awaited, has been delayed because of the problematic natureof Crescas' work andthe condition of the manuscripts.Even though one version of the work was issued in 1405, itself a product of a long incubation period, Crescas and his students apparentlycontinued to work on The Light until 1410, shortly before his death, incorporatinginto it the changes and additions which were the result of his most recent intellectual development. Some manuscriptshave the latest additions while others do not, and some manuscriptmaterial includes marginal comments (and criticisms) by students and copyists, not by Crescas himself. When Harvey eventually publishes his authoritativeedition of TheLight, the scholarly world will be in his debt. 234 THEJEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW While Harvey'saudience has been waiting for his edition to appear,he has producedquite a numberof studies on Crescas'thought.Startingwith his dissertationon the subjectof the acquiredintellect (Crescasattackedthe Aristotelianintellectualistmodel of perfectionchampionedby Maimonides andGersonides),Harveyhas dealtwith such diverse topics as Crescas'view of the soul, his definitionof time, andhis discussion of divine attributes.In the present volume, which includes some previously published material, Harvey analyzes Crescas'views of the physical world, creation, and time; the proofsfor the existence of God;divinejoy andlove; andvariousaspects of determinism.In addition, Harvey translatesinto English relevant texts relatingto these topics so thatreaders,especially those for whom Crescas' original Hebrewis not accessible, mayjudge for themselves Harvey'sinterpretations .Since the topics discussed arecentralissues in the interpretation of Crescas' thought, Harvey's summaries and insights are welcome as reflecting and promotingthe state of the art of recent researchin Crescas studies. That researchis characterizedby two elements, the firstof which is the recognition of Crescas'intellectual development. As a result of close textual study of manuscriptsof The Light; renewed interest in Crescas' polemical oeuvre; and the publications of Crescas'Sermon on the Passover anda composition by his studentAbrahamben Judah;it has become apparent over the past decades thatCrescas'philosophical andtheological views changed through the years. Harvey, who has gone over the manuscripts closely in preparationfor his critical edition, speaks with authoritywhen he distinguishes among layers of Crescas'thought,whetherin termsof his physical theories, or in his discussion of determinism. Harvey demonstratesthatCrescas 'innovative theories were not arrivedat all at once, but were often the result of years of painstakingthoughtand revision. In light of Harvey'sanalysis, it may very well be that Crescas' terseness and his low literaryoutputare furtherindications of his internalstruggle concerning the correctunderstandingof God and the world. Since Crescas continuously revised his philosophy as presented in The Light, perhapshe was never satisfiedthathe hadreachedthe perfectionfor which he was striving. In any event, Harvey'sreconstructionsof Crescas'development are based on the literaryrecordsas we now...