1. Moses ibn Ezra
Among the Jewish Neo-Platonists must be included the two Ibn Ezras, Moses and Abraham. They were contemporary
and came from Spain. Moses, the older of the two, was born at Granada about 1070 and died after 1138. Abraham, who
travelled all over the world, was born at Toledo in 1092 and died in 1167. Neither is particularly famous as a philosopher.
Moses's celebrity rests on his poetic productions, secular as well as religious, which are highly praised by Harizi, above
even those of Halevi. Abraham is best known as a grammarian and Biblical commentator, particularly the latter, though
his versatility is remarkable. Besides grammar and exegesis he wrote on mathematics, astronomy and astrology, on
religious philosophy, and was a poet of no mean order; though, as Zunz says,[212] "flashes of thought spring from his
words, but not pictures of the imagination."
All that is accessible in print of Moses Ibn Ezra's philosophical treatise is a Hebrew translation of extracts under the title
"Arugat ha-Bosem" (Bed of Spices).[213] If we may judge of the rest of the work by these Hebrew fragments, we should
say that philosophy was not Ibn Ezra's forte. He dabbled in it as any poet of that age did, but what caught his fancy was
more the mysteriously sounding phrases of celebrated authorities like Pythagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle, Hermes (whom he identifies with Enoch), than a strictly reasoned out argument. Accordingly the Hebrew
selections consist of little more than a string of quotations on the transcendence and unknowableness of God, on the
meaning of philosophy, on the position of man in the universe, on motion, on nature and on intellect. It is of historical
interest to us to know that Moses ibn Ezra, so famous as a poet, was interested in philosophy, and that the views which
appealed to him were those of Ibn Gabirol, whose "Fountain of Life" he knew, and from which he quotes a celebrated
mystical passage. A few details will suffice to make this clear.
Man is a microcosm, a world in miniature, and there is nothing above or below, the counterpart of which is not found in
man. There is no sphere, or star, or animal, or plant, or mineral, or power, or nature, but something similar, mutatis
mutandis, is found in man. The ten categories, which according to the philosophers embrace all existence, are also
found, all of them, in man. The perfection of man's creation points to a wise Creator. Man comes after multiplicity, God is
before multiplicity. Man is like the great universe, and in both the spiritual cannot come in direct contact with the
corporeal, but needs intermediating powers to bring the extremes together. In man soul and spirit stand between intellect
and body.
Hence a man must know himself before he can know the universe, else he is like a person who feeds other people while
he is himself hungry. To know the Creator, the soul must first know herself, and this is one of the definitions of
philosophy, to know one's own soul. He who can strip his soul of his corporeal senses and worldly desires, and rise to
the sphere will find there his reward. Other similarly ascetic and mystical expressions are quoted from Aristotle(!),
Pythagoras, and "one of the modern philosophers." The last is none other than Ibn Gabirol, and the passage quoted is
the same as that cited above, (p. 69).
Unity precedes the unitary object as heat comes before the hot object. Unity alone is self-subsistent. Numerical unity is
prior to two, and is the very root and essence of number. God's unity is above all other unities, hence it cannot be
described, because it has no cause, being the cause of everything else. As our eye cannot see the sun by reason of its
very brilliance, so our intellect cannot comprehend God because of the extreme perfection of his existence. The finite
and imperfect cannot know the infinite and perfect. Hence no names can apply to God except metaphorically. When we
say that God knows, we mean that he is knowledge itself, not that knowledge is an attribute which he possesses.
Socrates(!) said in his prayers, "Thou art not far from me so that I should raise my voice to thee, nor art Thou near unto
me that I should content myself with a low whisper and the meditation of the heart; nor art Thou on any side of me so that
I may turn toward Thee; for nearness and distance have measure, but there is no measure between me and Thee. Thou
art united with me and embracest me more closely than my intellect and soul."
He who knows most of the secret of the Creator, knows least; and he who knows least, knows most. As the limbs of the
body and the senses cannot know the intelligible ideas because the latter are superior to them, so the intellect cannot
know the essence of the Creator because he is above the sphere of the intellect. Although the intellect is spiritual, it
cannot comprehend the Creator because he is above all intellectual powers, and is infinite. What is infinite has no
division or multiplication, or part or whole.
The Gentiles make use of the anthropomorphic expressions in the Bible to annoy us, charging us with believing in a
corporeal God. Would that we had strength to silence their impudence by a crushing reply. But alas! their tyranny
prevents us from raising our voice. But it is still more aggravating to hear men of our own people, heretics, repeating the
same charge against the Bible and Talmud, when they ought to know better, since the expressions in question are
metaphorical. Saadia has made this sufficiently clear.
The Active Intellect is the first of God's creations. It is a power emanating from the Will. It is a simple, pure and
transparent substance, bearing in itself the forms of all existing things. The human intellect is known as the passive
intellect. The rational soul is a pure substance giving perfection to a natural body, etc. It is inferior to the intellect, and the
animal soul is inferior to the rational. The soul is the horseman, the body represents the soldiers and the arms. As the
horseman must take care of his arms that he may not be put to death, so the soul must take care of the body that she
may not perish. And the senses must be taken into account, for the powers of the soul are dependent upon the powers of
the body. If the food of the body is in proper proportion, the activity of the soul is proper and right. Similarly if one
neglects moderation in food, he is bound to suffer morally and spiritually.
The above selections, which are representative of the accessible portion of Moses ibn Ezra's philosophical treatise,
except that such recurring phrases have been omitted as "And the philosopher said," "And they say," etc., show that the
work is nothing but a compilation of sayings on various philosophical topics, without any attempt on the author's part to
think out the subject or any part thereof, for himself.
2. Abraham ibn Ezra
Abraham Ibn Ezra did not write any special work on philosophy, and his importance lies chiefly in his Biblical
commentary, which unlike that of Rashi, is based upon a scientific and philological foundation. Ibn Ezra was thoroughly
familiar with Arabic and well versed in the philological, scientific and philosophical studies cultivated by Arabs and Jews
in his native land. For reasons not known to us—poverty was very likely one of them—he left his native Spain and
wandered as far as Rome in the east, Egypt and Morocco in the south, and London in the north. Everywhere he was
busy with literary activity, and as he wrote in Hebrew his purpose must have been, as the result certainly proved to be,
the enlightenment of the non-Arabic speaking Jews of England, France and Italy, by bringing before them in a language
that they knew the grammar of Hayyuj, the mathematics and astronomy of the Greeks and the Arabs, the philosophy of
Neo-Platonism, and the scientific and rationalistic spirit generally, as enlightened Spain had developed it in Jew and Arab
alike.
We are interested here more particularly in Ibn Ezra's philosophical views. These are scattered through his Biblical
commentaries and in a few other small works devoted to an investigation of the laws of the Pentateuch and the meaning
of the names of God.[214] For though Ibn Ezra favors the philological method as the best way to arrive at the true
meaning of Scripture, and decries allegory as well as Midrash when pushed too far, and though his commentary is for
the most part based upon the philological method of interpretation, he was too much a child of his age to be able to
refrain from finding in the Bible views akin to those he learned from Gabirol, the Brethren of Purity and what other
philosophical literature of the Arabs he read and was influenced by. And so he, too, the grammarian and philologist,
succumbed to the allegorical and symbolical method he condemned. Without denying the historical reality of the Garden
of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, he also sees in these expressions symbols of cosmological,
psychological and ethical ideas. In the fashion of Philo he sees in Eden a representation of the higher world of the
divinity, in the Garden the intermediate world of the spheres and Intelligences, in the river issuing from the Garden the
substance of the sublunar world, in the four heads into which the river divides the four elements, and so on. He speaks
of these symbolic meanings as the "secrets," and so we have the secret of the Garden, of the rivers, of the coats. And in
the same way he speaks of the secret of the Cherubim, of the ark and the Tabernacle. These objects also symbolize
metaphysical and cosmological truths. He was a believer in astrology, and laid this pseudo-science also under
contribution in the interpretation of Holy Writ. Here the various numbers found in the Bible in connection with ritual
prescriptions, the construction of the Tabernacle, and so on, were of great service to Ibn Ezra in his symbolizations. Like
Philo and the Neo-Pythagoreans he analyzes the virtues and significances of the different numbers, and thus finds a
symbol in every number found in the Bible. Writing as he did for the Jews of central Europe, who were not trained in
secular science and philosophy, Ibn Ezra was not prepared to shock the sensibilities of his readers by his novel and, to
them, heretical views; and hence he expressed himself in cryptic phrases and allusions, which often make his meaning
difficult if not impossible to decipher. This, taken together with the fact that his views are not laid down anywhere
systematically and in connected fashion, but are thrown out briefly, often enigmatically, in connection with the
explanation of Biblical verses and phrases, accounts for the difference among critics concerning the precise doctrines of
Abraham Ibn Ezra.
Of his predecessors among the Jewish philosophers Ibn Ezra shows closest relation to Solomon ibn Gabirol. He does
not quote the "Fountain of Life," but he names its author as a great thinker and writer of poems, and shows familiarity
with Gabirol's doctrines. Like Gabirol he says that all except God consists of substance (matter) and form. Not only the
sublunar things, subject to generation and decay, but the higher incorporeal things, also, are in essence two, i. e., are
composed of two elements, subject and predicate. God alone is One; he is subject only and not predicate. And Ibn Ezra
also has some allusion to the divine Will as taught by Gabirol.
In giving a connected sketch of Ibn Ezra's philosophical ideas, the most one can do is to collect all the sayings bearing
upon our subject which are found scattered through Ibn Ezra's writings, and classify them and combine them into a
connected whole. This has been done before by Nahman Krochmal[215] and by David Rosin,[216] and we shall follow the
latter in our exposition here.
God is the One. He gives forms to all things, and is himself all things. God alone is the real existent, all else is an existent
by virtue of him. Unity is the symbol of God because in number also the unit is the foundation of all number, and yet is
not itself number. It exists by virtue of itself and needs not the numbers that come after. At the same time the unit is also
all number, because all number is made up of the unit. God alone is one, because he alone is not composed of matter
and form, as everything else is. God has neither likeness nor form, for he is the creator of all things, i. e., of all likeness
and form. He is therefore incorporeal. In God the subject knowing and the object of his knowledge are one and the same
thing. Else he would not be one. In knowing himself, therefore, he knows the universe. God as the cause and creator of
all things must know all things, the universal as well as the particular, the world soul as well as the various species, and
even every single creature, but he knows the particular in a general way. For God knows only what is permanent,
whereas the particular is constantly changing, hence he does not know the particular as such, but only as involved in the
general and permanent.
As God is incorporeal he is not subject to corporeal accidents or human feelings. Hence the many expressions in the
Bible which ascribe such accidents and feelings to God must be understood as metaphors. It is a psychological necessity
for man wishing to communicate his ideas to other men to speak in human terms, whether he speak of beings and things
inferior or superior to him. The result is that the metaphor he finds it necessary to employ either raises or lowers the
object to which it refers. It elevates the sub-human and lowers the superhuman to the human. This is the explanation of
such phrases as "the mouth of the earth" the "hand of the Jordan," the "head of the dust of the world," and so on, in
which the figure is that of personification. And the fundamental explanation is the same in such phrases as "The Lord
repented," "The Lord rested," "The Lord remembered," "He that dwelleth in heaven laughs," and so on, where the
process is the reverse of personification. The motive common to both is to convey some idea to the reader.
The Hebrew word "bara," ordinarily translated "created," which implies to most people the idea of creatio ex nihilo, Ibn
Ezra renders, in accordance with its etymology, to limit, to define, by drawing or incising a line or boundary. Having said
this, Ibn Ezra, in his wonted mysterious manner, stops short, refusing to say more and preferring to mystify the reader by
adding the tantalizing phrase, "The intelligent will understand." He means apparently to indicate that an eternal matter
was endowed with form. In fact he seems to favor the idea of eternal creation and maintenance of the universe, the
relation of which to God is as the relation of speech to the speaker, which exists only so long as the speaker speaks.
The moment he ceases speaking the sounds cease to exist.
The two ideas of eternal emanation of the world from God after the manner of the Neo-Platonists and of an eternal
matter which God endows with forms, are not really quite consistent, for the latter implies that matter is independent of
God, whereas according to the former everything owes its existence and continuance to God, from whom it emanates.
But it is difficult from the fragmentary and laconic sayings of Ibn Ezra to extract a consistent and certain system.
The world consists of three parts, three worlds Ibn Ezra calls them. The highest world consists of the separate
Intelligences or angels, including the world-soul of which the human soul is a part. The intermediate world consists of the
spheres, planets and fixed stars. Finally the lower world contains the four elements and the product of their various
mixtures, minerals, plants, animals, man. These three worlds, Ibn Ezra appears to intimate in his oracular manner, are
symbolized by the three divisions of the Tabernacle, the holy of holies typifying the world of spirits, the holy pointing to
the spheres, while the outer court represents the sublunar world.
The highest world, the world of Intelligences and angels, is eternal, though it too is dependent upon God for its
existence. The angels, too, are composed of matter and form, and their function is to move the bodies of the intermediate
world, the spheres and their stars. Through the instrumentality of the heavenly bodies, the angels form the lower world.
This amounts to saying that the corporeal world is the last stage in the descending series of emanations from the One,
and is preceded by the heavenly bodies and the Intelligences. The angels are also the immediate agents in prophetic
inspiration.
Not all mention of angels in the Bible, however, must be identified with a separate Intelligence or a spheral soul (for the
latter too is called angel by Ibn Ezra). There are instances of the expression angel which refer to a momentary, special
creation of a light or air for the special benefit of the people. This explains a number of theophanies in the Bible, such as
the burning bush, "the glory of the Lord," the cloud in the wilderness, and so on.
The intermediate world of spheres is also eternal and consists of nine spheres, that of the Intelligences making up the
perfect number ten. The nine spheres are arranged as follows, the spheres of the seven planets, the sphere of the fixed
stars, and the diurnal sphere without stars, which gives the motion from east to west to the whole heaven.
The lower world, the sublunar and corporeal world of generation and decay, was created in time. This, however, does
not mean that there was time before this creation, for time exists only with motion and change. Creation here signifies the
formation of the chaotic matter. As God cannot come in contact with the material and changeable (we have already seen
that he cannot know it as such), it follows that this lower world was not made directly by him, but by the angels, hence
the word "Elohim" is used in the first chapter of Genesis, which means primarily the angels, and secondarily God as
acting through the angels.
In this lower world man is the noblest creature. By means of his soul he may attain eternal life as an individual like God
and the angels (i. e., the Intelligences), whereas all other creatures of the lower world are permanent in species only but
not as individuals. This is the meaning of the expression in Genesis, "Let us make man in our image," in the image, that
is, of God and the angels. Man is a microcosm, a universe in little, for like the great universe he consists of a body
animated by a soul.
As the noblest part of man is his soul, it becomes his duty to know it. He must know whether it is substance or accident,
whether it will die when it is separated from the body, and for what purpose it was brought into union with the body. In
order to learn all this one must first study the preparatory branches, grammar, logic, mathematics and physics. In the
study of psychology we learn that man has three souls, vegetative, animal and rational, and the latter alone is immortal. It
is a part of the world soul, having existed before it came into the body, and under favorable conditions will return again to
the world soul when separated from the body. The condition which must be fulfilled by the soul before it can return to the
world soul is the acquisition of wisdom, for this is the purpose for which it was put into the body, namely, in order that it
may learn the work of its master and observe his commandments. There are many sciences, but they are related to each
other, all leading up to the one highest science, the knowledge of God and his goodness. A person must advance
gradually in studying the work of God from the knowledge of minerals, plants, animals, the human body, to the
knowledge of the spheres and heavenly bodies, the causes of eclipses, etc., and from this he will gradually come to
know God. The commandments of the Bible are also of importance for this purpose. To understand the secret of the
commandments is to gain eternal life. For wisdom is the form of the soul, and hence the soul does not die like a body.
The reward of the soul is re-absorption in the world soul of which it is a part, and the punishment of the unworthy soul
that neglected to acquire knowledge is destruction. What Ibn Ezra means by the Hebrew word "abad" (ordinarily
rendered to perish, to be destroyed) is not clear. It is hard to see how a pre-existing soul can perish utterly. Rosin
suggests that Ibn Ezra is alluding to transmigration,[217] but it is not clear.
We have seen that Ibn Ezra holds that the events of the sublunar world and the destinies of men are governed by the
positions and motions of the heavenly bodies, which in turn are determined by the Intelligences or angels. The heavenly
bodies, he tells us, follow necessary laws imposed upon them, and are not responsible for any good or evil which results
to mankind from them, since the effects are not of their intention, and they cannot change them if they would. Accordingly
it is foolish to pray to the heavenly bodies in order to appease them and prevent evil, as some of the heathen are
accustomed to do. The motions of the heavenly bodies are determined and invariable, and no prayer will change them.
This, however, does not mean to say that no one can escape the evil which is destined for him in the stars. Ordinarily, it
is true, God does not know the particular individual as such. He knows him only as implied in the whole, and his destiny
is determined accordingly. But there are exceptions when a person by developing his soul and intellect, as we saw
above, succeeds in his lifetime in separating his soul from the corporeal and particular, and brings it into contact with the
spiritual and universal. In that case he attracts to himself the special providence of God, which enables him to evade the
evil threatened by his star, without in any way changing the star's natural course or ordinary effects. How this is done,
Ibn Ezra illustrates by an example.[218] Suppose, he says, that it is fated according to the stars that a given city shall be
flooded by a river and its inhabitants drowned. A prophet comes and warns them, urging them to repent of their evil ways
before their fate is sealed. They obey him, return to God with all their heart and leave the city to offer prayer to God. The
river rises in their absence, as often happens, and floods the city. The wolf is satisfied and the lamb is whole. The
decree of the stars is not interfered with, and the good man is delivered from evil. In this way Ibn Ezra endeavors to
reconcile natural law (or astrological fatalism) with the ethical purpose of divine providence. And he also vindicates free
will and responsibility. The rational soul of man has power, he says, to counteract in part the indications of the stars,
though it cannot annul them entirely. The punishment of the wicked is that they are left entirely to the fates determined
for them by their constellations.
The highest good of man, we have seen, is the knowledge of God and his work. There are two ways of knowing God.
One is through a study of nature, the work of God. This is described in the first part of the nineteenth Psalm, "The
Heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork." But there is a second and, in a sense, a
better way of knowing God. This is derived from his revelation in the Law. As we are told in the second part of the above
Psalm (v. 7), "The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul." The law of the Lord restores the soul, Ibn Ezra says, by
removing doubt from it. For the first method of knowing God, with all its importance for the man of wisdom and reason, is
not fit for all persons; and not everything can be proved by reason. Revelation in the Law is necessary for the simple
minded. "I am the Lord thy God" (Exod. 20, 2) is a hint to the philosopher, who need not depend on hearsay, for real
knowledge is proved knowledge. But as not everyone is in a position to have such knowledge, the Bible adds, "which
brought thee out of the land of Egypt." This all can understand, the simple minded as well as the philosopher. The Law
has also a practical purpose, to strengthen the rational soul so as to prevent the body from gaining the upper hand.
God's messenger, through whom his will is made known, is the prophet. He seeks retirement so as to get in communion
with God, and receives such influence as he is capable of getting. Moses was the greatest of the prophets. He was able
to communicate with God whenever he chose, whereas the others had to wait until the inspiration came. The revelation
of God to Moses was without an intermediary, and without visions and likenesses. Moses saw the things presented to
him in their true form.
The laws may be divided into 1. Innate or rational laws, i. e., laws planted by God in the mind of every rational being.
There are many such in the Torah. All the laws of the Ten Commandments belong to this class, with the exception of the
Sabbath. Hence all mankind believe in them, and Abraham observed them all before ever the Law was given on Sinai. 2.
Hidden laws, i. e., laws, the reason of which is not given. We must not suppose for a moment that there is any law which
is against reason, Heaven forbid! We must observe them all, whether we understand the reason or not. If we find a law
that apparently is unreasonable, we must assume that it has some hidden meaning and is not to be taken in its literal
sense. It is our duty, then, to look for this hidden meaning, and if we cannot find it, we must admit that we do not
understand it.
The laws may also be classified as 1. Commandments of the heart, 2. Commandments of the tongue, and 3.