Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T19:01:31.383Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ashkenazic Rationalism and Midrashic Natural History: Responses to the New Science in the Works of Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1578–1654)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Joseph Davis
Joseph Davis
Affiliation:
Gratz College, Philadelphia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Between 1550 and 1650, the intellectual elite of Ashkenazic (German-and Yiddish-speaking) Jews, including rabbis such as Yom Tov Lipmann Heller (1578–1654), showed a marked interest in astronomy, and to a lesser degree in the natural sciences generally. This is one aspect of the assimilation of medieval Jewish rationalism by that group. Passages from Heller‘s writings show his familiarity with medieval and early modern Hebrew astronomical texts, and his belief that astronomy should be studied by all Jewish schoolboys. Heller‘s astronomical views were then influenced by the discoveries and debates of his period. Between 1614 and the 1630‘s, Heller moved from an Aristotelian to a Tychonic view of the nature of the celestial bodies. Inspired, furthermore, by the notion of a natural order subject to change, and basing himself on the exegesis of ancient rabbinic texts, Heller offered what we have termed” midrashic natural histories”: namely, a hypothesis concerning the development of a certain type of animal, and another concerning the dimming of the moon and its movement into a lower orbit.

Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , Winter 1997 , pp. 605 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

“Eliezer the Astrologer.” Gei Ḥizayon. Oxford-Bodleian Heb. Ms. 2066: Opp.691.Google Scholar
Heller, Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann. Haskamah (Prague 1612) to Gans's Magen David. Bodleian Library.Google Scholar
Heller, . Ma'adanei Yom Tov on Berakhot, Ḥulin, etc. First edition Prague 1625. Frequently reprinted in the Vilna Romm edition of the Babylonian Talmud.Google Scholar
Heller, . Parashat ha-Ḥodesh. Commentary to Maimonides' Laws of the Sanctifi-cation of the New Moon. Oxford-Bodleian: Neubauer's catalogue MS. 631/1 and MS. 2271/2.Google Scholar
Heller, . Tosafot Yom Tov. First edition Prague 1614–17.Google Scholar
Bacharach, Yair Hayyim. n.d. She'elot u-Teshuvot Ḥavot Ya'ir, no. 219.Google Scholar
Barzilay, Isaac. 1974. Yosef Shlomo Delmedigo: His Life and Times. Leiden.Google Scholar
ben Isaac, Joseph. 1611. Giv'at ha-Moreh. Prague.Google Scholar
Barzilay, Isaac. 1614. Ketonet Pasim. Lublin.Google Scholar
Boyarin, Daniel. 1990. Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash. Bloomington, Ind.Google Scholar
Braude, R. William, tr. 1992. The Book of Legends. Edited by Bialik, H. N. and Ravnitsky, Y. H.. New York.Google Scholar
Carpi, Daniel. 1986. “Yehudim ba'alei to'ar Doktor li-refuah be-Fadovah.” In Scritti in Memoria di Nathan Cassuto. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Cohen, Israel. 1992. Vilna, 2nd ed. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Cooper, Alan. 1993. “An Extraordinary Sixteenth-Century Biblical Commentary: Eliezer Ashkenazi on the Song of Moses,” in Frank Talmage Memorial Volume, vol. 1, edited by Barry, Walfish, 129–50. Haifa.Google Scholar
Cooperman, Bernard, ed. 1983. Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
David, Abraham, ed. 1993. A Hebrew Chronicle from Prague, c. 1615. Translated by Weinberger, Leon J. and Dena, Ordan. Tuscaloosa, Ala.Google Scholar
Davis, Joseph. 1990. “R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller, Joseph b. Isaac ha-Levi, and Rationalism in Ashkenazic Jewish Culture 1550–1650.” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University.Google Scholar
Davis, Joseph. 1993. “Philosophy, Dogma, and Exegesis in Medieval Ashkenazic Judaism: The Evidence of Sefer Hadrat Qodesh.” AJS Review 18:195–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Joseph. Forthcoming. “Philosophy and the Law in the Writings of R. Yom Tov Lipmann Heller,” in Studies in MedievalJewish History and Literature, vol. 3, edited by Isadore, Twersky and Jay, Harris. Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Delmedigo, Joseph Solomon. 1629. Sefer Elim. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Elbaum, Jacob. [1985] 1994. “Kesharei tarbut bein Yehudei Polin ve-Ashkenaz le-vein Yehudei Italyah ba-me'ah ha-16,” Gal-Ed 7–8:11–40. Revised and translated as “The Influence of Spanish-Jewish Culture on the Jews of Ashkenaz and Poland in the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Century,“ Binah 3:179–98.Google Scholar
Elbaum, Jacob. 1986. “R. Avraham Horowitz ‘al ha-teshuvah.” In Mehkarim ba-kabbalah, be-filosofyah Yehudit uve-sifrut ha-Musar vehe-hagut, mugashim le- Yish‘ayah Tishbi, 537–68. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Elbaum, Jacob. 1990. Petihut ve-Histagrut: ha-yezirah ha-ruhanit-ha-sifrutit be-Folin uve- arazot Ashkenaz be-shilhei ha-me'ah ha-16. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Emanuel, Yonah. 1964. “Ha-yahas le-umot ha-‘Olam ule-hokhmot klaliyot be-sifrei ba‘al ha-Tosafot Yom Tov.” ha-Ma‘ayan… Po‘alei Agudat Yisra'el 4(2):56–57.Google Scholar
Evans, R. J. W. 1973. Rudolph II and His World. Oxford.Google Scholar
Fishman, David. Forthcoming, . “Rabbi Moses Isserles and the Study of Science among Polish Rabbis.“ In Twersky and Cooperman forthcoming.Google Scholar
Fishman-Maimon, J. L., ed. 1956. Li-khvod Yom Tov. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Freudenthal, Gad. 1994. “‘Ha-Avir Barukh Hu u-Varukh Shemo be-Sefer ha-Maskil le-R. Shelomoh Simhah mi-Troyes: Li-Demutah shel Kosmologiyah Midrashit-Mada‘it be-Hashra’ah Sto’it min ha-Me'ah ha-13,” Da'at 32–33:187–232.Google Scholar
Fuenn, Samuel J. 1915. Kiryah Ne'emanah. Vilna.Google Scholar
Gans, David. 1743. Nehmad ve-Na'im. Jessnitz.Google Scholar
Gelber, N. M. 1937. “An Unknown Letter by Mendel Isaac of Cracow to Rudolph II” (in Yiddish). Yivobleter 11:401–5.Google Scholar
ha-Levi, Judah. n.d. Kuzari.Google Scholar
Heinemann, Isaak. 1954. Darkhei ha-Agadah, 2nd. ed. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Heller, R. Yom Tov Lipmann. 1858. Commentary to “Behinat 'Olam.” Ed. Zhitomir.Google Scholar
Heller, R. Yom Tov Lipmann. 1866. Derush Hidushei Levanah. Vilna.Google Scholar
Heller, R. Yom Tov Lipmann. 1895–1897. Malbushei Yom Tov to Orah Hayyim. Edited by Isaac, Feigenbaum. 2 vols. Warsaw.Google Scholar
Heller, R. Yom Tov Lipmann. 1977. Torat ha-Asham. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Heller, R. Yom Tov Lipmann. 1989. Ma'amar Yom Tov. Edited by Abraham, Heller. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Isserles, R. Moses, n.d. She'elot u-Teshuvot ha-Rema # 6–7.Google Scholar
Lucerna (Ma'or Katan), Aaron. [1911] 1978. [Letter] in Jüidische Privatbriefe aus dem Jahre 1619. Edited by Landau, A. and Wachstein, B., 4–5. Vienna. Translated as Letters of Jews through the Ages, vol. 2, edited and translated by Franz, Kobler, 456–58. New York.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Lawrence. 1975. “Rationalism and Rabbinic Culture in Sixteenth-Century Eastern Europe: R. Mordechai Jaffe's Levush Pinat Yikrat.” Ph.D. diss., Harvard University.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Lawrence. 1983. “Rabbi Mordekhai Jaffe and the Evolution of Jewish Culture in Poland in the Sixteenth Century.” In Cooperman 1983.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, David. 1891. “Jair Hayyim Bacharach.” Jewish Quarterly Review, old series 3:511.Google Scholar
Kiener, Ronald. 1987. “The Status of Astrology in the Early Kabbalah from the Sefer Yesirah to the Zohar.” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 6(3–4), Eng.sect., 24–29.Google Scholar
Kleinberger, Aaron Fritz. 1964. “Ha-Hinukh ha-Yehudi ba-Me'ot ha-16–ha-18— Merkaz Eiropah u-Mizrahah.” In Enẓiklopedyah Ḥinukhit. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Kupfer, Ephraim. 1972. “Li-demutah ha-tarbutit shel Yahadut Ashkenaz ve-hakhameha ba-me'ot ha-14-ha-15.” Tarbiẓ 42:113–47.Google Scholar
Langerman, Y. Zvi. 1989. “Ḥibur Ashkenazi bilti noda‘ be-mada‘ei ha-teva‘,” Kiryat Sefer 62:448–49.Google Scholar
Levine, Hillel. 1983. “Paradise Not Surrendered: Jewish Reactions to Copernicus and the Growth of Modern Science.” In Epistemology, Methodology, and the Social Sciences, edited by Cohen, R. and Wertofsky, M., 203–25. Boston.Google Scholar
Néher, André. 1986. Jewish Thought and the Scientific Revolution of the Sixteenth Century. Translated by Maisel, D.. Oxford.Google Scholar
Panitz, Michael. 1988. “New Heavens and a New Earth: Seventeenth-to Nineteenth-Century Jewish Responses to the New Astronomy,” Conservative Judaism 40(2):28–42.Google Scholar
Patai, Raphael. 1994. The Jewish Alchemists. Princeton, N.J.Google Scholar
Rappel, Dov. 1990. Shevaá ha-IJokhmot: ha-vikuah. àal limudei hoi be-sifrut ha-hinukh ha-Yehudit ‘ad reshit ha-Haskalah. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Roth, Cecil. 1961. “The Amazing Abraham Colorni.” In Personalities and Events in Jewish History, 296–304. Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Roth, Joel. 1986. The Halakhic Process: A Systemic Analysis. New York.Google Scholar
Roth, Meshulam. 1956. “He‘arot le-Sifrei ha-Tosafot Yom Tov.” In Fishman-Maimon 1956.Google Scholar
Ruderman, David B. 1995. Jewish Thought and Scientific Discovery in Early Modern Europe. New Haven, Conn.Google Scholar
Safran, Bezalel. 1987. “Leone da Modena's Historical Thinking.” In Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century, edited by Isadore, Twersky and Bernard, Septimus, 381–98. Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Schwarz, Ignaz. 1913. “Ein Wiener Donaubrückenprojekt aus dem XVI. Jahrhundert.” Jahrbuch für Länderkunde von Niederösterreich 12:79–100.Google Scholar
Steinschneider, Moritz. 1964. Mathematik bei den Juden. Hildesheim.Google Scholar
Teomim, Joseph n.d. Peri Megadim [ = Siftei Da‘at and Mishbeẓot Zahav, twin supercommentaries to Siftei Kohen and Turei Zahav on the Shulhan Arukh, printed in standard editions of the latter] on Yoreh De’ah 83:3.Google Scholar
Twersky, Isadore, and Bernard, Cooperman, eds. forthcoming. Tradition and Crisis: Jewish Thought and Society on the Threshold of Modernity. Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
Zunz, J. M. 1874. ‘Ir ha-ẓedaka: toldot rabanei ‘ir Krako. Lvov.Google Scholar