This Saturday Jews celebrate Yom Kippur, one of the most important holidays in the Hebrew calendar. For the occasion, The world of religions has selected four recently published books, which present important figures of Jewish thought, from the Middle Ages to the present day, which may be of interest to both religious and secular people.
“The Secret of the Torah”, by Abraham Ben Me’ir Ibn ‘Ezra, translation and introduction by René Gutman, Les Belles Lettres, 354 pages, 19.90 euros
Abraham Ben Me’ir ibn ‘Ezra (1092-1167) was a Jewish thinker born in Andalusia. There he made his living as a poet before emigrating to Italy and then moving to Normandy and England, distancing himself in particular from the new dynasty in power, the Almohads, much less tolerant of Jews than their predecessors. He then strives to give meaning to his departure, working to transmit to the Jewish communities he meets on his path the knowledge of Sephardic Judaism in Spain, but also that of the Muslim philosophers and mathematicians of the time, still very little known in the world. Christian. West.
In the last of his many works, The secret of the Torahwhich he wrote at the age of 66, sought to demonstrate that all the commandments of the Hebrew Bible are motivated by rational, even scientific, considerations. A Hebrew grammar scholar, he seeks to shed light on the meaning of biblical texts through the reasoned study of their language. With this translation by René Gutman, former chief rabbi of Strasbourg and graduate of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), this work is accessible for the first time in French.
Written in clear and modern language, it is preceded by a rich introduction. René Gutman describes with clarity and precision the context in which this medieval thinker lived, influenced by the Muslim philosopher Avicenna (980-1037). His efforts within European Jewish communities were scarcely rewarded during his lifetime, as his mode of rational exegesis was not “At that time there were no forces to compete with the French rabbis”. However, Ben Me’ir Ibn ‘Ezra became a prominent thinker, considered one of the precursors of Kabbalah, the main mystical movement of Judaism. M.F.
“Maimonides. Faith in reason”, Alberto Manguel, translated by Laurent Cantagrel, Les Belles Lettres, 264 pages, 15.50 euros
From Maimonides, a book has crossed the centuries: the Guide for the lost. His influence, from Meister Eckhart to Kafka, from Leibniz to Freud, was immense. Behind this medieval summit of Jewish thought hides a philosopher, doctor and theologian – Moses Ben Maimón, his full name – born in Córdoba in 1138 and died in Cairo in 1204 after a series of exiles linked to the persecution of the Jews. To understand the man and his ideas, we have a recognized guide: Alberto Manguel, famous Argentine-Canadian writer and translator, author of a reading history (1996) known worldwide.
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