Isaac ben Moses Arama

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Isaac ben Moses Arama (c. 1420–1494) was a Spanish rabbi and writer. He began as the head of a rabbinical school in Zamora, likely his birthplace, and later served as rabbi and preacher in Tarragona and then Fraga in Aragon. He finished his career in Calatayud as rabbi and head of the Talmudic academy. After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, Arama settled in Naples, where he died in 1494.

Arama wrote several important works. His best known is Akedat Yitzchaḳ (Binding of Isaac), a long philosophical commentary on the Pentateuch that also has a homiletic, or sermon-like, style; because of this he is often called Ba’al Akedah (the author of the Akedah). He also wrote a commentary on the Five Scrolls, and a work called Hazut Qashah (A Difficult Vision) about how philosophy relates to theology. Another work, Yad Abshalom (The Hand of Absalom), is a commentary on Proverbs written in memory of his son-in-law Absalom, who died soon after his marriage.

Arama was a prime example of the Spanish-Jewish scholar of the late 15th century. He was first and foremost a Talmudist, valuing the study of the Talmud highly and even lamenting that his students could not move with him from Zamora to Tarragona because the Tarragona community could not support them. He was also a philosopher, reflecting the importance of philosophy in Spain at the time; he studied Maimonides, though his own philosophy is not very original. In Akedat Yitzchaḳ his views on the soul are notable. After surveying various theories, he argues that the first spark of the soul is tied to the body and that the soul is like the “form” of the body, a position he supports with evidence from the Talmud and Kabbalah.

Kabbalah also influenced his thinking, especially the ideas found in the Zohar, which he believed to be written by Simeon bar Yohai. He did not emphasize mysticism as much as philosophy. His early work Hazut Qashah includes both his religious philosophy and a history of the Jewish communities in Spain before the expulsion. The book aims to answer the Church’s sermons that Jews had to endure, and it contains a critique of the Christian doctrine of Grace. He supports the idea of free will (as discussed by Aristotle) and contends that God’s justice makes Grace merely the act of a tyrant’s will. He also includes criticisms of Christian interpretations in the Deluge. Overall, much of his work argues in favor of Jewish revelation and against philosophies that deny or minimize it.