1864 ELIM KARAITE RABBINIC DISPUTE PORTRAIT Delmedigo

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YA4 1864 ODESSA HEBREW VG CONDITION, HARDCOVER VERY RARE FIND. SELLS FOR $350++ AT AUCTIONS REGULARLY. WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR! Portrait, 218:145 mm., wide margins, each page within frame This book was written as an answer to queries addressed to the author by the Karaite scholar, Zerah b. Nathan of Troki (near Vilna, Lithuania). He named this work, which contained 12 general, and 70 specific queries, Elim, an allusion to the biblical Elim (Ex. 15:27) where there were 12 wells and 70 date trees. The questions concerned religious, metaphysical, and scientific matters. R. Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (1591–1655), rabbi, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer; also known as R. Joseph Solomon Rofe acronym Ya-SHa-R) of Candia (Crete). A writer of extensive Jewish and secular learning and of encyclopedic range, he is the author of works whose number is estimated by some authorities at 30, by others at over 60. A member of a distinguished scholarly family, he was the son of R. Elijah Delmedigo, rabbi at Candia. In accordance with the family tradition, he was given a thorough Jewish and classical education. At the age of 15, he was admitted to the University of Padua, where he studied astronomy and mathematics under Galileo, and also medicine and philosophy, at the same time continuing his Jewish studies. While at Padua, he frequently visited Leone Modena of the neighboring city of Venice, who, it appears, exercised a lasting influence on him. In 1613, he completed his studies at the University of Padua, and returned to Crete, where he began to practice medicine. From notes which he compiled during this period, he later began to compose his encyclopedic work Ya'ar Levanon ("Forest of Lebanon"), which he never brought to completion. In all likelihood he married at Candia, but there are indications that it was not a happy marriage. He soon found Candia too confining and left his homeland, never to return. His first stop after leaving Candia was Cairo. There he became acquainted with Ali b. Rahmadan, a renowned Arab mathematician, whom he refuted in a public disputation concerning spherical trigonometry. In Egypt, too, he met the physicist, Jacob the Alexandrian, head of the Karaite community there. He was delighted to find in Egypt several works on Maimonides' Guide, as well as certain writings of Abraham ibn Ezra, whom he greatly admired. From Cairo, R. Delmedigo went to Constantinople, then a prominent center of learning. Here, too, he came to know some ardent followers of the Kabbalah, in particular Jacob ibn Nehemias. It may, however, be assumed that R. Delmedigo had already become acquainted with kabbalistic teachings while still at Padua. Yet, he approached its study more seriously during his stay in Poland. He immersed himself in the Kabbalah for two purposes: (1) To find in it solutions which philosophy could not offer, and (2) to criticize it. He wrote Mazref la-Hokhmah, in which he allegedly refuted the attack on the Kabbalah made by his distant relative Elijah Delmedigo, in his Behinat ha-Dat. Since, as R. Delmedigo himself explains, he was commissioned to write such a refutation, it is unclear whether the work reflects his true convictions. He says in this connection: "Do not presume that you can unravel the author's mind from his book" (ed. Odessa, 1864, p. 85). Leone Modena understood the Mazref la-Hokhmah as a refutation of kabbalistic ideas, using it in his Ari Nohem ("Roaring Lion"), a systematic anti-kabbalistic treatise. R. Delmedigo next went to Poland, stopping off on the way in Rumania, where he became friends with the kabbalist Solomon Arabi. In 1620, he was practicing medicine in Vilna, where he became the private physician of Prince Radziwill, and had many nobles for his patients. During the week, he used to make the circuit of the environs of Vilna to cure the sick, and on the Sabbath he would lecture in the synagogue. His nights were spent in scholastic pursuits. Though a conservative in many of his views, he was also a proponent of many new ideas. His scientific bent of mind hav... read more

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