biography
| name: |
Nachman, Moses Ben
|
| |
also known as Nachmanides
|
pronunciation:
[nahkman]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1194–c.1270)
|
| biography:
| Religious scholar, born in Girona, NE Spain. Rabbi of Girona for many years, he led a Cabbalist group there, and was well known for his mystical tendencies following the tradition of Yehuda ha-Levi, as opposed to the strongly intellectual influence of Maimonides. His sense of moral rectitude earned him the title Abi ha-hokma (‘the wise, the father of wisdom’). He wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch (Perush al ha-Tora) and on the Books of Job and Ruth. In 1263, King Jaime I invited him, as the highest rabbinical authority, to participate with the converso Pablo Cristiano in a public debate in Barcelona. The debate, on the differences between Christianity and Judaism over such questions as the character of Jesus and the date of his coming again, was recorded by Nachman in both Latin and Hebrew. As some of his arguments were offensive to the Dominicans, he was exiled. |
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