Schnytzer, Jonnie
Junior Fellow: July 2017
Research Project: On the Paradoxical Scepticism Which Lies at the Core of Joseph Ben Shalom Ashkenazi’s Scientific-Kabbalistic System of Thought
The goal of my research project will be to decipher the implicit paradox that lies at the foundation of Rabbi Joseph Ben Shalom Ashkenazi's system of thought (circa 1300). Ashkenazi's magnum opus, a commentary on the Book of Creation, became a canonical text in Kabbalistic circles. The commentary explains, in a confluence of scientific zeitgeist and Kabbalah, the creation of God, the creation of the world, the creation of man, and man as creator. Ashkenazi's commentary is unique in that he incorporates fundamental ideas from philosophy, astrology, and medicine into his Kabbalistic system of thought. Ashkenazi claims astrology to be fickle, and yet pins the secret of the Messiah to the star of Saturn. He calls philosophers heretics who make fundamental mistakes, and yet he sees the need to incorporate Aristotle's formless matter into a complex mystical system of thought. Furthermore, Ashkenazi goes to great pains to use examples from medicine and human anatomy in order to explain life, yet claims that doctors do not understand what happens at birth, or what death is about. With such extreme scepticism and the constant questioning of the reliability of scientific forms of knowledge, I will try to explain why Ashkenazi makes such a comprehensive use of these in his commentary.
Jonnie Schnytzer is a PhD student in Bar-Ilan University's Department of Jewish Philosophy, with a focus on medieval Kabbalistic manuscripts. He is working on a first critical edition of Rabbi Joseph Ben Shalom Ashkenazi's commentary on Sefer Yetzirah (turn of the thirteenth century, Castalia).