This book is a revised version of my Habilitationsschrift under the title “On the Peripheries of Ashkenaz: Medieval Jewish Philosophers in Normandy and in the Czech Lands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century” which was submitted at Palacký University in Olomouc in 2011. There are, however, several significant differences. About half of the earlier study discussed twelfth-century Northern France, especially the works of Berekhiah ben Natronai ha-Naqdan. The relevant chapters have been published separately in the meantime, and they are therefore not included in the present book. I have expanded, however, the parts focusing on medieval Bohemia and Moravia, and have also elaborated a more complex, and more coherent, methodological approach than that of the earlier study.
The most important innovations in this respect are that I attempt to interpret the reception of Maimonidean philosophy in late medieval Prague in Max Weber’s terms as a project of rationalization. It is not infrequent that researchers of medieval Jewish philosophy utilize concepts taken from Weber and other authors of classical sociology. A consistent application of the Weberian approach is seldom attempted, however, in medieval Jewish intellectual history.1 The purpose of my own attempt is not to impose Weber’s historiosophic ideas on the material, but, on the contrary, there will be explicit mention when the source material contradicts or undermines Weber’s theories. The purpose is rather to test Weber’s concepts and theories, and see in what ways they have explanatory force. I also believe that these investigations will be helpful for sociologists and anthropologists interested in Weber’s legacy.
Chapter nine analyzes the thoughts of the most significant medieval Ashkenazi philosopher, Menahem Shalem, who was active in early fifteenth-century Prague and who is read through the lense of a near contemporary Belgian philosopher, Marc Richir (1943–2015). Once again, my purpose is not to read Richir’s thought into Shalem’s text, but to examine whether the former can help us understand the historical reality with which Shalem was struggling, and his thought as part and parcel of that historical reality. The Richirian concepts will provide us with a helpful “background theory”, as will be argued. The last chapter combines the two approaches, that of Weber and that of Richir, and argues that Menahem Shalem’s thought responded to the social realities of pre-Hussite and Hussite Bohemia. Thus, the last two chapters, chapters nine and ten, are arguably the most innovative parts of the present book.
Chapter four is based on my paper entitled “Plague, Persecution, and Philosophy: Avigdor Kara and the consequences of the Black Death” and was published in the volume Intricate Interfaith Networks edited by Ephraim Shoham-Steiner (Brepols, 2016). It incorporates certain newer conclusions first published in my “Jewish Physicians in Late Medieval Ashkenaz,” Social History of Medicine 32 (2019): 670–690, in a special issue edited by Naama Cohen-Hanegbi.
Chapters five-six of the present book are a revised version of my earlier article “The Emergence of Philosophy in Ashkenazic Contexts—The Case of the Czech Lands in the Early Fifteenth Century,” which was published in a special issue of Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts / Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook, vol. 8 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2009), 213–243, edited by Gad Freudenthal.
All the aforementioned chapters are indebted to the editors of the relevant volumes, namely Resianne Fontaine, Gad Freudenthal, Naama Cohen-Hanegbi, and Ephraim Shoham-Steiner, as well as Lenn Schramm.
I am grateful to Gad Freudenthal for criticism, encouragement and sharing many of his ideas and unpublished studies with me. I would like to thank Jena Habegger-Conti (Centre for Medieval Studies in Bergen, Norway) for proofreading the text. I am also grateful to my teachers, colleagues, and friends for comments, criticism, suggestions, support, and encouragement especially Abraham David, György Geréby, Gábor Molnár, Tomáš Nejeschleba, Daniel Soukup, Tamás Turán, Carsten Wilke, and Dóra Zsom. I learned the most from my students in Budapest and Olomouc.
I am grateful to David Livingstone for copy-editing the manuscript, and Hana Budíková for technical assistance. All errors are mine.
This study could not be written without the institution which provided the infrastructural background and much more than that to the author. I am grateful for everybody involved in establishing, maintaining, and supporting the Kurt and Ursula Schubert Center for Jewish Studies at the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University, Olomouc, especially Prof. Ingebrog Fialová-Fürst, Ivana Cahová, Marie Krappmann, Marie Crhová, and Anna Mácová.
There are no words to thank my wife and my children.
I am currently aware of only one study that attempts to integrate medieval Jewish philosophy into a Weberian history of rationalization and disenchantement: Jonathan J. Zisook, “Disenchantment of the World: Weber, Judaism, and Maimonides,” Journal of Classical Sociology 17 (2017): 173–190.