Philosophers on the Periphery of Ashkenaz

Jewish Intellectual Life and Philosophy in the Czech Lands from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century. Officina Philosophica Hebraica Volume 4

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Author:
Tamás Visi
Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) had many followers among Jews living in the Mediterranean Basin, but his philosophical books were almost totally ignored by Ashkenazi Jews. Yet, the eastern periphery of Ashkenaz was an exception: in the late fourteenth century a circle of veritable philosophers emerged in the Jewish community of Prague and existed until the end of the Hussite wars (ca. 1434). This book analyses the works of the most important members of the circle, Yom Tov Lipmann Mühlhausen, Avigdor Kara, and Menahem Shalem, and examines the impact of philosophy on Jewish society using Max Weber’s sociology and Marc Richir’s phenomenology.
Copyright Year:
2026
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978-90-04-74658-9
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24 Nov 2025
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-51835-3
Publication:
27 Nov 2025
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Tamás Visi, Ph. D. (2006) is an associate professor of Jewish Studies at Palacký University, Olomouc. He has published many articles on medieval Jewish intellectual history and co-edited Berechiah Ben Natronai Ha-Naqdan’s Works and Their Reception (Brepols, 2019).
Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1 The Thirteenth Century



1 Philosophy in Ashkenaz: the Problem
 1 Why No Philosophy in Ashkenaz?
 2 Why Philosophy in Late Medieval Prague?
 3 Rationalization, Entzauberung, and Medieval Jewish Philosophy: Methodological Considerations

2 Jewish Intellectual Life in Thirteenth-Century Bohemia
 1 Ashkenaz versus Kenaan: Some Remarks on the General Context of Jewish Intellectual Life in the Czech Lands
 2 The Beginnings of Jewish Intellectual Life in the Czech Lands
 3 Prayers, Midrash, and Theology: Abraham ben Azriel’s Arugat Ha-Bosem
 4 The Incorporeality of God
 5 Individualism, Rationalization, and the Concept of the Soul

3 The Reception of Maimonidean Philosophy in Thirteenth-Century Bohemia: Moses Taku and David the Greek
 1 The Controversy Concerning Resurrection in the 1200s
 2 Moses Taku’s Assault on Philosophy
 3 Hanbalism in Ashkenaz?
 4 Taku in the Ashkenazi Context
 5 David the Greek
 6 Hebrew Grammar and Maimonidean Philosophy: The Quntres Diqduq Sefat Ever
 7 A Controversy Avoided

Part 2 The Prague Circle



4 Pestilence and Philosophy in Late Medieval Ashkenaz
 1 The Origin and Demise of the Prague Circle
 2 New Intellectual Directions: Avigdor Kara on a Persecution in 1352
 3 A Plague Tract in Hebrew Composed in Prague
 4 Ashkenazi Physicians in the Late Middle Ages
 5 Conclusion: The Black Death as a Game Changer

5 The First Philosophical School in Ashkenaz
 1 The Rabbis and the Astronomical Clock
 2 Philosophy and Sciences outside the Universities
 3 The Milieu of Philosophy in Ashkenaz
 4 The Impact of the University and Hussite Propaganda
 5 Philosophy and Competence in Polemics

6 Philosophy as a Literary System in Fifteenth-Century Ashkenaz
 1 The Prestige of Philosophy
 2 Accommodating Philosophy to Ashkenaz: the Secret of the White Tallit
 3 Menahem Shalem: A Possible Source of Bruna
 4 Continuity and Break

7 Philosophy on Trial: Controversial Themes in the Thought of the Prague Circle
 1 Opinions, Discourses, and Debates
 2 An Anonymous Critique of Philosophy: Substantial versus Contractual Truths
 3 Jewish Identity versus Cosmopolitan Civilization, or Why Not to Include Guide of the Perplexed in the Canon of Rabbinic Literature
 4 Prophetic versus Scientific Truth: A Debate about the Music of the Celestial Spheres
 5 Jewish Identity versus Scientific Knowledge: Narboni’s Paradigm and Its Rejection by the Anonymous Letter against Philosophy
 6 Warding off Modernity: Mühlhausen and Shalem on the Sounds of the Celestial Spheres and on Prophecy

Part 3 Menahem Shalem and the Hussite Revolution



8 An Excursus: Marc Richir’s Theory of Symbolic Institution and the Study of Medieval Jewish Philosophy
 1 Symbolic Institution
 2 L’instituant symbolique
 3 On the Sublime: Rencontre and Malencontre
 4 The Sublime in Exegesis
 5 Dephasing of the Present and Reconquering Time
 6 A New Symbolic Institution: the Names of God in Medieval Jewish Philosophy
 7 Jewish Philosophy as a Symbolic and Historic Institution

9 Revolution and Symbolic Institution
 1 Apocalyptic Thought versus Philosophy: Shalem’s Commentary on an Eschatological Barayta
 2 Shalem’s Theory of Symbolic Institution I: Hypnosis and Symbolic Institution
 3 Shalem’s Theory of Symbolic Institutions II: Rituals as Symbolic Systems
 4 Bestiality and the Hussite Revolution
 5 From Malencontre to Rencontre: the True Worship of God
 6 “True Belief” in Maimonides, Shalem, and Hus

10 Philosophy as a Project of Rationalization in Fifteenth-Century Prague
 1 Social Facts
 2 Maimonidean Philosophy as a Program of Rationalization
 3 Was the Program Realized?
 4 The Rationality of Rationalization

Conclusion: The Reception of Medieval Jewish Philosophy in the Czech Lands

Bibliography
Index of Persons
Index of Subjects
Researchers and students of medieval Jewish philosophy, medieval Jewish intellectual life in general, history of medieval society, of medieval Czech history, especially Hussite Prague and Hussite philosophical and theological ideas.
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