Aurora Salvatierra Osorio, professor of Semitic Studies of the University of Granada, analyses the “Sefer ha-mebaqqes”, by Sem Tob ibn Falaquera, of the 13th century, and particularly an episode of this work, in which a believer and a Torah-wise man hold a dialogue through which two conceptions of Judaism can be extracted which that involve a different understanding of the biblical text.
Salvatierra explains that it is essential to deal with such episode of the “Sefer ha-mebaqqes” to consider the intellectual climate in which the author was immersed in at that time. “Although in the maturity of Falaquera the clamour of the first controversy around Maimonides had weakened, stances in favour or against the Cordovan thinker was still alive or, in other words, in favour or against the study of philosophy as an instrument to go more deeply into faith. In this time of conflicting ideological and religious tendencies, in a tense atmosphere where the anti-rationalist ideas and the acceptation of conservative schemer tendencies predominate, Falaquera takes side and defends, in line with Maimonides´ thought, the harmony of faith and reason”.
According to the professor and researcher of the University of Granada, Sem Tob ibn Falaquera makes clear the central position of the Torah in the learning he proposes to the Jewish man and he defends his model of thought and his personal attitude towards the Bible.
Through the figure of the wise believer, the author brings to his readers a topical matter, a question that started a debate that had a determinant influence on medieval Jewish life. “Sem Tob ibn Falaquera talks about topical questions, in such a way that his readership can familiarize in a few pages with two conflicting tendencies without hiding his own position on this matter. Those who got to know them would find synthetically expounded in a flexible and accesible way arguments in favour and against the study of sciences and philosophy as a way to go more deeply into faith”.
Reference
Professor Aurora Salvatierra Ossorio. Dpt. Semitic Studies.
Tel. 958 243 576 / 958 243 572 (department) E-mail aurora@platon.ugr.es
