[Celebrated authority on Halakah and zealous defender of traditional Judaism. He was born at Barcelona in 1235, and died in 1310. He was exceedingly active as Rabbi and author. His numerous responsa have been recognized as an important source for the internal history of the Jews in the thirteenth century.]

Epistle Prohibiting Anyone Under Twenty-Five Years of Age to Study Philosophy^[198]

What avails it to refrain oneself, and who can refrain himself from speaking? Who shall comfort us in the grief of our heart, even though Ithiel and Ucal^[199] stood before us? Shall Calcol, and Darda, and Heman^[199] be able to heal the proud waters and the afflicted of the time? Unto whom of the holy ones shall we turn, and who is the faithful of the generation to bring the balsam from Gilead for the tottering foot and for the wound of long continuance? It is in the place of judgment and in the place of righteousness that we have seen many cracks, but there is none to repair the breaches. O land, land, land, where the men of renown were born, in whose midst was the Law of God, and upon whose heart was the breastplate of judgment; there thrones for judgment had been set, attended by the holy seed, the judge and the litigant. And even up till this day all the congregation, with the exception of a few men, are holy; they are the elect of the congregation, and because of their excellence are chiefs over all the people. But their children who arise after them have created a waster to destroy; and as a band of prophets, with harp and lute, they go about the city, and pursue vanity. When they spoke their fearful words, they thought that they were exalted in Israel; and at the head of every street they said concerning false gods: ‘These are thy gods, O Israel.’ It is now some time since our attention has been drawn by people from the land of Provence, the chosen remnant, who were jealous for the faith of Moses and the Jews, to the fact that there are men there who falsify the Law, and that he is regarded wise who sits down to demolish the walls and who destroys the words of the Law. They hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, and they impute unto the words of the Law and the words of the sages things which are not right. Concerning the two Laws they expound in the synagogues and in the houses of study words by which none can live. To provoke the eyes of the Glory of all Israel they break down all the fences of the Law; and even against our holy fathers they put forth their tongue, a thing which the worshippers of idols have not done. For they say that Abraham and Sarah represent matter and form, and that the twelve tribes of Israel are the twelve constellations. Has a nation ever heard such an evil thing since the world was divided into territories? Or has such a thing ever been heard, that men should reduce everything to chaos? The blasphemers of God further say that the holy vessels which were sanctified, the Urim and the Thummin, are the instrument known as astrolabe, which men make for themselves. Have such false children ever been found before? They in truth bite the people more dangerously than do the fiery serpents. Without any benefit and without any cause they commit the sin of slander, and say that the four who fought against the five^[200] are the four elements and the five senses. May the souls of these men be wholly consumed as offerings! A man who does such things reduces the entire Bible to useless allegories; indeed they trifle with, and pervert all the commandments in order to make the yoke of their burden lighter unto themselves. Their reports terrify us, and all who arrive here tell us new things. Truth has stumbled in the street, for some of them say that all that is written from the section of Bereshit as far as the giving of the Law is nothing more than an allegory. May such men become a proverb and a by-word, and may they have no stay and no staff. Indeed they show that they have no faith in the plain meaning of the commandments; they inscribe on their hearts and on the walls of their altars that they have no portion in the God of Israel, nor in the Torah which their fathers had received on Sinai. They are more estranged than the Gentiles; for the latter fulfil some of the commandments in the proper form, while they (may they have no remnant in the land!) strongly desire to uproot all. The chief reason of all this is because they are infatuated with alien sciences, Zidonian and Moabitish, and pay homage to the Greek books. They mingle with strangers, and bear them children. The children that are consecrated unto heaven from their birth and from their mothers’ womb are drawn away from the breasts, and are taught the books and the language of the Chaldeans, instead of rising early to study the Jewish faith in the house of their teachers. Now a boy born upon the knees of natural science, who sees Aristotle’s sevenfold proofs concerning it, really believes in it, and denies the Chief Cause; if we refute him, he becomes all the more impious. They only read the Law, but their heart is not right inwardly, and they pervert it in seven ways. For thus says one of their sages, who is esteemed as the chief of the heads of their sects: ‘It is good that the study of the Law should be combined with secular sciences; it is a good thing, but without the wisdom of the Greeks a man is called a wild ass used to the wilderness. They that study the Law, what manner of wisdom is in them? for they themselves are but as beasts.’ They are therefore ashamed when they speak and lecture; they speak with their mouths, and point with the fingers that it is impossible to change nature, and they thereby declare to all that they do not believe in the creation of the universe, nor in any of the miracles that are recorded in the Torah. Lo, these are but the outskirts of their ways; were we to relate the rest of their words and deeds as they actually are, the ink would not suffice. We have thus explained enough here. They have nearly caused God’s people to forget His name; they went forth from His land, so that His place (God forfend!) no longer knows them. They that make a covenant with God, and surname themselves by the name of Israel, shall not their heart grow hot at that? Can those heretics put fire into our bosoms, and their flame not consume our reins? Shall the lovers of the Law respect the person of their brother or kinsman? Has the divine word completely gone away? Has instruction failed? Shall it be said unto my children, as these men actually say in our presence: ‘Let the Law return to Sinai’?

Now when we saw that the fire was kindled, we feared lest the fire should break out, and catch in thorns, namely, a man whose soul is empty, who will be smitten through ignorance. God forbid that the earth should become empty, and void, and waste! When we saw that the generation had become corrupted and ready to treat religion lightly, we made a fence, and strengthened the wall round our perfect Torah. Had we not made a strong hedge round the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, we would have shared in the blame for their deeds. We have therefore interdicted in a perfect manner of interdiction, as ye see recorded with writing of truth in the book of the covenant which we made with our God,^[201] any one to teach or to learn these sciences, until the student and the teacher are twenty-five years old, and until they have become full of the delicacies of the Law, so that they will not remove it from being queen; for he who espouses it in his youth will not turn away from it even when he grows old. And indeed we shall not have done our duty, until we have pursued them, and brought them low, and removed the abominations from between their teeth; the books which they composed should be burned in the public place in their presence. It is about three years now since we have endeavored to carry out our wish in accordance with our aim; we have made many supplications, asking, requesting, and praying, to restore the crown of the Torah to its pristine glory, in its place. All this did we, so that the sword should not be against the dove which is foolish and without understanding, and that we should not afterwards be reviled by the mouth of the reviler. Our words, however, did not enter into their ears; they made their words, which are directed against us, harsher still, because of their ability to write and to speak. Nevertheless we did not cease to write to them. But many strict communities of those provinces inscribed their name to God, and decided to ban and excommunicate them, and they acted wisely after us, as ye see from the copies of their letters.

Now, ye chiefs of righteousness, is the thing good in your sight? For the thing which they do is not good, and the report which the people of the Lord caused to transpire is not good. Far be it from us, lest the nation should be divided into two, and God forbid that the name of Heaven should be profaned through them. For it is really the duty of every Israelite to tell them that. We have trustworthy evidence in that which the Israelites did, when the children of Gad and the children of Reuben built an altar on the other side of the Jordan.^[202] Did they not hasten to assemble for war on account of the suspicion of the intention? How much more have we to do it, since these men destroy the cluster^[203] in the sight of all! Far be it from us that, by hiding our face from the evil report, we should be included in the prophet’s accusation: ‘There they stood; no battle was to overtake them in Gibeah.’^[204]

Ye mountains of Israel, may ye bear your fruit for ever! ye people of the God of Abraham, set your eyes upon the palace,^[203] lest their folly should destroy the fence of the Law. Let us be one band, for we are all the children of one man. With many covenants we and our fathers received truthful Laws, written and oral, at the hands of the master of the prophets. How can we deal falsely against our soul and entice our heart to seek the deceptions of Greek philosophy? They whose eyes go in front of them, how can they walk with their faces backward and ally themselves with Arabic philosophy? Arise, ye princes, anoint the shield, and the Lord shall defend you and your houses; for the Master of your work is faithful to pay the reward of your labor.