Check out my latest guest appearance on Judaism Demystified with my Gersonidean friend, Rabbi Dovid Campbell, where we introduce you to the wonderful world of Ralbag, in video or podcast form!
Good stuff. You may have alluded to it, in the "toalos" section Ralbag has a subsection he terms "sherashim" in which he provides comprehensive overviews of halachos that appear in the Torah. I really enjoy it. It also showcases him as a master talmudist in addition to all his other areas of expertise. As far as his position on the whole human free will/divine foreknowledge conundrum, I like to think of it as a spectrum with Ralbag ditching foreknowledge, R C Crescas tossing human free will and Rambam magically accomodating them both which seems to be R Akiva's position as well. As far as some of Ralbag's shall we say less than mainstream positions, Rivash has a fascinating responsum (45) regarding חכמת יונית where he has the following to say about Ralbag: והחכם רבי לוי ז"ל גם הוא הי' חכם גדול בתלמוד ועשה פירוש נאה לתורה ולספרי הנביאים והלך בעקבות הרמב"ם ז"ל אמנם גם הוא הטו את לבבו אותן החכמות הרבה מדרך האמת והפך דעת הרב רבינו משה ז"ל בקצת ענינים כגון בענין ידיעת השם בעתיד האפשרי וכן בעמידת השמש ליהושע והשיב צל המעלות אחורנית כתב דברים שאסור לשומעם וכן בהשארות הנפש ובהשגחה בענין עונשי הרשעים בעה"ז כמ"ש כל זה בספרו קראו מלחמות השם.
- I WISH I had had time to talk about the shorashim and the Ralbag's approach to halacha. Fortunately, I discussed it at length in my shiur "Torah as Regimen: Ralbag's Approach to Chumash," available on YouTube and my Machshavah Lab Podcast.
- Yes. My high school principal, Rabbi Bernie Fox, once explained to me that whereas the Rambam's view compels him to say that Hashem's knowledge is different from ours, Ralbag refuses to accept that because it would mean that our knowledge is not "real knowledge." I'm almost entirely unfamiliar with Crescas, and only know his views from hearsay. I've wondered how the three of them read R' Akiva's statement.
Good stuff. You may have alluded to it, in the "toalos" section Ralbag has a subsection he terms "sherashim" in which he provides comprehensive overviews of halachos that appear in the Torah. I really enjoy it. It also showcases him as a master talmudist in addition to all his other areas of expertise. As far as his position on the whole human free will/divine foreknowledge conundrum, I like to think of it as a spectrum with Ralbag ditching foreknowledge, R C Crescas tossing human free will and Rambam magically accomodating them both which seems to be R Akiva's position as well. As far as some of Ralbag's shall we say less than mainstream positions, Rivash has a fascinating responsum (45) regarding חכמת יונית where he has the following to say about Ralbag: והחכם רבי לוי ז"ל גם הוא הי' חכם גדול בתלמוד ועשה פירוש נאה לתורה ולספרי הנביאים והלך בעקבות הרמב"ם ז"ל אמנם גם הוא הטו את לבבו אותן החכמות הרבה מדרך האמת והפך דעת הרב רבינו משה ז"ל בקצת ענינים כגון בענין ידיעת השם בעתיד האפשרי וכן בעמידת השמש ליהושע והשיב צל המעלות אחורנית כתב דברים שאסור לשומעם וכן בהשארות הנפש ובהשגחה בענין עונשי הרשעים בעה"ז כמ"ש כל זה בספרו קראו מלחמות השם.
- I WISH I had had time to talk about the shorashim and the Ralbag's approach to halacha. Fortunately, I discussed it at length in my shiur "Torah as Regimen: Ralbag's Approach to Chumash," available on YouTube and my Machshavah Lab Podcast.
- Yes. My high school principal, Rabbi Bernie Fox, once explained to me that whereas the Rambam's view compels him to say that Hashem's knowledge is different from ours, Ralbag refuses to accept that because it would mean that our knowledge is not "real knowledge." I'm almost entirely unfamiliar with Crescas, and only know his views from hearsay. I've wondered how the three of them read R' Akiva's statement.
- Them's fightin' words from the Rivash!
Thank you for listening and commenting! :)