Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides): The Wars of the Lord (review)

Abstract

The Jewish Quarterly Review, XCII, Nos. 3-4 (January-April, 2002) 581-585 Seymour Feldman. Levi ben Gershom (Gersonides): The Wars of the Lord, Vol. 3, translated with notes by Seymour Feldman, appendix by Tzvi Langermann. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society; New York and Jerusalem: The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1999. Pp. 580. The Wars of the Lord is one of the most fascinating philosophicalscientific writings of the 14th century and reflects several new trends typical of this century. The work is of importance not only for students of Jewish thought, but also for anyone interested in medieval science and philosophy . Making it accessible to a wide readership is a significant undertaking , and the completion of Feldman's English translation of the book is very welcome. The Wars of the Lord was published in Riva di Trento in 1560 and in Leipzig in 1866. The second printed edition relies on the first, and both are quite defective. There are also many manuscripts, scattered in different libraries but easily available at the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts in Jerusalem. A few partial translations into modern languages exist.' Prof. Feldman has been working on a complete translation for many years: a general introduction and Book I appeared in 1984; Books H-IV were published in 1987. With the publication of the present volume, which includes Books V-VI (but not V.l), the enterprise is accomplished. The first four books of the Wars, contained in the first two volumes of Feldman's translation, are more popular. The third volume, now published, is the longest and its contents the most difficult. Book V is Gersonides' astronomical-cosmological treatise. It is divided into three parts. The first is complete in itself and presents the author's mathematical astronomy. This highly technical part is not included in the printed Hebrew editions and is extant in a few separate manuscripts. The second and third parts deal with cosmological and cosmological-theological subjects. Although far from easy, these two parts are not restricted to specialist readers, as the first is. The sixth book consists of two parts and deals with the creation of the world. Book V.l was already translated into Latin in Gersonides' lifetime,2 and the first twenty chapters were edited and translated into English by Bernard R. Goldstein, who studied this work intensively. He also translated and 1 See vol. 1, "Introduction," pp. 63-64. 2J. L. Mancha, "The Latin Translation of Levi ben Gerson's Astronomy" in G. Freudenthal, ed., Studies on Gersonides: A Fourteenth-Century Jewish PhilosopherScientist (Leiden, 1992), pp. 21-46. 582THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW commented on other chapters in papers studying various topics in Gersonides ' astronomy.3 Feldman's is the first translation of Books V.2-3, VI. 1, and part of VI.2.4 In the present volume, as in the first two, the translation of each book is preceded by a synopsis. The volume includes an appendix by Tzvi Langermann, "Gersonides and Astrology," which is an important contribution to this volume and to the research on Gersonides' science and astrology. Most translations of medieval texts into modern languages are not based on critical editions, as the need for a translation is often felt more urgently than that for a critical edition. This is true of Feldman's translation. It is based on the two printed Hebrew editions and on three manuscripts selected by Charles Touati. This is a good compromise. The manuscripts are better than the printed editions, and many errors and lacunae in the printed editions are corrected in Feldman's translation. For example, in reading chapter VI. 14 in the Leipzig edition I had difficulty with a sentence that was syntactically correct and made sense, but did not support my understanding of the text: pt?> twn jiinìti tuo mona ww yyiinan riyiin ??a? >a yûon na tub ?.5 I checked several manuscripts and found the word "not" which was absent in the printed editions: yinn na tsb ??>. Feldman indeed selects the correct reading. My impression is that the text used for Feldman 's translation, even though not based on a critical edition, is nevertheless reliable. The translation itself is readable. Acquaintance...