The thought of Nahmanides and the Catalan school of Kabbalah

Nahmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, known as the Ramban, 1194–1270), a native of Gerona in Catalonia, was at once an eminent Talmudist, an exegete, and a kabbalist, a central figure of Iberian Judaism in the thirteenth century. His commentary on the Torah, which combines close attention to the literal sense with mystical allusions ("by the way of truth"), exerted a considerable influence and bears witness to the flourishing of the kabbalistic school of Gerona, at the crossroads of the philosophical and esoteric traditions. A leading Talmudist, he also championed a balance between Maimonidean rationalism and tradition during the controversies over the works of Maimonides. In 1263, he was compelled to take part in the Disputation of Barcelona, a public adversarial debate with the convert Pablo Christiani in the presence of King James I of Aragon, of which he subsequently published an account. The pressures that followed led him to leave Spain for the Holy Land, where he contributed to the restoration of the Jewish communities of Jerusalem and Acre, becoming a pioneer of medieval Jewish presence in Eretz Israël.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Sefaria ↗