RaMBa”N). Sha’ar HaGemul [on eschatology]

MOSES BEN NACHMAN (NACHMANIDES /

Abraham ibn Usque

Ferrara

1556

Third edition. Title within architectural arch with printer’s device of an armillary sphere resting on a scroll containing a verse from Psalm 130:5; repeated on last page. Extensive marginal notes throughout in an early Sephardic hand

Vinograd, Ferrara 45; Mehlman 1214

Part of a larger work entitled Torath Ha'Adam, dealing with the laws of mourning, Sha’ar HaGemul, (“The Gate of Retribution”) tackles the difficult issue of the Afterlife in which Nachmanides differs from Maimonides’ eschatological vision. Whereas for Maimonides the final state of man is a disembodied soul, in Nachmanides’ opinion it is precisely the rejoining of soul and body that is the ultimate state. The final leaf of this work contains the famed historical letter penned by Nachmanides in Jerusalem to his son Nachman, describing the fearful living conditions in the Land of Israel following the invasion of the Tatar hordes in 1260. Nachmanides sums up the situation by saying: “The jist of the matter is, the holier the place, the more desolate...thus Jerusalem is the most desolate than all."