Or ha-Chaim [“The Light of Life”: philosophical polemic]

YA’AVETZ, JOSEPH

Abraham ibn Usque

Ferrara

1554

FIRST EDITION. Title set within architectural arch with the printer’s device of an armillary sphere resting on a scroll containing a verse from Psalm 130:5 (illustrated EJ, Vol. XIII, col. 1094, no. 7)

Vinograd, Ferrara 23

First Work in Trilogy by “He-Chassid Ya’avetz" [“The Pious Ya’avetz"] The author was among those expelled from Spain, and for his remaining years (d.1507) sought in his writings to find meaning in the catastrophe that had befallen Spanish Jewry. This treatise asserts that philosophical rationalism was the cause whereby so many Spanish Jews chose to embrace the Church rather than a life in exile. The wide abandonment of Judaism Ya’avetz blames on a distorted version of Maimonidean intellectualism that leads to rationalism and thus a weakening of religious observance, commitment and self-sacrifice The works of “He-Chassid Ya’avetz,” were highly prized in East European Chassidic circles. The Polish Chassidic master R. Zevi Elimelech of Dynòw penned a commentary to Ya’avetz’s books