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NACHMANIDES (NAVMANIDES)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 148 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NACHMANIDES (NAVMANIDES) , the usual 'name of See also:MOSES See also:BEN NAIIMAN (known also as RAMBAN), Jewish See also:scholar, was See also:born in See also:Gerona in 1194 and died in See also:Palestine c. 1270. His See also:chief See also:work, the Commentary on the See also:Pentateuch, is distinguished by originality and See also:charm. The author was a mystic as well as a philologist, and his See also:works unite with See also:peculiar See also:harmony the qualities of See also:reason and feeling. He was also a Talmudist of high repute, and wrote glosses on various Tractates, Responsa and other legal works. Though not a philosopher, he was See also:drawn into the controversy that arose over the scholastic method of See also:Maimonides (q.v.). He endeavoured to See also:steer a See also:middle course between the worshippers and the excommunicators of Maimonides, but he did not succeed in healing the See also:breach. His homiletic books, See also:Epistle on Sanctity (Iggereth ha-godesh) and See also:Law of See also:Man (Torath ha-See also:Adam), which See also:deal respectively with the sanctity of See also:marriage and the solemnity of See also:death, are full of intense spirituality, while at the same See also:time treating of See also:ritual customs—a See also:combination which shows essential Rabbinism at its best. He occupies an important position in the See also:history of the See also:acceptance by See also:medieval See also:Jews of the Kabbala (q.v.); for, though he made no fresh contributions to the See also:philosophy of See also:mysticism, the fact that this famous See also:rabbi was himself a mystic induced a favourable attitude in many who would other-See also:wise have rejected mysticism as Maimonides did. In 1263 Nabmanides was forced to enter into a public disputation with a Jewish-See also:Christian, Pablo Christiani, in the presence of See also:King See also:James of See also:Aragon. Though Nachmanides was assured that perfect freedom of speech was conceded to him, his See also:defence was pronounced blasphemous and he was banished for See also:life. In 1267 he went to Palestine and settled at See also:Acre.

He died about 1270. See S. Schechter, Studies in Judaism, first See also:

series, pp. 12o seq. ; See also:Graetz, History of the Jews (See also:English See also:translation vol. iii. ch. xvi. and xvii.). (I.

End of Article: NACHMANIDES (NAVMANIDES)

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