Commentators:R. Levi b. Gershom (Ralbag, Gersonides)/0

R. Levi b. Gershom (Ralbag, Gersonides)

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Ralbag

Name	R. Levi b. Gershom, Gersonides ר' לוי בן גרשום, רלב"ג
Dates	1288-1344
Location	Provence
Works	Biblical commentaries, Milchamot Hashem, math, astronomy
Exegetical Characteristics	Rationalist, philosophical
Influenced by	Ibn Ezra, Rambam
Impacted on	Ran, Akeidat Yitzchak, Abarbanel

Background

Life

• Name – 
  • Hebrew name – 
  • _ name – R. Levi b. Gershom
• Dates – 1288 – 1344
• Location – Provence
• Education – 
• Occupation – Torah scholar, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer.¹
• Family – Ralbag came from a family of Torah scholars.²
• Teachers – 
• Contemporaries – 
• Students – 
• Time period – 
  • –
• World outlook – 

Works

• Biblical commentaries – Ralbag wrote commentaries on Torah, Nevi'im Rishonim, and most of Ketuvim. These commentaries were completed between 1325 and 1338.³
• Rabbinics – Ralbag writes in his introduction to Torah that he planned to write a Sefer HaMitzvot and a commentary on the Talmud,⁴ but no such commentary survived, and it is unclear whether he ever completed these works.⁵
• Jewish thought and more – Ralbag wrote a philosophy work called Milchamot Hashem and astronomy charts called Luchot HaTekhunah. He also invented Jacob's Staff, a tool for measuring distances between celestial objects. In the field of mathematics, he wrote Ma'aseh Choshev (first edition 1321, second edition 1322), commentary on Euclid (early 1320s), De Sinibus, Chordis, et Arcubus,⁶ De Numeris Harmonicis,⁷ and others.
• Misattributed works – 

Torah Commentary

Structure

Ralbag's commentaries on Bereshit, Shemot, Iyyov, and Kohelet follow a tripartite structure, in which he employs three modes of exegesis in interpreting each unit:⁸

• Lexical definitions (Biur HaMilot).
• Explanations of the storyline (Biur Divrei HaParashah).
• Lessons derived from the story (Toalot). The Toalot are of three types: philosophical messages (deiot), morals (middot), and commandments (mitzvot). The Toalot dealing with the commandments contain shorashim (roots), which present the details of the mitzvah.

Most of Ralbag's other commentaries also contain Toalot,⁹ but they combine the lexical definitions and the explanations of the storyline into one section.¹⁰

Rationalist

Ralbag's rationalism impacts his understandings of many issues in Tanakh:

• Angels – Ralbag does not believe in the concept of corporeal angels and therefore reinterprets the stories about angels in different ways:
• Prophet – Bereshit 16:7, Bereshit 18:2, Bereshit 21:17, Bereshit 22:11, Bereshit 32:2, Shemot 14:19¹¹, Shofetim 2:1, Shofetim 6:11-12, Shofetim 13:11-16.
• Dream – Bereshit 21:17, Bemidbar 22:21-35, Shemuel II 24:16.
• Miracles – Ralbag tries to minimize miracles as much as possible in two ways:
• Dream, מראה הנבואה or allegory – Gan Eden (Bereshit 2:8), Yaakov's wrestling with the angel (Bereshit 32:25), Bilam and the donkey (Bemidbar 22:21-35).
• דרך הטבע – creation (Bereshit 1:1), Noach's ark (Bereshit 6:15), pillars of fire and cloud (Shemot 14:24-29), Yam Suf (Shemot 14:21-22), land swallowing Korach (Bemidbar 16:28), Yehoshua's stopping of the sun (Yehoshua 10:12).

Use of Science and Realia

Halakhah

Characteristics

• Verse by verse / Topical – 
• Genre – 
• Structure – 
• Language – 
• Peshat and derash – 

Methods

• – 

Themes

• – 

Textual Issues

• Manuscripts – 
• Printings – 
• Textual layers – 

Sources

Significant Influences

• Earlier Sources
  • Ibn Ezra – Ibn Ezra is quoted many times. In Bereshit 2:3, Ralbag thanks Ibn Ezra and the Rambam for explaining the creation of the world, and he says that, although their opinions were wrong, they guided him to the right track.
  • Rambam – the Rambam had the greatest influence of any figure on Ralbag. Ralbag cites him many times, usually in the philosophical portions of the commentary.
• Teachers – 
• Foils – 

Citations

• Targum Onkelos – 
• Rasag – 
• R. Hai Gaon – 
• R. Yona Ibn Janach – 
• Rashi – Shemot 18:21
• Ralbag's grandfather, R. Levi HaCohen – Shemot Beiut HaMilot 34:9.
• Ralbag's father, R. Gershom – Bereshit Beiur HaMilot 24:23, 40:14-15, 42:11-16, 44:10, 49:10, Shemot Beiur HaMilot 17:16, Vayikra 18:28-30.
• Greek philosophers – Bereshit 1:28 shoresh 3 (Plato)

Unattributed Influences

• Raavad – In Bereshit 48:4-5 and Bemidbar 26:54-55, there appears to be direct influence of the Raavad (cited in Shitah Mekubetzet Bava Batra 117b.)
• Ramban – Ralbag never cites Ramban explicitly, although he sometimes explains exactly like Ramban, and sometimes seems to be reacting against him. Some have suggested¹² that Ralbag didn't like Ramban since his exegeses was too mystical, but that he didn't want to confront him explicitly.

Impact

Later exegetes

Ralbag's works met with a mixed reception. Some admired his commentary and works, while others boycotted them and called his Milchamot Hashem (Battles of Hashem) Milchamot im Hashem (Battles with Hashem).¹³ Ralbag's positions had an influence on several subsequent commentators from Christian Spain:

• Ran – 
• Akeidat Yitzhak – 
• Abarbanel – 

Supercommentaries

• –

¹ One of the craters of the moon, Rabbi Levi, is named after Ralbag.

² Ralbag cites his father, R. Gershom, and his grandfather, R. Levi HaCohen, in a number of places in his Torah commentary (see list below). According to Chida's Shem HaGedolim, Ralbag's maternal grandfather was Ramban. However, since Ralbag apparently was not a Cohen himself (as indicated by his distinguishing between Cohanim and "us" in Bereshit Beiur HaMilot 1:29-30), R. Levi HaCohen must have been his maternal grandfather, and not Ramban.

³ Some of the commentaries contain a colophon which gives the dates of their completion.

• Shir HaShirim – end of Tammuz 5085 (July 1325)
• Iyyov – 23 Tevet 5086 (December 30, 1325). This date, however, fell out on Shabbat.
• Parashat Bereshit – end of Av 5088 (August 1328)
• Kohelet – 9 Marcheshvan 5089 (October 13, 1328)
• Rut – 1 Nissan 5089 (March 2, 1329)
• Sefer Bereshit – 14 Marcheshvan 5090 (October 8, 1329)
• Shemot – 1 Elul 5090 (August 17, 1330)
• Vayikra – the end of the manuscript is missing, but parashot Tzav and Shimini were completed in the end of Marcheshvan and 16 Kislev 5093 respectively (November and December 5, 1332). However, the latter falls out on Shabbat.
• Shofetim – possibly 26 Tishrei 5097 (October 2, 1336). [The manuscript reads 26 Tishrei 5197 (October 6, 1436). This date either contains an extra letter kuf (and is thus off by 100 years) or is the date the copyist completed his work.
• Bemidbar – 23 Tevet 5098 (December 16, 1337)
• Devarim – 23 Shevat 5098 (January 14, 1338)
• Shemuel – 1 Adar I 5098 (January 22, 1338)
• Daniel – Adar II 5098 (February – March 1338)
• Ezra-Nechemyah – Adar II 5098 (February – March 1338)
• Divrei HaYamim – 2 Nissan 5098 (March 23, 1338)

The following books don't have a colophon: Yehoshua, Melakhim, Mishlei, and Esther.

⁴ The commentary was to have lists of the Mitzvot which relate to each tractate, and a list of lessons or Toalot on the stories in the Talmud.

⁵ He cites his commentary on Masekhet Berakhot in his commentary on Devarim 3:11, and on Masekhet Shabbat in his commentary on Shemuel I 21:7. A list of books, identified as Ralbag's personal catalog of his library, also includes "חדושי ברכות, לי אני לוי".

⁶ On Sines, Chords, and Arcs, part of Milchamot Hashem, 1342. This work was dedicated to the Pope, who was living in Avignon at that time.

⁷ The Harmony of Numbers, 1343. The work was commissioned by Phillip de Vitry, Bishop of Meaux. It was immediately translated from Hebrew into Latin, but the former is now lost.

⁸ Ralbag describes this division in his introduction to Iyyov.

⁹ Only the commentary on Vayikra divides the Toalot into Shorashim.

¹⁰ Shir HaShirim is exceptional in that the commentary is not separated into sections. Most of these commentaries were written later, and it is possible that Ralbag intended to redo these commentaries later. See the end of his commentary to Bemidbar, where Ralbag writes that he finished it very quickly and without any books, and that he hopes to revise it in the future.

¹¹ He says it is also possible that the angel here is the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire.

¹² Freiman and Braner in Machanayim 4 (1992), p. 231.

¹³