{"product_id":"a-asdai-crescas-collected-writings","title":"Ḥasdai Crescas Collected Writings","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eḤasdai Crescas spent his life in public service – as a rabbi and community leader in desperate times in 14\u003csup data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e-century Spain. Despite having limited time for writing, he produced several important works, which\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCollected Writings\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003epresents in their entirety. The first of these,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEpistle to the Jews of Avignon\u003c\/em\u003e, he wrote in the immediate aftermath of the anti-Jewish riots in Aragon in 1391, chronicling the unimaginable horrors the Jewish communities endured – mass conversions, suicides, deaths, and the loss of great Torah scholars – as well as his own personal tragedy, the murder of his only son, “a lamb without blemish.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTo counter Christian efforts to convert Jews, Crescas composed two polemical works, only one of which has survived,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRefutation of the Christian Principles\u003c\/em\u003e. Written in 1397-8, it offers reasoned arguments to challenge ten principles of Christianity. A great halakhist, Crescas penned many responsa, some of which are known because they were quoted by later halakhists. But only one extant work contains halakhic material – the\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePassover Sermon\u003c\/em\u003e, dealing (in part) with the laws of Passover.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e Because of the urgent communal demands on his time, Crescas was unable to complete\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLamp of the Lord\u003c\/em\u003e, the two-volume work which was to be his response to Maimonides’\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMishneh Torah\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGuide of the Perplexed\u003c\/em\u003e. His magisterial work,\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLight of the Lord\u003c\/em\u003e, a work of intellectual rigor and deep religious sensibility, was his answer only to the\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGuide.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eIn this brilliant work, completed in 1410, just before his death, Crescas rejects the purely intellectual Aristotelian God in favor of Judaism’s God of love. It is a work suffused with love for God, the Torah, the rabbinic tradition, and the Jewish people.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca title=\"Crescas\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0561\/9184\/4431\/files\/look_inside_Light_of_the_Lord_English_Roslyn_Weiss.pdf?v=1690795167\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0561\/9184\/4431\/files\/look_inside_Light_of_the_Lord_English_Roslyn_Weiss.pdf?v=1690795167\"\u003eClick here to see sample pages.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEditor: Roslyn Weiss\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Library of the Jewish People","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49558588555564,"sku":"9781613292136","price":44.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0849\/7191\/3516\/files\/acurrencyasdai-crescas-collected-writings-maayan-judaica.jpg?v=1748469497","url":"https:\/\/maayanjudaica.com\/products\/a-asdai-crescas-collected-writings","provider":"Maayan Judaica","version":"1.0","type":"link"}