CRESCAS AND MAIMONIDES Despite the criticisms of Halevi, the philosophical or Aristo telian point of view gained ground among the Jews in Spain and Ibn Daud, Maimonides and Gersonides made it fashionable and authoritative. Maimonides created a school of Judaism which had many followers and dominated the thought of the learned in the following centuries. To be sure, it was not alone in the field and it met with violent opposition. Most of this, however, came from those who were not familiar with philosophic speculation, and the opposition was based on purely dogmatic grounds. The traditional interpretation of the Bible and the authority of the Talmud were appealed to against the new-fangled ideas which came from non-Jewish sources.
In Hasdai Crescas, however, we have a new champion of tra ditional Judaism, a philosophical defender of the unadulterated faith against the rationalism and intellectualism of the Maimoni dean school. Like Judah Halevi, and with more rigour of logic and argument, he undertook to undermine the views of the philosophers by refuting the 25 propositions (or the more im portant among them) which Maimonides laid down as the basis of his proof of the existence, unity and incorporeality of God. He showed that the physics and the metaphysics of Aristotle are not to be relied upon, hence a fresh start must be made to estab lish a system of Judaism. This Crescas undertakes to do in his Light of the Lord (or Adonai). Some of his arguments are not more convincing than those he attacks, but he feels safer in that he is closer to the traditional understanding of Scripture and there is no doubt that his interpretation of Judaism is truer to its spirit, since he does not force alien conceptions upon the Bible. At one point he admits that logic and reason are inconclusive, as one may find arguments pro and contra, and has recourse to Scripture : "Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One." In respect to the doctrine of attributes there is no doubt that Maimonides departs from traditional and Rabbinic Judaism in denying all positive attributes to God and reducing Him to the Unknowable of Herbert Spencer. Such depersonalization of God is scarcely compatible with a detailed revelation, a special Provi dence, the institution of prayer, fasting and repentance, not to speak of sacrifices, which indeed Maimonides was consistent enough to reject. Crescas, therefore, admits positive attributes of
God, without teaching anthropomorphism. For God, he says, is infinite and a necessary existent, whereas His creatures are finite and possible existents.
Inasmuch as Crescas is opposed to the use of alien philosophies in the interpretation of Judaism, he analyzes the Jewish religion from within and discusses its essential dogmas. To be sure Maimonides did the same thing, nay, he was the first to enumerate the fundamental dogmas of Judaism. But he did this in his com mentary on the Mishnah and not in his systematic philosophical work, the Guide of the Perplexed. To Crescas's mind the dogmas and beliefs are the essential part of a constructive philosophy of Judaism. Accordingly he criticizes the list of 13 dogmas estab lished by Maimonides on the ground that they are either too many or too few according to the idea one attaches to the word dogma. Crescas distinguishes between fundamental doctrines and true beliefs. The former are those without which Judaism could not exist, the latter are essential indeed and disbelief in them constitutes heresy, but Judaism could exist without them.
The 13 articles of Maimonides's creed are : (I) Existence of God; (2) Unity; (3) Incorporeality; (4) Eternity; (5) God alone should be worshipped; (6) Prophecy; (7) Superiority of Moses; (8) Revelation; (9) Immutability of the Torah; (I o) God's omniscience; (1 1) Reward and punishment ; ( 12) Belief in the coming of the Messiah; (r3) Resurrection. Crescas, as we have seen, has two lists. The fundamental dogmas are the following: (I) God's knowledge of existing things; (2) Provi dence; (3) God's omnipotence; (4) Prophecy; (5) Freedom of the will; (6) The purpose of the Torah is to inspire man with the love and fear of God. In addition to these six fundamental doctrines, there are true beliefs which are eight in number: (I) Creation; (2) Immortality; (3) Reward and punishment; (4) Resurrection; (5) Eternity of the Torah; (6) Superiority of Moses; (7) The Urim and Tummim as a source of knowledge of the future for the priest ; (8) Belief in the Messiah.