Moses Narbonne, also known as Moses of Narbonne, mestre Vidal Bellshom, maestro Vidal Blasom, and Moses Narboni, was a medieval Catalan philosopher and physician. He was born at Perpignan, in the Kingdom of Majorca, at the end of the thirteenth century and died sometime after 1362. He began studying philosophy with his father when he was thirteen and then studied with Moses and Abraham Caslari. He studied medicine and eventually became a successful physician, and was well versed in Biblical and rabbinical literature.
Eventually he traveled to the Crown of Aragon, where he is known to have lived and studied in Cervera (1348–1349), Barcelona and Valencia, and later in Toledo, Burgos and Soria (1358–1362), in the Kingdom of Castile. In 1362 he returned to Perpignan and died there. During the outbreak of the Black Death when persecution of Jews was widespread, ben Joshua was forced to flee Cervera when an angry mob attacked the Jewish community there. During his stay in Barcelona, he wrote a commentary on the medieval philosophical tale Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan, in which he called to appropriate autodidacticism as a pedagogical program.[1]
Moses was an admirer of Averroes; he devoted a great deal of study to his works and wrote commentaries on a number of them. Perhaps Narboni's best known work is his Treatise on the Perfection of the Soul.
He believed that Judaism was a guide to the highest degree of theoretical and moral truth. In common with others of his era he believed that the Torah had both a simple, direct meaning accessible to the average reader as well as a deeper, metaphysical meaning accessible to thinkers. He rejected the belief in miracles, instead believing they could be explained, and defended man's free will by philosophical arguments. Because of these and other beliefs, he was not accepted by many in the rabbinical Jewish community for fear of his figurative membership in the school of extreme rationalism which gave rise to questions of his legitimacy as an authority on Jewish law, custom and philosophy.[2]
He died at an advanced age as he was returning to his native land from Soria.
^Avner Ben-Zaken, "Climbing the Ladder of Philosophy", in Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0801897399.
^Shapiro, M. The Limits of Jewish theology. The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, Oxford: 2004. pg 28
outbreak of the Black Death when persecution of Jews was widespread, benJoshua was forced to flee Cervera when an angry mob attacked the Jewish community...
functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Exodus and Numbers, and later succeeded Moses as leader of the Israelite tribes in the Book of Joshua of the Hebrew...
on a thorough critique of their inadequacies; it was also used by MosesbenJoshua of Narbonne. The translation was probably made in Majorca around 1347;...
and, at the end, the second by Joshua warning of the need for faithful observance of the Law (torah) revealed to Moses. The strong consensus among scholars...
individual, in his freedom, will make." Perpignan Kingdom of Aragon MosesbenJoshua composed commentaries on Islamic philosophical works. As an admirer...
Mosesben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (/maɪˈmɒnɪdiːz/ my-MON-ih-deez) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (Hebrew:...
did. Men such as Isaac Albalag, Shem-Tov ibn Falaquera, Gersonides, MosesbenJoshua, and others, were denounced by Abarbanel as infidels and misleading...
Mosesben Nachman (Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה בֶּן־נָחְמָן Mōše ben-Nāḥmān, "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (/nækˈmænɪdiːz/; Greek:...
Joshua Lorki's father, Joseph benJoshua ibn Vives al-Lorqui, who died before 1372, was also a physician. He revised Tibbon's translation of Moses Maimonides'...
Mosesben Menahem (Präger) (Hebrew: משה בן מנחם) was a rabbi and kabbalist who lived in Prague in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was a disciple...
Joshuaben Alexander HaCohen Falk (1555 – 29 March 1614) was a Polish Halakhist and Talmudist, best known as the author of the Drisha and Prisha commentaries...
gave him the name "Moses") could have known Hebrew puzzled medieval Jewish commentators like Abraham ibn Ezra and Hezekiah ben Manoah. Hezekiah suggested...
Aramaic at Ezra 5:2. In Nehemiah 8:17 this name refers to Joshua son of Nun, the successor of Moses, as leader of the Israelites. In earlier English (where...
Samson Morpurgo benJoshuaMoses (1681 – 12 April 1740) was an Italian rabbi, physician, and liturgist. Morpurgo was born in Gradisca d'Isonzo, close to...
Mosesben Eliezer Cohen (Hebrew: משה בן אליעזר כהן) was a Jewish writer and moralist who lived in Germany, probably at Coblenz, in the second half of...
emanating from Joshua Soncin, rabbi of Constantinople at the time of Joseph Nasi, in which Soncin invokes the authority of Simeon ben Jehiel. Both Conforte...
family engaged in printing was Israel Nathan b. Samuel, the father of JoshuaMoses and the grandfather of Gershon. He set up his Hebrew printing-press in...
Joshua Boaz ben Simon Baruch (died 1557), also known as the Shiltei Giborim after a work he authored, was a prominent Talmudist who lived at Sabbioneta...
(Hebrew: תועלת ההגיון). This commentary was translated into Hebrew by MosesbenJoshua of Narbonne, and as of 1906 was extant in manuscript in the Library...
abridgment of this work was produced by Benjamin ben Abraham Anaw. Mosesben Meir of Ferrara Trachtenberg, Joshua (2004) [Originally published 1939]. Jewish...
than twenty years. He took part with Moses in numbering the people, and assisted at the inauguration of Joshua. He assisted in the distribution of the...
and his prayers were answered, so his folks asked him to pray against Joshuaben Nun but he could not do it, so he advised some of the kings of the giants...
Joshua Thomas Radnor (born July 29, 1974) is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and musician. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the Emmy...
years old his parents married him to the daughter of the Talmudist Simhah benJoshua of Volozhin. Having exhausted the knowledge of his Volhynian instructors...
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