The Law of Change and the Nature of the Chameleon: Yosef ben Shalom Ashkenazi and Giovanna Pico della Mirandola

BRIAN OGREN

Rice University, Houston

THE LAW OF CHANGE AND THE NATUREOF THE CHAMELEON: YOSEF BEN ŠALOM ’AŠKENAZI

AND GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA

ESTRATTOda

GIOVANNI PICO E LA CABBALACENTRO INTERNAZIONALE DI CULTURA‘‘GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA’’

SSttuuddii PPiicchhiiaannii

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a cura diFAABBRRIIZZIIOO LEELLLLII

Leo S. Olschki EditoreFirenze

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CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE DI CULTURA‘‘GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA’’

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2014ISBN 978 88 222 6314 8 Olschki

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Studi Pichiani

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2014

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BRIAN OGREN

Rice University, Houston

THE LAW OF CHANGE AND THE NATURE

OF THE CHAMELEON: YOSEF BEN SALOM ’ASKENAZI

AND GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA*

In one of his more oft quoted Conclusiones of 1486, already possiblyreferred to by his fifteenth century Jewish colleague ’Eliyya H

˙ayyim da

Genazzano,1 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola makes the statement: Trans-corporationem animarum crediderunt omnes sapientes Indorum, Persarum,Aegyptiorum, et Chaldeorum.2 Here he makes no explicit value judgmentas to the veracity of the belief. Nevertheless, several points within the Con-clusio are highly suggestive of a positive assessment of the doctrine byPico. One is his extreme respect for the prisca theosophia tradition, boththroughout his writings and concentrated here in the invocation of the In-dians, the Persians, the Egyptians, and the Chaldeans. Another is his useof the reverential expression sapientes, ‘wise-men’, in reference to thosewho he claims held the belief. Yet another is his sweeping employmentof the term omnes, ‘all’ in this conclusio, in allusion to cultural trends ofthought that deeply affected his own syncretism. Thus, while he doesnot overtly endorse the idea of transmigration within this conclusio, Pico’saffirmative disposition peers through the veil of his seemingly neutral lan-

* Portions of this lecture were published, in expanded form, in BRIAN OGREN, Renaissance andRebirth: Reincarnation in Early Modern Italian Kabbalah, Leiden - Boston, Brill 2009, pp. 185-237.Here they take on a different tenor, as they directly couple Pico and his ideas of mutability with Yo-sef ben Salom ’Askenazi and his ideas of din bene h

˙alof.

1 FABRIZIO LELLI, ‘‘Introduzione’’, in ELIYYAH H˙

AYYIM BEN BINYAMIN DA GENAZZANO, Iggerethamudot (La lettera preziosa). Introduzione, edizione e traduzione a cura di F. Lelli, Firenze - Nımes,Giuntina - L’eclat 2002, p. 76.

2 GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses (1486) – TheEvolution of Traditional Religious and Philosophical Systems, with text, translation, and commentaryby S.A. Farmer, Tempe, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 1998, p. 305 (hereafter Theses).

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guage. Moreover, given the positive tenor of the other three of the 900conclusiones that explicitly discuss the idea of transmigration,3 Pico seemsto have held to a positive view of the doctrine as based mainly upon thePlotinian idea of participated human existence.

According to this idea, the human soul is essentially divine. A portionof it constantly remains within the divine realm, and it descends into thematerial world in a participated manner, insofar as it participates in mate-riality by acting as the animating factor for singular bodies. This theorymaintains that the divine nature of the human soul and its veritable con-nection with both the spiritual and the material spheres make it a uniqueunifying entity that participates in all realms of existence. In the words ofPlotinus himself, «the entity [...] described as ‘‘consisting of the undividedsoul and of the soul divided among bodies’’, contains a soul which is atonce above and below, attached to the Supreme and yet reaching downto this sphere, like a radius from a centre».4 This idea indeed had greatresonance with Pico, who not only helped to popularize the idea of thehuman soul as a link between all realms of existence, but who also wrotein one of his Conclusiones that «the whole soul does not descend when itdescends».5 The divinely emanated nature of the human souls outlined byPlotinus and adopted by Pico not only allows it to act as a node, but it alsoallows for a Neoplatonic type of unio mystica for the apt individual, whoknows how to connect to the portion of the soul that is above.

Nevertheless, the human soul also reaches into the material realm be-low, and in a sinning state can animate the body of a brute. When this oc-curs, the human soul is precluded from directly entering into the body ofthe beast due to its essentially divine nature; thus, it animates the beast notby direct conjunction, but by participating in its composition as the brutebody’s determinate factor.6 This allows for a certain type of ‘‘participated’’transmigration of the human soul throughout the whole of existence, fromthe divine arena in a state of mystical conjunction to the lower forms of

BRIAN OGREN

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3 See PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, Syncretism, p. 299, p. 455, and p. 489. For an in-depth analysisof these and other of Pico’s statements on transmigration in relation to the Plotinian concept of ‘par-ticipated human existence,’ see OGREN, Renaissance and Rebirth: Reincarnation in Early Modern Ita-lian Kabbalah, pp. 212-237.

4 PLOTINUS, The Six Enneads, translated by S. MacKenna and B.S. Page, Chicago - London -Toronto, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 1952, p. 139.

5 PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, Syncretism, p. 297: «Non tota descendit anima quum descendit».6 See PLOTINUS, Enneads 1.11, p. 5: «And the animals, in what way or degree do they possess

the Animate? If there be in them, as the opinion goes, human Souls that have sinned, then the Ani-mating-Principle in its separable phase does not enter directly into the brute; it is there but not thereto them; they are aware only of the image of the Soul and of that only by being aware of the bodyorganized and determined by that image».

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existence as a means of vitality. Certainly, such an idea of transmigrationhad a profound effect upon Pico and his ideas of man as a mutable nodefor the universe.

Interestingly, while Pico clearly relies upon Plotinus and alludes toEmpedocles, Plato and Pythagoras within his discourses in relation totransmigration, and while in the first Conclusio mentioned he refers tothe Indian, Persian, Egyptian and Chaldean wise-men, Pico makes abso-lutely no reference to the Jewish kabbalistic tradition concerning the doc-trine of transmigration, in any of his works. This is quite strange, consid-ering the fact that, as Eugenio Garin has surmised, «In a certain sense, it ispossible to say that the Kabbalah and Jewish culture take a position inPico analogous to that which from one standpoint Hermetism and priscatheologia, and from another standpoint Plato and the Platonic traditionhave in the Ficinian worldview».7 This is all the more peculiar consideringthe fact that, as Guido Bartolucci teaches us in his article contained withinthis volume, Ficino himself did refer to Chabalistae Hebraeorum doctores,«the Kabbalists, the wise teachers of the Jewish people», in reference totransmigration and transformation.8 If the Kabbalah was indeed to Picoanalogous to what Hermetism, prisca theologia, and the Platonic traditionwere to Ficino, as Garin notes, then one would expect the opposite interms of textual and precedential support. One would expect that Ficinowould rely upon the sources that Pico uses, without any allusion to Kab-balah,9 and that Pico would gain at least some support from Kabbalisticsources.

Pico certainly had access to kabbalistic notions of transmigration,through Flavius Mithridates’ translation of Sefer ha-Bahir, his possessionof various Latin translations of Recanati’s commentary on the Torah,and even Mithridates’ translation of the Abulafian epistle We-zot liYehu-da. Beyond the book, he would have had access to this doctrine throughhis Jewish teachers, including Yoh

˙anan Alemanno, who expounds upon

the doctrine in several places in his own writings and Collectanaea. It isone place in Alemanno’s Collectanaea concerning the doctrine of transmi-

7 EUGENIO GARIN, L’umanesimo italiano e la cultura ebraica, in Storia d’Italia Annali: Gli ebreiin Italia, 11:1, Torino, Einaudi 1996, p. 369.

8 See the deft analysis of Bartolucci in this volume. For the reference mentioned here, see MAR-

SILIO FICINO, In Plotinum, in ID., Opera Omnia, Basel 1576, reprint, ed. S. Toussaint, Paris, SocieteMarsile Ficin 2000, p. 1694. I thank Dr. Bartolucci for drawing my attention to this.

9 In addition to adding Kabbalah into the mix, Ficino indeed does utilize similar prisca theolo-gia sources to those of Pico in his discussions of transmigration. For Ficino’s discussion and his priscatheologia sources, see BRIAN OGREN, Circularity, the Soul-Vehicle, and the Renaissance Rebirth of Re-incarnation: Marsilio Ficino and Isaac Abarbanel on the Possibility of Transmigration, «Accademia:Revue de la Societe Marsile Ficin», VI, 2004, pp. 63-94.

THE LAW OF CHANGE AND THE NATURE OF THE CHAMELEON

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gration that will be the focus of this article, namely, a long passage of var-ious segments copied from the fourteenth century commentary on Seferyes

˙ira by an Ashkenazi Kabbalist active in Spain, Rabbi Yosef ben Salom

’Askenazi. Through Alemanno, ’Askenazi’s commentary may have had in-fluence upon Pico’s overall project and, in tandem with Plotinus, mayhave shaped Pico’s ideas of mutability.

Indeed, ’Askenazi had influence not only upon Alemanno, but seemsto have had influence upon another of Pico’s teachers in Jewish matters,the mysterious Dattilo. Though the information concerning this enigmaticDattilo is scant, Pico attests in both his Oratio and in his Apologia of 1487that Dattilo was learned in the enigmatic ‘science’ of Kabbalah and that heused it to espouse a positive view of the Trinity.10 In support of the claimof Dattilo’s Kabbalistic knowledge, the German Catholic orientalist Jo-hann Albrecht Widmanstadt attests to the fact that some forty years afterPico’s encounter with Dattilo, Widmanstadt himself attended a series oflectures in Turin given by the latter,11 in which he expounded upon a com-plex theory of cosmic transformation that effects «plants, bushes, fruittrees and living creatures, all the way to the human body, and throughto the sentient soul».12 The astute scholar of Jewish mysticism, GershomScholem, has surmised that «Dattilo was merely presenting, in a slightlyveiled form, the cardinal doctrine concerning the transformation of allthings from the simplest life form to the highest level of the sefirot». Scho-lem continues, noting that «Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi of Barcelona[...] was the first to develop the idea in detail during the period 1300-25», and that ’Askenazi’s «commentary on Sefer yes

˙ira [in which the idea

was greatly developed] was widely circulated in Italy around 1500, andDattilo could have encountered it in any number of manuscripts».13 Not-withstanding evidence of an influence on Dattilo’s theory from the Neo-

BRIAN OGREN

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10 PICO, Opera omnia, p. 124, quoted in GERSHOM SCHOLEM, The Beginnings of the ChristianKabbalah, in The Christian Kabbalah: Jewish Mystical Books and their Christian Interpreters, ed.J. Dan, Cambridge, Harvard College Library 1997, p. 41, note 2: «Cujus rei testem gravissimum ha-beo Antonium Cronicum [...] qui suis auribus cum apud eum essem in convivio audivit DattilumHebraeum peritum hujus scientiae in Christianorum prorsus de trinitate sententiam pedibus mani-busque descendere».

11 For sources of the Dattilo story in the accounts of Widmanstadt and Pico, see UMBERTO CAS-

SUTO, The Jews in Florence During the Renaissance Period, translated from the Italian by MenahemHartom, Jerusalem, Hebrew University 1967, p. 247, notes 163 and 164 (Hebrew). See also SCHO-

LEM, The Beginnings of Christian Kabbalah, pp. 18-20.12 Cited by JOSEPH PERLES, Beitrage zur Geschichte der hebraischen und aramaischen Studien,

Munchen 1884, p. 186, and translated into English in SCHOLEM, The Beginnings of Christian Kabba-lah, p. 19.

13 SCHOLEM, The Beginnings of Christian Kabbalah, p. 20. Here, the parenthetical notes aremine, for clarification.

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platonic camp of Marsilio Ficino, evidence that is too complex to enterinto here and which would take us too far a field,14 Scholem’s surmise con-cerning kabbalistic theories such as those of ’Askenazi as one possiblesource of influence seems to be correct. This is especially the case consid-ering the direct invocation of ‘‘kabbalists’’ in Widmanstadt’s citation ofDattilo, which states that «there are some among the kabbalists who be-lieve that all living things are granted the hope of redemption».15 Thoughhe does not mention him by name, at the core of these «kabbalists whobelieve» stands Yosef ben Salom ’Askenazi, who, as was previously men-tioned, was quoted at length by Yoh

˙anan Alemanno, and who through

both Dattilo and Alemanno may have had a tacit influence upon Pico’sown theories of cosmic redemption through personal transformation.

Our discussion, then, turns to ’Askenazi. Not much is known aboutthis important Kabbalist, who in some sources is also referred to as «RabbiJoseph the Long».16 Gershom Scholem has identified him as an Ashkenazifigure who was living in Barcelona in the first generation after the revela-tion of the Zohar.17 While this may be the case, Yehuda Liebes posits adifferent possibility. According to Liebes, Ashkenazi may have been ofthe generation of the revelation of the Zohar itself; Liebes asserts that bothhe and the authors of the Zohar were most probably utilizing a commonMidrashic angelology entitled Midras de-Sim‘on bar Yoh

˙ay,18 and that ’As-

kenazi may indeed have been one of the contributors to the Zoharic cor-pus itself.19 Such a theory would maintain that ’Askenazi was a thinkerwho may have influenced the vast literature of the Zohar with his ownanti-philosophical speculation, rather than having been a thinker who re-

14 The passage quoted in note 13 above begins: «Certain living seeds lie hidden in the bowels ofthe earth and in the elements that surround it. In the course of this world’s [that is, nature’s] tirelessefforts, and as a result of the struggle of creation and decay, these living seeds travel through various[forms of] plants, bushes, fruit trees and living creatures, all the way to the human body, andthrough to the sentient soul». This seed metaphor works into a complex theory of seeds developedby Ficino, a theory that is carefully outlined in HIROSHI HIRAI, Concepts of Seeds and Nature in theWork of Marsilio Ficino, in Marsilio Ficino: His Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy, eds. M.J.B. Al-len and V. Rees with M. Davies, Leiden, Brill 2002, pp. 257-284.

15 PERLES, Beitrage zur Geschichte, p. 186.16 See MOSHE HALLAMISH, The Kabbalistic Interpretation... Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi (He-

brew), Jerusalem, Magnes Press 1985, p. 11. See references there in note 4.17 GERSHOM SCHOLEM, Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», V,

1928, pp. 263-277: 264 (Hebrew). The Zohar is estimated to have been revealed in Spain around 1280.18 For the quote from this work in ’Askenazi’s writings, which deals with the idea of the souls of

the wicked as demons, see his Kabbalistic Interpretation to Bereshit Rabbah, ed. Hallamish, p. 259.According to Liebes, this angelology was also a common source for Rabbenu Bah

˙ya (see YEHUDA

LIEBES, How the Zohar was Written, «Mekhkarei Yerushalayim b’Makhshevet Israel», VIII, 1989,pp. 11-15: 11 [Hebrew]).

19 See ibid.


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spected the Rashbi of the Zohar but who ultimately rejected the Zohar’smythological elements. This may paradoxically explain why, as Scholemhimself admits, the Zohar and the mythical language of that school haveno presence in ’Askenazi’s work,20 even though ’Askenazi uses the term«The Holy Rav, Rabbi Sim‘on ben Yoh

˙ay» in reference to the Rasbi. Ac-

cording to Liebes, this is a term that would not have been used in the Mid-dle Ages to refer to the classical Midrashic Rasbi, and thus either refers tothe Rasbi of the Zohar or, in the case of ’Askenazi, to the Rasbi of theaforementioned Midrashic angelology.21 Whatever the case may be, ’Aske-nazi was active in Spain either at the time of the initial circulation of Zo-haric literature or very shortly thereafter, and the terminus ante quem forYosef’s writing activity seems to undeniably be 1358, the date that he cal-culated for the coming of the Messiah.22 He seems to have been in connec-tion with Dawid ben Yehuda he-H

˙asid, another famed Kabbalist with

connections to Ashkenaz who was active in Spain. ’Askenazi also claimsto be a descendent of a certain Yehuda he-H

˙asid,23 and was familiar with

elements of the theology of H˙aside ’Askenaz, such as intricate letter com-

binations and the idea of the golem, the artificial anthropoid. Scholem alsosurmises that he was a student of the Nahmanidean disciple of Selomo ibn’Aderet, the Spanish Kabbalist Yehosua‘ ibn Su‘aib.24 Beyond this, noth-ing is known about ’Askenazi’s actual life. Nevertheless, he representsan interesting cross-currential flow of knowledge in connection with thespeculative and the esoteric traditions of both Ashkenaz and Spain, andhe offers a more speculative, less mythical type of Kabbalah than the Zo-har. Moreover, though ’Askenazi’s brand of kabbalah is purportedly anti-philosophical, it has distinctly philosophical elements.

’Askenazi’s crystallization of the meeting of crosscurrents in his ownspeculative thought would prove to have a far-reaching flow of influenceitself. Indeed, the Byzantine Kabbalah as expressed in Sefer ha-peli’a and

BRIAN OGREN

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20 Kabbalistic Interpretation to Bereshit Rabbah, ed. Hallamish, p. 295.21 LIEBES, How the Zohar was Written, p. 11.22 GEORGES VAJDA, Un chapıtre de l’histoire du conflit entre la Kabbale et la Philosophie: la po-

lemique anti-intellectualiste de Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi de Catalogne, «Archives d’Histoire Doc-trinale et Litteraire du Moyen Age», Paris, Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1957, p. 47; GERSHOM

SCHOLEM, Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», IV, 1927/1928,pp. 286-327: 294 (Hebrew); see reference to this prognostication in ’Askenazi’s writings in thesetwo sources.

23 This is not necessarily Yehuda ben Semu’el of Regensburg, the famed pietistic author of Se-fer h

˙asidim, though this is certainly one possibility. In any case, Yosef ben Salom seems to have been

connected to German Hasidism.24 SCHOLEM, Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», V, 1928,

pp. 264-265.

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in Sefer ha-qana was highly influenced by ’Askenazi’s commentary on Seferyes

˙ira, and the great sixteenth century Safedian Kabbalist Yis

˙h˙aq Luria

saw the commentary as one of the few Kabbalistic works worth learning.25

In addition, Moshe Hallamish lists the following figures upon which ’As-kenazi’s writings had a profound influence: Mose Cordovero, ’Avraham’Adruti’el, Dawid ibn Zimra, Yosef ha-Ba mi Sosan ha-Bira, Menah

˙em

‘Azarya da Fano, Yasar of Candia, ’Aharon Berakya of Modena, Yosef Er-gas, Baruk of Kosov, ’Aharon ha-Lewi of Strashelye, and the Maggid ofMezritch.26 Interestingly, the only person known to have openly criticized’Askenazi seems to have been ’Eliyya H

˙ayyim da Genazzano, the same fif-

teenth century Jewish colleague of Pico referred to above, who may havequoted the latter in regard to transmigration.27 Notwithstanding Genazza-no’s criticism, ’Askenazi’s influence remained strong in Renaissance Italy.

Indeed, another Jewish colleague of both Pico and Genazzano shouldbe added to the impressive list of influences by ’Askenazi, namely, Yoh

˙a-

nan Alemanno. It is important to note that while Alemanno was activeabout one hundred and fifty years after Yosef, the former was a fellowAshkenazi Kabbalist and thinker who was active outside of the lands ofAshkenaz. Indeed, within Alemanno’s thought can be detected an exten-sion of the form of Ashkenazi Kabbalah as espoused by Yosef. As hasbeen noted, Alemanno copied sections from Yosef ’Askenazi’s commen-tary to Sefer yes

˙ira and made use of several of the ideas contained therein.

These sections lie within Alemanno’s handwritten notebooks,28 whichwere compiled between the years 1478 to 1504.29 These notebooks containextracts from assorted philosophical and kabbalistic works, as well as bib-liographic notes and some of Alemanno’s own writings.

Alemanno’s inclusion of segments from ’Askenazi’s commentary is in-deed telling since, as Scholem has noted, a ‘‘philosophization of the Kab-balah’’ 30 is clearly detectable in the work, despite ’Askenazi’s ultimate cri-ticism of philosophy. Moreover, as has been noted above, the mythicallanguage of the school of the Zohar is absent in ’Askenazi’s commentary,

25 HALLAMISH, The Kabbalistic Interpretation to Bereshit Rabbah, p. 15.26 Ibid., p. 15, note 27.27 SCHOLEM, Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», IV, 1927/

1928, p. 301. See above, note 2.28 Ms. Oxford, Bodleian Library Neubauer 2234, fols. 97b-100b.29 These dates are according to KLAUS HERRMANN, The Reception of Hekhalot Literature in Yo-

hanan Alemanno’s Autograph Ms. Paris 849, in Studies in Jewish Manuscripts, Tubingen, Mohr Sie-beck 1999, p. 24.

30 SCHOLEM, Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», V, 1928,p. 286.


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despite his possibly complex relationship with that body of literature.Moreover, while he brings ninety-four philosophical premises that he thenrefutes,31 his own thinking is very speculative in manner and his explica-tory language is highly philosophical. All of this points to the importanceof ’Askenazi’s commentary in the development of the chain of philosophi-cal Kabbalah, of which Alemanno’s, and subsequently Pico’s thought, arelater links. Interestingly, it is a philosophical type of Kabbalah that is notNeoplatonic, but that is much more Neo-Aristotelian in its leanings, simi-lar to the Kabbalah of ’Avraham Abulafia, which also had influence uponthe thought of both Alemanno and Pico.

The section of Alemanno’s Collectanea containing extracts from ’Aske-nazi’s commentary indeed runs rife with Aristotelian philosophical de-scription, opening with the question of the influence of the causa causarumupon the thirty-two paths of wisdom with which Sefer yes

˙ira begins and by

which, according to Sefer yes˙

ira, God began to create. ’Askenazi ties theidea of ‘wisdom’ contained in the description of these thirty-two pathsto the Aristotelian idea of intellection. He writes of three original intellec-tual apprehensions contained in the intellect that first intellectualizes itself,second intellectualizes its cause, which in the case of God is itself, andthird intellectualizes the margin that lies between itself and its cause,which in the case of God is closed due to the fact that He and His causeare one. Notwithstanding the oneness and simplicity of God due to Hisself-contained nature, the three apprehensions of the process of intellec-tion subsist by virtue of the nature of intellection, even if these threeare ultimately identical as contained in the selfsame, simple entity ofGod. From the three original intellectual apprehensions, ’Askenazi even-tually arrives at the number thirty-two. He does this by claiming that‘‘each of these (three) apprehensions also apprehended itself and its causeand the margin between itself and its cause’’,32 bringing the number tonine. This plus the root of all effects equals ten, ‘‘and each one has a be-ginning, and end and a middle, making thirty. This plus the power of thecause and the power of the effect makes thirty-two’’.33 Thus, through theAristotelian process of intellection, from the one God derive the thirty-twopaths of wisdom, by means of which that one God, the causa causarum,creates and relates to the universe. Despite his later polemic against the

BRIAN OGREN

* 128 *

31 Fols. 44b-53a, referenced ibid., p. 297. See also GEORGES VAJDA, The Ninety-Four Philoso-phical Premises Brought by Rabbi Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi, «Tarbiz», XXVII, 1958, pp. 290-300 (Hebrew).

32 Ms. Oxford 2234, fol. 97b. ‘‘.~tl[ !ybl ~nybX Xrphhw ~tl[w ~mc[ (!) wgyXh k"g twgXhh wlam txa lkw’’.33 Ibid. ‘‘.b’’l yrh ,lwl[w xkw hl[h xkw .~yXlX yrh ,[cmaw @wsw Xar wb Xy dxa lkw.’’

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Aristotelian philosophers,34 here ’Askenazi sets up a very Aristotelian read-ing of the thirty-two paths of wisdom contained in Sefer yes

˙ira, laying a

precedent for later philosophical renderings of the Kabbalah, such asthose of both Alemanno and Pico.

In the passage copied by Alemanno, ’Askenazi goes on to explain thenames and the essences of the thirty-two paths in greater detail. Thetwenty-fourth among these relates to ’Askenazi’s own distinct cosmic ideaof transmigration, and he terms it the ‘‘imaginative intellect’’, explaining:

The twenty-fourth is the ‘imaginative intellect’, for it gives image and form toall of the likenesses that were created in their own likenesses according to theircharacters, in relation to din kol bene h

˙alof, the law of all the elements of differ-

entiation, or change. [This is the case] for all types of inanimate object, and plant,and animal, and intelligent being, in the sea and on dry land, and for all of thehost of the heavens, and for all of the existents.35

Herein lies an important theory developed and propounded by Ashkenazi,based on Proverbs 31:8 and known as din bene h

˙alof. According to Ger-

shom Scholem, this theory is connected to ‘‘a universal theory of transmi-gration’’ and holds that all existents, from the basest inanimate object tothe highest of the host of heavens, are in a constant state of motion andchange.36 Based on the interpretation of h

˙alof as ‘‘change,’’ Scholem’s

reading of ’Askenazi’s theory is only partially correct. H˙

alof also signifies‘‘differentiation’’, and ’Askenazi’s theory of din bene h

˙alof seems to be

based not only on the idea of ‘‘change’’, but upon the idea of ‘‘differentia-tion’’ between existents as well. As maintained by ’Askenazi, ‘‘each andevery species of the upper and lower existents needs a known border, in-cluding persons. This is because every person is differentiated (muh

˙laf) by

his border’’.37 Simultaneously, however, every existent does undergo‘‘change’’, and integrally tied to this is the constant process of birth anddeath. According to ’Askenazi, ‘‘each and every day six hundred thousandare born and six hundred thousand die’’.38 He continues: ‘‘That which is

34 See GERSHOM SCHOLEM, The True Author of the Commentary on Sefer Yetzirah Attributed tothe Rabad, and His Books, «Kabbalah Researches» I, 1998, pp. 122-123, and especially note 21,p. 123 (Hebrew).

35 Ms. Oxford 98a. !ydb ~nwybc ypl ~nwymdb warbn rXa ~ynwymdh lkl hrwcw twmd !twn ’wh yk ynwymd lkX d‘‘k’’‘‘.~yacmnh lklw ~yymXh abc lkw hXbybw ~yb lykXmw yxw xmwcw ~mwd ynym lkl @wlx ynb lk

36 GERSHOM SCHOLEM, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah,New York, Schocken 1991, p. 227.

37 Ms. Oxford 98b. @lxwm Xya lk yk ~yymXh ’ypaw [wdy lwbg la ~ykyrc ~ynwtxtw ~ynwyl[ twacmnhm !ymw !ym lk‘‘.lwbgb

38 Ibid. 99a. ‘‘.awbr ‘yXX ~ytmw awbr ’yXX ~ydlwn ~wyw ~wy lkb’’ This is in tacit reference to the 600,000Jewish souls that are traditionally said to have stood at Sinai at the giving of the Torah.


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death for one thing is life for another thing, like one would say that a plantsustains worms and that the flesh of an animal returns as a plant; and thusit is with all things alternating between coming-into-existence and passing-away’’.39 Thus, the idea expounded here by ’Askenazi involves individualdifferentiation and cosmic interconnectedness, and the dialectical relation-ship between the two through the ongoing processes of self-sustenanceand constant change. In din bene h

˙alof, ’Askenazi sets up a complex the-

ory of constancy in individual differentiation as connected to change viaintegration, through the dialectic process of all that which is indicatedby the very word h

˙alof itself.

The cosmic theory of din bene h˙

alof as based on differentiation andchange in the processes of coming-into-existence and passing-away, re-spectively, contains within itself a very cosmic idea of the Hebrew notionof gilgul, which literally means ‘‘revolution’’ and refers to dynamism informs such as the constant movement of the elemental Hebrew letters,the transmigration of souls, and the rotation of the spheres. In ’Askenazi’snotion of din bene h

˙alof, the idea of universal ‘‘revolution’’ takes on a very

earthly idea of personal worldly survival which seemingly paradoxicallyhas deep roots in the divine realm of cosmic dynamism. In another placein his commentary to Sefer yes

˙ira, ’Askenazi writes:

It is known that every eaten thing transmigrates according to its eating, suchas the food that is suitable for the sustenance of an animal and is eaten by it; it willbecome an animal, and from it will be manure that is suitable for insects, andfrom the manure insects. And that which is suitable as human food for the humanwill return to be human, and that which is suitable for waste will be excrement.Thus it is with wild animals and with birds and with domestic animals and withfish and with unclean creatures and with all creeping things that creep upon theland. And from this you have learned that every inanimate object, plant, animaland speaking creature, all undergo din bene h

˙alof in ascent and in descent... and

according to this it is possible that a pure bird can come from an insect. How? Ifan insect is eaten by a bird and from it is born an egg. That egg will return to beanother pure bird or will be eaten by a human, thus being divided into two parts.One of them is that the egg will turn into a human and will be swallowed into the248 limbs and into all of the 365 sinews.40 In this case the insect returns to theform of man.41

BRIAN OGREN

* 130 *

39 Ibid. 99a. lk hkkw xmc bwXy yxhm rXbnw ~y[lwt ~ry xmchX rmat wlak hzl ~yyx ’wh hzl twm ’whX hm’’‘‘.~ydspnh ~ywhh twywplxth.

40 248 corresponds to the number of positive commandments and 365 corresponds to thenumber of negative commandments of the Torah.

41 ASHKENAZI, Commentary on Sefer yes˙ira, p. 8: 2-3, quoted in MOSHE IDEL, The Reasons for the

Unclean Birds According to Rabbi David ben Judah he-Hasid and their Meanings, in Alei Shefer: Re-searches in the Literature of Jewish Thought, Ramat Gan, Bar Ilan University 1990, p. 17 (Hebrew).

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Here, the idea of gilgul is predicated upon the food chain and is reflectednot in the spiritual sphere of the soul, but in the physical domain of thebody. Gilgul through din bene h

˙alof involves the constant change of the

form of existents in concrete existence by means of action, in which caseinsects can take on the form of humans within the continuous cycle of sub-sistence and change.

Although the virtual ‘conservation of energy’ model of gilgul espousedin the above passage focuses upon the earthly domain and heavily relatesto processes in the observable universe, according to ’Askenazi, it has itsroots deeply grounded within the upper realms. In the section copied byAlemanno, he explains:

Just as the sun and the moon produce light and darkness and from their causeis all coming-into-existence and passing-away, so there is light that is sown for therighteous 42 and darkness for the wicked, who transmigrate and pass through thegilgul of the four-letter name of God in ’Adonay. And when you take each andevery existent and introduce each existent of the soul to its border, which is fromthe power of the gilgul that is above this earth, the degree of its border is com-pleted by 180 degrees.43

The sun represents the Sefira of Tif’eret and the moon represents Malkut,with the four-letter name of God and ’Adonay following suit. These twosefirot in conjunction create a situation of transmigration of souls fromthe upper realm into this world in a process of gilgul that is ‘‘above thisearth’’. This whole dual process of the sun and the moon, light and dark-ness, coming-into-existence and passing-away, righteousness and wicked-ness, the four letter name and ’Adonay, and finally, that which is abovethis earth and this earth itself, all depends on the introduction of the ex-istent divine soul to its border, which ultimately differentiates it and allowsit to come into this world. By turning 180 degrees from its starting point inthe circle of the cosmos that begins in God, the soul transmigrates in theupper gilgul from the divine realm to the earthly realm, thereby tying the

hyhy ~ycrXl wnmm ywarhw ,hmhb hyhy twyhl hnmm ywarh hmhbl lkanh lkamh wmk ,wlka ypl lglgtm lkan lkX awh [wdy’’~ygdbw hmhbbw @w[bw hyxb !kw Xrpl hyhy dsph ywarX hmw ~dal rwzxy ~dah lkamb ~dal ywarh #rX Xrph !mw Xrp wnmm...hdyrylw hyyl[l @wlx ynb !ydb !yrbw[ ~lwk rbdmw yxw xmwc ~mwd lkX dml hta !akmw .hmdah Xwmrt rXa Xmr lkbw ~ycqXbwwa rwhj @w[ dw[ twyhl rwzxt hcybh htwaw hcyb hnmm dlwy @w[h #rXh lkay ~a dcyk rwhj @w[ #rXh !m hwhtyX rXpa $kyplwrzx hnh ~ydyg h‘‘sX lkbw ~yrbya x’’mrb [lbtw ~dal ayhh hcybh $phtX awh ~hm dxah ~yqlx ynXl qlxy za ,~dal lkayX

.~da trwcl #rXh twyhl42 Psalm 97:11.43 Ms. Oxford 2234, fol. 99b. qydcl [wrz rwa Xy !k ,dsphw hywh lk ~tbsmw $Xwxw rwa (!) acy xryhw XmXhX wmk’’

xkm awhX wlwbg la Xpn lX hywh lk gyhntw hywhw hywh lk xqt rXakw yndab hw.hy ~X lwglgb ~ylglgtmw ~yrbw[ ~hX ~y[Xrl $wXxw‘‘.twl[m p’’qb wtl[m lwbg ~lXn tazh #ral l[mm rXa lwglgh


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two together. Just as the dialectic process of din bene h˙

alof of which it is apart, the soul, in its revolution, allows for differentiation and individuationand at the same time connection and unity.

Our discussion returns to Pico, as the question naturally arises con-cerning the possibility of the influence of the theory of din bene h

˙alof upon

Pico’s own theories of mutability. In this light, it is important to note thatthe type of history that Anthony Grafton has referred to as ‘‘Sources andInfluences’’,44 which seeks to trace lines of thought and their effects, isfraught with complexities. This is despite the fact that this type of historyis indeed valuable in uncovering the prisca theologia tradition and under-standing how that tradition worked in Renaissance syncretistic thought.The complexity has to do, in part, with different methods of citation thanours, which, for various reasons, often times included a total lack of cita-tion altogether. In many instances, thinkers would either assume that theiraudiences were familiar with the texts from which ideas were beingbrought and discussed, or the ideas would become integrated into thethinkers’ own thoughts to the point that they would become a part of theirown respective systems. At other times texts would be transformed andchanged, either for purposefully conscious reasons, or at the hand of care-less copyists.

Oral transmission constitutes another part of the complexity that holdshigh significance in the case of Pico, given his extensive employment ofJewish teachers. As Moshe Idel teaches, ‘‘oral communication certainly re-presented a significant element of Jewish-Christian relations in Florence ofthe Renaissance’’.45 Writing in the specific context of the rapport betweenPico and Alemanno, which in our case by extension could include Dattiloand ’Askenazi through both Alemanno and Dattilo, Idel notes, ‘‘In thistype of rapport, the Jewish author would usually mention the identity ofhis Christian interlocutor more frequently than what would happen inthe opposite case’’.46 With this in mind, it could very well be that Picowas influenced by the theory of din bene h

˙alof, either through his teachers

Alemanno and Dattilo or from a different source, and simply was not ac-knowledging his debt, either consciously or due to the fact that he was not

BRIAN OGREN

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44 ANTHONY GRAFTON, The First Theorists of History, Stanford University, Harry Camp Mem-orial Lecture, January 30, 2006.

45 MOSHE IDEL, La Cabbala in Italia (1280-1510), Firenze, Giuntina 2007, p. 232: ‘‘La comu-nicazione orale rappresento certamente un elemento significativo delle relazioni ebraico-cristiane nel-la Firenze del Rinascimento. Tuttavia, in questo genere di rapporti l’autore ebreo soleva menzionarel’identita del suo interlocutore cristiano piu frequentemente di quanto accadeva nel caso contrario’’.

46 Ibid.

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aware of the direct source. Hypothetically, the knowledge of extensive oralexchange allows for the greater possibility of complexity in the exchangeof knowledge.

At the risk of shooting myself in the proverbial foot, I must, perhapsironically say that I have found no smoking gun, as of yet, concerning alink between ’Askenazi and Pico. Perhaps the researches of scholars suchas Professor Franco Bacchelli and Professor Saverio Campanini will un-cover a direct connection. Or perhaps no direct link can possibly be un-covered since, as was stated at the outset, none of Pico’s discussions con-cerning transmigration in general invokes any kabbalistic literature, at all,as a source. Indeed, Pico’s ideas on the topic of transmigration are usuallycouched in Hermetic, Platonic and Plotinian language. Nevertheless, it isimportant to note the possibility of a tacit influence, deriving from Pico’scontacts with Dattilo and Alemanno.

Whatever the case may be for influence, there is no doubt that an al-ternate to Pico’s usually Plotinian and Hermetic theory of mutability wascontemporaneously in circulation, in Kabbalistic form. This was Yosef benSalom ’Askenazi’s theory of din bene h

˙alof, which had a clear impact upon

two of Pico’s teachers in Jewish matters, Alemanno and Dattilo. Perhapsthis theory tacitly stands somewhere in the background of Pico’s thoughtas well, or perhaps it is differentiated from it (muh

˙laf mimmenu) in such a

manner that its differentiation contains within itself continuity, and thusunity. Regardless of such speculation, it is certain that such ideas of changeand differentiation were present and prevalent in the Kabbalistic circles ofmost of the Jewish thinkers with whom Pico associated, adding a wholenew dimension to our view of Renaissance notions of macrocosmic, andmicrocosmic mutability. This dimension locates one very important priscatheologia strand of the idea of mutability and possibility in the kabbalisticthought of Yosef ben Salom ’Askenazi, which at the very least allowedthose such as Dattilo and Alemanno to espouse such ‘Renaissance’ con-cepts as part of an ‘ancient’ Jewish, kabbalistic tradition.


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tore

per

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vo u

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nale

- og

ni r

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duzi

one

o di

stri

buzi

one

è vi

etat

a co

py g

rant

ed to

the

auth

or e

xclu

sive

ly fo

r pe

rson

al u

se -

it’s

forb

idde

n to

cop

y or

dis

trib

ute

© C

asa

Edi

tric

e L

eo S

. Ols

chki

, Fir

enze

- ©

Leo

S. O

lsch

ki P

ublis

her,

Flo

renc

e, I

taly

INDICE

Premessa di MOSHE IDEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pag. V

Introduzione. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola e la cabbala di FA-

BRIZIO LELLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » VII

BRIAN P. COPENHAVER, Pico risorto: cabbala e dignita dell’uomonell’Italia post-unitaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 1

MOSHE IDEL, The Kabbalistic Backgrounds of the «Son of God»in Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Thought. . . . . . . . . . . . » 19

GUIDO BARTOLUCCI, Marsilio Ficino e le origini della cabala cri-stiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 47

MICHELA ANDREATTA, Filosofia e cabbala nel Commento alCantico dei cantici di Lewi ben Gersom tradotto in latinoper Giovanni Pico della Mirandola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 69

FABRIZIO LELLI, Pico, i Da Pisa e ’Eliyya H˙

ayyim da Genazzano » 93

BRIAN OGREN, The Law of Change and the Nature of the Cha-meleon: Yosef ben Salom ’Askenazi and Giovanni Pico dellaMirandola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 121

PATRIZIA CASTELLI, Simboli ed emblemi della cabbala cristiananel rinascimento . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 135

SAVERIO CAMPANINI, Il commento alle Conclusiones cabalisticaenel Cinquecento . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 167

CROFTON BLACK, Eucherius of Lyon, Giovanni Pico della Miran-dola and Sixtus of Siena: Early Christian Exegesis and Kab-balah in the Bibliotheca sancta (1566) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 231

Bibliografia generale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 259

Indice dei nomi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 285

* 291 *

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xclu

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r pe

rson

al u

se -

it’s

forb

idde

n to

cop

y or

dis

trib

ute

© C

asa

Edi

tric

e L

eo S

. Ols

chki

, Fir

enze

- ©

Leo

S. O

lsch

ki P

ublis

her,

Flo

renc

e, I

taly

copi

a co

nces

sa a

ll’au

tore

per

esc

lusi

vo u

so p

erso

nale

- og

ni r

ipro

duzi

one

o di

stri

buzi

one

è vi

etat

a co

py g

rant

ed to

the

auth

or e

xclu

sive

ly fo

r pe

rson

al u

se -

it’s

forb

idde

n to

cop

y or

dis

trib

ute

© C

asa

Edi

tric

e L

eo S

. Ols

chki

, Fir

enze

- ©

Leo

S. O

lsch

ki P

ublis

her,

Flo

renc

e, I

taly

FINITO DI STAMPARE NEL MESE DI GIUGNO 2014

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auth

or e

xclu

sive

ly fo

r pe

rson

al u

se -

it’s

forb

idde

n to

cop

y or

dis

trib

ute

© C

asa

Edi

tric

e L

eo S

. Ols

chki

, Fir

enze

- ©

Leo

S. O

lsch

ki P

ublis

her,

Flo

renc

e, I

taly


Studi Pichiani

16

Giovanni Picoe

la cabbala



2014ISBN 978 88 222 6314 8 Olschki

Giovanni Picoe

la cabbala

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y or

dis

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ute

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asa

Edi

tric

e L

eo S

. Ols

chki

, Fir

enze

- ©

Leo

S. O

lsch

ki P

ublis

her,

Flo

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e, I

taly

The Law of Change and the Nature of the Chameleon: Yosef ben Shalom Ashkenazi and Giovanna Pico della Mirandola

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