GERSONIDES (Rabbi Levi ben Gershon). - Jewish philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and biblical commentator, b. in 1288 at Bagnols (southern France), d. 20 April 1344, also called Leo de Balneolis or Leon de Bagnols, Leo Hebraeus, Master Leon.
As a philosopher, G. is an interpreter of the Aristotelian system in the exposition of Averroes and the author of the work Milḥāmōth 'Adhōnāj ("The Wars of the Lord"), a title which, given G.'s rationalism, one of his critics explains as: "The Wars against the Lord"). Unlike Sa'adia, Maimonides and Albo, G. does not aim to set out a complete system of Judaism, but deals with individual problems, and above all with the human intellect in the light of Aristotelian thought in the commentaries of Alexander of Aphrodisias and Themistius, of Avicenna and of Averroes.
The material intellect is not a substance, but only a disposition, a possibility of receiving ideas. The active intellect is not a faculty of the human soul but an emanation of the "separate intelligences" and precisely of the mover of the lunar sphere. The material intellect abstracts from the images of the imagination their conceptual essence and thus becomes intellect in actu. The active intellect contributes to this change. Only the rational part of the soul is immortal. Man's beatitude post mortem depends on the degree of theoretical knowledge he has acquired in life. Beatitude in the hereafter consists in contemplation, now no longer enriched by new knowledge.
In accordance with the spirit of the times, G. gives importance to dream visions of divinatory value, determined by the position of the movements of the celestial bodies.
Prophecy belongs to this class of phenomena. Errors of prediction on the part of prophets, astrologers and soothsayers are due to imperfections in astronomical observations, to the intervention of acts of free will, or to chance. Wisdom and the use of freedom offer man the possibility of shaping his own fate. In prophecy the active intellect acts directly on the material intellect. In dream visions and in divination it acts on the imagination and only through it on the intellect. With this G. excludes divine inspiration from prophecy.
Divine omniscience does not extend to particulars, because particularity befits only materiality. A just God does not know particulars, and hence the injustices that are observed in life.
Chance accidents and acts of free will do not enter the sphere of divine foreknowledge, and thus it is that divine Providence does not extend to particulars. Individual divine Providence consists in man's right use of intelligence and of his intellectual and moral gifts. Misfortune would mark an intellectual decline. G. considers Aristotle's opinion on the eternity of the world to be erroneous.
The ideas contained in the Wars are reflected in his biblical commentaries. The Bible is a preparation for intellectual perfection - the most important - and moral perfection. Biblical cosmogony is for him the basis of physiological physics. Water is divided into the four elements and into the fifth essence, hence it is matter that exists ab aeterno. The Bible legislates, therefore man is endowed with a free will. God foretells future events, therefore man's fate is determined through the natural order. With the help of his own resourcefulness man can escape destiny; this is why we read: "God repented."
Bibliography4 works
Eugenio Zolli