NAHMÁNIDE. - Talmudic rabbi and kabbalist (R. Mosè ben Nahmán, RMBN, in Spanish Bonastrug de Portu, from the name of the city in which he resided, called Gerondi), b. ca. 1195, d. in 1270 at Acre (Palestine).
Following an order received from King Giacomo I of Aragon, in 1263 he took part in a religious disputation with the converted Jew Fra Pablo Christiani and published an account of II. At the request of Pope Clemente IV, N. was expelled from Aragon. At the age of 70 he went to Palestine, whence he seems to have sent a copy of the Zohar to Spain.
In accordance Giuda Levita (v.), N.
bases religious truth on historical tradition. Maimonide (v.), who tends to minimize the miraculous in the narratives of the Bible, and maintains that God’s possibilities are infinitely superior to human ones. N. admits astral determination, which nevertheless remains under the control of God’s will. The laws of God have as their principal aim the moral perfection of man.