NAHMANIDE. - Talmudic and Kabbalistic rabbi (R. Mosè ben Nahmân, RMBN, in Spanish Bonastrug de Portu, from the name of his city of residence called Gerondi), born ca. 1195, died in 1270 at Acre (Palestine).
Following an order received from King James I of Aragon, in 1263 he engaged in a religious disputation with the converted Jew Fra Pablo Christiani and published an account of II. At the request of Pope Clement IV, N. was expelled from Aragon. At the age of 70 he traveled to Palestine, from where he is said to have sent a copy of the Zohar to Spain.
In accordance with the thought of Judah Halevi (v.), N. bases religious truth on historical tradition. He opposes Maimonides (v.), who tends to minimize the miraculous in the narratives of the Bible and affirms that God’s possibilities are infinitely superior to those of humans. N. admits astral determination, which nonetheless remains under the control of God’s will. The laws of God have as their principal aim the moral perfection of man.