From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Moses de León

Spanish rabbi and Kabbalist (c. 1240 – 1305)

Field	Value
religion	Judaism
caption	Statue of Moses in Guadalajara, Spain (Luis Sanguino)
image	Mose ben Sem Tob.jpg
native_name_lang	he
native name lang	he
native_name	משה בן שם-טוב די-ליאון
birth_date	1240
death_date	1305
birth_place	León, Kingdom of León
known_for	Kabbalah
death_place	Arévalo, Kingdom of Castile

Moses de León ( 1240 – 1305), known in Hebrew as Moshe ben Shem-Tov (), was a Spanish rabbi and Kabbalist who first publicized the Zohar. Modern scholars believe the Zohar is his own work, despite his claim to have copied it out of an ancient manuscript by Shimon ben Yochai. His other works include Sefer ha-Rimon, written in Hebrew, and hundreds of pseudepigraphic responsa, commentaries, and Kabbalistic tracts which he falsely attributed to earlier authorities.

Life

Moses de León was born in León, Kingdom of León in modern-day Spain, then united with the Crown of Castile. He might have been born in Guadalajara and his surname, then, comes from his father, Shem-Tov de León. He spent 30 years in Guadalajara and Valladolid before moving to Ávila, where he spent the rest of his life. Moses de León died at Arévalo in 1305 while returning to his home.

Pardes

Main article: Pardes (exegesis)

Moses de León was the first to advance the Kabbalistic theory of Biblical exegesis, as a Jewish adaptation of the fourfold method of Biblical exegesis from medieval Christianity.

The term, sometimes also rendered PaRDeS, means "orchard" when taken literally, but is used in this context as a Hebrew acronym formed from the initials of the following four approaches:

Peshat () – "surface" ("straight") or the literal (direct) meaning.
Remez () – "hints" or the deep (allegoric: hidden or symbolic) meaning beyond just the literal sense. In the version of the New Zohar, Re'iah.
Derash () – from Hebrew darash: "inquire" ("seek") – the comparative (midrashic) meaning, as given through similar occurrences.
Sod () – "secret" ("mystery") or the esoteric/mystical meaning, as given through inspiration or revelation.

References

Resources

Kohler, Kaufmann et al., "Leon, Moses (Ben Shem-Tob) de." Jewish Encyclopedia. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906, citing: :* Ahimaaz Chronicle, ed. London, pp. 95 et seq.; :* Adolf Jellinek, Moses b. Schem-Tob de Leon und Seine Verhältniss zum Sohar, Leipsic, 1851; :* Grätz, Gesch. vii. 231 et seq.; :* Abraham Geiger, Das Judenthum und Seine Geschichte, iii. 75 et seq., Breslau, 1871; :* Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi and C. H. Hamberger, Hist. Wörterb. p. 177; : Moritz Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. cols. 1852 et seq.; : idem, Hebr. Bibl. x. 156 et seq. :* Avishai Bar Asher, R. Moses de León - Sefer Mishkan ha-Edut, Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2013

References

See Elliot R. Wolfson, “Hai Gaon’s Letter and Commentary on Aleynu: Further Evidence of Moses de León’s Pseudepigraphic Activity,” JQR 81 (1991), pp. 365-409 and the sources he cites; also the sources cited by Shmuel Glick, Eshnav le-Sifrut ha-Teshuvot (New York, 2012), pp. 237-238.
[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9767-leon-moses-ben-shem-tob-de ''The Jewish Encyclopedia'']
Valleriani, Matteo. (2020-01-01). "De Sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period: The Authors of the Commentaries". Springer Nature.
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. (2024-10-17). "Encyclopedia of World Scriptures". McFarland.
Bahrami, Beebe. (2009). "The Spiritual Traveler: Spain : a Guide to Sacred Sites and Pilgrim Routes". Paulist Press.
(2001-01-01). "Jewish Mysticism: An Introduction". Westminster John Knox Press.
[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=225&letter=P Peshat] in the ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]''

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1250-births 1305-deaths people-from-león,-spain kabbalists 13th-century-people-from-the-kingdom-of-león 13th-century-castilian-rabbis 14th-century-castilian-rabbis forgery-controversies literary-forgeries

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Moses de León — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report