Hasdai Crescas c. 1340 – 1410
Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas was a Spanish Jewish philosopher and rabbinic leader of the late fourteenth century. After the catastrophes of 1391, in which his only son was killed in the Barcelona pogrom, he reorganized the surviving Jewish communities of Aragon and devoted himself to defending Jewish religious thought against Christian conversion pressure. His Light of the Lord offers a thoroughgoing critique of the Aristotelian foundations of the Jewish philosophical tradition, defending the existence of an actual infinite, void, and time independent of motion. His thought anticipated central themes of Spinoza.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Spanish-Jewish
- Era
- Medieval
- Movements
- Jewish, Medieval
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Hasdai Crescas:
“Love, not knowledge, is the highest end of the soul.”
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Attributed to Hasdai Crescas:
“Time is the measure of duration and is independent of motion.”
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Attributed to Hasdai Crescas:
“True devotion to God is the foundation of religion.”
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Attributed to Hasdai Crescas:
“An actual infinite is not a contradiction.”
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Attributed to Hasdai Crescas:
“The will is moved by what it considers good.”