74. Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi: Commentary on the Song of Songs
A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy - Mohammed Rustom
Raphael Dascalu [+]
Monash University
Description
This passage is from Tanḥum ha-Yerushalmi’s (d. 1291 CE) commentary on Song of Songs 2:7. Tanḥum interpreted Song of Songs as an account of the human soul’s yearning for contact with the Divine, for the journey of the soul towards the Beloved, and for the ultimate union between the soul and her Creator. In his introduction to the commentary, his interpretation of biblical verses, and in lengthy excurses, Tanḥum devotes ample space in the commentary to scientific and philosophical topics, though at the core of them is psychology—the science of the soul. In this passage, Tanḥum identifies three stations in the soul’s journey towards her Beloved. These stages entail intense moral and spiritual training, and culminate in the loss of the boundaries of individual consciousness in conjunction with the Active Intellect at the moment of death. This account strongly echoes the positions of the great Andalusian philosopher Ibn Bājja (d. 1138) and Moses Maimonides (d. 1204). Tanḥum’s account of the modes of spiritual journeying is deeply informed by Islamic philosophical and mystical sources, powerfully illustrates the blurry boundaries between philosophy, scriptural exegesis, and spiritual praxis, as well as the deep engagement of medieval Jewish intellectuals with their Islamicate cultural milieu.