Jacob Anatoli - The Malmad

The Malmad

The Malmad is divided into brief chapters, according to the weekly Scriptural portions. In it Anatoli manifests a wide acquaintance not only with the classic Jewish exegetes, but also with Plato, Aristotle, Averroes, and the Vulgate, as well as with a large number of Christian institutions, some of which he ventures to criticize, such as celibacy and monastic castigation, as well as certain heretics (compare 15a, 98a, 115a); and he repeatedly appeals to his readers for a broader cultivation of the classic languages and the profane branches of learning. He indignantly repudiates the fanatical view of some coreligionists that all non-Jews have no souls —a belief reciprocated by the Gentiles of the time. To Anatoli all men are, in truth, formed in the image of God, though the Jews stand under a particular obligation to further the true cognition of God simply by reason of their election—"the Greeks had chosen wisdom as their pursuit; the Romans, power; and the Jews, religiousness" (l.c. 103b). If, however, a non-Jew devotes himself to serious search after divine truth, his merit is so much the more signal; and whatever suggestion he may have to offer, no Jew dares refuse with levity.