Abstract

ABSTRACT Combining Zeno’s rhetorics of the open hand and closed fist, Nachmanides addressed the heirs of Rashi to defend Maimonides. Polemical letters were a vehicle for this controversy, and a major example is his “Letter to the French Rabbis.” Using cleverly organized arguments and a brilliantly learned style of allusion to Biblical and rabbinic texts, called “shibutz,” Nachmanides influenced his addressees to mitigate a herem (ban) against students of Maimonides. Nachmanides sought to unify the warring factions rather than to achieve victory for either side, and his densely packed allusions to texts all the combatants revered comprise common ground for reconciliation.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2014-07-03
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2014.938791
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (24) · 1 in this index

  1. Communication and Propaganda Between Provence and Spain: The Controversy Over Extreme All…
  2. How Did Nachmanides Propose to Resolve the Maimonidean Controversy?
  3. Judaism and General Culture in Medieval and Early Modern Times
  4. College Composition and Communication
  5. Nahmanides in Medieval Catalonia: History, Community, and Messianism
Show all 24 →
  1. Translator’s introduction. Ramban (Nachmanides), “Discourse on a Wedding.”
  2. Translator’s introduction. Ramban (Nachmanides), “Letter to the French Rabbis.”
  3. The Rhetoric of the Open Hand and the Rhetoric of the Closed Fist
  4. Letters and Letter Writing
  5. Maimonides the Rationalist
  6. The Maimonidean Controversy
  7. ‘Companies of Disciples’ and ‘Companies of Colleagues’: Communication in Jewish Intellect…
  8. The Use of Letters as a Communication Medium Among Medieval European Jewish Communities
  9. Herem
  10. The African American Jeremiad: Appeals for Justice in America
  11. Introduction: The Story of Jewish Letter-Writing
  12. Nahmanides
  13. Letter to the French Rabbis
  14. Hispano-Jewish Culture in Transition
  15. Beyond the Pulpit: Women’s Rhetorical Roles in the Antebellum Religious Press
  16. Maimonidean Criticism and the Maimonidean Controversy 1180–1240
  17. Philosophy in Southern France: Controversy Over Philosophic Study and the Influence of Averroes
  18. Maria W. Stewart, America’s First Black Woman Political Writer
  19. Amid the Fall, Dreaming of Eden: Du Bois, King, Malcolm X, and Emancipatory Composition