The Law of Change and The Nature of The PDF

BRIAN OGREN
Rice University, Houston
THE LAW OF CHANGE AND THE NATURE
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OF THE CHAMELEON: YOSEF BEN ŠALOM ’AŠKENAZI
© Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki, Firenze - © Leo S. Olschki Publisher, Florence, Italy
AND GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA
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GIOVANNI PICO E LA CABBALÀ

CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE DI CULTURA
‘‘GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA’’
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a cura di
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CASA EDITRICE LEO S. OLSCHKI
Pubblicazione realizzata con il contributo di

BRIAN OGREN
Rice University, Houston
THE LAW OF CHANGE AND THE NATURE

OF THE CHAMELEON: YOSEF BEN ŠALOM ’AŠKENAZI
AND GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA*
In one of his more oft quoted Conclusiones of 1486, already possibly

referred to by his fifteenth century Jewish colleague ’Eliyyà Hayyim da
Genazzano,1 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola makes the statement: ˙ Trans-
corporationem animarum crediderunt omnes sapientes Indorum, Persarum,
Aegyptiorum, et Chaldeorum.2 Here he makes no explicit value judgment
as to the veracity of the belief. Nevertheless, several points within the Con-
clusio are highly suggestive of a positive assessment of the doctrine by
Pico. One is his extreme respect for the prisca theosophia tradition, both
throughout his writings and concentrated here in the invocation of the In-
dians, the Persians, the Egyptians, and the Chaldeans. Another is his use
of the reverential expression sapientes, ‘wise-men’, in reference to those
who he claims held the belief. Yet another is his sweeping employment
of the term omnes, ‘all’ in this conclusio, in allusion to cultural trends of
thought that deeply affected his own syncretism. Thus, while he does
not overtly endorse the idea of transmigration within this conclusio, Pico’s
affirmative disposition peers through the veil of his seemingly neutral lan-
* Portions of this lecture were published, in expanded form, in BRIAN OGREN, Renaissance and
Rebirth: Reincarnation in Early Modern Italian Kabbalah, Leiden - Boston, Brill 2009, pp. 185-237.
Here they take on a different tenor, as they directly couple Pico and his ideas of mutability with Yo-
sef ben Šalom ’Aškenazi and his ideas of din bene halof.
˙
1 FABRIZIO LELLI , ‘‘Introduzione’’, in ELIYYAH HAYYIM BEN BINYAMIN DA GENAZZANO , Iggeret
hamudot (La lettera preziosa). Introduzione, edizione e˙ traduzione a cura di F. Lelli, Firenze - Nı̂mes,
Giuntina - L’éclat 2002, p. 76.
2 GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA , Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses (1486) – The
Evolution of Traditional Religious and Philosophical Systems, with text, translation, and commentary
by S.A. Farmer, Tempe, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 1998, p. 305 (hereafter Theses).
* 121 *
BRIAN OGREN
guage. Moreover, given the positive tenor of the other three of the 900
conclusiones that explicitly discuss the idea of transmigration,3 Pico seems
to have held to a positive view of the doctrine as based mainly upon the
Plotinian idea of participated human existence.
According to this idea, the human soul is essentially divine. A portion
of it constantly remains within the divine realm, and it descends into the
material world in a participated manner, insofar as it participates in mate-
riality by acting as the animating factor for singular bodies. This theory
maintains that the divine nature of the human soul and its veritable con-
nection with both the spiritual and the material spheres make it a unique
unifying entity that participates in all realms of existence. In the words of
Plotinus himself, «the entity [...] described as ‘‘consisting of the undivided
soul and of the soul divided among bodies’’, contains a soul which is at
once above and below, attached to the Supreme and yet reaching down
to this sphere, like a radius from a centre».4 This idea indeed had great
resonance with Pico, who not only helped to popularize the idea of the
human soul as a link between all realms of existence, but who also wrote
in one of his Conclusiones that «the whole soul does not descend when it
descends».5 The divinely emanated nature of the human souls outlined by
Plotinus and adopted by Pico not only allows it to act as a node, but it also
allows for a Neoplatonic type of unio mystica for the apt individual, who
knows how to connect to the portion of the soul that is above.
Nevertheless, the human soul also reaches into the material realm be-
low, and in a sinning state can animate the body of a brute. When this oc-
curs, the human soul is precluded from directly entering into the body of
the beast due to its essentially divine nature; thus, it animates the beast not
by direct conjunction, but by participating in its composition as the brute
body’s determinate factor.6 This allows for a certain type of ‘‘participated’’
transmigration of the human soul throughout the whole of existence, from
the divine arena in a state of mystical conjunction to the lower forms of
3 See PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA , Syncretism, p. 299, p. 455, and p. 489. For an in-depth analysis
of these and other of Pico’s statements on transmigration in relation to the Plotinian concept of ‘par-
ticipated human existence,’ see OGREN, Renaissance and Rebirth: Reincarnation in Early Modern Ita-
lian Kabbalah, pp. 212-237.
4 PLOTINUS , The Six Enneads, translated by S. MacKenna and B.S. Page, Chicago - London -
Toronto, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 1952, p. 139.

5 PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA , Syncretism, p. 297: «Non tota descendit anima quum descendit».
6 See PLOTINUS , Enneads 1.11, p. 5: «And the animals, in what way or degree do they possess
the Animate? If there be in them, as the opinion goes, human Souls that have sinned, then the Ani-
mating-Principle in its separable phase does not enter directly into the brute; it is there but not there
to them; they are aware only of the image of the Soul and of that only by being aware of the body
organized and determined by that image».
* 122 *
THE LAW OF CHANGE AND THE NATURE OF THE CHAMELEON
existence as a means of vitality. Certainly, such an idea of transmigration

had a profound effect upon Pico and his ideas of man as a mutable node
for the universe.
Interestingly, while Pico clearly relies upon Plotinus and alludes to
Empedocles, Plato and Pythagoras within his discourses in relation to
transmigration, and while in the first Conclusio mentioned he refers to
the Indian, Persian, Egyptian and Chaldean wise-men, Pico makes abso-
lutely no reference to the Jewish kabbalistic tradition concerning the doc-
trine of transmigration, in any of his works. This is quite strange, consid-
ering the fact that, as Eugenio Garin has surmised, «In a certain sense, it is
possible to say that the Kabbalah and Jewish culture take a position in
Pico analogous to that which from one standpoint Hermetism and prisca
theologia, and from another standpoint Plato and the Platonic tradition
have in the Ficinian worldview».7 This is all the more peculiar considering
the fact that, as Guido Bartolucci teaches us in his article contained within
this volume, Ficino himself did refer to Chabalistae Hebraeorum doctores,
«the Kabbalists, the wise teachers of the Jewish people», in reference to
transmigration and transformation.8 If the Kabbalah was indeed to Pico
analogous to what Hermetism, prisca theologia, and the Platonic tradition
were to Ficino, as Garin notes, then one would expect the opposite in
terms of textual and precedential support. One would expect that Ficino
would rely upon the sources that Pico uses, without any allusion to Kab-
balah,9 and that Pico would gain at least some support from Kabbalistic
sources.
Pico certainly had access to kabbalistic notions of transmigration,
through Flavius Mithridates’ translation of Sefer ha-Bahir, his possession
of various Latin translations of Recanati’s commentary on the Torah,
and even Mithridates’ translation of the Abulafian epistle We-zot liYehu-
dà. Beyond the book, he would have had access to this doctrine through
his Jewish teachers, including Yohanan Alemanno, who expounds upon
˙ own writings and Collectanaea. It is
the doctrine in several places in his
one place in Alemanno’s Collectanaea concerning the doctrine of transmi-
7 EUGENIO GARIN , L’umanesimo italiano e la cultura ebraica, in Storia d’Italia Annali: Gli ebrei
in Italia, 11:1, Torino, Einaudi 1996, p. 369.

8 See the deft analysis of Bartolucci in this volume. For the reference mentioned here, see MAR-
SILIO FICINO, In Plotinum, in ID., Opera Omnia, Basel 1576, reprint, ed. S. Toussaint, Paris, Société
Marsile Ficin 2000, p. 1694. I thank Dr. Bartolucci for drawing my attention to this.
9 In addition to adding Kabbalah into the mix, Ficino indeed does utilize similar prisca theolo-
gia sources to those of Pico in his discussions of transmigration. For Ficino’s discussion and his prisca
theologia sources, see BRIAN OGREN, Circularity, the Soul-Vehicle, and the Renaissance Rebirth of Re-
incarnation: Marsilio Ficino and Isaac Abarbanel on the Possibility of Transmigration, «Accademia:
Revue de la Société Marsile Ficin», VI, 2004, pp. 63-94.
* 123 *
BRIAN OGREN
gration that will be the focus of this article, namely, a long passage of var-
ious segments copied from the fourteenth century commentary on Sefer
yesirà by an Ashkenazi Kabbalist active in Spain, Rabbi Yosef ben Šalom
˙
’Aškenazi. Through Alemanno, ’Aškenazi’s commentary may have had in-
fluence upon Pico’s overall project and, in tandem with Plotinus, may
have shaped Pico’s ideas of mutability.
Indeed, ’Aškenazi had influence not only upon Alemanno, but seems
to have had influence upon another of Pico’s teachers in Jewish matters,
the mysterious Dattilo. Though the information concerning this enigmatic
Dattilo is scant, Pico attests in both his Oratio and in his Apologia of 1487
that Dattilo was learned in the enigmatic ‘science’ of Kabbalah and that he
used it to espouse a positive view of the Trinity.10 In support of the claim
of Dattilo’s Kabbalistic knowledge, the German Catholic orientalist Jo-
hann Albrecht Widmanstadt attests to the fact that some forty years after
Pico’s encounter with Dattilo, Widmanstadt himself attended a series of
lectures in Turin given by the latter,11 in which he expounded upon a com-
plex theory of cosmic transformation that effects «plants, bushes, fruit
trees and living creatures, all the way to the human body, and through
to the sentient soul».12 The astute scholar of Jewish mysticism, Gershom
Scholem, has surmised that «Dattilo was merely presenting, in a slightly
veiled form, the cardinal doctrine concerning the transformation of all
things from the simplest life form to the highest level of the sefirot». Scho-
lem continues, noting that «Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi of Barcelona
[...] was the first to develop the idea in detail during the period 1300-
25», and that ’Aškenazi’s «commentary on Sefer yesirà [in which the idea
was greatly developed] was widely circulated in Italy ˙ around 1500, and
Dattilo could have encountered it in any number of manuscripts».13 Not-
withstanding evidence of an influence on Dattilo’s theory from the Neo-
10 PICO , Opera omnia, p. 124, quoted in GERSHOM SCHOLEM, The Beginnings of the Christian
Kabbalah, in The Christian Kabbalah: Jewish Mystical Books and their Christian Interpreters, ed.
J. Dan, Cambridge, Harvard College Library 1997, p. 41, note 2: «Cujus rei testem gravissimum ha-
beo Antonium Cronicum [...] qui suis auribus cum apud eum essem in convivio audivit Dattilum
Hebraeum peritum hujus scientiae in Christianorum prorsus de trinitate sententiam pedibus mani-
busque descendere».
11 For sources of the Dattilo story in the accounts of Widmanstadt and Pico, see UMBERTO CAS-
SUTO, The Jews in Florence During the Renaissance Period, translated from the Italian by Menahem
Hartom, Jerusalem, Hebrew University 1967, p. 247, notes 163 and 164 (Hebrew). See also SCHO-
LEM , The Beginnings of Christian Kabbalah, pp. 18-20.
12 Cited by JOSEPH PERLES, Beiträge zur Geschichte der hebräischen und aramäischen Studien,
München 1884, p. 186, and translated into English in SCHOLEM, The Beginnings of Christian Kabba-
lah, p. 19.
13 SCHOLEM , The Beginnings of Christian Kabbalah, p. 20. Here, the parenthetical notes are
mine, for clarification.
* 124 *
platonic camp of Marsilio Ficino, evidence that is too complex to enter

into here and which would take us too far a field,14 Scholem’s surmise con-
cerning kabbalistic theories such as those of ’Aškenazi as one possible
source of influence seems to be correct. This is especially the case consid-
ering the direct invocation of ‘‘kabbalists’’ in Widmanstadt’s citation of
Dattilo, which states that «there are some among the kabbalists who be-
lieve that all living things are granted the hope of redemption».15 Though
he does not mention him by name, at the core of these «kabbalists who
believe» stands Yosef ben Šalom ’Aškenazi, who, as was previously men-
tioned, was quoted at length by Yohanan Alemanno, and who through
both Dattilo and Alemanno may have ˙ had a tacit influence upon Pico’s
own theories of cosmic redemption through personal transformation.
Our discussion, then, turns to ’Aškenazi. Not much is known about
this important Kabbalist, who in some sources is also referred to as «Rabbi
Joseph the Long».16 Gershom Scholem has identified him as an Ashkenazi
figure who was living in Barcelona in the first generation after the revela-
tion of the Zohar.17 While this may be the case, Yehuda Liebes posits a
different possibility. According to Liebes, Ashkenazi may have been of
the generation of the revelation of the Zohar itself; Liebes asserts that both
he and the authors of the Zohar were most probably utilizing a common
Midrashic angelology entitled Midraš de-Šim‘on bar Yohay,18 and that ’Aš-
kenazi may indeed have been one of the contributors ˙to the Zoharic cor-
pus itself.19 Such a theory would maintain that ’Aškenazi was a thinker
who may have influenced the vast literature of the Zohar with his own
anti-philosophical speculation, rather than having been a thinker who re-
14 The passage quoted in note 13 above begins: «Certain living seeds lie hidden in the bowels of
the earth and in the elements that surround it. In the course of this world’s [that is, nature’s] tireless
efforts, and as a result of the struggle of creation and decay, these living seeds travel through various
[forms of] plants, bushes, fruit trees and living creatures, all the way to the human body, and
through to the sentient soul». This seed metaphor works into a complex theory of seeds developed
by Ficino, a theory that is carefully outlined in HIROSHI HIRAI, Concepts of Seeds and Nature in the
Work of Marsilio Ficino, in Marsilio Ficino: His Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy, eds. M.J.B. Al-
len and V. Rees with M. Davies, Leiden, Brill 2002, pp. 257-284.
15 PERLES , Beiträge zur Geschichte, p. 186.
16 See MOSHE HALLAMISH , The Kabbalistic Interpretation... Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi (He-
brew), Jerusalem, Magnes Press 1985, p. 11. See references there in note 4.
17 GERSHOM SCHOLEM , Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», V,
1928, pp. 263-277: 264 (Hebrew). The Zohar is estimated to have been revealed in Spain around 1280.
18 For the quote from this work in ’Aškenazi’s writings, which deals with the idea of the souls of
the wicked as demons, see his Kabbalistic Interpretation to Bereshit Rabbah, ed. Hallamish, p. 259.
According to Liebes, this angelology was also a common source for Rabbenu Bahya (see YEHUDA
LIEBES, How the Zohar was Written, «Mekhkarei Yerushalayim b’Makhshevet Israel», ˙ VIII, 1989,
pp. 11-15: 11 [Hebrew]).
19 See ibid.
* 125 *
BRIAN OGREN
spected the Rashbi of the Zohar but who ultimately rejected the Zohar’s
mythological elements. This may paradoxically explain why, as Scholem
himself admits, the Zohar and the mythical language of that school have
no presence in ’Aškenazi’s work,20 even though ’Aškenazi uses the term
«The Holy Rav, Rabbi Šim‘on ben Yohay» in reference to the Rašbi. Ac-
˙ not have been used in the Mid-
cording to Liebes, this is a term that would
dle Ages to refer to the classical Midrashic Rašbi, and thus either refers to
the Rašbi of the Zohar or, in the case of ’Aškenazi, to the Rašbi of the
aforementioned Midrashic angelology.21 Whatever the case may be, ’Aške-
nazi was active in Spain either at the time of the initial circulation of Zo-
haric literature or very shortly thereafter, and the terminus ante quem for
Yosef’s writing activity seems to undeniably be 1358, the date that he cal-
culated for the coming of the Messiah.22 He seems to have been in connec-
tion with Dawid ben Yehudà he-Hasid, another famed Kabbalist with
connections to Ashkenaz who was ˙active in Spain. ’Aškenazi also claims
to be a descendent of a certain Yehudà he-Hasid,23 and was familiar with
elements of the theology of Haside ’Aškenaz,˙ such as intricate letter com-
˙
binations and the idea of the golem, the artificial anthropoid. Scholem also
surmises that he was a student of the Nahmanidean disciple of Šelomò ibn
’Aderet, the Spanish Kabbalist Yehošua‘ ibn Šu‘aib.24 Beyond this, noth-
ing is known about ’Aškenazi’s actual life. Nevertheless, he represents
an interesting cross-currential flow of knowledge in connection with the
speculative and the esoteric traditions of both Ashkenaz and Spain, and
he offers a more speculative, less mythical type of Kabbalah than the Zo-
har. Moreover, though ’Aškenazi’s brand of kabbalah is purportedly anti-
philosophical, it has distinctly philosophical elements.
’Aškenazi’s crystallization of the meeting of crosscurrents in his own
speculative thought would prove to have a far-reaching flow of influence
itself. Indeed, the Byzantine Kabbalah as expressed in Sefer ha-peli’à and
20 Kabbalistic Interpretation to Bereshit Rabbah, ed. Hallamish, p. 295.

21 LIEBES, How the Zohar was Written, p. 11.
22 GEORGES VAJDA , Un chapı̂tre de l’histoire du conflit entre la Kabbale et la Philosophie: la po-
lémique anti-intellectualiste de Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi de Catalogne, «Archives d’Histoire Doc-
trinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age», Paris, Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1957, p. 47; GERSHOM
SCHOLEM, Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», IV, 1927/1928,
pp. 286-327: 294 (Hebrew); see reference to this prognostication in ’Aškenazi’s writings in these
two sources.
23 This is not necessarily Yehudà ben Šemu’el of Regensburg, the famed pietistic author of Se-
fer hasidim, though this is certainly one possibility. In any case, Yosef ben Šalom seems to have been
˙
connected to German Hasidism.
24 SCHOLEM , Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», V, 1928,
pp. 264-265.
* 126 *
in Sefer ha-qanà was highly influenced by ’Aškenazi’s commentary on Sefer

yesirà, and the great sixteenth century Safedian Kabbalist Yishaq Luria
˙ the commentary as one of the few Kabbalistic works worth˙ learning.
saw ˙ 25
In addition, Moshe Hallamish lists the following figures upon which ’Aš-
kenazi’s writings had a profound influence: Moše Cordovero, ’Avraham
’Adruti’el, Dawid ibn Zimra, Yosef ha-Ba mi Šošan ha-Birà, Menahem
‘Azaryà da Fano, Yašar of Candia, ’Aharon Berakyà of Modena, Yosef˙ Er-
gas, Baruk of Kosov, ’Aharon ha-Lewi of Strashelye, and the Maggid of
Mezritch.26 Interestingly, the only person known to have openly criticized
’Aškenazi seems to have been ’Eliyyà Hayyim da Genazzano, the same fif-
teenth century Jewish colleague of Pico ˙ referred to above, who may have
quoted the latter in regard to transmigration.27 Notwithstanding Genazza-
no’s criticism, ’Aškenazi’s influence remained strong in Renaissance Italy.
Indeed, another Jewish colleague of both Pico and Genazzano should
be added to the impressive list of influences by ’Aškenazi, namely, Yoha-
nan Alemanno. It is important to note that while Alemanno was active ˙
about one hundred and fifty years after Yosef, the former was a fellow
Ashkenazi Kabbalist and thinker who was active outside of the lands of
Ashkenaz. Indeed, within Alemanno’s thought can be detected an exten-
sion of the form of Ashkenazi Kabbalah as espoused by Yosef. As has
been noted, Alemanno copied sections from Yosef ’Aškenazi’s commen-
tary to Sefer yesirà and made use of several of the ideas contained therein.
These sections˙ lie within Alemanno’s handwritten notebooks,28 which
were compiled between the years 1478 to 1504.29 These notebooks contain
extracts from assorted philosophical and kabbalistic works, as well as bib-
liographic notes and some of Alemanno’s own writings.
Alemanno’s inclusion of segments from ’Aškenazi’s commentary is in-
deed telling since, as Scholem has noted, a ‘‘philosophization of the Kab-
balah’’ 30 is clearly detectable in the work, despite ’Aškenazi’s ultimate cri-
ticism of philosophy. Moreover, as has been noted above, the mythical
language of the school of the Zohar is absent in ’Aškenazi’s commentary,
25 HALLAMISH, The Kabbalistic Interpretation to Bereshit Rabbah, p. 15.

26 Ibid., p. 15, note 27.
27 SCHOLEM , Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», IV, 1927/
1928, p. 301. See above, note 2.

28 Ms. Oxford, Bodleian Library Neubauer 2234, fols. 97b-100b.
29 These dates are according to KLAUS HERRMANN , The Reception of Hekhalot Literature in Yo-
hanan Alemanno’s Autograph Ms. Paris 849, in Studies in Jewish Manuscripts, Tübingen, Mohr Sie-
beck 1999, p. 24.
30 SCHOLEM , Chapters from the History of Cabbalistical Literature, «Kiryat Sefer», V, 1928,
p. 286.
* 127 *
BRIAN OGREN
despite his possibly complex relationship with that body of literature.

Moreover, while he brings ninety-four philosophical premises that he then
refutes,31 his own thinking is very speculative in manner and his explica-
tory language is highly philosophical. All of this points to the importance
of ’Aškenazi’s commentary in the development of the chain of philosophi-
cal Kabbalah, of which Alemanno’s, and subsequently Pico’s thought, are
later links. Interestingly, it is a philosophical type of Kabbalah that is not
Neoplatonic, but that is much more Neo-Aristotelian in its leanings, simi-
lar to the Kabbalah of ’Avraham Abulafia, which also had influence upon
the thought of both Alemanno and Pico.
The section of Alemanno’s Collectanea containing extracts from ’Aške-
nazi’s commentary indeed runs rife with Aristotelian philosophical de-
scription, opening with the question of the influence of the causa causarum
upon the thirty-two paths of wisdom with which Sefer yesirà begins and by
which, according to Sefer yesirà, God began to create. ˙’Aškenazi ties the
idea of ‘wisdom’ contained ˙ in the description of these thirty-two paths
to the Aristotelian idea of intellection. He writes of three original intellec-
tual apprehensions contained in the intellect that first intellectualizes itself,
second intellectualizes its cause, which in the case of God is itself, and
third intellectualizes the margin that lies between itself and its cause,
which in the case of God is closed due to the fact that He and His cause
are one. Notwithstanding the oneness and simplicity of God due to His
self-contained nature, the three apprehensions of the process of intellec-
tion subsist by virtue of the nature of intellection, even if these three
are ultimately identical as contained in the selfsame, simple entity of
God. From the three original intellectual apprehensions, ’Aškenazi even-
tually arrives at the number thirty-two. He does this by claiming that
‘‘each of these (three) apprehensions also apprehended itself and its cause
and the margin between itself and its cause’’,32 bringing the number to
nine. This plus the root of all effects equals ten, ‘‘and each one has a be-
ginning, and end and a middle, making thirty. This plus the power of the
cause and the power of the effect makes thirty-two’’.33 Thus, through the
Aristotelian process of intellection, from the one God derive the thirty-two
paths of wisdom, by means of which that one God, the causa causarum,
creates and relates to the universe. Despite his later polemic against the
31 Fols. 44b-53a, referenced ibid., p. 297. See also GEORGES VAJDA , The Ninety-Four Philoso-
phical Premises Brought by Rabbi Joseph ben Shalom Ashkenazi, «Tarbiz», XXVII, 1958, pp. 290-
300 (Hebrew).
32 Ms. Oxford 2234, fol. 97b. ‘‘.~tl[ !ybl ~nybX Xrphhw ~tl[w ~mc[ (!) wgyXh k"g twgXhh wlam txa lkw’’.
33 Ibid. ‘‘.b’’l yrh ,lwl[w xkw hl[h xkw .~yXlX yrh ,[cmaw @wsw Xar wb Xy dxa lkw.’’
* 128 *
Aristotelian philosophers,34 here ’Aškenazi sets up a very Aristotelian read-

ing of the thirty-two paths of wisdom contained in Sefer yesirà, laying a
precedent for later philosophical renderings of the Kabbalah, ˙ such as
those of both Alemanno and Pico.
In the passage copied by Alemanno, ’Aškenazi goes on to explain the
names and the essences of the thirty-two paths in greater detail. The
twenty-fourth among these relates to ’Aškenazi’s own distinct cosmic idea
of transmigration, and he terms it the ‘‘imaginative intellect’’, explaining:
The twenty-fourth is the ‘imaginative intellect’, for it gives image and form to
all of the likenesses that were created in their own likenesses according to their
characters, in relation to din kol bene halof, the law of all the elements of differ-
entiation, or change. [This is the case] ˙for all types of inanimate object, and plant,
and animal, and intelligent being, in the sea and on dry land, and for all of the
host of the heavens, and for all of the existents.35
Herein lies an important theory developed and propounded by Ashkenazi,

based on Proverbs 31:8 and known as din bene halof. According to Ger-
˙
shom Scholem, this theory is connected to ‘‘a universal theory of transmi-
gration’’ and holds that all existents, from the basest inanimate object to
the highest of the host of heavens, are in a constant state of motion and
change.36 Based on the interpretation of halof as ‘‘change,’’ Scholem’s
˙ correct. Halof also signifies
reading of ’Aškenazi’s theory is only partially
‘‘differentiation’’, and ’Aškenazi’s theory of din bene ˙halof seems to be
˙ of ‘‘differentia-
based not only on the idea of ‘‘change’’, but upon the idea
tion’’ between existents as well. As maintained by ’Aškenazi, ‘‘each and
every species of the upper and lower existents needs a known border, in-
cluding persons. This is because every person is differentiated (muhlaf) by
his border’’.37 Simultaneously, however, every existent does undergo ˙
‘‘change’’, and integrally tied to this is the constant process of birth and
death. According to ’Aškenazi, ‘‘each and every day six hundred thousand
are born and six hundred thousand die’’.38 He continues: ‘‘That which is
34 See GERSHOM SCHOLEM , The True Author of the Commentary on Sefer Yetzirah Attributed to
the Rabad, and His Books, «Kabbalah Researches» I, 1998, pp. 122-123, and especially note 21,
p. 123 (Hebrew).
35 Ms. Oxford 98a. !ydb ~nwybc ypl ~nwymdb warbn rXa ~ynwymdh lkl hrwcw twmd !twn ’wh yk ynwymd lkX d‘‘k’’
‘‘.~yacmnh lklw ~yymXh abc lkw hXbybw ~yb lykXmw yxw xmwcw ~mwd ynym lkl @wlx ynb lk
GERSHOM SCHOLEM, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah,
36
New York, Schocken 1991, p. 227.

37 Ms. Oxford 98b. @lxwm Xya lk yk ~yymXh ’ypaw [wdy lwbg la ~ykyrc ~ynwtxtw ~ynwyl[ twacmnhm !ymw !ym lk
‘‘.lwbgb
38 Ibid. 99a. ‘‘.awbr ‘yXX ~ytmw awbr ’yXX ~ydlwn ~wyw ~wy lkb’’ This is in tacit reference to the 600,000
Jewish souls that are traditionally said to have stood at Sinai at the giving of the Torah.
* 129 *
BRIAN OGREN
death for one thing is life for another thing, like one would say that a plant
sustains worms and that the flesh of an animal returns as a plant; and thus
it is with all things alternating between coming-into-existence and passing-
away’’.39 Thus, the idea expounded here by ’Aškenazi involves individual
differentiation and cosmic interconnectedness, and the dialectical relation-
ship between the two through the ongoing processes of self-sustenance
and constant change. In din bene halof, ’Aškenazi sets up a complex the-
˙
ory of constancy in individual differentiation as connected to change via
integration, through the dialectic process of all that which is indicated
by the very word halof itself.
˙
The cosmic theory of din bene halof as based on differentiation and
˙
change in the processes of coming-into-existence and passing-away, re-
spectively, contains within itself a very cosmic idea of the Hebrew notion
of gilgul, which literally means ‘‘revolution’’ and refers to dynamism in
forms such as the constant movement of the elemental Hebrew letters,
the transmigration of souls, and the rotation of the spheres. In ’Aškenazi’s
notion of din bene halof, the idea of universal ‘‘revolution’’ takes on a very
˙
earthly idea of personal worldly survival which seemingly paradoxically
has deep roots in the divine realm of cosmic dynamism. In another place
in his commentary to Sefer yesirà, ’Aškenazi writes:
˙
It is known that every eaten thing transmigrates according to its eating, such
as the food that is suitable for the sustenance of an animal and is eaten by it; it will
become an animal, and from it will be manure that is suitable for insects, and
from the manure insects. And that which is suitable as human food for the human
will return to be human, and that which is suitable for waste will be excrement.
Thus it is with wild animals and with birds and with domestic animals and with
fish and with unclean creatures and with all creeping things that creep upon the
land. And from this you have learned that every inanimate object, plant, animal
and speaking creature, all undergo din bene halof in ascent and in descent... and
˙ can come from an insect. How? If
according to this it is possible that a pure bird
an insect is eaten by a bird and from it is born an egg. That egg will return to be
another pure bird or will be eaten by a human, thus being divided into two parts.
One of them is that the egg will turn into a human and will be swallowed into the
248 limbs and into all of the 365 sinews.40 In this case the insect returns to the
form of man.41
39 Ibid. 99a. lk hkkw xmc bwXy yxhm rXbnw ~y[lwt ~ry xmchX rmat wlak hzl ~yyx ’wh hzl twm ’whX hm’’
‘‘.~ydspnh ~ywhh twywplxth.
40 248 corresponds to the number of positive commandments and 365 corresponds to the
number of negative commandments of the Torah.
41 ASHKENAZI , Commentary on Sefer yesirà, p. 8: 2-3, quoted in MOSHE IDEL, The Reasons for the
Unclean Birds According to Rabbi David ben ˙ Judah he-Hasid and their Meanings, in Alei Shefer: Re-
searches in the Literature of Jewish Thought, Ramat Gan, Bar Ilan University 1990, p. 17 (Hebrew).
* 130 *
Here, the idea of gilgul is predicated upon the food chain and is reflected
not in the spiritual sphere of the soul, but in the physical domain of the
body. Gilgul through din bene halof involves the constant change of the
˙
form of existents in concrete existence by means of action, in which case
insects can take on the form of humans within the continuous cycle of sub-
sistence and change.
Although the virtual ‘conservation of energy’ model of gilgul espoused
in the above passage focuses upon the earthly domain and heavily relates
to processes in the observable universe, according to ’Aškenazi, it has its
roots deeply grounded within the upper realms. In the section copied by
Alemanno, he explains:
Just as the sun and the moon produce light and darkness and from their cause
is all coming-into-existence and passing-away, so there is light that is sown for the
righteous 42 and darkness for the wicked, who transmigrate and pass through the
gilgul of the four-letter name of God in ’Adonay. And when you take each and
every existent and introduce each existent of the soul to its border, which is from
the power of the gilgul that is above this earth, the degree of its border is com-
pleted by 180 degrees.43
The sun represents the Sefirà of Tif’eret and the moon represents Malkut,
with the four-letter name of God and ’Adonay following suit. These two
sefirot in conjunction create a situation of transmigration of souls from
the upper realm into this world in a process of gilgul that is ‘‘above this
earth’’. This whole dual process of the sun and the moon, light and dark-
ness, coming-into-existence and passing-away, righteousness and wicked-
ness, the four letter name and ’Adonay, and finally, that which is above
this earth and this earth itself, all depends on the introduction of the ex-
istent divine soul to its border, which ultimately differentiates it and allows
it to come into this world. By turning 180 degrees from its starting point in
the circle of the cosmos that begins in God, the soul transmigrates in the
upper gilgul from the divine realm to the earthly realm, thereby tying the
hyhy ~ycrXl wnmm ywarhw ,hmhb hyhy twyhl hnmm ywarh hmhbl lkanh lkamh wmk ,wlka ypl lglgtm lkan lkX awh [wdy’’
~ygdbw hmhbbw @w[bw hyxb !kw Xrpl hyhy dsph ywarX hmw ~dal rwzxy ~dah lkamb ~dal ywarh #rX Xrph !mw Xrp wnmm
...hdyrylw hyyl[l @wlx ynb !ydb !yrbw[ ~lwk rbdmw yxw xmwc ~mwd lkX dml hta !akmw .hmdah Xwmrt rXa Xmr lkbw ~ycqXbw
wa rwhj @w[ dw[ twyhl rwzxt hcybh htwaw hcyb hnmm dlwy @w[h #rXh lkay ~a dcyk rwhj @w[ #rXh !m hwhtyX rXpa $kyplw
rzx hnh ~ydyg h‘‘sX lkbw ~yrbya x’’mrb [lbtw ~dal ayhh hcybh $phtX awh ~hm dxah ~yqlx ynXl qlxy za ,~dal lkayX
.~da trwcl #rXh twyhl
42 Psalm 97:11.
43 Ms. Oxford 2234, fol. 99b. qydcl [wrz rwa Xy !k ,dsphw hywh lk ~tbsmw $Xwxw rwa (!) acy xryhw XmXhX wmk’’
xkm awhX wlwbg la Xpn lX hywh lk gyhntw hywhw hywh lk xqt rXakw yndab hw.hy ~X lwglgb ~ylglgtmw ~yrbw[ ~hX ~y[Xrl $wXxw
‘‘.twl[m p’’qb wtl[m lwbg ~lXn tazh #ral l[mm rXa lwglgh
* 131 *
BRIAN OGREN
two together. Just as the dialectic process of din bene halof of which it is a
˙ and individuation
part, the soul, in its revolution, allows for differentiation
and at the same time connection and unity.
Our discussion returns to Pico, as the question naturally arises con-
cerning the possibility of the influence of the theory of din bene halof upon
˙ note that
Pico’s own theories of mutability. In this light, it is important to
the type of history that Anthony Grafton has referred to as ‘‘Sources and
Influences’’,44 which seeks to trace lines of thought and their effects, is
fraught with complexities. This is despite the fact that this type of history
is indeed valuable in uncovering the prisca theologia tradition and under-
standing how that tradition worked in Renaissance syncretistic thought.
The complexity has to do, in part, with different methods of citation than
ours, which, for various reasons, often times included a total lack of cita-
tion altogether. In many instances, thinkers would either assume that their
audiences were familiar with the texts from which ideas were being
brought and discussed, or the ideas would become integrated into the
thinkers’ own thoughts to the point that they would become a part of their
own respective systems. At other times texts would be transformed and
changed, either for purposefully conscious reasons, or at the hand of care-
less copyists.
Oral transmission constitutes another part of the complexity that holds
high significance in the case of Pico, given his extensive employment of
Jewish teachers. As Moshe Idel teaches, ‘‘oral communication certainly re-
presented a significant element of Jewish-Christian relations in Florence of
the Renaissance’’.45 Writing in the specific context of the rapport between
Pico and Alemanno, which in our case by extension could include Dattilo
and ’Aškenazi through both Alemanno and Dattilo, Idel notes, ‘‘In this
type of rapport, the Jewish author would usually mention the identity of
his Christian interlocutor more frequently than what would happen in
the opposite case’’.46 With this in mind, it could very well be that Pico
was influenced by the theory of din bene halof, either through his teachers
Alemanno and Dattilo or from a different ˙ source, and simply was not ac-
knowledging his debt, either consciously or due to the fact that he was not
44 ANTHONY GRAFTON, The First Theorists of History, Stanford University, Harry Camp Mem-
orial Lecture, January 30, 2006.

45 MOSHE IDEL , La Cabbalà in Italia (1280-1510), Firenze, Giuntina 2007, p. 232: ‘‘La comu-
nicazione orale rappresentò certamente un elemento significativo delle relazioni ebraico-cristiane nel-
la Firenze del Rinascimento. Tuttavia, in questo genere di rapporti l’autore ebreo soleva menzionare
l’identità del suo interlocutore cristiano più frequentemente di quanto accadeva nel caso contrario’’.
46 Ibid.
* 132 *
aware of the direct source. Hypothetically, the knowledge of extensive oral

exchange allows for the greater possibility of complexity in the exchange
of knowledge.
At the risk of shooting myself in the proverbial foot, I must, perhaps
ironically say that I have found no smoking gun, as of yet, concerning a
link between ’Aškenazi and Pico. Perhaps the researches of scholars such
as Professor Franco Bacchelli and Professor Saverio Campanini will un-
cover a direct connection. Or perhaps no direct link can possibly be un-
covered since, as was stated at the outset, none of Pico’s discussions con-
cerning transmigration in general invokes any kabbalistic literature, at all,
as a source. Indeed, Pico’s ideas on the topic of transmigration are usually
couched in Hermetic, Platonic and Plotinian language. Nevertheless, it is
important to note the possibility of a tacit influence, deriving from Pico’s
contacts with Dattilo and Alemanno.
Whatever the case may be for influence, there is no doubt that an al-
ternate to Pico’s usually Plotinian and Hermetic theory of mutability was
contemporaneously in circulation, in Kabbalistic form. This was Yosef ben
Šalom ’Aškenazi’s theory of din bene halof, which had a clear impact upon
˙
two of Pico’s teachers in Jewish matters, Alemanno and Dattilo. Perhaps
this theory tacitly stands somewhere in the background of Pico’s thought
as well, or perhaps it is differentiated from it (muhlaf mimmenu) in such a
˙
manner that its differentiation contains within itself continuity, and thus
unity. Regardless of such speculation, it is certain that such ideas of change
and differentiation were present and prevalent in the Kabbalistic circles of
most of the Jewish thinkers with whom Pico associated, adding a whole
new dimension to our view of Renaissance notions of macrocosmic, and
microcosmic mutability. This dimension locates one very important prisca
theologia strand of the idea of mutability and possibility in the kabbalistic
thought of Yosef ben Šalom ’Aškenazi, which at the very least allowed
those such as Dattilo and Alemanno to espouse such ‘Renaissance’ con-
cepts as part of an ‘ancient’ Jewish, kabbalistic tradition.
* 133 *
INDICE
Premessa di MOSHE IDEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pag. V
Introduzione. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola e la cabbalà di FA-
BRIZIO LELLI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » VII
BRIAN P. COPENHAVER, Pico risorto: cabbalà e dignità dell’uomo
nell’Italia post-unitaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 1
MOSHE IDEL, The Kabbalistic Backgrounds of the «Son of God»
in Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . » 19
GUIDO BARTOLUCCI, Marsilio Ficino e le origini della cabala cri-
stiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 47
MICHELA ANDREATTA, Filosofia e cabbalà nel Commento al
Cantico dei cantici di Lewi ben Geršom tradotto in latino
per Giovanni Pico della Mirandola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 69
FABRIZIO LELLI, Pico, i Da Pisa e ’Eliyyà Hayyim da Genazzano » 93
˙
BRIAN OGREN, The Law of Change and the Nature of the Cha-
meleon: Yosef ben Šalom ’Aškenazi and Giovanni Pico della
Mirandola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 121
PATRIZIA CASTELLI, Simboli ed emblemi della cabbalà cristiana
nel rinascimento . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 135
SAVERIO CAMPANINI, Il commento alle Conclusiones cabalisticae
nel Cinquecento . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 167
CROFTON BLACK, Eucherius of Lyon, Giovanni Pico della Miran-
dola and Sixtus of Siena: Early Christian Exegesis and Kab-
balah in the Bibliotheca sancta (1566) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 231
Bibliografia generale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 259
Indice dei nomi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . » 285
* 291 *
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THE LAW OF CHANGE AND THE NATURE

GIOVANNI PICO E LA CABBALÀ

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THE LAW OF CHANGE AND THE NATURE

In one of his more oft quoted Conclusiones of 1486, already possibly

Toronto, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 1952, p. 139.

existence as a means of vitality. Certainly, such an idea of transmigration

in Italia, 11:1, Torino, Einaudi 1996, p. 369.

mine, for clarification.

platonic camp of Marsilio Ficino, evidence that is too complex to enter

20 Kabbalistic Interpretation to Bereshit Rabbah, ed. Hallamish, p. 295.

in Sefer ha-qanà was highly influenced by ’Aškenazi’s commentary on Sefer

25 HALLAMISH, The Kabbalistic Interpretation to Bereshit Rabbah, p. 15.

1928, p. 301. See above, note 2.

despite his possibly complex relationship with that body of literature.

Aristotelian philosophers,34 here ’Aškenazi sets up a very Aristotelian read-

Herein lies an important theory developed and propounded by Ashkenazi,

New York, Schocken 1991, p. 227.

orial Lecture, January 30, 2006.

aware of the direct source. Hypothetically, the knowledge of extensive oral

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