Within medieval Jewish philosophy ethics holds a peculiar status. On the one hand, the number of Jewish philosophical texts devoted exclusively to ethics (i. e., a theory of character formation and right action) was relatively small. On the other hand, ethical reflections were inseparable from metaphysics, cosmology, psychology, epistemology, politics, and theology so that ethics was inherently linked to reflections on the origin and structure of the world, the nature of human beings, the purpose of human life, the production and effects of knowledge, philosophy as a way of life, the ideal political regime, and the relationship between humans and God. The broad scope of Jewish philosophical ethics was especially evident from the second half of the twelfth century, after it absorbed the Aristotelian classification of the sciences. For Aristotle and the Aristotelians, ethics belonged to practical philosophy that studies voluntary actions and involves deliberations about things that are subject to change. Although ethics studies the individual and politics studies on society and state, ethics and politics were closely intertwined: ethics has social dimensions and politics is ethical.
Jewish ethics evolved through the interaction with non-Jewish philosophy in medieval Islam and Christendom. Utilizing concepts and theories articulated first by non-Jews, Jewish philosophers adapted them to the case of Judaism, often in order to argue the spiritual superiority of Judaism over the competing religions and schools of thought. Since Jewish philosophers held that, in principle, human reason and divine revelation cannot be in conflict with each other, non-Jewish sources were used to the extent that they were deemed to be true. If an apparent conflict between the ethical ideals of Judaism and other ethical teachings arose, it was due either to misunderstanding of philosophy or to misinterpretation of the divinely revealed tradition.
The goal of Jewish ethics was to produce the virtuous individual who possesses the character traits necessary for the attainment of wisdom that culminates in the knowledge of God. To be virtuous, one had to observe divinely revealed commandment, but such observance was predicated on holding true opinions about God and the world, knowledge that could be obtained only through the study of philosophy. Jewish ethics, thus, posited a dialectical relationship between religion and philosophy: the cultivation of the virtuous character was a rational project predicated on the study of philosophy and the employment of reason but the goal of this endeavor was the knowledge of God to the extent this is feasible for humans. The knowledge of God, in turn, was expressed in actions that imitate God’s perfections in the social-political sphere. Thus, ethics exemplifies the fundamental compatibility between divinely revealed Judaism and the pursuit of wisdom in medieval Jewish philosophy.
The dominant theme of philosophical ethics was the meaning of happiness (hatzlaha; osher) and the ways to attain it. In accord with Aristotle, happiness was understood to mean human flourishing, or well being, and it was regarded as an objective standard rooted in the nature of human beings, a standard that organizes all activities into a meaningful patter for the duration of one’s entire life. The happy or flourishing life is a life in which what is objectively good for human beings is attained when they conduct themselves in a particular manner and undertake those activities that promote what is objectively good for humans as members of the human species. Within the discourse on happiness, Jewish philosophers reflected on the meaning of being human, the relationship between body and soul, the conditioning of the character through acquisition of virtues, desirable virtues and undesirable vices, the human propensity to sin, and God’s rewards and punishments in this world and in the afterlife. The views of medieval philosophers about happiness changed over time, reflecting changing historical circumstances and varying interactions with non-Jewish schools of thought.
Jewish ethical writings were composed in various literary genres. One literary type was the self-standing treatise devoted primarily to ethical issues as articulated by the prevailing philosophical conventions. Maimonides inaugurated a second literary genre when he included his ethical reflections as part of his legal works, thus demonstrating that Aristotelian ethics was integral to Judaism. Maimon-ides paved the way for Jewish commentaries on Aristotle’s Ethics, a third literary genre, mostly written as supercommentaries on Averroes’ commentaries on the Ethics. Whereas these commentaries were composed for the small intellectual elite of trained philosophers, they influenced the larger educated public when their ideas were incorporated in philosophical commentaries on the Bible. Thus the Biblical commentary itself served as vehicle for the dissemination of philosophical ethics. A fifth literary genre for Jewish ethics was the ‘‘ethical will,’’ namely, texts of moral instruction technically addressed to the son of the author but intended for the education of the larger reading public. Finally, philosophical ethics was popularized when authors trained in Jewish philosophy composed rhymed prose to critique certain social classes or expose social ills. By using satire and parody they eloquently and wittily inspired the reading public to cultivate certain virtues and avoid certain vices. Although these texts are not technically philosophical, they reflected the philosophical education of their authors and the philosophic sensibility they intended to disseminate. Through these genres ethics played an important role in the formation of medieval Jewish culture and education. Ethics was an applied science par excellence.
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