Blurb:

Tanḥum b. Joseph ha-Yerushalmi (d. 1291 CE) was an accomplished linguist, biblical exegete, and philosopher. His philosophical system is based primarily on Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d. 1037) and Moses Maimonides (d. 1204). Like so many post-Avicennan philosophers, his philosophical writing is deeply informed by Sufi discourse. Philosophical material may be found across his works, among excurses in his biblical commentaries and allegorical interpretations, but first and foremost in the introductions to his commentaries. The present excerpt is from the introduction to his commentary on Ecclesiastes, which begins with a complete classification of the philosophical sciences. Tanḥum’s division of the philosophical sciences most closely mirrors that of Avicenna, although he reverses the hierarchy of physics and mathematics, echoing the classifications of al-Fārābī, Maimonides, and the Brethren of Purity. Tanḥum’s account reaches its climax in its description of “the rank of sanctity,” which entails the contemplation of divine wisdom in the cosmos. According to Tanḥum, this mode of contemplation is the telos of all of the philosophical sciences. Echoing the great Andalusian philosopher Ibn Bājja (d. 1138) and Moses Maimonides, Tanḥum strongly implies his belief in the loss of individual consciousness after death.