Between an oral sermon and a written commentary: a consideration of rabbi Joseph Ben Shoshan’s polemic in his Avot commentary

Rabbi Joseph ben Shoshan lived in fourteenth-century Toledo. His Hebrew commentary to tractate Avot has rarely been studied, but there is solid evidence for it stemming, at least in part, from oral sermons. This paper identifies the evidence, analyzes it, and focuses specifically on several of his polemics with the “would-be philosophers”. This term refers to the antinomian neo-Platonists, whose stance threatened not only the leadership and authority of the Jewish community, but its very existence. The article employs a multi-disciplinary interpretation of the text –linguistic, literary and ideological– situating it in its historical context. El rabino Yosef ben Shoshan vivió en Toledo en el siglo XIV. Su comentario en hebreo sobre el tratado Avot apenas ha sido estudiado. Sin embargo, existen evidencias sólidas que apuntan a su derivación, al menos parcial, de sermones orales. Este artículo identifica y analiza dichas evidencias, centrándose, sobre todo, en su polémica con los “llamados filósofos”. Este término alude a los neoplatonistas antinomianos, cuya postura no solo amenazaba el liderazgo y la autoridad de la comunidad judía, sino su propia supervivencia. El presente trabajo se basa en una lectura multidisciplinaria del texto –lingüística, literaria e ideológica–, insertándolo en su contexto histórico.