The ascendance of Moreh Nebukim on thirteenth-century Kabbalah

Abstract

Researchers like Idel and Blickstein have asserted that they have not found convincing reasons to explain the fact that kabbalists like Chiquitilla and Moses de León abandoned nearly simultaneously the study of linguistic kabbala in favour of theosophy. The omission of references to earlier kabbalists in their writings (whose influence on their thoughts could explain the change) makes it almost impossible to know the reason for such a utter change in their interests. The aim of this paper is to offer a hypothesis: Chiquitilla and Moses de Leon discovered in Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed the secret doctrine that God is Existence beyond being from whom the world comes through an emanationist process. After this discovery they realized –as well as other kabbalists– that God could be understood through His manifestations.