Nachmanides

Moses ben Nahman (Ramban, 1194–1270), physician and scholar of Girona, wrote a celebrated commentary on the Torah blending plain sense, philosophy, and mysticism. Compelled to defend Judaism before the king of Aragon in the Disputation of Barcelona (1263), he later emigrated to the Land of Israel, where he helped revive the Jewish community. He died there around 1270.

The great trial of his life was the Disputation of Barcelona, where he was forced to debate the convert Pablo Christiani before the court; his frank defense, though granted a promise of free speech, led to pressure and his eventual departure from Spain.

Nachmanides harmonized rational and mystical approaches to scripture, gave kabbalah a place within mainstream commentary, and defended the authority of tradition; his Torah commentary remains a classic studied to this day.

A scholar and physician, Nachmanides took no part in war; his defining "combat" was the forced religious disputation, conducted with argument under duress.

His account of the Barcelona disputation and the Christian account differ sharply over who prevailed, a discrepancy historians examine as a case study in medieval polemic. His cautious embrace of kabbalah and his relations with the rationalist legacy of Maimonides are also debated. The perspectives are noted.

Nachmanides is one of the greatest medieval Jewish scholars; his Torah commentary, his defense of Judaism at Barcelona, and his role in resettling the Land of Israel left a deep and enduring mark on Jewish learning and life.