Aaron Ben Elijah - Background

Background

While little is known about his personal life, he is considered by Karaites to be the equivalent of his contemporary, Maimonides, the most distinguished Jewish scholar of the time and an outspoken critic of the Karaites. In fact, it seems likely that Aaron made it his ambition to rival Maimonides by defending the Karaites from his attacks. To achieve this, he studied the extensive religious literature of both rabbinical Judaism and Islam, as well as that of the Karaites.

The result of his studies was Etz HaChayyim (Tree of Life; 1346), a philosophical work modeled after Maimonides' own Moreh Nevuchim (Guide to the Perplexed). In fact, one of the chief criticisms of the work is that it attempts to imitate Maimonides' Guide far too slavishly, in terms of both structure and style. In 1354, while living in Constantinople, he composed his second major work, Gan Eden (The Garden of Eden), about the commandments of the Bible and an attempt to defend the Karaite legal code and in 1362 he wrote Keter Torah (Crown of the Torah), a comprehensive commentary on the Pentateuch using a literal interpretation of the writings.

Aaron was neither as profound or independent-minded as Maimonides, for whom he maintained great esteem even when opposing him. Nevertheless, he was a versatile compiler and eclectic, if not always original, philosopher, who succeeded in restoring some prestige to the Karaite community, which have been in decline ever since it was forced to fend off the attacks of Saadia Gaon. Furthermore, some of his critiques of the Maimonidean worldview can be considered reasonable and sound.