The early reception of Aristotle through Averroes in medieval Jewish philosophy: the case of the Midrash ha-Hokhmah

The Midrash ha-hokhmah ('The exposition of science') is a thirteenth-century Hebrew encyclopedic text that aims to divu lge contemporary science and philosophy among Jews. Its author is the rather unknown Judah ben Solomon ha-Kohen of Toledo. Originally drafted in Arabic in Toledo, the Hebrew version of the compllmlon, produced In Italy, dates from c. 1247. It comprises a survey of (i) Aristotelian philosophy based on Averroes' Middle Commentaries and Epitomes: (ii) Euclid's geometry: (iii) astronomy based on Ptolemy and a-Bitrudji: (iv) Ptolemy's astrology, as well as some treatises on Jewish religious subjects. Only a few portions of the text have been edited so far. In the last quarter of the past century the composition started to attract serious scholarly attention. The
article is concerned with the section on Aristotle's natural philosophy. It aims to outline the importance of this text for the study of the reception of Aristotle in medieval Jewish philosophy by looking into the motivation underlying the Midrash ha-Hokhmah; its background; its manner of compilation and the attitude displayed by the author vis-à-vis Aristotle's philosophy.