Jewish History (2009) 23: 255–280 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

2009
DOI: 10.1007/s10835-009-9085-z

Abravanel’s commentary on the former prophets:

portraits, self-portraits, and models of leadership

CEDRIC COHEN SKALLI

Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
E-mail: [email protected]

Authorship and leadership: the role of the commentary

Don Isaac Abravanel’s composition of a Commentary on the Former

Prophets was a central achievement of his stormy life (1437–1508). Not only
did it reinforce his claim to retain his position as a member of the Span-
ish Jewish elite, even after the expulsion, but also, in the brief introductions
that preface each of the two parts of the Commentary, which were written a
decade apart, he was enabled prescribe a concept of leadership that he consid-
ered appropriate for responding to the disasters of the late fifteenth century.
Needless to add, he considered himself an appropriate candidate to fill this
leadership role. The first part of the text, which contains a commentary on
the books of Joshua, Judges and Samuel, was written, according to Don Isaac
himself, just after he had fled from Portugal and taken refuge in the Castilian
border city of Segura de la Orden;1 this was between the 11th of June 1483
and the 8th of March 1484.2 Readers are to imagine that there has been first
an oral delivery.
Here the Lord your God sent me [Gn 27.30] wise men and full
of knowledge [Dt 1.15], companions that hearken for my voice
[Song 8.13]. The law of God is perfect and restoring the soul [Ps
19.8], it is my meditation all the day [Ps 119.97]. Unto me men
gave ear, waited [Jb 29.21] for my opinion in the interpretation of
different parts of the books of the Former Prophets, upon them fell

1 On the historical context of Abravanel’s flight, see Benzion Netanyahu, Don Isaac Abravanel,
Statesman and Philosopher (London and Ithaca, 1988), 29–38, Eric Lawee, Isaac Abravanel’s
stance toward tradition: defense, dissent, and dialogue (Albany, 2001), 14–16, Elias Lipiner,
Two Portuguese Exiles in Castile: Dom David Negro and Dom Isaac Abravanel (Jerusalem,
1997), 46–78. I have removed the press names, however, since the usage is not 100% consis-
tent, as it must be. In addition, the rule for place names is that they are written in the language
of the essay, not the place of publication, to wit, Lisboa becomes Lisbon, just as right below,
it says Jerusalem, not Yerushalayim, even though the book is in Hebrew.
2 See Commentary on Former Prophets (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1965), 91, 161, 421.
256 C. COHEN SKALLI

my words [Jb 29.22], words sweeter than honey [Jgs 14.18]; they
asked me to lay hands [Est 2.21] and write the commentary of the
books of Joshua, the Judges, Samuel and the Kings and make it
plain upon tables [Hab 2.2] . . .3
Don Isaac seems to figure himself as a public figure again, after having lost
the position and wealth he had enjoyed in Portugal.4 In the same introduction,
he gives an account of all that had been taken from him:
And when he [João II] saw that he could not prevail against me
[Gn 39.19] and take my life [1 Sam 24.11], for I had left by the
way set by the Lord, then his wrath was kindled [Gn 32.25], he
gnashed his teeth against me [Jb 16.9] and counted me for his en-
emy [Jb 33.10], and seized silver and gold and treasures of kings
[Ecc 2.8] current with the merchants [Gn 23.16], which I had ac-
quired in larger quantities than all those that had preceded me in
that country [Ecc 2.7]. He took away from me all my possessions,
both goods and properties, until there was none remaining [Nm
21.35].5
Abravanel does not say so outright, but the format nonetheless suggests that
the process of writing down the Commentary in its impressive 420 double
columned printed pages had the ambitious purpose of helping Abravanel re-
gain lost position and prestige. Unfortunately, all we know of how the Com-
mentary was received by the Castilian Jewish elite is confined to a few com-
ments scattered throughout the text.6 On the other hand, we do possess con-
siderable information on Don Isaac’s efforts made to become an important
financier to the Castilian aristocracy.7 These he recalls in the introduction to

3 Former Prophets, 3. At the end of his commentary of the book of Judges, Abravanel refers
once again to its “oral” background: “Here ends what I intended to explain concerning the
book of Judges following what God inspired me to say when I was studying and teaching the
book to a group of friends listening to me . . .” (ibid., 161), see also: ibid, 91.
4 On Abravanel’s success at the court of Dom Afonso V, see Maria José Pimenta Ferro Tavares,
Os Judeos Em Portugal no Século XV (Lisbon, 1984), Lipiner, Two Portuguese exiles in
Castile, Netanyahu, Don Isaac Abravanel, 3–32, Lawee, Isaac Abravanel’s stance, 11–15,
27–36, Cedric Cohen Skalli, Isaac Abravanel: Letters (Berlin and New York, 2007).
5 Ibid, 2. The translation is taken from Lipiner, Two Portuguese exiles in Castile, 59.
6 See for example in Abravanel’s famous commentary of 1 Sam 8 the direct calls to the reader:
ibid, 206.
7 See Cantera Burgos, F. “Don ‘Ishaq Braunel’ (alguns precisions biograficas sobre su estancia
en castilla),” in S. Lieberman (ed.), Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubilee Volume, vol. 1 (Jerusalem,
1974), 237–250, Haim Beinart, The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (Hebrew, Jerusalem,
1996), 467–486, Netanyahu, Don Isaac Abravanel, 33–60, Lawee, Isaac Abravanel’s stance,
16–19.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 257

the second part of the commentary (discussing the books of Kings) written
after the expulsion from Spain, where the allusion to leadership as his proper
state is far more direct:
As I was about to begin the commentary of the book of Kings,
I was called to come into the Court of the King [Est 4.11], the
King of Spain, the greatest king of earth [. . .] and I came to the
court of the King’s and Queen’s house [Est 5.1] and I was close
to them [Gn 45.10] for a long time, and the LORD gave me their
favor and the favor of the nobles who see the King’s face, and sat
first in the kingdom [Est 1.14] . . .8
This was no exaggeration. Abravanel efforts soon bore fruit. He became the
financier first of Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza, one of the most im-
portant figures in the Kingdom and eventually of the Duke of Infantado, Iñigo
Lopez de Mendoza.9 Yet Abravanel never let up on his literary interests, al-
though this was most difficult. Finance and literature were not always com-
patible. In both introductions to the Commentary, Abravanel insists on the
tension between these two activities, and in discussing the deep causes of his
misfortune in Portugal, he notes the distinction between the service to the
King and service to God:
You did not seek out the book of God [Isa 34:16] to hear what
it is taught [Isa 50. 4]. You impaired your devotion before God
[Job 15.4], so that you did not know how to sustain with words
one who is weary [Isa 50.4]. You chose the tongue of the crafty
[Job 15.5] from a people of strange language [Ps 114:1], and you
regarded lying words [Ex 5:9] with Kings and counselors of the
earth [Job 3:14]; in the time of their visitations they shall perish
[Jer 10:15] . . .10
Nine years later, while writing the second part of the Commentary, Don Isaac
again gives voice to the same feeling of tension:
During eight years, I worked for them. Riches and honor [1
Kgs 3.13]—which if a man reaches them, he shall live by them [Lv
18.5; this is double entendre to both Torah and material wealth]—
I did not acquire at their court nor in their castles [Gn 25.16];
therefore my Torah dissipated [Hab 1.4] and my study ceased, and
because of this work for the gentile Kings who are not among the

8 Former Prophets, 422.

9 Helen Nader, The Mendoza Family in the Spanish Renaissance 1350–1550 (New Brunswick,
1979), Haim Beinhart, The Expulsion, 470, Cantera Burgos, “Don ‘Ishaq Braunel’ . . .”.
10 Former Prophets, 3.
258 C. COHEN SKALLI

sons of Israel, I have cast off my heritage [Jer 12.7], the Kingdom
of Judah and Israel and the commentary of their stories . . .11
I would argue that these feelings of conflict and contradiction, which never
left Abravanel, were more than just a moral rejection of trade and Court life,
activities which Don Isaac never actually abandoned. They also expressed
the psychological outlook of a new kind of historical figure, one exemplified
in the Jewish world by Abravanel himself, the humanist engaged both in
mundane affairs and in scholarship.
The decree of Expulsion of the Catholic Kings forced Don Isaac into ex-
ile again. He left Valencia on the 31st of July 1492, arriving in Naples with
a group of refugees around the 22nd of September. Once there, Abravanel
adopted the same strategy he had used in Castile and started to write a Com-
mentary on the books of Kings. He finished it on the 20th of September
1493, ten years after he began to write on the Former Prophets in Segura de
la Orden.12 Abravanel then launched into intensive literary activity, some of
whose fruits we mention in a note; but it is not our subject.13
As far as his social and economic activities are concerned, we have only
scanty evidence of his mercantile and financial activity in Naples, though we

11 Former Prophets, 422.

12 Former Prophets, 681.
13 Former Prophets, 681.The completion of the Commentary on the books of Kings was the
beginning of an intense period of writing for Abravanel. This lasted until his death in 1508 and
enabled him to produce the major part of his literary legacy. The list of works he wrote in these
years is impressive: The Principles of Faith (a commentary on Maimonides’ Thirteen Princi-
ples, completed in November 1494), Commentary on Deuteronomy (completed on the 6th of
February 1496) (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1999); The Passover Sacrifice (a commentary on the Ha-
gadah, completed in April 1496) (Hebrew, Bnei Brak, 1962); The Inheritance of the Fathers
(a commentary on Pirkei Avot, completed in June 1496) (New York, 1953); The Fountains
of Salvation (a commentary on Daniel, completed on the 15th of December 1496) (Hebrew,
Jerusalem, 1960); The Salvation of His Anointed (a commentary on the messianic Agadot and
Midrashim, completed on the 16th of December 1497) (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1999); The An-
nouncer of the Salvation (a commentary on all the biblical messianic prophecies, completed
on the 26th of February 1498) (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1979); New Heavens (commentary and an-
swer to Maimonides’ Guide II, 19, completed on the 7th of April 1498) (Hebrew, Jerusalem,
1967); Commentary on Isaiah (completed on the 18th of August 1498), Commentary on the
Minor Prophets (completed on the 23rd of August 1499); Wonders of the Lord (a philosophical
tract on Creation), edited by Betty Gemut-Daror (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1988); and see Alfredo
Fabio Borodowski, Isaac Abravanel on Miracles, Creation, Prophecy, and Evil: the tension
between medieval Jewish philosophy and biblical studies (New York, 2003); Commentary
on Jeremiah (completed on the 28th of May 1504); Commentary on Ezekiel; Commentary
on Genesis, Exodus (29th of June 1505), Leviticus and Numbers (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1964);
Abravanel’s Commentary on the Pentateuch, Exodus and Leviticus (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 2005,
2007); Commentary on the Guide of Maimonides (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1960); The Principles
of Faith, edited by Menachem Kellner (Hebrew, Ramat Gan, 1993).
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 259

do know that the reputation which preceded him helped enter the Court of
King Ferrante.14 Of course, Abravanel knew that the situation had changed
completely with the expulsion. When he had written the first part of the Com-
mentary, his main goal had been to become a member of the Castilian Jewish
elite. When he wrote the second part, the Castilian and Aragonese Jewish
community had been reduced to the status of refugees with no organizational
center. There was a large Jewish community in Naples itself, but Abravanel
directed his Commentary toward preserving memory, likely with the exiles
in mind. This he says in the introduction when he explains his decision to
finish the uncompleted Commentary:
I spoke to my heart [Gen 24.44], that which I have vowed I
will pay [Jon 2:10]. I shall write the Commentary of the book of
Kings, which I did not write until now. Also it is time to do some
work for God [Ps 119.126], for the memory of the destruction of
our holy and beautiful house [Isa 64.10], and for the one of the
exiles and expulsions that our nation has endured . . .15
As for the reception of Abravanel’s writing by Neapolitan Jewry, we have
evidence that Yehuda Messer Leon and his son David, who were the leading
figures of the Neapolitan community before Don Isaac’s arrival, welcomed
neither the newcomer nor his literary product.16 But Abravanel had other in-
terests. It would appear that upon his arrival in Naples, he became convinced
that the Sephardic exiles needed strong leadership. They, and not the Jews of
Naples, were his focus.

14 S. H. Margulies, “La Famiglia Abravanel in Italia,” Rivista Israelitica 3 (1906): 97–154;

Nicola Ferorelli, Gli ebrei nell’Italia meridionale dall’età romana al secolo XVIII (Naples,
1915), 93–104; Viviana Bonazzoli, “Gli ebrei del Regno di Napoli all’epoca della loro es-
pulsione,” Archivio Storico Italiano 502 (1979): 495–559, 508 (1981): 179–287; Cesare Co-
lafemmina, “Documenti per la Storia degli Ebrei in Calabria,” Sefer Yuhasin 1 (1985): 9–16,
Documenti per la Storia degli Ebrei in Puglia nell’Archivio di Stato di Napoli (Bari, 1990):
206–207, 212, 237, 277–278, 308, 311, “Documenti per la Storia degli Ebrei a Trani Nel Sec-
olo XV,” Sefer Yuhasin 1 (1985): 17–24, “Documenti per la Storia degli Ebrei A Bitonto”, Se-
fer Yuhasin 2 (1986): 45–54; “Documenti per la Storia degli Ebrei in Abruzzo,” Sefer Yuhasin
13 (1997): 9–21; La Presenza Ebraica in Puglia Fonti Documentarie e Bibliografiche (Bari,
1981), 78–79; Gli Ebrei in Terra di Bari durante il Vicerengno spagnolo (Bari, 2003), 32–
33, 38–39, 42–43, 50–53, 66–67, 174–177; Filena Patroni Griffi, “Documenti inediti sulle
attività economiche degli Abravanel in Italia meridionale (1492–1443),” Rassegna Mensile
di Israel 63 (1997): 27–38; “Una Controversia tra Samuele Abravanel e i Massari Di Foggia
(1538–1540),” Sefer Yuhasin 13 (1997): 35–44; Giancarlo Lacerenza, “Lo spazio dell’Ebreo
Insediamenti e cultura ebraica a Naples (secoli XV–XVI),” in L. Barletta (ed.), Integrazione
ed Emarginazione (Naples, 2002), 357–427.
15 Former Prophets, 422.
16 Hava Tirosh-Rotshschild, Between Worlds the Life and Thought of Rabbi ben Judah Messer
Leon (Albany, 1991), 24–33, 52–54.
260 C. COHEN SKALLI

Indeed, in the second part of the Commentary, Abravanel introduces him-

self autobiographically, however, not as a fugitive. Rather, it is he who pos-
sesses the required skills and the knowledge to lead those who had been
forced into exile, a leader capable of comforting in facing new challenges.
Readers were to perceive Abravanel’s stature by linking the introductions
to the Commentary’s two parts to the theory of leadership then discussed
in detail in the Commentary itself. More immediately, however, the Com-
mentary provided Abravanel with an important tool for fashioning himself
into a person determined to speak for the Spanish exiles as a whole. The
Commentary should also be seen as the first great expression of Abravanel’s
new consciousness of the social impact of writing—and of himself as a liter-
ary, not only a communal, figure—a consciousness that grew stronger during
his sixteen years in Italy and contributed decisively to the way his memory
was implanted in the memories of his contemporaries and following genera-
tions.17
It is, as said, the innovation of employing introductions (haqdamah) that
are autobiographical that reveals Abravanel’s personal agenda as he wrote
his Commentary. The two introductions admittedly occupy no more than
three out of the book’s 680 pages. Nonetheless, this literary, self-descriptive,
breakthrough, placed at the very beginning of the text, converted the well-
established medieval genre of biblical commentary into a form of self-
advocacy and a means of disseminating an image of leadership and author-
ship. The two introductions—the same is also true of the autobiographical
introductions Abravanel wrote for his other works—tout the author’s virtues,
while the rest of the Commentary, although not directly related to the intro-
ductory section, functions rhetorically to promote, by association with the
figures illuminated there, Abravanel’s skills.
Yet modern scholars, who have paid a great deal attention to this work,
have overlooked this autobiographical emphasis, limiting their research
mostly to Abravanel’s anti-monarchic commentary of 1 Samuel 8.18 Most
have agreed on the originality and even uniqueness of this fragment, but

17 On this topics see, Cedric Cohen Skalli, The Humanistic Rhetoric of Don Isaac Abravanel,
Rhetorics, History and Tradition in Abravanel’s Letters and Introductions (Tel Aviv, diss,
2005), “Discovering Isaac Abravanel’s Humanistic Rhetoric,” Jewish Quarterly Review 97
(2007): 67–99; “Authorship in the Age of Early Jewish Print: Maayanei ha-yeshua and the
First Printed Edition in Ferrara 1551,” in C. Goodblatt and H. Kreisel (eds.), Tradition, Het-
erodoxy and Religious Culture, Judaism and Christianity in the Early Modern Period (Beer-
Sheva, 2006), 185–201; “Yitshaq Abravanel’s First Edition (Constantinople, 1505): Rhetorical
Content and Editorial Background,” Hispania Judaica 5 (2007): 153–176.
18 For a review of modern scholarship on Abravanel see: Cohen Skalli, The Humanis-
tic Rhetoric of Don Isaac Abravanel, 5–42; “Discovering Isaac Abravanel’s Humanistic
Rhetoric,” 67–78.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 261

they have disagreed on the interpretation of the book as a whole. Guttmann,

Strauss and Netanyahu have emphasized the contradiction between the bold-
ness of the ideas expressed in the discussion of 1 Samuel 8 and the lack of in-
novation in the rest of the work.19 Baer viewed Avravanel’s Commentary of 1
Samuel 8 as emblematic of the general humanistic spirit of the work which,
in his view, was to be considered the first modern achievement in biblical
criticism.20 Between these two extremes, Eric Lawee has stressed the nov-
elty of Abravanel’s reading of the Bible, while accepting its limitations,21
while Ravitzky has emphasized the intellectual background of Abravanel’s
anti-monarchic approach, whose roots he located in the author’s biography.22
Gutwirth has focused on the new literary features of the first introduction,
which he has attributes to vernacular humanism.23 I should like to take off
from these departures and examine the hitherto neglected self-portrait of the
author as leader, the autobiographical introductions just noted, and the con-
sequent elaboration of an idealized model of political leadership.

Models of leadership in the commentary

The autobiography is linked to the discussion of leadership in the Commen-

tary itself. In the first introduction of his Commentary, Abravanel defines the
intention of the four books of the Former Prophets as follows:
. . . the first goal, which is common to these four books, is to
teach us practical advantages [toalot] and useful teachings for ac-
quiring true conceptions and for learning virtues and moral qual-
ities according to the teaching of the stories told in these books
. . .24

19 Jakob Guttman, Die Religionphilosophischen Lehren des Isaak Abravanels (Breslau, 1916);
Leo Strauss, “On Abravanel’s Philosophical Tendency and Political Teaching,” in J.B. Trend
and H. Loewe (eds.), Isaac Abravanel, Six Lectures (Cambridge, 1937), 95–129, Netanyahu,
Don Isaac Abravanel, 95–194.
20 Yitzhak Baer, “Don Isaac Abravanel and His Relationship to Problems of History and State,”
(Hebrew) Tarbiz 8 (1937): 241–259.
21 Lawee, Isaac Abravanel’s stance, 168–202.
22 Aviezer Ravitzky, “Kings and Laws in Late Medieval Jewish Thought: Nissim Gerona vs.
Isaac Abravanel,” in Louis Landman (ed.), Scholars and Scholarship, the interaction between
Judaism and other Cultures (New York, 1990), 67–90.
23 Eleazar Gutwirth, “Don Ishaq Abravanel and Vernacular Humanism in Fifteenth Century
Iberia”, Bibliothèque de d’Humanisme et Renaissance 60 (1998): 641–671.
24 Former Prophets, 6.
262 C. COHEN SKALLI

He sees these books, therefore, as primarily ethical and political in nature.

Though they contain a narrative of events, their significance is to be found in
the practical realm.
Joshua, he argues, deals mostly with the matter of how God fulfilled his
promise to bring the Children of Israel to the Land of Israel.25 Judges he
views as dealing with the beginning of a time in which Israel is not con-
tinuously under God’s providence.26 Although divine providence forms the
background of Israel’s history, it now becomes dependent on the behavior
of the people, by which he means that of its leaders. And that was what
Abravanel was really interested in: how can a leader be endowed with divine
protection which he can use to benefit his people and himself.
But can a leader lose divine protection? Abravanel draws many political
lessons from the stories of the Judges, especially the tale of Deborah.27 These
stories are clearly orientated toward the kind of court and state politics in
which Abravanel was deeply involved. Nonetheless, the book of Judges does
not afford Abravanel the opportunity fully to develop his views on leadership,
because the different characters in the book are encountered too briefly and
thus are not open to deep analysis.
For Abravanel, it is the book of Samuel which has a privileged status in
the corpus of the Former Prophets. The figure of Samuel is the culmination of
the history of the Judges, while David is the blessed beginning of kingship.
This makes Samuel the most important book of the Former Prophets.
The book of Samuel is devoted to the merit of Samuel and to
that of King David. That is why it is between the book of Judges
and the book of Kings. It is a central book between them, devoted
to the stories of the most accomplished of all the Judges, Samuel
the prophet, and to the most accomplished of all the kings, David
the servant of the Lord . . .28

25 Former Prophets, 6.
26 Abravanel insists that there is a significant shift between Joshua and the Judges: “Samuel the
Prophet, the author of this book . . . thought best to present before the stories of the Judges the
general reason of god and evil in what happened to them and then to expose it in details. For
this reason he said that the Lord was with Israel during the days of Joshua and their enemies
fell before them by the sword and no one could stand against them. After his death, this was no
more the situation, and the reason for this was neither astrological determinism nor fortune,
but the result of divine Providence. During the days of Joshua, Israel were just and good,
so they dominated other nations and God was with them. But after his death Israel became
corrupted and they began to sin before the Lord and to worship other gods. Because of this
sin, they were defeated by their enemies and their defense [divine providence] was removed
from over them and they were naked . . .” Former Prophets, 102.
27 See the nine lessons that Abravanel draws from the story of Deborah, Former Prophets,
106–108.
28 Former Prophets, 6.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 263

The figures of Saul, David and Solomon inspired Abravanel to long exeget-
ical comments in which he displayed his own conception of leadership.29
In the analysis that follows, I shall try to sketch Abravanel’s portrait of the
perfect leader as based on his description of the biblical kings. In doing so,
I shall also show how it reflected not only Don Isaac’s own self-image as a
leader, but also both Renaissance and humanistic values.
The story of Saul’s anointing and Samuel’s prophecy of his future mirac-
ulous change and inspiration, as related in 1 Sam 10.1–9, give Abravanel a
first opportunity to develop his views on the providential leader. The three
miraculous encounters that Samuel foretells to Saul are interpreted as the
three qualities that shape a leader:
. . . the prophet [Samuel] thought that there were in Saul three
dimensions, one regarding his family and what is related to it, an-
other linked to the fact that he was becoming King of the Children
of Israel and a last one related to God and to the perfection of his
soul, which is the ultimate finality. These three dimensions are the
natural dimension of his birth, the political dimension of how he
leads the people, and the divine dimension of how he unites his
soul to God. The first dimension concerns him as an animal, the
second as a man and the third as a divine person . . . 30
These three dimensions of leadership are of course connected to the anoint-
ing and especially to the divine election31 of Saul and of the leader in general.
Not everyone can reach such perfection. It requires natural gifts.32 Further-
more it requires a capacity to overcome the “natural” obligation and love of
family and to adopt the general or political perspective of the leader. Beyond
the quest for political good, the leader has to achieve his divine election and
find a way to connect his soul to the divine. Only then does he become the
providential achievement of the three dimensions of humanity.
The divine dimension was weak in Saul’s psychology and, for Abravanel,
this was the reason for his fall. Don Isaac interprets Saul’s two sins, his sac-
rifice in the absence of Samuel (1 Sam 13.8-14) and his merciful treatment
of King Agag (1 Sam 9–35), as the result of his lack of faith.33
. . . in our view, perfection is of two types: human perfection,
which concerns the virtues of man as man, and divine perfection,

29 See Avraham Melamed, The Philosopher-King in Medieval and Renaissance Jewish

Thought (Albany, 2003).
30 Former Prophets, 220.
31 On the divine election of the King, see Former Prophets, 222.
32 On the “natural” character of Saul, see Former Prophets, 214.
33 Former Prophets, 235, 249–250.
264 C. COHEN SKALLI

which concerns the faith and the union of soul with God which
concerns us as Children of Israel. There is no doubt that Saul had
the first type of perfection . . . however, he lacked the second type
of perfection which was commanded him as a son of Israel . . . 34
As a consequence of his sins and lack of divine perfection, divine inspira-
tion left Saul and he fell into what Abravanel describes as a melancholic
depression (1 Sam 16.14).35 At the same time, Samuel anointed David, who
received the divine inspiration that was first given to Saul. Elaborating on
B.T. Sanhedrin 93b, Abravanel describes David first as an exceptional mu-
sician and poet “who knows the science of music [harmony]”. But he is an
unusual poet or musician, because he is also a valiant warrior, a great strate-
gist, a wise, beautiful and pious man.36 David is blessed by extraordinary
virtues in all the human dimensions: beauty, physical strength, imagination,
morality and intellectual capacities. If Saul had mostly physical and moral
qualities, David represents a model of leader who combines practical, intel-
lectual and artistic virtues. Abravanel insists on the healing effects of David’s
songs and music which succeeded in dissipating Saul’s melancholy. The abil-
ity to exert such a direct influence on the soul of a listener is considered by
Abravanel a divine virtue. This point of view would seem to reflect the high
prestige associated with rhetoric and arts by Renaissance humanists.37
Don Isaac’s extended commentary on David’s psalm in 2 Sam 2238 is a
remarkable example of the connection he draws between providential lead-
ership and literary virtues. Abravanel explains the numerous discrepancies
between the two versions of the Psalm (2 Sam 22 and Ps 18) through a dis-
tinction between the oral version of the Psalm, written down in Samuel, and
the revised version of the Psalm made by David in his old age for inclusion
in the book of Psalms. According to Don Isaac, David composed this poem
during his years of hardship when he was a young leader on the run, and he
would sing it each time God rescued him from danger.
. . . David composed this song in his youth in the middle of his
troubles. He purposefully made it general so that it would relate
to all kinds of troubles, and he could sing it each time God saved
him from a trouble. He would sing it often to thank God each time
he miraculously saved him . . .39

34 Former Prophets, 250.

35 Former Prophets, 254–255.
36 Former Prophets, 254–255.
37 On rhetoric see G. W. McClure, Sorrow and Consolation in Italian Humanism (Princeton,
1990); on music and harmony in Renaissance Platonism see D.P. Walker, Spiritual and De-
monic Magic, From Ficino to Campanella (Philadelphia, 2000), 3–29.
38 Former Prophets, 388–400.
39 Former Prophets, 388.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 265

Though David composed many poems at various times in his life, this one
was special, because it was designed to be sung each time that God delivered
him from trouble. It therefore establishes the providential nature of David’s
leadership, giving public expression to God’s election of David through the
many examples of his deliverance and through the unique artistic virtues that
God had granted to his elect. Further in the Commentary, Abravanel explains
the reason that led King David to revise his poems and collect them in the
book of Psalms.
. . . King David composed the book of Psalms at the end of his
life in order to guide the prayer of the solitary and place before
him a series of prayers and supplications that everyone can say
and use in prayer when he encounters hardship . . . in the words
of the psalms there are miraculous virtues that bring down divine
influence on the one who recites them in his prayers . . .40
David thus transmitted part of his divine election and spiritual power into
his psalms, making them a way to interact with God and bring down divine
influence on those who read them.41 Abravanel himself wrote by collecting
previous texts and reworking them, which may have been the inspiration for
his view of how the Bible was composed. Beyond this, it would seem that
Don Isaac hoped his Commentary on the Former Prophets would have an
impact on the reader similar to the one he attributed to the book of Psalms,
thus drawing a parallel between himself and the biblical King of Israel.
Upon his arrival in Naples, Abravanel began to write his Commentary on
the books of Kings. Don Isaac’s feeling was strong that he had to rebuild the
destroyed Spanish community, a disaster he compared to the destruction of
the Temple.42 The first half of the Commentary deals at length with the signs
of political power: the anointing of the King and the Priest,43 David’s will
to Solomon,44 Solomon’s diplomatic wedding to the daughter of Pharaoh,45
Solomon’s prophecies and wisdom,46 court life and politics,47 and last, but

40 Former Prophets, 388.

41 The commentary on Former Prophets is full of references to such former “writings”, and
its composition was clearly the result of years of accumulation. See: Former Prophets, 16,
32, 42, 54, 184, 218, 286, 427, 437, 463. Abravanel believed that the books of the Former
Prophets, too, had been composed out of existing writings. See: Former Prophets, 8, 428.
I tend to believe that there is a connection between Abravanel’s own way of writing and his
idea of the writing process of the Bible.
42 Former Prophets, 423.
43 Former Prophets, 439–455.
44 Former Prophets, 455–459.
45 Former Prophets, 458–460.
46 Former Prophets, 461–482.
47 Former Prophets, 483–487.
266 C. COHEN SKALLI

not least, the construction of the Temple.48 Abravanel chooses to describe the
beginning of Solomon’s reign as the culmination of Israel’s political history
and development into a fully developed kingdom and court society. Abra-
vanel’s discussion of Solomon’s wisdom is his most articulated model of
leadership; it completes and expands on what Abravanel had already written
on Saul, David and other leading figures.
The discussion is divided into three parts. In the first, Don Isaac dis-
tinguishes between two types of knowledge: one is scientific and human
(mehqar enoshi), created by the processing of sensory data, the second is
intuitive and divine, emanating from God via the individual intellect. Abra-
vanel stresses the limitations and relativity of human science as being ulti-
mately an intellectual construct with no access to absolute certitude. To the
contrary, he stresses the perfection of the intuitive knowledge emanating from
God through the individual intellect, because it gives simultaneous access to
both the essence of things and to their actual and causal existence. In his
view, the wisdom of Solomon belongs to this superior type of knowledge.
In the next part of the discussion, Abravanel describes the five differ-
ent levels of Solomon’s divine wisdom. First, he has a thorough and perfect
knowledge of the physical world, especially of the different natural finalities
of the different natural objects, which he can use. Second, he has a perfect
astronomical and astrological knowledge which enables him to know how
the stars influence human history. Third, he has also a perfect metaphysi-
cal knowledge of the separated intellects which are metaphysical entities be-
tween God and the astronomical and physical world. Solomon knows how
to use poetry and musical harmony to make these entities bring their special
influence to bear on the cosmos and on history.
. . . Solomon reached the intellection of the existence and truth
of the separated intellects . . . he knew to distinguish between them
and to order them according to their level of perfection . . . he suc-
ceeded even to know their effect and power to guide the course
of the lower beings . . . Solomon composed many poems on the
wisdom of the separated intellects “and his songs were a thousand
and five” [1 Kgs 5.12], which means five thousand, the habit of
the ancients was to speak of divine matters in poems. It seems
that he composed such a great number of songs to all the celestial
angels [sarim]. He wrote one special song for each celestial angel,
a song appropriate to the nation each angel is ruling, adapted to his
special function. He made the Song of Songs especially for God’s
rule over Israel . . . he succeed in knowing the ways and means to
bring down the influx of each angel on the people he ruled . . .49

48 Former Prophets, 489–526.

49 Former Prophets, 475.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 267

This idea seems borrowed from Ficino’s theory of astrological music.50

Abravanel relies on the concept that poetical and musical harmony corre-
spond to the mathematical harmony between the heavenly bodies and that this
correspondence can affect celestial beings and bring astral influence down to
earth.
Further in the discussion, Abravanel describes the fourth field of Solo-
mon’s wisdom. He was granted perfect knowledge of the different levels of
practical wisdom: individual ethics, economics and politics. It seems that
Solomon’s major contribution in politics was the invention of new ways to
produce wealth and collect great amount of money without taking it from the
people and their properties in some way or another, or through robbery as the
tyrannical kings do to enrich themselves. Solomon did it by sending boats to
Ophir for gold and to Tarshish for many types of merchandises.51 Like Don
Isaac, King Solomon was an expert in international trade. He knew how to
increase his wealth through the dividends of commerce, a quality close to
Abravanel’s heart.52 Fifth and last, Solomon had a perfect knowledge of the
Torah and of all the ways to interpret it. Abravanel argues that he is the father
of the thirteen hermeneutical tools (midot) by which Torah is interpreted.
Solomon also had perfect knowledge of the secrets of Torah, which meant
the Kabbalah.
After discussing Solomon’s wisdom, Abravanel goes on to deal with his
position as a prophet and a sage vis-à-vis the other prophets. Though he was
the greatest sage of all times, he was not Israel’s greatest prophet, because,
according to Abravanel, prophecy and wisdom are two separate matters. In-
deed, this whole discussion of Solomon’s wisdom aims to place Solomon
between two well-known types: the philosopher and the prophet. Solomon’s
wisdom is radically different from the wisdom of the philosopher. It is a di-
vine gift, not the result of years of learning, and its orientation is practical,

50 On Ficino’s theory of astrological music, see Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic, 12–
24. On Abravanel’s link to Ficino and Florentine Neo-Platonism, see Moshe Idel, “Kabbalah
and Prisca Theologia in Rabbi Isaac and Yehuda Abravanel’s writings,” in The Philosophy
of Leone Ebreo Four Lectures, eds. M. Dorman and Z. Levi (Hebrew, Haifa, 1985), 73–112;
“Prisca Theologia in Marsilio Ficino and In Some Jewish Treatments,” in Marsilio Ficino: His
Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy M.J.B. Allen, V. Rees, and M. Davies (eds.) (Boston,
2002), pp. 137–158; Brian Ogren, “Circularity, the Soul-Vehicle and the Renaissance Rebirth
of Reincarnation: Marsilio Ficino and Isaac Abravanel on the Possibility of Transmigration,”
Accademia 6 (2004): 63–94.
51 Former Prophets, 476.
52 Commerce had been the lever to the Abravanel financial and social success. Indeed we have
a copy of a report made by Yehudah Abravanel, Don Isaac’s father, which develops monetarist
concepts of how to increase the value of the Portuguese currency through State involvement in
international trade and exchange; see the document as published by Cohen Skalli, Don Isaac
Abravanel: Letters, 169–177.
268 C. COHEN SKALLI

not theoretical. It looks for ways to change reality by using natural, magical,
astrological, poetical and economic forces. Even if he acted on some rare oc-
casions as a prophet,53 Solomon was to be distinguished from one because
of his involvement in activities like music, trade, court- and state politics.54
I would argue that this intermediary figure, standing between the philosopher
and the prophet should likely be seen—and was quite possibly intended—as
the Jewish version of the Renaissance leader. This new magus was to in-
volve himself in politics, scholarship, literature and arts, hopefully changing
thereby the face of reality and displaying his own lofty nature.55 Was not this,
however, the role in which Abravanel wished to cast himself?

The commentary and Don Isaac’s self-portraits

The brief autobiographical introductions (haqdamah), the self-portraits that

preface each of the two parts of Abravanel’s Commentary, and which present
him as both author and leader, while telling his readers the circumstances
of the work’s composition, were composed in two parts, the first follow-
ing his flight from Portugal and the second in the wake of the Expulsion
from Iberia in 1492. Biographical content aside,56 here, I should like to ex-
amine this literary innovation from the perspective of another fifteenth cen-
tury Iberian cultural development, which was the appearance of the painted
portrait at royal courts and in noble homes. This phenomenon—preceded in
the mid-thirteenth century by galleries of flattering statues or painted pic-
tures at the Court of Afonso El Sabio—has been analyzed brilliantly by
Miguel Falomir.57 Portraiture itself spread across the entire Peninsula during
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as witnessed by four paintings of the
Aragonese Kings, Jaime I, Alfonso II, Pedro III and Alfonso V. (See Fig. 1.)
However, these early paintings, like those attributed to Jaume Mateu and
Gonçal Peris Sarria in the years 1427–1428, are not considered true portraits

53 Former Prophets, 461–465.

54 Former Prophets, 480.
55 On the new figure of the Renaissance leader, see Quentin Skinner, The Foundation of Mod-
ern Political Thought (Cambridge, 1998), 69–138. On Abravanel’s interest in magic see For-
mer Prophets: 295–297.
56 See Cohen Skalli, The Humanistic Rhetoric of Don Isaac Abravanel, for the biographical
and strictly literary aspects of these introductions.
57 Miguel Falomir, La pintura y los pintores en la Valencia del Renacimiento (Valencia, 1994);
“Sobre los origenes del retrato y la aparicion del ‘pintor de corte’ en la España bajomedieval,”
Boletín de Arte 17 (1996): 177–195; Arte en Valencia 1472–1522 (Valencia, 1996); and “The
Origin of Portrait Painting in Spain, from the Absence of Specialists to the Large Workshop,”
The Spanish Portrait, from El Greco to Picasso (Madrid, 2005), 68–83.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 269

Figure 1. Attributed to Jaume Mateu and Gonçal Peris Sarria, Jaime I, Afonso II, Pedro II and
Alfonso V, 1427–1428. Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

by modern scholars, since they are idealized representations, which show

no genuine interest in reproducing real features. The essence was to repre-
sent the dynasty, not a particular King, the images intended to preserve the
memory of a glorious past and to encourage the reigning king to emulate his
predecessors.
270 C. COHEN SKALLI

Portraits were also preceded in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by

the diffusion of biographies.58 The Generaciones y Semblazas of Fernan
Perez de Guzman and the Claros Varones of Fernando del Pulgar, which
Don Isaac likely read, are famous examples of the new literary genre, whose
chapters, however, regularly start with a short physical description of the his-
torical figure whose biography they are retelling. Thus Guzman writes at the
beginning of the third chapter dealing with King Enrique III:
This King began to reign at the age of eleven and his reign
lasted sixteen years; thus he lived a bit more than twenty-seven
years. He was medium tall and was relatively well shaped. He
was white and had blond hair. His nostrils pointed a bit upwards.
When he reached the age of seventeen or eighteen, he was subject
to many harsh illnesses which weakened his body and damaged its
composition. As a consequence he was disfigured and his physiog-
nomy was damaged and his appearance was no long as it had been
before. All this caused great changes in his mood. The sufferings
and the affliction caused by a continual state of illness made him
very sad and angry. His look was gloomy and his conversation
bitter. Most of the time he remained alone and melancholic . . . .59
Similar descriptions can be found in the Chronicles of the Portuguese chron-
icler Fernão Lopes which Abravanel surely read.60 Indeed Abravanel often
compares the books of the Former Prophets with Chronicles of Kings.61
Another factor which encouraged the spread of portraits was the custom of
commissioning wax figures for ex votos or funerals. These effigies of Kings
and nobles were made in their likeness in order to ensure “their effectiveness
as ex votos.”62 The consecration of the memory of the deceased and even
the will to create a special memorializing cult led to commissions that now
included the deceased’s portrait. One remarkable example is the polyptychon
containing a great number of portraits that now hangs in the Museu de Arte
Antiga of Lisbon. The work was painted in the years 1460–1470 in Catalonia
or Aragon, and, according to Osorio de Castro, its purpose was to launch
a cult of the late Prince Carlos de Viana as Santo Carlos de Cataluña. (See
Fig. 2.)

58 Ibid.
59 For the original text, see Fernan Perez de Guzman, Generaciones y Semblanzas, ed.
J.A. Barrio (Madrid, 1998), 69–70.
60 See for example Fernão Lopes, Crónica de D. Fernando, ed. Giuliano Macchi (Lisbon,
1975), 3.
61 Former Prophets, 8, 11, 44, 165, 232, 342, 483, 527, 552, 680.
62 Falomir, “The Origin of Portrait”, 70.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 271

Figure 2. Polyptychon of S. Vincente de Fora, 1461–1470. Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

de Lisboa
272 C. COHEN SKALLI

The remarkable work of Osorio de Castro made possible the identification

of many figures in the painting, for instance, the Duke of Burgundy, Isabella
of Portugal (the Aunt of King Afonso V) and King Alfonso V (the Aragonese
King of Naples).63
Portraiture was also growing in importance as the donors of religious
paintings began to have their own image inserted into the religious scene
whose depiction they had commissioned. A comparison of Lluis Delmau’s
Our Lady of the Councilors (1443–1445) with Bermejo’s Pietà with Canon
Lluis Despla (1490) illuminates this trend well. Delmau’s Councilors are dis-
tinguished from the Virgin by their position, their dress, and attitude. Bermejo
fully integrates the well-known humanist Canon Despla into the scene of the
pieta, making the whole, as stated by Falomir, into an imago pietatis (see
Figs. 3 and 4). Abravanel’s autobiographical introductions, too, integrate the
life of the writer into the discussion of the divine text. Quite possibly, Abra-
vanel was taking his cue from the portraits.
An additional factor of relevance here is the systematic use of portraits
in the negotiation of matches between European dynasties. Flemish painters
(in particular) were paid by Kings to paint a portrait, perforce realistic, of
prospective brides to show off their physical appearance.64 In a sermon of
1416, Vicente Ferrer refers to the use of portraits in wedding-diplomacy alle-
gorizing from the role of the portrait to that of the Old Testament in Christian
life.
. . . the Old Law, the one that Moses gave to the people of Israel,
is entirely an allegory of our Law, the one of the New Testament
. . . when a King wants to take a woman as his wife, he generally
takes her from another kingdom. But as he can not see her without
going himself there, he asks the persons in charge to negotiate the
contract of marriage: “What does she look like?” The better to as-
sure himself of the matter, he [the King] takes a good painter, who
knows well how to paint, and commands him to paint her [por-
trait] on a canvas. That is what they [the painter and ambassadors]
do, and when, at their return, they bring him her portrait, he looks

63 Osorio de Castro, Os Panéis do Museu de Lisboa e D. Carlos de Catalunha (Barcelos,

1988).
64 Thus we know of Jan Van Eyck’s journey to Lisbon in 1428 as part of “an embassy sent
by the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, to discuss the possibilities of his marriage to
Isabel of Portugal. There he probably met Lluis Dalmau (1428–1461), who had traveled to the
Portuguese capital with another embassy accompanying Isabel of Aragon on her marriage to
Peter of Portugal.” Van Eyck continued his journey in 1429 to the Court of King Juan II. Egon
Schongauer, the famous etcher, sojourned in Lisbon in the second half of the 15th century.
His influence on Iberian painting is noted and it was surely the result of this journey. Falomir,
“The Origin of Portrait . . .”, 75.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 273

Figure 3. Lluís Dalmau, Our Lady of the Councilors, 1443–1445. Barcelona, Museu Nacional
d’Art de Catalunya

at it saying: “What a wonderful woman I have!” He kisses the im-

age out of love for his future wife and has it hung on a wall. When
the wedding festivities are over, he has now his wife in his castle.
What does he do? He puts the portrait in a case and keeps it out of
love for her, but he does not kiss it anymore, nor does he love it as
before . . . .
God did the same. He made the Old Law and gave it to Moses
and Moses gave it to the Jewish people, this Law was an image of
the New Law . . . We keep it [the Old Law] in a case with much
respect . . . because we now have the New Law . . .65

65 Saint Vincent Ferrer, Sermons, ed. J. Sanchis Sivera (Barcelona, 1932, facsímile 1971),
197–198, Falomir, “Sobre los origenes del retrato”.
274 C. COHEN SKALLI

Figure 4. Bartolomé Bermejo, The pietà with Canon Lluís Desplá, 1490. Barcelona, Catedral

What more graphic testimony could there be to the spread, modes, and use
of portraiture, especially in the diplomacy of weddings, and it was indeed the
common practice not to put portraits on permanent display. The allusion to
the competition between Iberian Kings and nobles to acquire the services of
foreign painters also reflects real practice.66 In 1492, the Catholic Kings, to
whom Abravanel is known to have lent money, paid the painter Michel Sittow
the huge salary of 50,000 maravedies; indeed, Queen Isabella was famous for
her large collection of portraits. In 1450, the Marquis of Santillana, whose
sons were Don Isaac’s patrons during his years in Castile, commissioned the

66 We know that during the fifteenth century, the portraits were not exhibited permanently, but
were conserved in wood cases and were moved from one castle to another. The first galleries
of portraits appear in the Iberian Peninsula only in the second half of the sixteenth century.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 275

Figure 5. Jorge Ingles, Iñigo López de Mendoza, Marques de Santillana (detail), Colección
del Duque de Infantado, Casteló de Viñuelas, Madrid

Dutch painter Jorge Ingles to work on the altar of the Church of Buitrago (see
Fig. 5).
Falomir and other art historians consider that the evolution of the Iberian
monarchies and court culture led kings and nobles more and more to import
paintings and painters from Holland and Burgundy, who also imported their
methods and northern style.
All of this was a phenomenon that Abravanel had to have observed at
close hand. In Portugal, Don Isaac was the financier of Fernando II, Duke of
Bragança (from the end of the 1450s to 1483) who was the most influential
figure during the reign of King Afonso V. As a reward for his services, Abra-
vanel was granted a rural property in the outskirts of Lisbon, in Queluz.67
It is difficult to imagine his being in the service of the duke during so many
years and present at the court without noticing the ever growing interest in
portraiture. Similarly, during his nine years in Castile, Don Isaac was the fi-
nancier of the Cardinal Pedro Gonsalez de Mendoza and later of the Duke
of Infantado Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza. These men were prominent figures

67 Lipiner, Two Portuguese exiles in Castile, 106–109.

276 C. COHEN SKALLI

at the court of the Catholic Kings, as well as humanists, who followed the
steps of their famous father, El Marques de Santillana. The palace of the Car-
dinal in Guadelajara, where Don Isaac resided for a long period, was then
the major locus of Castilian artistic innovation, where Abravanel must have
encountered Castilian, Flemish and probably Italian painting, sculpture and
architecture.68 Indeed, Ram Ben-Shalom has already shown that Abravanel’s
interest in the architecture of cathedrals (and in their stained glass) was the
background for his comments on the relation of Salomon’s construction of
the Temple in the book of Kings.69
Finally, Abravanel arrived in Naples and quickly succeeded in entering
the Court of King Ferrante, which at that time was an important artistic cen-
ter, distinguished, for example, by the presence of the famous portraitist An-
tonella da Messina. Don Isaac must have been impressed by the artistic won-
ders of Naples during the three years he lived there. The Dialoghi d’Amore
(Dialogues of Love) of his firstborn son, Jehudah, contain, several references
to Italian Renaissance painting. He cited the Primavera of Boticelli70 and
further explained passage the iconography of Cupid.71 Add to this the inti-
mate knowledge of court life that Abravanel elsewhere displays, for instance,
in his discussion of court diplomacy and fashions in the Commentary,72 it
seems impossible that Abravanel was not aware of the spreading phenomena
of the Renaissance portrait. There is, we note, a remarkable echo of these
practices in Abravanel’s interpretation of the “teraphim” of Michal in 1 Sam
19.13: “Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a quilt of
goats’ hair at the head thereof, and covered it with a cloth.” He comments:
The commentators thought that it [the teraphim] was like the
teraphim of Laban that were made for magic and idolatry [. . .]

68 Nader, The Mendoza family, 189–192.

69 Ram Ben-Shalom, The Image of Christian Culture in the Historical Consciousness of the
Jews of Spain and Provence (12th to 15th Century) (Hebrew, diss., Tel Aviv University, 1996),
1:143–152.
70 Leone Ebreo, The Philosophy of Love (Dialoghi d’Amore), trans. F. Friedberg-Seeley and
Jean H. Barnes (London, 1937), 155. For the original text, see Leone Ebreo, Dialoghi, 117.
71 “Philon: Even so: because the true Cupid, who symbolizes amorous passion and whole-
hearted desire, is formed of the wantonness of Venus and the fervour of Mars, and therefore
they depict him as a little child, naked, blind, winged and an archer. He is depicted as a little
child, because love grows ever and is uncontrolled, as children are; naked, because he cannot
be concealed or disguised; blind, because he can see no reason opposed to him, for passion
blinds him; winged, because of his great swiftness, for the thought of lovers flies to the beloved
and abides and lives in her. His shafts are those with which he pierces lovers’ hearts; and these
shafts make narrow, deep and incurable wounds, mostly produced by analogous rays of the
lover’s eye which are like to arrows;” Leone Ebreo, Dialoghi d’Amore, ed. Giacinto Manupella
(Lisbon, 1983), 1:112.
72 Former Prophets, 129, 144, 319–320, 325, 342, 458–459, 489.
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 277

and I think that the teraphim in general are made in the image
of men, some are made for idolatry, others to pour down influx
from the superior [celestial] beings, others to know the hours of
the day. Some were made at the image of a known person; they
imitated their appearance and physiognomy. Women were making
teraphim at the image of their husband so that they always have
them in front of their eyes, so great was their love to them. Of
this last kind was the teraphim of Michal. It was at the image of
David, because she loved very much David. There was no sin in
this teraph. She laid it at David’s place [in the bed], because it was
in his image.73
Although Abravanel is referring here to a kind of a statue and not to a portrait,
the function he attributes to the artistic reproduction of human appearance as
a remedy to compensate for distance and absence seems very close to the
practices described by Falomir as the social background behind the appear-
ance of the modern portrait in the Iberian Peninsula.
This is not the place to go into a detailed description of the historical
process that brought the modern painted portrait in the homes of the Jewish
elite, but I think it is important to emphasize that the first example of a Re-
naissance medal bearing a Jewish portrait, that of Benjamin ben Eliah Beer,
dates to 1497, only four years after Abravanel’s Commentary on the books of
Kings. This medal is generally considered indicative of the growing fashion
for portrait medals among the Italian and Sephardic Jewish elite at this time
(see Fig. 6).74
As Richard Cohen has shown, early modern Jews had an ambivalent
attitude towards the portrait.75 The biblical prohibition of representation
(Ex 20.4, Dt 8.5) made Jews hesitant about Renaissance portraiture. Yet they
must have known there is no halakhic rule prohibiting portraits. I should like
to suggest that Abravanel’s introductions reflect both this hesitancy and a
growing acceptance of the new art. Abravanel’s self-depiction with words in-
dicates awareness, perhaps some form of acceptance, yet because he limits
himself to words alone, he is also adhering to the traditional stance. This was,
through words, his Jewish version of the Renaissance portrait as he knew it.
Indeed, it seems most clear that Abravanel had learned something from
portrait culture about self-fashioning and about how to present himself as
a leader. Upon his arrival in Castile, his aim was to convey the image of a

73 Former Prophets, 266.

74 Raymond B. Waddington, “Graven Images: Sixteenth-Century Portrait Medals of Jews”, in
R.B. Waddington and A.H. Williamson (eds.), The Expulsion of Jews, 1492 and After (New
York, 1994), 89–106.
75 Richard Cohen, Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe (Los Angeles, 1998), 119.
278 C. COHEN SKALLI

Figure 6. Benjamin Beer medal, 1497 (or 1503) (lead, 174 mm), British Museum

successful leader who had to face a reversal of fortune, but who is now try-
ing, through writing and teaching, to regain the favor of God—and Castilian
Jewry. For this reason, his Commentary opens with an impressive “portrait”
of himself as a Jewish Prince full of virtue and blessed by God:
I am the man [Lm 3.1] Isaac son of a valiant man who has
done mighty deeds [2 Sam 23.20], his name is great in Israel [Ps
76.2], Sir Jehudah son of Samuel son of Josef son of Jehudah of
the Abravanel family, all of them men who were heads of the chil-
dren of Israel [Nm 13.3], from the seed of Jesse the Bethlehemite
[1 Sam 16.1], from the house of David prince and commander to
the peoples [Is 55.4]. May the memory of my father be blessed.
I lived peacefully as the owner of my house [Dan 4:1], a house
full of God’s blessings [Deut 33:23] in the famous Lisbon, a city
and a mother [2 Sam 20:19] in the Kingdom of Portugal. The Lord
commanded there blessing in my barns [1 Chr 29.12], and all the
earthly bliss [ Ecc 2.8]. I built myself houses [Ecc 2.2] and wide
porches [Jer 22.14]. My home became a place of meeting for the
wise [Avot 1.4], there the thrones for judgment [Ps 122.5], going
out of there [Gn 2.10], through books and authors, good discern-
ment and knowledge [Ps 119.65] and the fear of God [Prov 1.7].
In my house and inside my walls [Isa 56:5] there were enduring
riches and righteousness [Prov 8:18], a memorial and a name [Isa
56:5], knowledge and greatness [Gitt 59a], as between noble men
 ABRAVANEL’S COMMENTARY ON THE FORMER PROPHETS 279

of ancient stock [Gen 6:4]. I was happy in the court of the king
[Dan 4:1] Dom Alfonso, a mighty king, whose domain spread out
[Dan 11:3] and reached from sea to sea [Ps 72.8] prospering in
whatsoever he did [Ps 1:3] . . . Under his shadow I delighted to
sit [Song 2:3], and I was next to him [Isa 48:16]. He leaned on
my hand [2 Kings 5:18], and so long as he lived [1 Sam 20.31].
I walked freely in the court [Dn 11.12] . . .76
This self-portrait of Don Isaac, both inside his home, blessed by God, and
at the court of King Afonso V, presents him to the Jewish Castilian elite as
the incarnation of the ideal Jewish noble, who unites economic, political and
intellectual virtues. By placing this portrait at the top of his Commentary—
painted in words rather than on canvas, as Christians were doing, but with
a similar intention—Abravanel transforms the entire work, or so it appears,
into a means for promoting the self, an instrument for self-projection, and for
advancing an idealized self-image wrought to undergird a claim to leadership
and to persuade readers of worthiness and virtue.
We have no documentation telling us how Abravanel’s Commentary and
auto-biographical introduction were received. However, since he used the
same literary convention in Naples, an introduction inserted once again at the
start of the second part of his Commentary, we may suggest he was pleased
the first time around. Nonetheless, in this second introduction Abravanel
made substantial changes in the self-description, linked directly to the expul-
sion and to the new challenges the exiles faced. Don Isaac does not empha-
size his successes at the Portuguese and at the Castilian Courts, preferring,
instead, to describe himself as a leader of the exiles (megorashim). Hence, he
stresses his own double exile, first from Portugal and then Spain, identifying
himself with those who, like him, have lost both home and homeland. Yet, he
maintains his claim to leadership as a defender against the Catholic Kings,
and the same for his actions in Naples.77
And I was there [Is.16] in the inner court of the King’s house
[Est 5.1], I was weary of pleading, my throat was dried [Ps 69.4].
I spoke three times, I entreated him with my mouth [Jb 19.16]:
‘Help, my lord, O king!’ [2 Kgs 6.26], ‘Why are you treating
your servants this way [Ex 5.15]. Ask us much dowry and gift
[Gn 34.12] gold and silver all that a man will give for his country’
[Jb 2.4]. I called for my friends [Lm 1.19] who see the king’s face

76 Former Prophets, 2. Most of the translation is taken from: Lipiner, Two Portuguese Exiles
in Castile, 55–56.
77 For a detailed study of the second introduction see, Cohen Skalli, The Humanistic Rhetoric
of Don Isaac Abravanel, 168–196.
280 C. COHEN SKALLI

[Est 1.14], to make supplication unto my people [Est 4.8], and

nobles took counsel together [Ps 2.2] to speak to the King with
all the strength necessary in order to reverse the letter of anger
and wrath and his intention to destroy the Jews [Est 8.5]. He was
like the deaf asp that stops his ear [Ps 58.5] and he did not an-
swer to any of the requests [Prov 30.30] . . . And they [the exiles]
went without strength [Lam 1:6], three hundred thousand men and
women of Israel . . . and I also chose out their way [Job 29:25], the
way of a ship in the midst of the sea [Pro 30:19]. I was among the
exiles [Eze 1:1], I went with all my family [. . .] to the renowned
city [Eze 26:17] of Naples whose kings are merciful kings [1 Kgs
20.31] . . .78
These two images of Don Isaac, pleading the cause of his people in front of
the Catholic Kings and leaving Spain to face exile anew, along with so many
other fleeing Spanish Jews, assumed a prominent place in Sephardic liter-
ature and became part of the Sephardic folklore and collective memory.79
Abravanel’s self-portrait was widely received and accepted, depicted, more-
over, as part of a “true historical scene,” the kind of setting that featured so
often in Renaissance painting. Abravanel’s self-portrait places him in two
such “scenes:” before the Catholic Kings and on a boat filled with other ex-
iles. It was a dramatized portrait, intended to arouse feelings of identification
and admiration—but also to persuade others that here indeed was the chosen
leader. No wonder that Abravanel hastened to disseminate it within months
of his arrival in Naples. In future writings, Abravanel would return to this
portrait time and again. It has survived in no less than six versions.80

78 Former Prophets, 422–423.

79 Yehuda Ibn Virga, The Tribe of Yehuda (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1947), 120–122; Eliyahu Kap-
sali, Seder Olam Zuta (Hebrew, Jerusalem, 1966), 208–209; Elena Romero, El Teatro de los
Sefardies Orientales (Madrid, 1979), 1:495–508; “Un Tema Del Teatro Judeoespañol: Abra-
vanel,” Hispania Judaica 2 (1982): 75–85.
80 See the introduction to The Passover Sacrifice (Commentary on the Hagadah, 3–5), the
introduction to The Inheritance of the Fathers (Commentary on Pirkei Avot, 7–10), the in-
troduction to The Fountains of Salvation (Commentary on Minor Prophets, 370–376), the
introduction to The Salvation of His Anointed (The Salvation of His Anointed, 1–7), the intro-
duction to The Announcer of the Salvation (Commentary on Minor Prophets, 425–428).