Moshe ben Ḥasdai Taku (Hebrew: משה בן חסדאי תאקו, fl. 1250–1290 CE)[1] was a 13th-century Tosafist from Tachov, Bohemia. The name Taku is a variant of Tachau, Bohemia, now Tachov, Czech Republic.[2] Despite his own seemingly mystical orientation, Rabbi Taku is controversially known to have been an opponent of both the esoteric theology of the Ashkenazi Hasidim, particularly the Kalonymos family,[3] i.e. followers of Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg) and the philosophical orientation of rabbinic rationalists such as Saadia Gaon, Maimonides, Abraham ibn Ezra, et al. He believed that both trends were a deviant departure from traditional Judaism, which he understood to espouse a literal perspective of both the biblical narrative, and the aggadata of the Sages.[4] His opposition to all theological speculation earned him, in the opinion of Gershom Scholem, the title of one of the two truly reactionary Jewish writers of the Middle Ages, the other being Joseph Ashkenazi.[5]
- ^ History of the Jews By Heinrich Graetz, Bella Löwy, Philipp Bloch Published by Jewish Publication Society of America, 1902. Pg, 624.
- ^ Origins of the Kabbalah By Gershom Gerhard Scholem, Raphael Jehudah Zwi Werblowsky, Allan Arkush Translated by Allan Arkush Published by Princeton University Press, 1990. Pg. 34 and 202.
- ^ Studies in Jewish Manuscripts. By Joseph Dan, Klaus Herrmann, Johanna Hoornweg, Manuela Petzoldt. Contributor Joseph Dan. Published by Mohr Siebeck, 1999. Pg. 2.
- ^ Sedley, David (2008). "Aggada in Jewish Thought: Changing Paradigm". Reshimu. 2: 119.
This opinion of the minority of the Gaonim and the Karaites [that God does not have a body] is taken from the Kalam movement of the Muslims… You should know that everything that the Muslims said regarding this is all taken from the words of the Greeks and the Arameans.
- ^ Gershon Scholem, "Yediot Hadashot al Rabbo Yospeh Ashkenazi", Tarbiẕ, 28, 1959 (59).