ABSTRACT
An analysis of the grounds for religious toleration toward gentiles in the teachings of R. Menachem Ha-Me’iri (1249-1315) is the subject of Moshe Halbertal’s essay. The rabbis of the Talmud placed restrictions on all manner of commercial and economic interactions between Jews and gentiles, but as Halbertal points out, Me’iri dramatically reformulated the notion of idolatry in such a way that gentiles, almost without exception, were not to be considered as idolaters. As “ones possessed of religion,” the traditional (Talmudic) laws severely constricting Jewish relations with non-Jews are for Me’iri inapplicable to the other monotheistic religions, specifically Christianity and Islam. Me’iri’s arguments thus provide for toleration and a considered ecumenism among monotheistic faiths.
