ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the similarities and differences between how Maimonides (c. 1135–c. 1204), the medieval Jewish philosopher and author of the philosophical magnum opus Moreh Nevukhim (“Guide for the Perplexed”), and Judah ben Jehiel Messer Leon (c. 1420–c. 1498), the Renaissance Jewish humanist and author of the rhetorical classic Sefer Nofet Tzufim (“Book of the Honeycomb’s Flow”), conceived of the political role of the Hebrew prophet. For Maimonides, the prophet is distinguished more as a philosopher, engaged in the contemplative life, than as a public speaker addressing the Israelites, in whole or in part. By contrast, Messer Leon conceives of the prophet as an orator-cum-statesman along the lines envisioned by the classical rhetoricians. The study of Maimonides provides the opportunity to evaluate the status and character of rhetoric in a culture that possesses Aristotle’s Rhetoric but, unlike the medieval Latin world, is bereft of Ciceronian rhetoric. Maimonides paid little attention to rhetoric per se, let alone its political significance. Once Jewish scholars came under the influence of Cicero’s rhetoric, as did Messer Leon in the Italian Renaissance, the biblical prophet becomes a Hebraic version of Cicero’s ideal orator.
