Milhamoth ha-Shem

Milhamoth ha-Shem (Hebrew מלחמות השם), "The Wars of the NAME", is the title of several Hebrew texts. Among these the most notable are:

Milhamoth ha-Shem of Salmon ben Jeroham, 10th C.

Solomon ben Jeroham's The Book of the Wars of the Lord (also Milhamoth Adonai מלחמות אדוני), is a refutation of Saadya Gaon.^[1][2]

Milhamoth ha-Shem of Jacob ben Reuben, 12th C.

The Milhamoth ha-Shem of Jacob ben Reuben, is a 12th C. Jewish apologia against conversion by Christians, consisting of questions and answers from selected texts of Gospel of Matthew, including Matt. 1:1-16, 3:13-17, 4:1-11, 5:33-40, 11:25-27, 12:1-8, 26:36-39, 28:16-20.^[3] It served as a precedent for the full Hebrew translation and interspersed commentary on Matthew found in Ibn Shaprut's Touchstone c.1385.^[4]

Milhamoth ha-Shem of Abraham, son of Maimonides, 13th C.

Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon's Wars of the Lord is a treatise defending his father Maimonides against slander.^[5][6]

Milhamoth ha-Shem of Levi ben Gershom, 14th C.

The Wars of the Lord, also Milhamoth Adonai (מלחמות אדוני), of Levi ben Gershom, or Gersonides, or "RaLBaG", (1288–1344) is a religious, astronomical and philosophical treatise.^[7]

Milhamoth ha-Shem of Yiḥyah Qafiḥ, 1931

Yehia al-Qafih (Hebrew: רבי יחיא בן שלמה קאפח 1853–1932) was Chief Rabbi of Sana'a, Yemen and founded the Dor Dai movement in Judaism, against Isaac Luria's formulation of Kabbalah. Qafih's Milḥamot HaShem (1931) argues that the Zohar is not authentic.

References

1. ^ Milhamoth ha-Shem of Salmon ben Jeroham, Davidson 1934
2. ^ The Jewish quarterly review 1937 "It is, therefore, with great joy that students of early Karaism will receive the first complete edition of Salmon's main polemical work, the Sifer Milhamoth ha-Shem, recently published by Prof. Davidson"
3. ^ William Horbury Hebrew study from Ezra to Ben-Yehuda 1999 128
4. ^ J. Rosenthal (ed.), Jacob b. Reuben, Milhamoth ha-Shem (Jerusalem, 1963), pp. 141-52
5. ^ Jacob Israel Dienstag, Fred Rosner Abraham Maimonides' Wars of the Lord and the Maimonidean controversy 2000 - 207 "The name of the work, Milchamot Hashem, literally "The Wars of the Lord," seems to indicate that Abraham Maimonides considered it to be a divine duty to defend his father's works against the slanderers and liars..."
6. ^ Milchamot Hashem of Rabbi Avraham ben HaRambam With comments and explanations by Rabbi Reuven Margaliot. Publisher: Mossad HaRav Kook
7. ^ Levi ben Gershom Wars of the Lord translated into English by Seymour Feldman in 3 volumes (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1984, 1987, 1999) "As Gersonides tells us in his Introduction to the Wars of the Lord, he will consider in this treatise only those topics that were not adequately or completely treated by his predecessors, especially Maimonides."