JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

ano at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna and became director of
the conservatories of Parma (1905–11), Naples (1912–16), and
Palermo (1916–22). He ended his career at the Milan Conservatory
(1922–38, 1945–47) as a piano teacher. His works include
an opera, Iuturna (1903), La tentazione di Gesù (1909),
and Impressioni sinfoniche da Napoleone (1949) for orchestra;
Andante appassionato for violin and piano (1908); piano music:
Sonatina op.5 (1906) and four fantasies, op.6 (1906), Sonata,
E (1920), Imago, Solitudo (1933) and Rimembranze (1950);
and songs. Among his writings are Pensieri sulla musica (Bologna,
1903), I regi istituti musicali d’Italia e il disegno di ruolo per
il Conservatorio di Milano (Parma, 1908), Le Studio del Pianoforte
(3 vols., 1923–24), and Introduction to F. Fano: Giuseppe
Martucci: saggio biografico-critico (Milan, 1950), 7–13.
Bibliography: Grove online; MGG; Dizionario biografico
degli italiani (1960– ); Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica
e dei musicisti.
[Israela Stein (2nd ed.)]
FANO, MENAHEM AZARIAH DA (1548–1620), Italian
rabbi and kabbalist. The scion of a wealthy family and a prolific
author, he was a recognized authority on rabbinic law
and the foremost exponent in the West of the kabbalistic system
of Moses *Cordovero. Under the influence of Israel *Sarug,
who during his stay in Italy spread the knowledge of the
mystical system of Isaac *Luria, Menahem Azariah became
an admirer of the latter, though without departing from the
system of Moses Cordovero. A pupil of R. Ishmael Ḥanina
of Valmontone in Ferrara, he was active in Ferrara, Venice,
Reggio, and Mantua. Together with his brothers he aided the
victims of the earthquake of 1570. He was a patron of Jewish
learning, contributing funds for the publication of such
works as Cordovero’s Pardes Rimmonim (Salonika, 1584) and
Joseph Caro’s commentary Kesef Mishneh (Venice, 1574–76)
on Maimonides’ Code.
Fano’s fame as a talmudist is borne out by the collection
of 130 responsa bearing his name which was published in 1600
in Venice and in 1788 in Dyhernfurth. His style of writing was
precise and he displayed considerable originality in the views
he expressed. He enjoyed great popularity as a teacher, attracting
students from far and wide, from Germany as well as Italy.
One of his disciples compared him to an angel of God in
appearance. His gentleness and humility showed themselves
in his refusal to answer adverse criticism leveled against him
by a contemporary scholar on account of certain statements
he made with regard to the ritual of the lulav on the festival
of Tabernacles. Amadeo Recanati dedicated to him his Italian
translation of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed; Isaiah
*Horowitz praised his theological treatise Yonat Elem (Amsterdam,
1648) saying of it, “the overwhelming majority of his
words, and perhaps all of them, are true, and his Torah is true”
(introduction to Novelot Ḥokhmah (Basle, 1631) by Joseph
*Delmedigo). Seventeen of his works have been published.
These include a summary of the legal decisions of Isaac *Alfasi
and his own major work on the Kabbalah, entitled Asarah
fārābĪ, abŪ naṢR muḥammad, al-
Ma’amarot (only parts have been printed, Venice, 1597); Kanfei
Yonah (Korzec, 1786), a kabbalistic work on prayer; and Gilgulei
Neshamot (Prague, 1688) on the transmigration of the
soul. Many of his kabbalistic interpretations must have been
made for the first time in the course of sermons delivered by
him. Extant in manuscript are liturgical poems, elegies, comments
on the teachings of Isaac Luria, and a voluminous correspondence.
He died in Mantua.
Bibliography: L. Woidislawski, Toledot Rabbenu Menaḥem
Azaryah mi-Fano (1903); S. Simonsohn, Toledot ha-Yehudim be-Dukkasut
Mantovah (1964), 665, index, S.V.; M.A. Szulwas, Ḥayyei ha-Yehudim
be-Italyah bi-Tekufat ha-Renaissance (1955) 196, 220.
[Samuel Rosenblatt]
°FĀRĀBĪ, ABŪ NAṢR MUḤAMMAD, AL- (c. 870–c. 950),
one of the greatest philosophers of the medieval Islamic world.
Al-Fārābī had considerable influence on Jewish philosophers,
particularly *Maimonides. Having spent most of his life in
*Baghdad, he became associated in 942 with the illustrious
court of Sayf al-Dawla, the Ḥamdānid ruler of Syria, residing
mainly in *Aleppo.
Al-Fārābī played a major role in the dissemination of
ancient philosophy in the Islamic world. His teacher was the
Nestorian Yuḥannā ibn Ḥaylān (see M. Meyerhof, Von Alexandrien
nach Bagdad (1930), 405, 414, 416ff.). He was thus familiar
with the Christian tradition of Aristotelian studies initially
cultivated in *Alexandria and transmitted by Syriac-speaking
Christians to the Islamic world. While in Baghdad, al-Fārābī
apparently had contacts with the Christian Baghdad school of
Aristotelian studies, the leading member of which was Mattā
ibn Yūnus. Aristotle was studied together with his commentators,
*Alexander of Aphrodisias and *Themistius, as well as
with commentators of the neoplatonic school of Alexandria
(Ammonius son of Hermias and his pupils). The paramount
philosophical task al-Fārābī faced was to naturalize the pagan
philosophic tradition of antiquity within the confines of a society
structured by a revealed law.
His Philosophy
The bulk of al-Fārābī’s teaching and writing was devoted to
interpreting Aristotle, particularly the logical works. He wrote
commentaries and paraphrases on the entire Organon. In natural
philosophy he followed the Physics closely. His metaphysics
is a blend of the Metaphysics and neoplatonism. Creation
is viewed by him as an atemporal process of emanation which
flows from the unique, unqualified First Being. Al-Fārābī combines
the neoplatonic theory of emanation with the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic
*cosmology which posits a system of celestial
spheres and their intelligences encompassing the sublunar
world. The intelligence of the last sphere (the moon) presides
over the sublunar world and is called the active *intellect. Al-
Fārābī thus follows that interpretation of the nous poietikós
(“active intellect”; De anima, 3), which regards it as a cosmic
entity. The active intellect is “the Giver of Forms” (wāhib alṣuwar
; dator formarum): it conveys forms to the world, thus
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 709