Philosophie et tradition dans le commentaire de Sforno sur Qohelet

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate how Rabbi Ovadia Sforno, the great Italian Biblical commentator of the Renaissance, deals with the Book of Qohelet. Indeed, Sforno is known not only as a rabbi, but also as a man interested in philosophy and sciences. My argument is that, if Sforno’s commentary on the Book of Qohelet is mainly philosophical, Jewish tradition is nevertheless widely present. In order to demonstrate this, I analyze the place of the two approaches–the philosophical-Aristotelian and the Jewish traditional–in this exegetical work.