Light of the Lord – Fourth Revised and Updated Edition
About the Edition
Rabbi Hasdai Crescas’s masterwork, Light of the Lord (Or Hashem), has appeared in multiple printed editions since its first publication in Ferrara (1555). Over the centuries, printed editions accumulated extensive corruptions stemming from scribal errors, omissions, and well-intentioned but misguided editorial interventions. The ShinMem publishing project was established to restore a scientifically sound Hebrew text by returning directly to early manuscript witnesses rather than relying on the flawed print tradition. At the core of this edition lies the Florence manuscript dated 1405 (5165 AM) — an early draft that documents the working editorial revisions of the author and his disciples — alongside systematic collation against other key manuscripts.
Updates in the Fourth Edition
This volume represents the fourth printing of Or Hashem published by ShinMem. Continuing the gradual refinement of the text, it introduces key improvements and updates relative to previous project editions:
- New Layout and Typesetting: The entire book has been newly designed and typeset from the ground up. The updated typography enhances continuous readability while establishing a clean separation between the primary philosophical text and the critical apparatus.
- Paragraph Divisions and Modern Punctuation: In contrast to the continuous script of the manuscript, this edition introduces modern punctuation and breaks the text into coherent sentences and paragraphs, bringing out Crescas's rigorous philosophical arguments.
- Textual Corrections: Typos, slips of the pen, and specific omissions identified in earlier printings of the edition have been methodically corrected.
- Updated Source References: Citation notes have been expanded and verified with greater precision, covering Rabbinic sources, Aristotle’s corpus (both medieval Hebrew translations and Averroes’s Middle Commentaries), and parallel discussions in Gersonides’s (Ralbag) The Wars of the Lord (Milhamot Hashem).
Editorial Principles
The edition maintains meticulous fidelity to the original manuscript:
- Original orthography (both defective and plene spellings) is preserved exactly as found in the manuscript, avoiding forced expansions of abbreviations and acronyms.
- Biblical citations and Rabbinic quotations are reproduced in their original manuscript form, even when they diverge from standard received texts.
- Folio numbers of the Florence manuscript are incorporated directly into the running text (in brackets) to allow scholars seamless cross-referencing with the source.
- A critical apparatus at the end of the book gathers textual variants and precisely categorizes the four distinct historical scribal and editorial hands (Hands A–D) identified in the Florence manuscript.
Technical Specifications
- Binding: Paperback
- Pages: 420
- Format: 15.20 × 22.90 cm (6 × 9 inches)
- ISBN: 978-965-93323-7-3