Arama’s Ta’amei Ha-Mitzvot in Context

A survey of extant manuscripts of Isaac Arama’s Aqedat Yiẓḥaq suggests that one of the most influential aspects of Arama’s thought was his theory of ta’amei ha-mitzvot, the reasons for the commandments. According to Arama, many commandments, especially those relating to holidays, exist in order to inculcate beliefs that cannot be attained rationally (and may even contradict reason) and can only be learned through habitual, embodied action. In this paper, I will examine various aspects of Arama’s treatment of ta’amei ha-mitzvot—both his general theory and his explications of particular commandments—in light of other fifteenth century Iberian Jewish discussions of the same. I hope to show that Arama’s theory, while in many ways innovative, is also very much embedded in and indebted to both earlier and near-contemporary Iberian Jewish sources.