res us that, in certain passages,
Kant's religious philosophy breathes the spirit of Maimonides.[40]

The "Guide of the Perplexed" did not, however, meet with so gracious a
reception in the Synagogue. There, Maimonides' philosophic system
conjured up violent storms. The whole of an epoch, that following
Maimonides' death, was absorbed in the conflict between philosophy and
tradition. Controversial pamphlets without number have come down to us
from those days. Enthusiasts eulogized, zealots decried. Maimonides'
ambiguous expressions about bodily resurrection, seeming to indicate
that he did not subscribe to the article of the creed on that subject,
caused particularly acrimonious polemics. Meir ben Todros ha-Levi, a
Talmudist and poet of Toledo, denounced the equivocation in the
following lines:

"If those that rise from death again must die,
For lot like theirs I ne'er should long and sigh.
If graves their bones shall once again confine,
I hope to stay where first they bury mine."

Naturally, Maimonides' followers were quick to retort:

"His name, forsooth, is Meir 'Shining.'
How false! since _light_ he holds in small esteem.
Our language always contrast loveth,--
Twi_light_'s the name of ev'ning's doubtful gleam."

Another of Maimonides' opponents was the physician Judah Alfachar, who
bore the hereditary title _Prince_. The following pasquinade is
attributed to him:

"Forgive, O Amram's son, nor deem it crime,
That he, deception's master, bears thy name.
_Nabi_ we call the prophet of truths sublime,
Like him of Ba'al, who doth the truth defame."

Maimonides, in his supposed reply to the Prince, played upon the word
_Chamor_, the Hebrew word for _ass_, the name of a Hivite prince
mentioned in the Bible:

"High rank, I wot, we proudly claim
When sprung from noble ancestor;
Henceforth my mule a _prince_ I'll name
Since once a prince was called _Chamor_."

It seems altogether certain that this polemic rhyming is the fabrication
of a later day, for we know that the controversies about Maimonides'
opinions in Spain and Provence broke out only after his death, when his
chief work had spread far and wide in its Hebrew translation. The
following stanza passed from mouth to mouth in northern France:

"Be silent, 'Guide,' from further speech refrain!
Thus truth to us was never brought.
Accursed who says that Holy Writ's a tro