The Vikuaḥ of Naḥmanides: Translation and Commentary

This chapter provides a translation of and commentary on the Vikuaḥ of Naḥmanides. It may be surprising, at first sight, that Naḥmanides argues against the theory that the Exilarchs and Nasi fulfil the prophecy of Genesis, 49:10, while Pablo Christiani argues for it. Here Naḥmanides takes a different line from other Jewish apologists, who tried to argue that the sceptre had never fully departed from Judah and that any surviving form of Jewish self-rule, however limited, could count as a continuation of the sceptre or the ruler. Naḥmanides takes the more subtle and more easily defensible line that the promise was not for a continuous sceptre, but only that the sceptre would return one day to Judah. Pablo Christiani thinks he has refuted this line by drawing attention to the Talmudic passage which sees the Exilarch and Nasi as a fulfilment of the prophecy of sceptre and ruler; to which Naḥmanides replies that this Talmudic view is not adduced in support of the theory that the sceptre is continuous, but only in the limited Halakhic context of providing legal justification for the right of Exilarch and Nasi to license judges. The Vikuaḥ also details the arguments concerning the Messiah, as well as the authority of the Aggadah.