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Abstract

     This article aims to examine the influence of Al-Ghazālī's thought on Jewish religious thought, especially as his works were translated into Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic. Jewish circles experienced a significant intellectual inoculation as a result of the cultural and civilizational interaction between the Islamic civilization and the Jewish community. In fact, any intellectual trend that emerged in the Islamic world had a corresponding parallel in the Jewish community, whether in the fields of Kalam, philosophy, or Sufism, even the issues arising from these sciences echoed in both cultures. As Jewish philosophy began to take its independent form with Maimonides' philosophy and reached its peak, al-Ghazali's thought had captivated many Jewish scholars in Egypt, Yemen, Andalusia, Southern France, and Northern Spain. These scholars, influenced by al-Ghazali’s critique of philosophy positioned themselves against Jewish philosophical thought. These scholars, drawing from al-Ghazali's critique of philosophy, positioned themselves in opposition to Jewish philosophical thought, viewing it as a potential threat to the future of Judaism and its foundational teachings inherited from the Tannaim and Amoraim.They found in al-Ghazali's spiritual Sufi experience as a better alternative to philosophy, which was a domain reserved for the elite. They adopted his works as a guide to return to the spiritual life that had prevailed during the prophetic era. Therefore, we seek to shed light on Al-Ghazālī's impact on Jewish religious thought and his qualitative shift from the philosophical domain to the realm of Sufism.