memory.41 For as he explains in introducing them, proper study and comprehension of the Bible can be effectuated only when one knows the material by heart.42
I am tempted to see an echo of Duran’s emphasis on memorization, and even meditation, in Hasdai Crescas’s introduction to Or ha-Shem, where he notes that one cannot perform the commandments without knowing them, and continues:
Since knowing the commandments of the Torah is the straight path that brings [one] to [ultimate] perfection, it is therefore proper that knowing [them] be attained in the most perfect fashion possible; perfecting [one’s] knowledge of the words and reviewing them, which should be done in three [ways]: with careful examination of them, and with simple understanding, and with keeping and remembering them…. And keeping and remembering them is either by abbreviating them, or by presenting qualities that are the foundations and cornerstones of the Oral Torah in the form of signs [simanim], [since] one of the mnemonic techniques [ofnei ha-zekhirah ha-takhbuliyit] is to make signs for subjects so that one does not forget them. And all the more so with that which the Torah commanded about meditating on them always, for all this is the root and great foundation of keeping and remembering them.43
That is to say, the salvific “knowing the commandments of the Torah” is a matter of learning the words and turning them over in your mind, which should be achieved in three areas, first by careful examination, which means learning the words accurately, then through a general grasp of their meaning, and then by “keeping and remembering” them. This last phrase, as Crescas goes on to elaborate, is associated with memorization and, in particular, mnemonic techniques. True, where Duran focuses on the text of the Hebrew Bible, Crescas is concerned with knowing the Law. But it would not be surprising if Crescas had read Ma‘aseh Efod and associated the phrases used by Duran with advice for improving one’s memory of halakhah.
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