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JEWISH PHILOSOPHY |
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Select: Bahya ibn Pakuda -- Judah Helevi -- Berachyah Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg -- Maimonides Main Ideas:
Important Works:
Little is known of the personal life of Bahya (ben Joseph Ibn Padudah Bahya), except that he was a dayyan (judge at the rabbinical court) in Saragossa toward the end of the eleventh century. His book, Hobot ha-Lebatot (The Duties of the Heart), expressed his personal feelings more elaborately than was usual for the Middle Ages. It depicted the noble, humble soul and pure, imperturbable mind of a man ever-grateful to God, motivated by his love of God. Bahya regarded the soul elevated toward God and liberated from the shackles of earthly existence as evidence of purification, communion with God as the ultimate goal. However, his teachings neither imply nor result in neo-Platonic ecstasy. He remained faithful to the Bible and the Talmud. Unlike many other schools of mysticism, he differentiated between man and God. Although a religious moralist, he resolutely subordinated moral righteousness and lawful action to the pious contemplation of God, for the latter served as the most effective control of egoistic instincts and passions.
Judah Helevi - (c. 1080 - 1141) Main Ideas:
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Judah Helevi grew up in Islamic Spain, traveled widely, and, led by an intense Jewish nationalism, set out for the land of Israel. Evidence points to his death in Egypt, although according to legend he was trampled at the gates of Jerusalem. As a "flaming pillar of song," Judah Halevi (or Jehudah Hallevi or Judah ha-Levi), the greatest Jewish poet of the Middle Ages, was exalted by Heinrich Heine, who, himself an undeniable expert, sensed through the medium of a translation of Halevi's mastership of versification and his fervent soul. He has not only exerted a strong influence on Heinrich Heine, but also on various Jewish authors. Halevi sang of love and friendship, of virtue and beauty, and most passionately of the fate of the Jewish people, of Zion and God. Several of his sacred poems form part of Jewish prayer-books in every country where Jewish congregations exist. His approximately 800 surviving poems include love songs, eulogies, and religious works. But Helevi was also an important philosopher of religion. His Kitab al-Khazari, written in Arabic and translated into Hebrew under the Title Sefer Ha-Kuzari (Book of the Khazar), referring to the conversion to Judaism of the Khazar King Bulan II (c. 740), is a defense of the Jewish faith against Christian and Islamic attacks and at the same time, a profound meditation on Jewish history and an acute demarcation between philosophy and religion. The close connection between the revealed religion and the history of the Jewish people is characteristic of Halevi's position. He maintained that Judaism does not center in the person of its founder as the religions of Christ and Mohammed do but in the people to whom the Torah has been given, and he goes so far as to declare: "If there were no Jews there would be no Torah." But he by no means idolizes his people in the way modern nationalists do. Jewish history is the work of Divine Providence which he regarded as the continuation of the Divine creative activity. Halevi was opposed to Aristotelianism which he reproached for subjecting the Deity to necessity and for being incompatible with the idea of a person God. Platonic tradition seemed more fitting to him, for he was inclined to regard God as the principle of form that moulds the eternal material principle. Fundamentally, however, Halevi remained reluctant to use philosophical categories in matters that concern religion, and he often expressed his dislike of philosophy and philosophers, although he proved to be one of them. In The Radical Academy
Berachyah - (c. 12th or 13th century) The literary fame of Berachyah is chiefly founded upon his Mishle Shualin (Fox Fables). Some of these were of his own invention; others were derived from the fables of Aesop, the Talmud, and the Hindus, but even in the adaptation of plots to his own Hebrew style, he displayed poetic originality and narrative talents. The best-known of his philosophical works, encyclopedic in quality, is Sefer Hahibbur (The Book of Compilation). Here, he developed the ideas of Saadia, Bahya Ibn Pakuda, and Solomon Ibn Gabirol. He was versed in the eastern and western branches of Jewish philosophy, and was well acquainted with medieval French and English literature. The personal life of Berachyah is solely conjecture. He was called Berachyah Ben Natronai Hanakdan. His father's name indicates descent from the Jewish scholars of Babylonia, which may help to explain Berachyah's knowledge of Hindu stories. His surname means "punctuator," probably an allusion to his profession of scribe or grammarian. There is no agreement as to the time, place, or country in which he lived. Some of his biographers assume that he wrote during the twelfth century; others during the thirteenth century. Some maintain that he lived in Provence; others in Northern France, and still others in England. It is not improbable that he was an itinerant teacher, scholar, and writer. In The Radical Academy
Elsewhere On The Internet
Hahasid, Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg - (12th & 13th centuries) The Hebrew word Hehasid, means "the Saint." Judah's co-religionists revered him because he was an extremely pious man, absorbed in mystical contemplation, a great teacher, scholar and a careful leader of the Jewish community of Regensburg where he settled in 1195. He was the initiator of Jewish mysticism in Germany, a way of thinking and feeling that is different from cabalistic mysticism because it insists more on prayer and moral conduct. Judah denied all possibility of human understanding of God. Man must fulfill his religious duties, as they are prescribed in the Bible, without reasonable knowledge of the Almighty, but, by purification, obedience to ceremonial life and asceticism, he may obtain union with God that is beyond reasoning. In this way, Judah tried to reconcile the demands of orthodox Judaism with enjoyment of mystical exstasy. Judah's biography is adorned with many legends which testify to the admiration of his contemporaries and succeeding generations. He wrote Sefer Hasidim (Book of the Pious), and Sefer Hakahod (Book of Glory). The second book has been lost. It is known only by quotations other authors have made from it. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
Main Ideas:
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Among the rabbis of the later Middle Ages and centuries thereafter, an adage was current, saying, "From Moses to Moses there is none like unto Moses." It means simply that Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon) (picture) is to be regarded as the greatest figure in Jewish history since the man who delivered the Ten Commandments to the Jewish people. In fact, the spiritual development of Judaism up to the present age is incomprehensible without taking account of Mainmonides' activities as a codifier, judge and commentator of the Bible and the Talmud. This outstanding medieval Jewish philosopher was physician to the Sultan Saladin and communal leader of Egyptian Jewry, as well as an important figure in the codification of Jewish law. His formulation of the basic principles of Judaism in a series of 13 creedal affirmations, in the hope of clarifying the differences between Judaism and both Islam and Christianity, occasioned great controversy when it was first composed; it has since been accepted widely and incorporated into most Jewish prayer books. His Mishneh Torah (Copy of the Law), an organization of Jewish oral law, also became enmeshed in controversy, partly because of its rigorously systematic rearrangements of traditional rabbinic law, and partly because Maimonides did not indicate the sources on which he based his decisions concerning correct interpretations, thus seeming to claim excessive authority for himself. The greatest controversy, however, developed over Maimonides' major philosophic work, Moreh Nebukhim (Guide for the Perplexed), in which Maimonides attempted to interpret many biblical and rabbinic themes in the light of the philosophy of Aristotle as known to him through the Arabic philosophers al-Farabi and Avicenna. An important element in his undertaking was to supply allegorically philosophic translations of the anthropomorphic expressions used with reference to God in many biblical passages. This departure from literal reading of the sacred text was deeply resented by many of the religious leaders of the age. In some contexts Maimonides was ready to abandon his Aristotelian commitment -- for example, with regard to the eternity of the world, because this doctrine in his view restricted God's absolute freedom of will to create or not to create the world. Among the many other works of Maimonides are replies to queries in which he attacked the claims of astrology and condemned the attempts to calculate the time of the coming of the Messiah. Maimonides displayed his scientific turn of mind in ten treatises on medical subjects; recent translation and studies indicate that as a physician Maimonides was within the tradition of Hippocratic medicine, but advanced for his time. He was particularly forward-looking in his stress on preventive medicine, as shown in the work Regimen of Health. In The Radical Academy Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book... Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Magazine...
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