Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/334

296 Attributes Auer, Leopold

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

296

Landauer, pp. 80-90). But Saadia, in admitting these four Attributes, did not foresee the objection of Maimonides, that these Attributes either add to the essence of God and in that case they ascribe to

ing no soul,

Him

plied to God, because, having no connection with His essence, they do not imply any multiplicity or variety in Him but on closer examination it will be seen

—

accidents,

which ascription

is

inadmissible— or

Indeed these Attributes are such predicament that if the question be asked, " "What is God ? " it should be answered, " God is God " (compare "Moreh," i. 52). This objection did not escape Bahya, whose theory of Attributes is accordingly more precise. The author of " Duties of the Heart " divides Attributes into two Bahya. classes, those that indicate God's esnre useless repetitions. in

sence (" dhatiyat ") and those that express His actions (" fa'iliyat "). The essential Attributes are those of existence, unity, and eternity, which, being every one of them necessitated by the

but one. However, in describing these Attributes, it must be borne in 'mind that they do not present Him as an existing, eternal, and unique being, inasmuch as the sense generally others, are in fact

God by

attached to these expressions can not be applied to God, who is beyond our conception they simply negative the possibility of His having the opposite Attributes ("Duties of the Heart," x.). With Judah ha-Levi the question changes. While Saadia admits without reserve four essential Attributes, and while Bahya does not object to three, provided they be taken negatively, and Judah. while both refuse to admit any other ha-Levi. Attributes than these, Judah ha-Levi sees no harm in Attributes other than essential, provided they be used negatively. Accordingly he divides all Attributes found in the Bible into three classes, namely into active (" taziriyall"), such as rich-making (TK'JJD he maketh



=

=

he maketh poor), etc. into relative ("idafiyat"), such as blessed ("p"Q), merciful (Dim), etc. and into negative (" salbiyah "), which comprise all essential Attributes, inasmuch as all essential Attributes must be taken negatively. The names of God found in the Bible are all, except the Tetragrammaton, Attributes belonging to one or another of the three classes mentioned ("Cuzari," rich),

poor-making (CHID

pp. 7'detscq., ed. Hirschfeld). Abraham ibn Daud, like Judah ha-Levi, admits all As for the essential ones, there relative Attributes. are eight by which God can be described, for the simple investigation of their mutual relations shows that they have not the same significations as are genThese eight are unity, exerally attached to them. istence, immutability, truth, life, knowledge, power,

("Emunah Ramah,"

pp. 54 et seq.). Maimonides, on this question, adopts the theory He divides the positive Attributes into of Aristotle. four classes: (1) Those that include all the essential Such Attriproperties of an object. Maimon- butes, however, can not be applied to God, because,asall philosophers agree, ides. God can not be defined definition being established only by giving the genus and the specific differentia. (2) Those that include only a Neither can these part of the essential properties. Attributes be applied to God, who, being incorporeal, has no parts. (3) Those that indicate a quality. These latter also are inapplicable to God, who, hav-

and

will

—

is not subjected to psychical affections, that indicate the relation of one object to another. At first (4) Those that express actions or effects.

sight the

two last-mentioned Attributes can be ap-



There is that even these present many difficulties. only one kind of Attributes by which God can be described, and those are negative Attributes. Spinoza follows Maimonides to a certain degree. Like him he says that the essential Attributes of power and will do not exist in reference to God for He can not have power or will as regards Himself (compare "Cogitata Metaphysica, " part ii., ch. viii. § 2). He agrees with him likewise in declaring that God's essence is not complex but simple (ib. v., vi.). But while Maimonides concludes from this conception that all positive Attributes must be banished from God, Spinoza makes a distinction between proprieties and Attributes, and maintains that God is conceived by an infinite variety of Attributes, every one of which expresses His eternal essence

("Ethics," part

Bibliography



i.,

D.

prop.

x.).

Kaufmann, Attributenlehre in der

Jtl-

dischen BeliQionsphilosophie. k.

Br.

I.

ATTB,

HIBSCH



Rabbi and Talmudist



born,

town near Erlangen,

1807, in Baiersdorf, a small

the birthplace of a number of prominent Jews; died at Munich, 1876. He studied in Prague and became known as a Talmudist. In 1827 he was elected chief rabbi of Munich, which position he His congregation was filled for forty -nine years. composed both of Orthodox and of Reform Jews, but he held its various elements together by his love of peace, gaining through this strongly marked trait the name of "ba'al sholom " (peacemaker). In 1848 he was one of the principal workers for the emancipation of the Jews and the abolition of the law under which only a limited number of married Jews were allowed to live in each town. Aub was held in high esteem and favor by three kings of Bavaria,

LudwigL,

Maximilian, and

named decorated him, on with the Cross of

AXJB,

May

St.

Ludwig

II.

The

last-

his seventieth birthday,

Michael.

S.

JOSEPH:

13, 1888, at

Talmud Yelodim

Oculist; born in 1846; died Cincinnati, O. He attended the Institute and the public schools,

and later entered the Ohio Medical College, from which institution he was graduated in 1866. He then went to Erlangen, Bavaria, where he received the degree of M.D. After serving for a short time in the Austro-Prussian war, he studied at Paris and Berlin under the eminent oculists Liebreich and Albrecht von Gritfe, and then became assistant to Dr. Knapp in Vienna. On the latter's removal to New York, Aub settled permanently in Cincinnati, where his remarkable success as an operator soon

him a large practise. Aub was one of the to use the electromagnet for removing foreign

insured first

bodies from the eye. He was oculist to the CincinHospital, and for five years professor of ophthalmology at the Cincinnati College of Medicine nati