Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/502

452 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bahya ben Joseph lation.

show

Not succeeding

therein,

he will endeavor to

the lack of justice in this world, and will deny the existence of another world which is

Hypocrisy to readjust the wrongs of the one that and Skep- now is and, finally, he will deny the

ticism.

value of every thought that does not redound to hodily welfare. Wherefore, man must exercise continual vigilance regarding the purity of his actions. The sixth gate, "Sha'ar ha-Keni'ah," deals with humility ("keni'ah "). This has its seat within, and is manifested in gentle conduct toward one's fellowman, whether he he of equal standing or superior, but especially in one's attitude toward God. It springs from a consideration of the low origin of man, the vicissitudes of life, and one's own failings and shortcomings compared with the duties of man and the greatness of God so that all pride even in regard to one's merits is banished. The high priest himself, in order to learn humbleness in his high station, had to remove the ashes from the altar every morning

(Lev. vi. 3). The conditions of humility are meditation on God's greatness and goodness, observance of the Law, magnanimity toward the shortcomings

patience to endure without complaint every hardship that God imposes, kindness to others of others,

and charitable judgment of their doings, and forgiveness of injuries re-

Hurnility.

ceived.

Especially

is

humility shown

from finding fault in others, and in patiently bearing insults from them. Pride in outward possessions is incompatible with humility, and must be suppressed; still more so is pride derived from There is, how ever, a the humiliation of others. pride which stimulates the nobler ambitions, such as the pride on being able to acquire knowledge or to achieve good this is compatible with humility, and in refraining

r



ma}' enhance

The shown

it.

practical tendency of the

book

particularly

is

seventh section, " Sha'ar ha-Teshubah " The majority even of the (the Gate of Repentance). pious, the author says, belong not to the class of those who have kept free from sins, but to such as wherefore, feel regret at having committed them the prayer for divine forgiveness is one of the first of the eighteen benedictions. As there are sins both of omission and of commission, man's repentance should be directed so as to stimulate good action where such had been neglected, or to train him to abstain from evil desires where such had led to evil actions, just as the cure of a patient is of a stimulating or prophylactic character, according to the cause of his sickness. Repentance consists in: (1) the full consciousness of the shameful act and a proin the



found regret for having committed it (2) a determination of change of conduct (3) a candid confession of the sin, and an earnest supplication to God asking His pardon; (4) in a perfect True repentance Rechange of heart. pentance. shows itself in fear of the deserved



divine punishment,

in

contrition

of

outward signs of grief such as moderation of sensual enjoyment and display, and foregoing pleasures otherwise legitimate and in a humble, prayerful spirit and an earnest soul, in tears

and

sighs, in

—

contemplation of the soul's future.

Most

452

discontinuance of sinful in themselves; because the longer they are adhered to, the more they grow from thin threads into thick ropes which can no longer be torn asunder. An especial hindrance to repentance is procrastination, which waits for a tomorrow that may never come. After having quoted sayings of the rabbis, to the effect that the sinner who repents may rank higher than he who has never sinned, Bahya quotes the beautiful words of one of " Were you altogether the masters to his disciples free from sin, I should be afraid of what is far greater than sin that is, pride and hypocrisy." After having dwelt upon the mode of making amendments for wrongs done to one's fellow-man, and of preparing the soul to meet its Maker in perfect purity, the author closes the section with the story taken, as he says, " from the ancients " of a traveler, who, laden with heaps of silver coins, cast them, in his folly, into the stream which he wanted to pass, expecting to pave a way across, but found that all his coins had disappeared save one with which he paid the ferryman to carry him across. Repentance is the one coin that will carry man across the stream of life to the shore of eternal salvation, when all life's habits,

essential is

the

however excusable



—

—

treasures have been foolishly spent.

The next

gate, entitled "Sha'ar Heshbon ha(Self-Examination), is of the same admonitory character as the preceding one. It contains a solemn exhortation to take as serious and lofty a view as possible of life, its obligations and opportunities for the soul's perfection, in order to attain to a state of purity in which is unfolded the higher faculty of the soul, which beholds the deeper mysteries of God, the sublime wisdom and beauty of a higher world inaccessible to other men Seeing' a state reached only by the truly God. righteous ones, the chosen ones of God, where one is capable of " seeing without eyes, of hearing without ears, of speaking without tongue, of perceiving without the sense of perception, and of arriving at conclusions without the

Nefesh

"

—

methods of reason. Bahya, following the example of the Arabian encyclopedists, advocates a mysticism which might have led him far away from the path of the Law and of philosophy, had he not continually insisted on the observance of the prescribed forms of prayer, of worship, and of study of the Law, with the view of using them as means of elevating the soul to those heights of contemplation of the Divine accessible only to the pure in heart. Accordingly, he devotes

the following section, entitled " Sha'ar ha-Perishut" (Gate of Seclusion from the World), to the problem that is uppermost in his mind, the relation of true religiousness to asceticism. Abstinence, or seclusion from the world, is, according to Bahya, a necessary discipline to curb man's passion and to turn the soul toward its higher destiny, which is to rise, amid all earthly temptations and trials, to the station of angelic beings. Still, as the normal law of human life requires the cultivation of a world which God has formed to be inhabited, and the perpetuation of the race, asceticism can only be the virtue of a few chosen ones who stand forth as teachers of a higher art of life; but, in the same measure as the masses