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454 Bahya ben Joseph

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bailly, Jean-Sylvain

Bahya's teachings were influenced by the Sufi which were in vogue at that epoch. Without going so far as to pronounce a deprecatory judgment on the ritual ceremonies, as the Sufis did, Bahya seems to have attached no great importance to them. "The precepts prescribed by the Law," theories

says he, "are only 613; those dictated by the intellect are innumerable. " This is precisely the argument used by the Sufis against their adversaries, the Ulemas (compare Vou Kreme, " Notice sur Sha'rany in "Journal Asiatique," 1868, p. 253). The title of the eighth gate, " Muhasabat al-Nafs " (Self-Examination), is reminiscent of the celebrated Sufi chief Abu Abd Allah Harith b. The Sufis. Asad (tenth century), who has been surnamed El Muhasib (" the self-examiner"), because say his biographers "he was always immersed in introspection " (compare Haji Khalifah, s.v. "Radyah"; Abu-al-Pida, "Annal Mosl." ii. 201, 698). Jami, in describing the life of the Sufis, says: "The aim that the Sufis pursued was a perfect union with God, or rather a kind of absorption of their individuality in the Deity. This absorption can be attained only gradually by cultivating self-renunciation, perfect indifference to all externals, and the effaeement of all affection and will " (" Notices et Extraits," xii. 291). Such theories are often repeated by Bahya in the last three gates. In the short introduction to the ninth gate, Bahya says: "As in speaking in the preceding gate of self-examination, as withdrawal of the world was considered one of its ,

—

—

to annex to it an exposition of the different forms of withdrawal and the form that is

conditions, I thought

His

' '

Reon

flections

it fit

to the men of the Law." In adding the words "to the men of the Law," which are repeated several times in this gate, Bahya had in view the asceticism of the Sufis.

the Soul." obligatory

this may be, Bahya knew how to find the pearls in the heap of dust accumulated in the mystical literature of the Sufis; and his work exercised the most salutary influence upon Jewish religious life during many centuries. His proofs of the existence and unity of God, although all drawn from Arabic sources, and chiefly from the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity, became classic, and were copied by many Christian scholastics (compare

However

Thomas Aquinas



see also Fenelon, " CEuvres

Com-

pletes," pp. 701 et seq.).

although diffuse, like all Arabic philosophical writings, is clear and very often eloUnfortunately, the same can quent. Bahya's not be said of the Hebrew translation of his work, and consequently of all Style.

Bahya's

Hebrew.

style,

tiie modern translations made from the Judah ibn Tibbon made it his duty to

454

Another philosophical work of Bahya, entitled Ma'ani al-Nafs " (Reflections on the Soul), was discovered six years ago in a manuscript at the Bihliotheque Nationale of Paris. This manuscript, which is quite old, bears on the title-page the name of Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda as author. The authenticity of the authorship of this work, questioned "

by J. Guttmann, in "Monatsschrift," 1897, pp. 241-256, has been recognized by all Orientalists who were enabled to compare this manuscript with the original of the "Duties of the Heart" (compare Schreiner, in"Zeit. f ur Hebraische Bibliographie," i. 121-128; Kaufmann, in "Revue Etudes Juives," xxvii. 271;

J.

Derenbourg,

ib.

xix.

306).

At any

philosophical theories expounded in the " Reflections on the Soul " are in perfect accord with those expressed here and there in the " Duties of the Heart." The influence of Neoplatonism and the Kalam is apparent in both works, a fact that proves beyond any doubt that the " Reflections on the Soul were written no later than the eleventh century that rate, the

—

to say, in

is

Bahya's

era.

The "Reflections on the Soul," translated from Arabic into Hebrew under the title "Torot haNefesh " (Teachings on the Soul), with a French resume by

I.

Broyde

(Paris,

1896),

is

divided into

twenty-one chapters, in which the author endeavors to reconcile the Neoplatonic psychological system. Bahj'a refers in this work to two other writings of his, which are no longer extant (1) " Bareki Nafshi,

a psychological Hebrew poem to which the " Reflecserves as a commentary; and (2) tions on the Soul " Alnask wal-Nazam fi al-Khalikah " (Order and Gradation in Creation). [Bahya also composed a number of liturgical poems, full of great religious fervor, part of which have found a place in the Roman Mahzor, while some are still in manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The best-known poem is the one beginning with "Bareki Nafshi," which was translated by Deborah Ascarelli into Italian in 1601, and was paraphrased in Italian by Johanan Alatrino, 1628; in German, by Michael Sachs in his "Die Religiose Poesie der Juden in Spanien," and in English by M. Jastrow in his prayer-book. '"

A

description of these liturgical

given by Landshuth in

is

'

poems by Bahya

Ammude ha-'Abodah,"

i.

A selihah

by Bahya is published Koback's "Jeschurun," iv., Hebrew part, 1864,

49, Berlin, 1857.

in

"

pp. 183,184]. Bibliography: Dukes, Zur Kenntniss der Neuhebrttischen ReligiOsen Poesie, pp. 85 et seq., 1842 Geiger, Die Ethisehe Grundlage des Buehes liber die Herzenspfiiehten, in ed.

Baumgarten, et seq.;

xiii.-xxii., 1854 ; Brull, Jahrbllcher, v., vi. 71 Munk, Melanges, p. 482, note 3 Karpeles, Oesch.

der JUdischen Literatur, i. 483-488; Michael, Orha-Hanyim. No. 563; Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. pp. 780 et seq.; idem, Hehr. Uebers. §§ 214-217, and Jew. Quart. Rev. xiii. 452; Kautmann, Die Theoloffie des Bahya ibn Paltuda, Vienna, 1874, in Sitzungsherichte der Philosophiscli-Historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Academie der Wissenschaften in Wien, lxxvii.; Rosin, Die EtMk des Maimonides, Eisler, Yorlesungen Wrier die Jiidisehe PMlosa1876, p. 13 phie des Mittelalters, i. 43-57, Vienna, 1876 ; J. Reifmann, in Qraeber's nnoon nsw, 1888, ii. J. Guttmann, Monats-

having penehe thus became a source of misinterpretation. Many passages in the Hebrew translation are veritable enigmas; and the commentaries that have been grafted on the translaa work designed by its tion of this simple work author for the multitude are unable to solve these enigmas correctly, on account of the mistakes of the

Small city in Bavaria, near Erlangen, once the summer abode of the margraves of Kulmbach-Bayreuth. Little is known concerning

translator.

the history of the

translate verbatim, frequently without

trated into the author's thought

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schrift, xli. 241-256.

k.

I.

Br.— K.

BAIERSDORF:

Jews there.

It is certain that in the