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626 Bedersi

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Bedikah " Sefer

ha-Pardes " (The Book of the Garden). This published at Constantinople in 1515 (?) and reproduced by Joseph Luzzatto in " Sefer ha- "Ozar ha-Sifrut," iii. is divided into Pardes." eight chapters (1) on isolation from the world, and the inconstancy of the latter; (2) on divine worship and devotion; (3) on instruction, and the sciences that men should acquire after having familiarized themselves with their religious obligations; (4) on the laws and the conduct of the judge; (5) on grammar; (6) on sophism; (7) on astronomy; (8) on rhetoric and poetry. At eighteen he published a work in defense of woman, entitled " Zilzal Kenafayim " (The Rustling of Wings) or " Oheb Nashim" (The Women-Lover). In the short introduction to this trea" Oheb tise, Bedersi says that he wrote it Nashim." against Judah ben Shabbethai's " Sone ha-Nashim" (The Woman-Hater). The young poet dedicated this composition to his two friends, Heir and Judah, sons of Don Solomon DelsEnfanz of Aries. It was written in rimed prose, and has been edited by JSTeubauer in the " Zunz treatise, first

,



Jubelschrift," 1884. These poetical productions of Bedersi's youth were followed by a number of works of a more serious character, among which were: (1) philosophical commentary on the Haggadah of diverse parts of the Midrashim, such as Midrash Rabbah, Midrash Tanhuma Sifre, Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, and Midrash Tehillim (copies of this commentary are still extant in manuscript in several European iibraries).

A

Letter), (2) "Iggeret Hitnazzelut" (Apologetical addressed to Solomon ben Adret, who, at the instigation of Abba Mari, had pronounced Iggeret an anathema against the works and '

'

partizans of Maimonides and against HitBedersi, after nazzelut." ecience in general. having expressed bis respect for the upright and learned rabbi of Barcelona, remarked that he and his friends were not indignant about the ban, because science was invulnerable. Their grievance was that Ben Adret should have branded the Jewish congregations of southern Prance as From time immemorial, science had been heretics. fostered by Jewish scholars on account of its importance for religion. This was true in greatest measure of Maimonides, who studied philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine by the aid of the Greek writers; in theology, however, he was guided bj tradition, submitting even in this to the investigations of philosophy. He, Bedersi, therefore, entreats Solomon ben Adret to withdraw the excommunication for the sake of Maimonides whose works would be studied in spite of all excommunication for his own (Ben Adret's) sake, and for the good name of Provencal Jewish learning. The " Iggeret Hitnazzelut" has been incorporated with Solomon ben Adret's Responsa, § 443. (3) commentary on the " Sayings of the Fathers " (Pirke Abot) and on the Haggadah of the Tahnudical section Nezikin. r

—

A

This work, which

extant in manuscript (Esoften to commentaries of Bedersi on treatises belonging to other sections. It is therefore probable that he wrote commentaries on all the Haggadot of the Talmud. curial

MS. G.

is still

iv. 13), refers

626

(The Examination of the words, " Shamayim la-Rom" (Heaven's Height), a didactic Behinat poem written after the banishment of hathe Jews from France (1306), to which event reference is made in the eleventh Olam." chapter (compare Renan-Neubauer, "Les Ecrivains Juifs Francais, " p. 37). This poem is divided into 37 short chapters, and may be summarized as follows (4)

"Behinat ha- 'Olam

World), called also by

"

its first

'

'

'

" The sage, though the highest type ot humanity, is liable to the vicissitudes ot fortune. He is not exempt from any ot the evils which assail humanity and the sword oJ death stabs alike the philosopher and the boor. But, if this view be dispiriting, there is another which is consoling. The soul which lives: within him, when man is bereft of this world's goods, will accompany him beyond the grave. Still, to the shame of humanity, man does not care to improve this noblest part of himself. He is entrapped by the perfidious charms of the world; and his years roll away in search of illusions. " And yet the world is nothing but a tempestuous sea time is. naught but a bridge thrown over the abyss connecting the negation that preceded existence with the eternity that is to follow



slightest inadvertence can precipitate him who crosses, bridge into the abyss. Are w-orldly pleasures, then, worth seeking ? After their enjoyment follows despair, a vacuum never to be filled. Unfortunate are they who give way to their enticements. Can one be heedless when so many agents of destruction are suspended over his head when the stars that roll above him and survey his fate bring about, in their rapid courses, unforeseen but inevitable events, that the decree of the Eternal has attached to their movement. "But do not, child of man, accuse the Author of nature of the evils that overwhelm thy short and frail existence. The evils thou complainest of are of thine own making. As for the Eternal, His words are all wisdom and goodness. Man aspire* in vain to understand them they are beyond his intelligence. All that may be conceived of Him is that He is inconceivable. Celestial by origin, the human soul, so long as it is attached to the body, groans under a shameful slavery. The occupation worthy of its noble extraction is therefore to direct all its faculties toward the worship of its Creator, the happiness of its fellow-creatures, and the triumph of truth. This result can he attained only in keeping the commandments of God."

The

it.

this





Bedersi concludes his poem by expressing his admiration for Maimonides; " Finally, turn neither to the the wise

men

left nor to the right from all that believed, the chief of whom was the distinguished

master Maimonides, of blessed memory, with whom no one can be compared from among the wise men who have lived since the close of the Talmud then I shall be sure that thou, enriched with all the knowledge of religion and philosophy, wilt fear the Lord thy God."

This

poem enjoyed the greatest success. PubMantua by Estellina, wife of Abraham between 1476 and 1480, it was republished 67

lished first at

Conat, times (compare " Bibliotheca Friedlandiana, " ii. 139), with many commentaries, among which are those written by Moses ibn Habib, Jacob Frances, and

Yom-Tob Lipmann

Heller.

Four commentaries

written by Isaac Moncon, Jacob (of Fano?), Leon of Mantua, and Immanuel of Lattes the Younger are still extant in manuscript (MSS. at St. Petersburg and at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Nos. 502 and The poem was translated into Latin by 1404). Uchtman into German by Isaac Auerbach, Hirsch ben Mei'r, Joel ben Joseph Faust or Wust (t2tJ»1N1f), Simson Hamburger, Auerbach (who made use of a translation of parts iv. and v. by Mendelssohn), J. Levy, Joseph Hirschfeld, and (in verse) by Stern, preceded by an interesting Hebrew introduction by Weiss into French by Philippe Aquinas and Michel Beer; into Italian in "Antologia Israelitica," 1880,