Description: HOVAT HALEVAVOT ENGLISH VG CONDITION, HARDCOVER ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE GATE OF INTROSPECTION FROM THE CLASSIC DUTIES OF THE HEART. TRANSLATED BY AVRAHAM YAAKOV FINKEL Chovot ha-Levavot or Chovos ha-Levavos, (Hebrew: English: Duties of the Heart, is the primary work of the Jewish philosopher Bahya ibn Paquda, full name Bahya ben Joseph ibn Pakuda. Ibn Paquda was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who seemly lived at Saragossa, Spain, in the first half of the eleventh century. It was written in Judeo-Arabic (but in Hebrew characters) approximately in 1040 under the title Kitab al-Hidya il Fara'id al-Qulb, Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart, sometimes titled as Guide to the Duties of the Heart, and translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon in the years 1161-80 under the title Chovot ha-Levavot. There was another contemporary translation by Joseph Kimhi, but its complete text did not endure the time. Contents and Message The essence of all spirituality being the recognition of God as the one maker and designer of all things, Bahya makes the "Sha'ar ha-Yihud" (Gate of the Divine Unity) the first and foremost section. Taking the Jewish Confession, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God the Lord is One," as a starting-point, the author emphasizes the fact that for religious life it is not so much a matter of the intellect to know God as it is a matter of the heart to own and to love Him. Bahya held it is not sufficient to accept this belief without thinking, as the child does, or because the fathers have taught so, as do the blind believers in tradition, who have no opinion of their own and are led by others. Nor should the belief in God be such as might in any way be liable to be understood in a corporeal or anthropomorphic sense, but it should rest on conviction which is the result of the most comprehensive knowledge and research. Far from demanding blind belief, the Torah appeals to reason and knowledge as proofs of God's existence. It is therefore a duty incumbent upon every one to make God an object of speculative reason and knowledge, in order to arrive at true faith. Without intending to give a compendium of metaphysics, Bahya furnishes in this first gate a system of religious philosophy that is not without merit. Unfamiliar with Avicenna's works, which replaced Neoplatonic mysticism by clear Aristotelian thought, Bahya, like many Arab philosophers before him, bases his arguments upon Creation. He starts from the following three premises: (1) Nothing creates itself, since the act of creating necessitates its existence (so also Saadia, "Emunot," i. 2) (2) the causes of things are necessarily limited in number, and lead to the presumption of a first cause which is necessarily self-existent, having neither beginning nor end, because everything that has an end must needs have a beginning (3) all composite beings have a beginning; and a cause must necessarily be created. The world is beautifully arranged and furnished like a great house, of which the sky forms the ceiling, the earth the floor, the stars the lamps, and man is the proprietor, to whom the three kingdoms—the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral—are submitted for use, each of these being composed of the four elements. Nor does the celestial sphere, composed of a fifth element —"Quinta Essentia," according to Aristotle, and of fire, according to others—make an exception. These four elements themselves are composed of matter and form, of substance and accidental qualities, such as warmth and cold, state of motion and of rest, and so forth. Consequently the universe, being a combination of many forces, must have a creative power as its cause. Nor can the existence of the world be due to mere chance. Where there is purpose manifested, there must have been wisdom at work. Ink spilled accidentally upon a sheet of paper can not produce legible writing. Unity of God Bahya then proceeds, following chiefly Saadia Gaon and the Motekallamin (teachers of the Kalam), to prove the unity of God by showing: (1) All classes, causes, and principles of things lead back to one principal cause. (2) The harmony of all things in nature, the interdependence of all creatures, the wondrous plan and wisdom displayed in the structure of the greatest and smallest of animal beings, from the elephant to the ant, all point to one great designer—the physico-theological argument of Aristotle. (3) There is no reason for the assumption of more than one creator, since the world manifests but one plan and order everywhere. No one would without sufficient cause ascribe a letter written altogether in the same style and handwriting to more than one writer. (4) The assumption of many creators would necessitate either a plurality of identical beings which, having nothing to distinguish them, could not but be one and the same—that is, God—or of different beings which, having different qualities and lacking some qualities which others possess, can no longer be infinite and perfect, and therefore must themselves be created, not self-existent. (5) Every plurality, being a combination of units, presupposes an original unity; hence, even those that assume a plurality of gods must logically admit the prior existence of a Divine Unity—a Neoplatonic argument borrowed by Baya from the Brothers of Purity. (6) The Creator can not share with the creatures accidents and substance. The assumption of a plurality, which is an accident and not a substance, would lower God, the Creator, to the level of creatures. (7) The assumption of two creators would necessitate insufficiency of either of them or interference of one with the power of the other; and as the limitation deprives the Creator of His power, unity alone establishes Divine omnipotence. Bahya then endeavors to define God as the absolute unity by distinguishing God's unity from all other possible unities. See Divine simplicity. Attributes of God All Negative Adopting this Neoplatonic idea of God as the one who can only be felt by the longing soul, but not grasped by the reason, Bahya finds it superfluous to prove the incorporeality of God. The question with him is rather, How can we know a being who is so far beyond our mental comprehension that we can not even define Him? In answering this, Bahya distinguishes between two different kinds of attributes; namely, essential attributes and such as are derived from activity; see Negative theology. Three attributes of God are essential, though we derive them from creation: (1) God's existence; since a non-existent being can not create things (2) God's unity (3) God's eternity; since the last cause of all things is necessarily one and everlasting. But Bahya holds that these three attributes are one and inseparable from the nature of God; in fact, they are only negative attributes: God can not be non-existent, or a non-eternal or a non-unit, or else He is not God. The second class of attributes, such as are derived from activity, are most frequently applied to God in the Bible, and are as well applied to the creatures as to the Creator. These anthropomorphisms, however, whether they speak of God as having manlike form or as displaying a manlike activity, are used in the Bible only for the purpose of imparting in homely language a knowledge of God to men who would otherwise not comprehend Him; while the intelligent thinker will gradually divest the Creator of every quality that renders Him manlike or similar to any creature. The true essence of God being inaccessible to our understanding, the Bible offers the name of God as substitute; making it the object of human reverence, and the center of ancestral tradition. And just because the wisest of men learn in the end to know only their inability to name God adequately, the appellation "God of the Fathers" will strike with peculiar force all people alike. All attempts to express in terms of praise all the qualities of God will necessarily fail. Man's inability to know God finds its parallel in his inability to know his own soul, whose existence is manifested in every one of his acts. Just as each of the five senses has its natural limitations—the sound that is heard by the ear, for instance, not being perceptible to the eye—so human reason has its limits in regard to the comprehension of God. Insistence on knowing the sun beyond what is possible to the human eye causes blindness in man; so does the insistence on knowing Him who is unknowable, not only through the study of His work, but through attempts to ascertain His own essence, bewilder and confound the mind, so as to impair man's reason. To reflect on the greatness and goodness of God, as manifested throughout creation, is consequently the highest duty of man; and to this is devoted the second section of the book, entitled "Sha'ar ha-Behinah" (Gate of Reflection). We have over 500,000 books of Jewish interest in Stock, please make sure to check out our Our eBay Store Questions, comments, Requests? WE CAN BE REACHED AT 347ll78G492!!14G6508!14 Our storefront location is at Mizrahi Book Store 3108 Quentin Rd Brooklyn NY 11234 Visitors welcome during business hours COMBINED SHIPPING DISCOUNTS: There is $4 off each additional item paid for and shipped together, which makes the shipping just .99 for almost all additional items. Please note that purchases must be paid for at once, not individually to qualify for the discount. If you plan on adding additional items, please hold off payment until done purchasing. This discount should be deducted automatically, please contact us if for some reason it does not. STORE HOURS: Our storefront is located at 3108 Quentin Rd, Brooklyn, NY, 11234. Visitors are welcome during business hours. Store hours are: Sunday-Thursday 10 am - 6:30 pm and Friday 10 am - 2 pm. We are closed on Saturday and Jewish Holidays. For assistance in processing hours, we can be reached at our listed Mizrahi Bookstore phone number. INTERNATIONAL BUYERS: For most individual books, we ship first class mail via USPS. Price is by weight, and this service is tracked. For multiple purchases, we can combine postage manually and charge at cost. Please reach out to us for a quote if interested in shipping multiple items together internationally. RETURN CUSTOMERS: Return customers get 7% off every order, from the second shipment and on. This is not deducted automatically, please message us for a discount code to be able to apply it to the order. REFUNDS: We offer full refunds within 30 days of purchase. QUESTIONS: We are here for you and usually respond immediately, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have. 1ST EDITIONS: We try to be precise when marking the edition, but if you are looking for first editions only, please ask us to verify the edition before purchasing, to prevent any misunderstandings. First Edition can have multiple definitions unfortunately and best to clarify in advance. WANT LIST: Looking for something and don't see it? Let us know and we'll look out for you. We have an additional hundreds of thousands of books of Jewish interest in stock, that are not listed online. SELL US YOUR BOOKS: We purchase Jewish books and books of Jewish interest, used, rare and antiquarian books and collections. Languages we specialize in are English, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Spanish, Ladino, Russian and French. We purchase over 200,000 Jewish books a year and will travel to purchase libraries. Please contact us for details DISCLAIMER: The descriptions we use for our books offered, may come from a variety of sources, such as standard reference books, auction catalogs, the Publishers' descriptions, online resources and customer reviews.... If you feel any specific description violated third part rights, please contact us and we will have it removed immediately. Images sell! Get Supersized Images & Free Image Hosting Attention Sellers - Get Templates Image Hosting, Scheduling at Auctiva.com.
Price: 4.99 USD
Location: Brooklyn, New York
End Time: 2025-01-03T02:12:22.000Z
Shipping Cost: 4.99 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
