Bahya ibn Paquda

Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda (also: Pakuda, Bakuda, Hebrew: , بهية بن فاقودا), c. 1050–1120, was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived at Zaragoza, Al-Andalus (now Spain). He was one of two people now known as Rabbeinu Behaye, the other being Bible commentator Bahya ben Asher. He was the author of the first Jewish system of ethics, written in Arabic around 1080 under the title Al Hidayah ila Faraid al-Qulub, Guide to the Duties of the Heart, and translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon in the years 1161-80 under the title Chovot HaLevavot, The Duties of the Heart. Little is known of his life except that he bore the title of dayan, judge at the rabbinical court. Bahya was thoroughly familiar with the Jewish rabbinic literature, as well as the philosophical and scientific Arabic, Greek and Roman literature, quoting frequently from the works of non-Jewish moral philosophers in his work. Bahya says in the introduction to Duties of the Heart that he wished to fill a great need in Jewish literature; he felt that neither the rabbis of the Talmud nor subsequent rabbis adequately brought all the ethical teachings of Judaism into a coherent system. Bahya felt that many Jews paid attention only to the outward observance of Jewish law, "the duties to be performed by the parts of the body" ("Hovot HaEvarim"), without regard to the inner ideas and sentiments that should be embodied in the Jewish way of life, "the duties of the heart" ("Hovot HaLev"). He also felt that many people disregarded all duties incumbent upon them, whether outward observances or inner moral obligations. In his view, most people acted in accord with selfish, worldly motives. Bahya therefore felt impelled to make an attempt to present the Jewish faith as being essentially a great spiritual truth founded on reason, revelation (especially as regarding the Torah), and Jewish tradition. He laid stress on the willingness and the joyful readiness of the God-loving heart to perform life's duties.

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Related concepts (11)

Jewish ethics

Jewish ethics is the ethics of the Jewish religion or the Jewish people. A type of normative ethics, Jewish ethics may involve issues in Jewish law as well as non-legal issues, and may involve the convergence of Judaism and the Western philosophical tradition of ethics. Ethics in the Bible Ethical traditions can be found throughout the Hebrew Bible and the rabbinic Oral Torah that both interpreted the Hebrew Bible and engaged in novel topics. Ethics is a key aspect of legal rabbinic literature, the literature of halakhah, found in the Mishnah, Talmud and other texts.

Bahya ibn Paquda

Sephardic Jews

Sephardic or Sephardi Jews (יהדות ספרד, ; Djudíos Sefardíes), also Sephardim or Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula. The term, which is derived from the Hebrew Sepharad (Spain), can also refer to the Mizrahi Jews of Western Asia and North Africa, who were also influenced by Sephardic law and customs. Many Iberian Jewish exiles also later sought refuge in Mizrahi Jewish communities, resulting in integration with those communities.