JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

schmidt (Jerusalem, 1978). Four manuscripts of the book exist
(Paris ms. 747 and ms. 995; Munich ms. 43; Cambridge Trinity
College). The book is divided into three treatises. The first
discusses the acts of God, His knowledge, and His providence;
the second the intellect and its objects, faith and reason,
sin, and related topics; and the third, the principles of the
Jewish religion, miracles, creation, and special articles of
faith.
His “Derekh Emunah” and Philosophy
M. Steinschneider called Bibago “a rational believer” (“Denkglaubigen”),
and A. Altmann described him as a “staunchly …
Orthodox thinker.” Perhaps the experiences of his youth, when
he felt his faith and piety were wrongly doubted, led him to insist
on the supremacy of faith (thus, the name of his book, “the
Path of Faith”), although he accepted the view of many of his
predecessors that the ancient prophets and rabbis originally
knew the sciences, and that in fact science had originated as
Jewish wisdom, which subsequently became forgotten in exile.
Since the ancient Jewish authors knew the rational truth,
by accepting their truth on the authority of faith one shares in
their rational knowledge without having to resort to speculation.
Faith and reason thus differ in method but not in content.
Indeed, since it is the conclusion that matters, once we
have true conclusions, we do not need the speculative principles
which led to those conclusions (DE 70c).
Faith is thus both rational in content and superior to
reason, because “faith itself is that by which the soul becomes
actualized and immortal, and is thus the immortality itself …
For the path of faith (derekh emunah) is what saves (moshi’ah)
and provides immortality to the faithful nation … and gives
perfection to conception and verification” (DE 59c–60a). Rational
speculation can only provide the basis of salvation for
a few intellectuals, “but in faith, every person is saved, ‘for the
just will live by his faith’ (Hab. 2:4)” (DE 49d). Faith is thus the
highest human perfection, and “I say that the ultimate purpose
of miracles is the imparting of faith” (DE 85b). In an interesting
collective twist on Maimonides’ intellectual theory
of providence, Bibago suggests that since the Torah, teaching
true faith, actualizes the Jews’ intellects, the Jewish people enjoys
special national providence. Faith thus provides for national
as well as individual salvation.
Faith being both superior to reason and rational in content,
Bibago opposed both the extreme opponents and proponents
of philosophy. On the one hand, he sharply denounced
the bigoted zealots “who retain the shell but reject the kernel,
posing as pious before the multitude, while vilifying
and mocking the master [i.e., Maimonides] and his disciples”
(Derekh Emunah 45:4). On the other hand, however, he
sharply criticized the destructive tendency of some of the rationalists
in their pursuit of philosophy and free enquiry.
Influence
Bibago’s views influenced Isaac *Arama, who refers to them,
without, however, mentioning the author’s name. It appears
that Arama gained this knowledge through personal contact
bibas
rather than through reading the Derekh Emunah (Wilensky,
Yiẓḥak Arama, 44–5; cf. J.S. Delmedigo, Maẓref la-Ḥokhmah,
8b). Arama describes Bibago as “one of the most important
scholars and philosophers of our people” (Akedat Yiẓḥak, Gate
80). Isaac *Abrabanel quotes the Derekh Emunah in his Rosh
Amanah, without, however, mentioning its author’s name.
Jacob *Ibn Habib speaks highly of Bibago’s scholarship, although
he objects to his allegorical interpretation of talmudic
passages (Ein Ya’akov, end of tractate Berakhot).
Bibliography: Baer, Spain, index, S.V. Abraham Bivach;
Munk, Mélanges, 507; Graetz, Gesch, 8 (18903), 219ff.; Steinschneider,
in: MGWJ, 32 (1883), 79ff., 229; Steinschneider, Uebersetzungen,
89ff., and passim; S. Wilensky (Heller), Yiẓḥak Arama u-Mishnato
ha-Filosofit (1956), index; Y. Hakker, in: Fifth World Congress of
Jewish Studies, vol. 3 (1969); A. Altmann, “Moses Narboni’s ‘Epistle
on Shi`ur Qoma,’” in: Studies in Religious Philosophy and Mysticism
(1969), 209; A. Lazaroff, The Theology of Abraham Bibago (1981); A.
Nuriel, Concealed and Revealed in Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Heb.,
2000); idem, in: Tarbiz, 52 (1983), 154–66; C. Sirat, A History of Jewish
Philosophy in the Middle Ages (1985), 384–89; R. Jospe, in: A.J.S.
Newsletter, 33 (1983), 8–9.
[Raphael Jospe (2nd ed.)]
BIBAGO (Bivach), ISAAC (d. 1489), physician in Huesca,
Spain; brother of Abraham *Bibago. In the 1460s he and others
of his circle helped to bring back to the faith Jews who had
been forcibly converted to Christianity (see *Anusim). These
included the wealthy Converso *Juan de Ciudad, who spent
some time as a guest of the Bibago brothers in order to be instructed
by them in the principles of Judaism. In 1489 the Inquisition
uncovered the Huesca community’s proselytizing
activities, and Isaac was among the few suspects still living at
the time. He was arrested and was condemned to be burned
at the stake. However, as he accepted baptism he was strangled
before his body was consigned to the pyre; his fellow prisoners
were burned alive.
Bibliography: Baer, Spain, 2 (1966), 297–9, 385–9; Baer,
Urkunden, 1 pt. 2 (1956), 488ff.
BIBAS, family of rabbis and physicians originating in Spain.
After 1492 the Bibas family fled to Morocco where its members
became spiritual leaders of important communities. ABRA-
HAM BIBAS was one of the leaders of the Castilian community
in Fez in 1526. ḥAYYIM became dayyan of Tetuan in 1575; there
he built the Great Synagogue, which was destroyed by the Muslims
in 1667. His direct descendants succeeded him as leaders
of the community until after 1700. Other members of the family
were dayyanim in Salé. Known for their piety and learning,
they exercised great influence and had many disciples. Their
decisions and responsa were collected and many of them were
published with others of their works. Members of the Bibas
family settled in Safed, Jerusalem, Cairo, Leghorn, Amsterdam,
and Gibraltar. SHEM TOV was a member of Joseph Caro’s bet
din in Safed. JOSEPH was one of the leading rabbis in Safed
at the end of the 17th century. He was the father-in-law of the
Shabbatean Nehemiah Ḥayyon who found in his library an
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