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aḤya ben joseph ibn paquda
he copied from them. However, he mentions it only twice (as
“Midrash Rabbi Simeon b. Yoḥai”). Kad ha-Kemaḥ contains
alphabetically arranged clarifications on the foundations of
faith and had a wide circulation. The best edition is that of
Breit which contains a commentary (1880–92). A critical edition
of Kad ha-Kemaḥ, Shulḥan shel Arba, and Baḥya’s commentary
to Pirkei Avot was published by C.B. Chavel (Kitvei
Rabbenu Baḥya, 1970).
Bibliography: J. Reifmann, in: Alummah, 1 (1936), 69–101;
B. Bernstein, Die Schrifterklaerung des Bachja B. Asher (1891); Gottlieb,
in: Tarbiz, 33 (1963/64), 287–313; idem, in: Bar-Ilan Sefer ha-
Shanah, 2 (1964), 215–50 (Heb.), 27 (Eng. summary); 3 (1965), 139–85;
4–5 (1967), 306–23 (Heb.), 61 (Eng. summary); idem, Ha-Kabbalah
be-Khitvei R. Baḥya ben Asher (1970).
[Efraim Gottlieb]
BAḤYA (Bahye) BEN JOSEPH IBN PAQUDA (second half
of 11th century), moral philosopher. Little is known about the
particulars of Baḥya’s life beyond the fact that he lived in Muslim
Spain, probably at Saragossa. Baḥya was also known as a
paytan and some of his piyyutim are metered. Twenty piyyutim,
either published or in manuscript, signed with the name
Baḥya are assumed to be his. Baḥya’s major work, Kitāb al-
Hidāya ilā Farāʾiḍ al-Qulūb (ed. A.S. Yahuda, 1912), was written
around 1080. It was translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn
*Tibbon in 1161 under the title Ḥovot ha-Levavot (“Duties of
the Hearts”), and in this version it became popular and had a
profound influence on all subsequent Jewish pietistic literature.
Joseph *Kimḥi also translated portions of it, but his version
gained no circulation and is still in manuscript. Several
abridgments were made of the Hebrew translation, and the
work was translated into Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian,
and Yiddish. In more recent times it has been translated
into English (Duties of the Heart, text and translation by M.
Hyamson, 1962), German (Choboth ha-L’baboth. Lehrbuch der
Herzenspflichten, tr. by M. Stern, 1856), and French Introduction
aux devoirs des coeurs, tr. by A. Chouraqui, 1950). In his
Ḥovot ha-Levavot Baḥya drew a great deal upon non-Jewish
sources, borrowing from Muslim mysticism, Arabic Neoplatonism,
and perhaps also from the *Hermetic writings. From
Muslim authors he borrowed the basic structure of the book
as well as definitions, aphorisms, and examples to illustrate
his doctrines. In most cases his immediate sources cannot
be identified, and the theory that he was influenced by *Al-
Ghazali does not seem to be well-founded.
Despite the fact that Baḥya borrowed so liberally from
non-Jewish sources, Ḥovot ha-Levavot remains an essentially
Jewish book. In the introduction to this work Baḥya divides
the obligations incumbent upon the religious man into duties
of the members of the body (ḥovot ha-evarim), those obligations
which involve overt actions; and duties of the hearts
(ḥovot ha-levavot), those obligations which involve not man’s
actions, but his inner life. The first division includes the various
ritual and ethical observances commanded by the Torah,
e.g., the observance of the Sabbath, prayer, and the giving of
charity, while the second consists of beliefs, e.g., the belief
in the existence and unity of God, and attitudes or spiritual
traits, e.g., trust in God, love and fear of Him, and repentance.
The prohibitions against bearing a grudge and taking revenge
are also examples of duties of the hearts. Baḥya explains that
he wrote this work because the duties of man’s inner life had
been sorely neglected by his predecessors and contemporaries
whose writings had concentrated on religious observances,
that is, the duties of the members of the body. To remedy this
deficiency Baḥya wrote his work, which may be considered a
kind of counterpart to the halakhic compendia of his predecessors
and contemporaries. Just as their halakhic compendia
contained directions for the actions of the religious man,
so Baḥya’s work contained directions for his inner life. Ḥovot
ha-Levavot is modeled after the works of Muslim mysticism,
which attempt to lead the reader through various ascending
stages of man’s inner life, toward spiritual perfection and finally
union (or at least communion) with God. In similar
fashion Ḥovot ha-Levavot is divided into ten “gates” (chapters),
each of which is devoted to a particular duty of the heart,
which the Jew must observe if he is to attain spiritual perfection.
The ten chapters deal with the affirmation of the unity
of God (yiḥud), the nature of the world disclosing the workings
of God (beḥinat ha-olam), divine worship (avodat ha-
Elohim), trust in God (bittaḥon), sincerity of purpose (yiḥud
ha-ma’aseh), humility (keni’ah), repentance (teshuvah), selfexamination
(ḥeshbon ha-nefesh), asceticism (perishut), and
the love of God (ahavat ha-Shem).
In accordance with Platonic teachings (probably influenced
partially by the Epistles of the Sincere Brethren), he
maintains that man’s soul, which is celestial in origin, is placed,
by divine decree, within the body, where it runs the risk of forgetting
its nature and mission. The human soul receives aid
from the intellect and the revealed Law in achieving its goal.
To elucidate this point Baḥya makes use of the Muʿtazilite (see
*Kalām) distinction between rational and traditional commandments.
He holds that the duties of the members of the
body may be divided into rational commandments and traditional
(religious) commandments, while the duties of the
hearts are all rooted in the intellect. With the aid of reason and
the revealed Law the soul can triumph over its enemy, the evil
inclination (yeẓer), which attacks it incessantly in an effort to
beguile it into erroneous beliefs and to enslave it to bodily appetites.
Since the basis of religion is the belief in the existence
of God, the first chapter of the work is devoted to a philosophical
and theological explication of the existence and unity of
God and a discussion of His attributes. In the second chapter
Baḥya examines the order in the universe and the extraordinary
structure of man, the microcosm. Such an examination
leads to a knowledge of God, and to a sense of gratitude towards
Him as creator. In the third chapter he discusses divine
worship which is the expression of man’s gratitude to God. To
fulfill his duties to God without faltering and to achieve his
true goal, man must diligently practice a number of virtues.
One of these is trust in God, which is based on the belief that
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