Saadia Gaon

Saadia ben Joseph Gaon (* 882 in upper Egypt; † 942 in Sura / Babylonia ), Arabic Said bin Yūsuf al - Fayyūmi, was probably the largest and most famous of Gaonim, a rabbi and a prominent Jewish philosopher and exegete.

The name " Saadia " is obviously the Hebrew equivalent of his Arabic name "Sa ʿ īd ". In an acrostic for the Hebrew introduction to his first work, the ' Egron, he called himself " Said ben Josef," but later he wrote his name " Saadia ".

Life

In Sefer ha - Galui Saadia emphasizes his Jewish origins, he claims to noble family of Shelah, son of Judah (see I Chron IV 21) to include and among his ancestors Hanina ben Dosa, the famous ascetic of the first century. This brought Saadia also expressed by the fact that he named his son Dosa. From this nothing is known. About Joseph, Saadia's father, a statement of Aaron ben Meir has been handed down, after which he was forced to leave Egypt and died in Jaffa, probably during Saadia's long stay in the Holy Land. The popular nickname " Al- Fayyumi ", the Hebrew geographical name " Pitomi " corresponds refers to Saadia's birthplace Fayyum in Upper Egypt.

From Saadia's youth and education, little is known. At 20 he completed his first major work, the Hebrew dictionary which he called Agron. At 23, he wrote a polemic against the Karaites, Anan ben David of the trailer, and thus began his struggle with the heretical factions, which he criticized the position of traditional Judaism from. In the same year Saadia left Egypt and settled permanently in Palestine. In Aleppo, he learned of Ben Meir's reform of the Jewish calendar, by which the unity of Judaism was in danger. Saadia addressed a warning against him, and in Babylon he placed his knowledge and pen at the service of exilarch David ben Zakkai and the scholars of the Academy, by which added his own letters that they sent to the communities of the Diaspora ( 922 ). In Babylonia he wrote his "Sefer ha - Mo'adim " or " Book of Celebrations ," in which he rejected the allegations Ben Meir on the calendar, and so helped to avert the danger of a schism from Judaism.

His dispute with Ben Meir was an important factor in the call to Sura which he received 928. He was appointed by the exilarch David ben Zakkai to Gaon ( rabbinic leader ); and for the old academy, founded by Rav, began a new period of genius. Many did not want foreigners to see at the head of the academy, and even the mighty Exilarch itself, the old Nissim Naharwani wanted vain dissuaded by the appointment, found after two years, that Saadia's personality differed greatly from the submissive Geonim, where he was succeeded and who had the exilarch always subordinate.

In a Erbstreitigkeit to Saadia refused to sign a judgment of the exilarch, which he thought unjust, although the Gaon of Pumbedita had signed it. As the son of exilarch Saadia therefore threatened with violence and then was manhandled by his servant, open war broke out between the exilarch and the Gaon. Both excommunicated each other and telling their opponents each deposed; David ben Zakkai appointed Joseph Ben Jacob as gaon of Sura, while Saadia the Exilarchat on David's brother Hassan ( Josiah; 930) transferred. Hasan was forced to flee and died in exile in Khorasan; but the quarrel, which divided Babylonian Judaism continued. Saadia was attacked by the exilarch and his closest followers, the young but learned Aaron ibn Sargado in Hebrew pamphlets, fragments thereof a hatred on the part of exilarch and his followers show, who did not shrink even from shame. Saadia did not hesitate to respond accordingly.

The Sefer ha - Galui

Saadia wrote both in Hebrew and in Arabic a work, which is known only by a few fragments today, entitled Sefer ha - Galui (Hebrew, according to a widespread hypothesis as "open book " understandable Arabic title Kitab al - Ṭarid, understandable among others as "The book that refutes " ), in which he proudly displays its merits va describes in the fight against heresy.

The seven years which Saadia spent in Baghdad, away from Gaonat, did not interrupt his literary activity. His philosophical work was completed in 933. Four years later, the two enemies were by Ibn Bishr ben Aaron Sargados father reconciled; Saadia was reinstated in his office, but practiced it only five years out. David ben Zakkai died before him (about 940), a few months later by his son Judah, while David's young grandson of Saadia was supervised paternally. According to a statement made by Abraham ibn Daud, which is undoubtedly due to Saadia's son Dosa, Saadia 942 died at the age of 60 years at "Black Bile " ( melancholia ), repeated illnesses having had undermined his health.

Works

Tafseer

Under the title Tafseer ( exegesis ) Saadia Gaon wrote the influential Arabic translation of the Bible, which included a large part of the Tanakh. The Tafseer spread shortly after its release among Jews, Samaritans and Christians and has been used by its author in disputes with the Karaites. Karaites and Rabbinic Judaism were also Saadia Gaon occasion for, like Abraham ibn Daud of the Khazars to mention positive, since these did not follow the Karaites, but the rabbinic Judaism.

The Tafseer of Saadia Gaon is in Judeo - Arabic written in Hebrew letters. At a later date his translation of Samaritans and Christians was adapted and survived in Arabic letters.

Hebrew Linguistics

• ' Egron
• Kutub al - Lughah
• Tafsir al- Sab'ina Lafẓah, a list of seventy (actually ninety) Hebrew ( and Aramaic ) words that appear in the Bible only once or very rarely, and which can be explained from traditional literature, especially by the Neo - Hebräismen the Mishnah. This little book underwent numerous editions.

Halachic writings

• Short monographs in which problems of Jewish law are systematically investigated. Of these Arabic treatises Saadias little more than the titles and summaries is known only from the Kitab al - Mawarith longer fragments have survived.
• A comment about the 13 rules of Rabbi Ishmael obtained only in Hebrew translation. An Arabic methodology of the Talmud is mentioned by Azulai as work Saadias entitled Kelale ha - Talmud.
• Responsa. With few exceptions, only survived in Hebrew and probably written in this language.

The Siddur

Saadia's Siddur was the first known attempt the weekly ritual of Jewish prayers for Weekdays, Sabbaths and festivals to transcribe.

From the synagogue seal the Asharot ( " warnings " ) on the 613 commandments are most notable in which the author's name as " Sa'id b. Josef " is specified, followed by the expression " Alluf ", therefore the poems were written before he became gaon.

Philosophy of Religion

• Emunoth ve Deoth ( "Book of the articles of faith and dogma " ) - the earliest systematic elaboration and philosophical foundations of beliefs in Judaism. The book was published in the year 933 under the original Arabic title Kitab al - Amanat wal- l'tikadat ( " The Book of the articles of faith and the dogmatic teachings" ) and was translated in the 12th century by Judah ibn Tibbon into Hebrew.

• Tafsir Kitab al - Mabadi - commented Arabic translation of the Sefer Yetzirah, posted in Egypt ( or Palestine)

Polemical writings

• Three books against Karaite authors, known as Kitab al - Rudd ( "Book of rejections "). These three works are known only through brief quotations in other books, and like one of those quote proves the third work must have been written after 933.
• Kitab al - Tamyiz, ( in Hebrew "Sefer ha - Hakkarah "), " book of destiny," wrote 926 Saadias polemischstes book. It has been cited in the 12th century, and some passages from them are contained in a Bible commentary of Japheth ha -Levi.
• Maybe there was a polemic against Ben Zuta Saadias, but this controversy is only by a marginal note of the Gaon known
• A polemic against the rationalistic Biblical critic HIWI al - Balkhi, whose views were rejected by the Karaites themselves
• Kitab al - Shara'i ( " book on the precepts of the religion" )
• Kitab al-' Ibbur ( " book on the calendar " ), apparently also contained polemics against the Karaites
• Sefer ha - Mo'adim ( "Book of the Festivals " ), the Hebrew polemic against Ben Meir (see above)
• Sefer ha - Galui, also in Hebrew and in the same Biblical style as the Sefer ha - Mo'adim, an apologetic work against David ben Zakkai and his followers.

Importance

Saadia Gaon was a pioneer in the machined areas of it. Focus of his work was the Bible; and its importance in first line is based on the establishment of a new school of Biblical exegesis characterized by a rational investigation of the contents and scientific study of the language of the sacred texts.

Saadia's Arabic translation of the Bible was of importance for the history of civilization. Even a result of the Arabization of much of Judaism, this translation was for centuries an important factor in the penetration of the Jewish spirit with Arabic culture, so that they in that respect its place alongside the Greek Septuagint in antiquity and the German translation of the Pentateuch by Moses Mendelssohn. As an instrument of popular religious mediation presented Saadia's translation and the uneducated, the fonts in a rational form, which strove for the greatest possible clarity and consistency.

His system of hermeneutics was not limited to the exegesis of individual passages, but treated each book of the Bible as a whole and showed the inner remuneration of the individual parts to one another.

Saadia's commentary contained, as he writes in the introduction to his translation Pentateuch itself, not just an accurate interpretation of the text, but also a refutation of the objections that had been raised by heretics against it. In addition, the foundations of the dictates of reason are explained and characterized the commandments of revelation; in the former the author refers to philosophical reflection, the latter to the tradition.

The position, which is attributed to Saadia in the oldest list of Hebrew grammarians (included in the introduction to Ibn Ezra's Moznayim ), has not been challenged by recent historical studies. Again, he was the first; be now lost grammatical work provided the impetus for further studies, which reached its most brilliant and most important results in Spain. Saadia developed in part the categories and rules of Hebrew grammar. His dictionary, although it was still aligned simple and practical purposes, the foundation of Hebrew lexicography was; and the name Agron ( "Compilation " ), which he chose for it, has long been used as a term for Hebrew dictionaries, especially among the Karaites. The acquired from the Arabs categories of rhetoric were first applied by Saadia to the style of the Bible. He was also a founder of comparative philology, not only through his short book of seventy words (see above), but primarily by his explanation of the Hebrew vocabulary by the Arabic, especially in the case of the preferred translation of Biblical words by Arabic terms with the same sound.

Philosophy of Religion

With his book Emunoth ve Deoth ( Faith and Knowledge ) Saadia became the founder of the Jewish philosophy of religion. Unlike Sherira Gaon, who finished the genuine tradition, authenticity and continuity and gradual, unbroken sequence of the Torah and the Mishnah with the genealogy and declined and, Saadia Gaon occupied the genuine tradition of the Torah and the Mishnah with the logic.

Mysticism

In his commentary to the Sefer Yetzirah Saadia wants to make the contents of this mystical book understood by philosophy and other knowledge, particularly through a system of Hebrew phonology which he himself has developed. In this commentary he took distance from the theological reflections of Kalam, who have such great importance in his major works; and in his account of the theory of creation he made ​​a distinction between the Bible and the book he commented; he even went the doctrine of creation Sefer Yetzirah of, as he treated this subject in the first section of the Emunoth ve Deoth. It is concluded that the Sefer Yetzirah it - the roots of which he attributed to the patriarch Abraham - not considered as a real source of knowledge, although he said that the book is worthy of intensive study.