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Sa'adiah ben Yosef Gaon (882 or 892–942),[1] (Hebrew: סעדיה בן יוסף גאון‎, Arabic: سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي‎ Sa`īd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi); was a prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the geonic period. Events By Place Europe Carloman King of the West Franks, becomes sole king upon the death of his brother Events By Place Europe Poppo of Thuringia, count of the march in Thuringia, is deposed by the German Carolingian king Events By Place Asia Kaminarimon the eight-pillared gate to Japan 's Kinryuzan Sensouji Temple, is erected Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Rabbi (pronunciation, although in English usually) in Judaism, means a religious ‘teacher’ or more literally ‘my great one’ when addressing any master PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Exegesis (from the Greek 'to lead out' involves an extensive and critical interpretation of an authoritative text, especially of a Holy Geonim ( Hebrew: גאונים also transliterated Gaonim) were the presidents of the two great rabbinical colleges of Sura Saadia is known for his works on Hebrew linguistics, Halakha, and Jewish philosophy. Halakha ( הלכה; alternative transliterations include Halocho and Halacha) is the collective body of Jewish Religious law Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology He is one of the more sophisticated practitioners of the philosophical school known as the "Jewish Kalam" (Stroumsa 2003). Jewish Kalam was an early-medieval style of Jewish philosophy that evolved in response to the Islamic Kalam, which in turn was a reaction against Aristotelian philosophy In this capacity, his philosophical work Emunoth ve-Deoth represents the first systematic attempt to integrate Jewish theology with components of Greek philosophy. Emunoth ve-Deoth (he אמונות ודעות Hebrew: "Beliefs and Opinions" written by Rabbi Saadia Gaon - originally Kitab al-Amanat wal-l'tikadat Ancient Greek philosophy focused on the role of Reason and Inquiry. Saadia was also very active in opposition to Karaism, in defense of rabbinic Judaism. Karaite Judaism or Karaism (ˈkærəˌaɪt ˈkærəˌɪzəm) is a Jewish movement NOTE The word sect should not be used without defining it first and Rabbinic Judaism or Rabbinism ( Hebrew: " Yehadut Rabanit " - יהדות רבנית is the mainstream religious system of post- diaspora

Contents

Biography

Early life

Saadia, in "Sefer ha-Galui", stresses his Jewish lineage, claiming to belong to the noble family of Shelah, son of Judah (see Chronicles 1 4:21), and counting among his ancestors Hanina ben Dosa, the famous ascetic of the first century. Hanina Ben Dosa (1st century CE) was a scholar and miracle-worker and the pupil of Johanan ben Zakkai ( Berakhot, 34b Expression was given to this claim by Saadia in calling his son Dosa (this son later served as Gaon of Sura from 1013-1017). Gaon ('Pride ' Late medieval and modern Hebrew for 'genius' may refer to One of the Geonim, that is to say the heads of the two major academies at Pumbedita Sura was a city in the southern part of ancient Babylonia, located west of the Euphrates River. Regarding Joseph, Saadia's father, a statement of Aaron ben Meir has been preserved saying that he was compelled to leave Egypt and died in Jaffa, probably during Saadia's lengthy residence in the Holy Land. Aaron ben Meïr was a Palestinian Nasi (head of the Sanhedrin in the first half of the Tenth century. Jaffa يَافَا;(יָפוֹ Yafo; also Japho, Joppa) is an ancient Port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world The Holy Land ( Arabic: الأرض المقدسة al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah;Ancient Aramaic: ארעא קדישא Ar'a Qaddisha; Hebrew: ארץ_הקודש The usual epithet of "Al-Fayyumi" refers to Saadia's native place, the Fayum in upper Egypt; in Hebrew it is often given as "Pitomi," derived from a contemporary identification of Fayum with the Biblical Pithom (an identification found in Saadia's own works). Faiyum ( Arabic: الفيوم Coptic:) is a city in Middle Egypt and the capital of the Faiyum Governorate. Pithom (פתם also called Per-Atum or Heroöpolis or Heroonopolis ( Greek: or, Strabo xvi

At a young age he left his home to study under the Torah scholars of Tiberias. Tiberias ( British English: /taɪˈbɪəriæs -əs/ American English: /taɪˈbɪriəs/ טְבֶרְיָה Tverya; طبرية Ṭabariyyah At age 20 Saadia completed his first great work, the Hebrew dictionary which he entitled Agron. A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed Words in a specific language with definitions etymologies pronunciations and other information or a book of alphabetically At 23 he composed a polemic against the followers of Anan ben David, particularly Solomon ben Yeruham, thus beginning the activity which was to prove important in opposition to Karaism, in defense of rabbinic Judaism. Anan Ben David ( ענן בן דוד) is often considered to be the founder of the Karaite movement (a form of Judaism that split off from rabbinic Judaism due to its Karaite Judaism or Karaism (ˈkærəˌaɪt ˈkærəˌɪzəm) is a Jewish movement NOTE The word sect should not be used without defining it first and Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut In the same year he left Egypt and settled permanently in Palestine. Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

Dispute with Ben Meir

In 922 a controversy arose concerning the Hebrew calendar, that threatened the entire Jewish community. Events By Place Asia The Khitan Empire led by Abaoji, raids Hebei, China. The Hebrew calendar (הלוח העברי ha'luach ha'ivri) or Jewish calendar is a Lunisolar calendar used by Jews for predominantly religious Since Hillel II (around 359 CE), the calendar had been based on a series of rules (described more fully in Maimonides' Code[2]) rather than on observation of the moon's phases. Hillel II, ( Hebrew: הלל נשיאה Hillel the Nasi) also known simply as Hillel held the office of Nasi of the ancient Jewish Moses Maimonides ( March 30 1135 – December 13 1204) also known as the Rambam, was a Rabbi, Physician, and Lunar phase (or Moon phase refers to the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an observer usually on Earth One of these rules required the date of Rosh Hashanah to be postponed if the calculated lunar conjunction occurred at noon or later. Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה literally "head of the year" Biblical: ˈɾoʃ haʃːɔˈnɔh Israeli haʃaˈna Yiddish: hɑˈʃɔnə is a Jewish A lunar conjunction is the event when the earth moon and sun in that order are approximately in a straight line Rabbi Aaron ben Meir, the Gaon of the leading Talmudic academy in Israel (then located in Ramle), claimed a tradition according to which the cutoff point was 642/1080 of an hour (approximately 35 minutes) after noon. Aaron ben Meïr was a Palestinian Nasi (head of the Sanhedrin in the first half of the Tenth century. Gaon ('Pride ' Late medieval and modern Hebrew for 'genius' may refer to One of the Geonim, that is to say the heads of the two major academies at Pumbedita Yeshiva or yeshivah (jəʃi'və ( Hebrew: ישיבה "sitting (n For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Ramla (רַמְלָה Ramlāh; الرملة also Ramle and sometimes Rama) is a city in central Israel with a mixed Arab and [3] In that particular year, this change would result in a two-day schism with the major Jewish communities in Babylonia: according to Ben Meir the first day of Passover would be on a Sunday, while according to the generally accepted rule it would be on Tuesday.

Saadia was in Aleppo, on his way from the East, when he learned of Ben Meir's regulation of the Jewish calendar. For other meanings see Aleppo (disambiguation. Halab redirects here for other meanings see Halab (disambiguation. Saadia addressed a warning to him, and in Babylon he placed his knowledge and pen at the disposal of the exilarch David ben Zakkai and the scholars of the academy, adding his own letters to those sent by them to the communities of the Diaspora (922). Exilarch ( Aramaic: ריש גלותא Reish Galuta lit "Head of the Exile" ( Greek: Æchmalotarcha) refers to the leader of the David ben Zakkai (d 940 CE was an Exilarch, leader of the Jewish community of Babylon known in Jewish history especially for his conflict with Saadia Gaon The term Diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά &ndash " a scattering or sowing of seeds " refers any population sharing common ethnic Events By Place Asia The Khitan Empire led by Abaoji, raids Hebei, China. In Babylonia he wrote his "Sefer ha-Mo'adim," or "Book of Festivals," in which he refuted the assertions of Ben Meir regarding the calendar, and helped to avert from the Jewish community the perils of schism.

Appointment as Gaon

His dispute with Ben Meir was an important factor in the call to Sura which he received in 928. Sura was a city in the southern part of ancient Babylonia, located west of the Euphrates River. This article is about the year For the car see Porsche 928 Events By Place Asia Dao Kang Di succeeds Gong Hui Di and is followed The exilarch David ben Zakkai insisted on appointing him as Gaon (head of the academy), despite the weight of precedent (no foreigner had ever served as Gaon before), and against the advice of the aged Nissim Nahrwani, a Resh Kallah at Sura, who feared a confrontation between the two strong-willed personalities, David and Saadia. Exilarch ( Aramaic: ריש גלותא Reish Galuta lit "Head of the Exile" ( Greek: Æchmalotarcha) refers to the leader of the David ben Zakkai (d 940 CE was an Exilarch, leader of the Jewish community of Babylon known in Jewish history especially for his conflict with Saadia Gaon (Nissim declared, however, that if David was determined to see Saadia in the position, then he would be ready to become the first of Saadia's followers. [4])

Under his leadership, the ancient academy, founded by Rav, entered upon a new period of brilliancy. Abba Arika (175–247 ( Talmudic Aramaic: tmr אבא אריכא) (born Abba bar Aybo was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia [5] This renaissance was cut short, though, by a clash between Saadia and David, much as Nissim had predicted.

In a probate case Saadia refused to sign a verdict of the exilarch which he thought unjust, although the Gaon of Pumbedita had subscribed to it. Pumbedita (sometimes Pumbeditha, Pumpedita, or Pumbedisa) was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia that was a major center of Talmud When the son of the exilarch threatened Saadia with violence to secure his compliance, and was roughly handled by Saadia's servant, open war broke out between the exilarch and the gaon. Each excommunicated the other, declaring that he deposed his opponent from office; and David b. Zakkai appointed Joseph b. Jacob as gaon of Sura, while Saadia conferred the exilarchate on David's brother Hassan (Josiah; 930). Hassan was forced to flee, and died in exile in Khorasan; but the strife which divided Babylonian Judaism continued. Saadia was attacked by the exilarch and by his chief adherent, the young but learned Aaron ibn Sargado (later Gaon of Pumbedita, 943-960), in Hebrew pamphlets, fragments of which show a hatred on the part of the exilarch and his partisans that did not shrink from scandal. Aaron ibn Sargado was a tenth century AD Gaon ( Jewish religious leader in Pumbedita, Babylonia Saadia did not fail to reply.

Latter years

He wrote both in Hebrew and in Arabic a work, now known only from a few fragments, entitled "Sefer ha-Galui" (Arabic title, "Kitab al-Ṭarid"), in which he emphasized with great but justifiable pride the services which he had rendered, especially in his opposition to heresy.

The seven years which Saadia spent in Baghdad did not interrupt his literary activity. Baghdad (بغداد) is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous His principal philosophical work was completed in 933; and four years later, through Ibn Sargado's father-in-law, Bishr ben Aaron, the two enemies were reconciled. Events By Place Europe Cotentin and Jersey are seized by William Longsword, Duke of Normandy. Saadia was reinstated in his office; but he held it for only five more years. David b. Zakkai died before him (c. 940), being followed a few months later by the exilarch's son Judah, while David's young grandson was nobly protected by Saadia as by a father. Events By Place Asia Saadia Gaon compiles his Siddur (Jewish prayer book in Iraq. According to a statement made by Abraham ibn Daud and doubtless derived from Saadia's son Dosa, Saadia himself died in Babylonia at Sura in 942, at the age of sixty, of "black gall" (melancholia), repeated illnesses having undermined his health. Abraham ibn Daud ( Hebrew Avraham ben David ha-Levi; Arabic ابراهيم ابن داود) was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer Babylonia was an Amorite state in lower Mesopotamia (modern southern Iraq) with Babylon as its capital Sura was a city in the southern part of ancient Babylonia, located west of the Euphrates River.

Works

Exegesis

Saadia translated into Arabic most, if not all, of the Bible, adding an Arabic commentary, although there is no citation from the books of Chronicles. Exegesis (from the Greek 'to lead out' involves an extensive and critical interpretation of an authoritative text, especially of a Holy

Hebrew Linguistics

  1. Agron
  2. Kutub al-Lughah
  3. "Tafsir al-Sab'ina Lafẓah," a list of seventy (properly ninety) Hebrew (and Aramaic) words which occur in the Hebrew Bible only once or very rarely, and which may be explained from traditional literature, especially from the Neo-Hebraisms of the Mishnah. For other uses see Agron. The Agron was Saadia Gaon 's first production Kutub al-Lughah (كتب اللغة is a work of Hebrew Linguistics by Saadia Gaon, twelve "Books on Language" which are also designated The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic Hebraism is the identification of a usage trait or characteristic of the Hebrew language. The Mishnah or Mishna (he משנה "repetition" from the verb shanah he שנה or "to study and review" is a major work of Rabbinic Judaism This small work has been frequently reprinted.

Halakhic Writings

  1. Short monographs in which problems of Jewish law are systematically presented. Halakha ( הלכה; alternative transliterations include Halocho and Halacha) is the collective body of Jewish Religious law Of these Arabic treatises of Saadia's little but the titles and extracts is known, and it is only in the "Kitab al-Mawarith" that fragments of any length have survived.
  2. A commentary on the thirteen rules of Rabbi Ishmael, preserved only in a Hebrew translation. Ishmael ben Elisha (90-135 CE commonly known as Rabbi Ishmael, Hebrew: רבי ישמעאל) was a Tanna of the first and second An Arabic methodology of the Talmud is also mentioned, by Azulai, as a work of Saadia under the title "Kelale ha-Talmud". Rabbi Chaim Joseph David ben Isaac Zerachia Azulai (1724 &ndash 21 March 1807) ( Hebrew: חיים יוסף דוד אזולאי
  3. Responsa. Responsa ( Latin: plural of responsum, "answers" comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by Legal scholars in response to questions With few exceptions these exist only in Hebrew, some of them having been probably written in that language.
  4. The "Siddur": see Siddur of Saadia Gaon. A siddur ( Hebrew: סידור plural siddurim) is a Jewish Prayer book, containing a set order of daily prayers. The Siddur (prayerbook of Saadia Gaon is the earliest surviving attempt to transcribe the weekly ritual of Jewish prayers for week-days Sabbaths and
  5. Of this synagogal poetry the most noteworthy portions are the "Azharot" on the 613 commandments, which give the author's name as "Sa'id b. Joseph", followed by the title "Alluf," thus showing that the poems were written before he became gaon.

Philosophy of Religion

  1. Emunoth ve-Deoth (Kitab al-Amanat wal-l'tikadat): This work is considered to be the first systematic attempt to synthesize the Jewish tradition with philosophical teachings. Emunoth ve-Deoth (he אמונות ודעות Hebrew: "Beliefs and Opinions" written by Rabbi Saadia Gaon - originally Kitab al-Amanat wal-l'tikadat Prior to Saadia, the only other Jew to attempt any such fusion was Philo (1989 Ivry). Philo (20 BC - 50 AD) known also as Philo of Alexandria (gr Φίλων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria
  2. "Tafsir Kitab al-Mabadi," an Arabic translation of and commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah, written while its author was still residing in Egypt (or Palestine). Sefer Yetzirah ( Hebrew, "Book of Creation" ספר יצירה is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish Esotericism.

Polemical writings

  1. Refutations of Karaite authors, always designated by the name "Kitab al-Radd," or "Book of Refutation. " These three works are known only from scanty references to them in other works; that the third was written after 933 is proved by one of the citations.
  2. "Kitab al-Tamyiz" (in Hebrew, "Sefer ha-Hakkarah"), or "Book of Distinction," composed in 926, and Saadia's most extensive polemical work. It was still cited in the twelfth century; and a number of passages from it are given in a Biblical commentary of Japheth ha-Levi. Yefet ben Ali was perhaps the foremost Karaite commentator on the Bible during the "Golden Age of Karaism"
  3. There was perhaps a special polemic of Saadia against Ben Zuta, though the data regarding this controversy between is known only from the gaon's gloss on the Torah.
  4. A refutation directed against the rationalistic Biblical critic Hiwi al-Balkhi, whose views were rejected by the Karaites themselves;
  5. "Kitab al-Shara'i'," or "Book of the Commandments of Religion. Hiwi al-Balkhi ( 9th century) ( Hebrew: חיוי אל-בלכי, also Hiwwi or Chivi) was an exegete and Biblical critic of "
  6. "Kitab al-'Ibbur," or "Book of the Calendar," likewise apparently containing polemics against Karaite Jews;
  7. "Sefer ha-Mo'adim," or "Book of Festivals," the Hebrew polemic against Ben Meir which has been mentioned above.
  8. "Sefer ha-Galui," also in Hebrew and in the same Biblical style as the "Sefer ha-Mo'adim," being an apologetic work directed against David b. Zakkai and his followers.

Significance

Saadia Gaon was a pioneer in the fields in which he toiled. The foremost object of his work was the Bible; his importance is due primarily to his establishment of a new school of Biblical exegesis characterized by a rational investigation of the contents of the Bible and a scientific knowledge of the language of the holy text.

Saadia's Arabic translation of the Bible is of importance for the history of civilization; itself a product of the Arabization of a large portion of Judaism, it served for centuries as a potent factor in the impregnation of the Jewish spirit with Arabic culture, so that, in this respect, it may take its place beside the Greek Bible-translation of antiquity and the German translation of the Pentateuch by Moses Mendelssohn. Arabization ( Arabic: تعريب) describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic and/or As a means of popular religious enlightenment, Saadia's translation presented the Scriptures even to the unlearned in a rational form which aimed at the greatest possible degree of clearness and consistency.

His system of hermeneutics was not limited to the exegesis of individual passages, but treated also each book of the Bible as a whole, and showed the connection of its various portions with one another.

The commentary contained, as is stated in the author's own introduction to his translation of the Pentateuch, not only an exact interpretation of the text, but also a refutation of the cavils which the heretics raised against it. Further, it set forth the bases of the commandments of reason and the characterization of the commandments of revelation; in the case of the former the author appealed to philosophical speculation; of the latter, naturally, to tradition.

The position assigned to Saadia in the oldest list of Hebrew grammarians, which is contained in the introduction to Ibn Ezra's "Moznayim," has not been challenged even by the latest historical investigations. Here, too, he was the first; his grammatical work, now lost, gave an inspiration to further studies, which attained their most brilliant and lasting results in Spain, and he created in part the categories and rules along whose lines was developed the grammatical study of the Hebrew language. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. His dictionary, primitive and merely practical as it was, became the foundation of Hebrew lexicography; and the name "Agron" (literally, "collection"), which he chose and doubtless created, was long used as a designation for Hebrew lexicons, especially by the Karaites. The very categories of rhetoric, as they were found among the Arabs, were first applied by Saadia to the style of the Bible. He was likewise one of the founders of comparative philology, not only through his brief "Book of Seventy Words," already mentioned, but especially through his explanation of the Hebrew vocabulary by the Arabic, particularly in the case of the favorite translation of Biblical words by Arabic terms having the same sound.

Saadia's works were the inspiration and basis for later Jewish writers, such as Berachyah in his encyclopedic philisophical work Sefer Hahibbur (The Book of Compilation). Berachyah Ben Natronai Hanakdan, commonly known as Berachya was a Jewish poet author and philosopher

Relations to Mysticism

In his commentary on the "Sefer Yetzirah" Saadia sought to render lucid and intelligible the content of this esoteric work by the light of philosophy and other knowledge, especially by a system of Hebrew phonology which he himself had founded. He did not permit himself in this commentary to be influenced by the theological speculations of the Kalam, which are so important in his main works; and in his presentation of the theory of creation he made a distinction between the Bible and the book on which he commented, even omitting the theory of the "Sefer Yetzirah" regarding the creation of the world when he discussed the various views on this subject in the first section of his "Kitab al-Amanat wal-I'tiḳadat. Kalām (علم الكلام is the Islamic philosophy of seeking Islamic theological principles through Dialectic. " From this it may be concluded that he did not regard the "Sefer Yetzirah"—which he traces ultimately to the patriarch Abraham—as a real source for a knowledge of the theory of Judaism, although he evidently considered the work worthy of deep study. Abraham ( Ashkenazi   Avrohom or Avruhom; ابراهيم, {{Unicode|Ibrāhīm}}; Ge'ez:

Notes

  1. ^ The traditional birth year of 892 was exclusively cited before 1921 and is still occasionally cited. It rests on a statement by the twelfth-century historian Abraham ibn Daud that Saadia was "about fifty" years old when he died. Abraham ibn Daud ( Hebrew Avraham ben David ha-Levi; Arabic ابراهيم ابن داود) was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer The modern birth year of 882 rests on an 1113 CE Genizah fragment containing a list of Saadia's writings compiled by his sons eleven years after his death, which stated that he was "sixty years less forty … days" at death. A genizah (or geniza; Hebrew: "storage" plural genizot) is the store-room or depository in a Synagogue (or cemetery Henry Malter, "Postscript", Saadia Gaon: His life and works (1921) 421–428. Henry Malter (born at Zabno, Galicia, March 23[[ 867]] died 1925 was an American Rabbi and scholar Jacob [Jocob] Mann, "A fihrist of Sa'adya's works", The Jewish Quarterly Review new series 11 (1921) 423-428. Malter rejected 882 because it was in conflict with other known events in Saadia's life. He suspected an error by a copyist. 882 is now generally accepted because its source is closer in both time and space to his death.
  2. ^ Laws of the Sanctification of the Moon, chs. 6-10, written c. 1170.
  3. ^ Various suggestions have been made as to where Ben Meir got this figure. A contemporary author, Remy Landau, suggests that he wanted to optimize the rule and thereby reduce the frequency of this postponement (The Meir-Saadia Calendar Controversy).
  4. ^ Yuchasin, section 3, account by Nathan the Babylonian.
  5. ^ Letter of Sherira Gaon.

References

See also

External links

Emunoth ve-Deoth (he אמונות ודעות Hebrew: "Beliefs and Opinions" written by Rabbi Saadia Gaon - originally Kitab al-Amanat wal-l'tikadat Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Rabbi (pronunciation, although in English usually) in Judaism, means a religious ‘teacher’ or more literally ‘my great one’ when addressing any master The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים الجامعة العبرية في القدس abbreviated HUJI) is
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