Joseph ibn Tzaddik
Encyclopedia
Rabbi Joseph ben Jacob ibn Tzaddik (?-1149) was a Spanish rabbi
, poet, and philosopher. A Talmudist of high repute, he was appointed in 1138 dayyan at Cordova, which office he held conjointly with Maimon, father of Maimonides
, until his death. Joseph was also a highly gifted poet, as is attested by Alharizi. Several of Joseph's religious poems are found in the Sephardic and African machzorim; and a poem addressed to Judah ha-Levi, on his visit to Cordova
en route to Palestine
, is included in the latter's diwan.
("Timæus," 47b), and greatly developed by the Arabian encyclopedists known as "the Brethren of Sincerity," by whom Joseph was greatly influenced.
Conceptions of the higher verities are to be attained by man through the study of himself, who sums up in his own being the outer world. Joseph therefore devotes the second division of his work to the study of physical and psychological man. There is nothing in the world, he holds, that does not find a parallel in man. In him are found the four elements and their characteristics; for he passes from heat to cold, from moisture to dryness. He participates in the nature of minerals, vegetables, and animals: he comes into being and passes out of being like the minerals; nourishes and reproduces himself like the plants; has feeling and life like the animals. Further, he presents analogies to the characteristics of things: his erect figure resembles that of the terebinth; his hair, grass and vegetation; his veins and arteries, rivers and canals; and his bones, the mountains. Indeed, he possesses the characteristics of the animals: he is brave like a lion, timid like a hare, patient like a lamb, and cunning like a fox.
From the physical, Joseph passes on to deal with the psychical man. Man, he says, is made up of three souls, vegetative, animal, and rational. Of these the rational soul is the highest in quality: it is of a spiritual substance; and its accidents are equally spiritual, as, for instance, conception, justice, benevolence, etc. Imbecility, injustice, malice, etc., are not accidents, but are negations of the accidents of conception, justice, and benevolence. Thus from the knowledge of his physical being man derives his conception of the material world; from that of his soul he acquires his conception of the spiritual world; and both of them lead to the cognizance of the Creator.
Maimonides
in Guide to the Perplexed (I:72) also notes the man-as-microcosm theme, but limits this analogy to one of rulership: Just as man without the rule of his rational faculties would perish, so to the world without its Ruler would perish.
and Bahya ibn Paquda
, though more precisely and more systematically, Joseph proves the creation of the world (and consequently the existence of a Creator) from its finiteness. He criticizes the theory of the Motekallamin
(as expounded in the Machkimat Peti of Joseph ha-Ro'eh), who assert that the world was produced by the created will of God. For him the will of God has existed from all eternity, and can not be separated from the essence of God. He claims that creation is timeless, and that before the production of the spheres time did not exist.
From the notion of the existence of God results the conception of the uniqueness of God; for the supposition of a plurality in His essence would nullify the notion of His existence. What the unit is to other numbers—forming and embracing them, yet still differing from them in essence—God is to the created beings. With the doctrine of the unity of God is connected the doctrine of the divine attributes. Here Joseph is in advance of his predecessors Saadia Gaon
and Bahya ibn Paquda
; and, like Maimonides
, he concludes that no positive attributes, whether essential or unessential, can be posited of God, who is indefinable.
, Joseph says that man ought to know three things: (1) that there is a Creator who protects all and disposes of everything; (2) that nothing can be hidden from God; (3) that man can not win the favor of God by sacrifices, but must gain it by good deeds. Joseph asserts man's free will, without which there could be no reward or punishment (see Free Will
); and he follows Saadia Gaon
in the solution of the problem of God's prescience. The inequality in the distribution of worldly goods, the transitoriness of the world, the relativeness of the happiness procured by worldly goods, are for Joseph so many proofs that reward and punishment can take place only in the next world. He argues against the doctrine of bodily resurrection in the Messianic time. Though not himself a Motazilite
, Joseph accepted a number of Motazilite theories and views (Schreiner, Der Kalam, p. 27).
The Olam Katan was little studied in the Middle Ages, and is very rarely quoted. Although paying a high tribute to Joseph's learning, Maimonides
, in his letter addressed to Samuel ibn Tibbon (Pe'er ha-Dor, p. 28b), acknowledges that he has never seen the work, in which, he believes, are expounded the teachings of the Brethren of Sincerity. The Olam Katan is cited by David Kimchi, Jedaiah Bedersi, Meir ibn Aldabi
, Isaac ibn Latif
, and by the author of Ma'amar Haskel. It was edited for the first time by Adolf Jellinek
at Leipsic in 1854. A critical edition was published by S. Horovitz in the Jahresbericht des Jüd.-Theol. Seminars, Breslau, 1903. Joseph was the author also of an Arabic work on logic, entitled Al-'Uyun wal-Mudhakarat, quoted in the Olam Katan.
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, poet, and philosopher. A Talmudist of high repute, he was appointed in 1138 dayyan at Cordova, which office he held conjointly with Maimon, father of Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, until his death. Joseph was also a highly gifted poet, as is attested by Alharizi. Several of Joseph's religious poems are found in the Sephardic and African machzorim; and a poem addressed to Judah ha-Levi, on his visit to Cordova
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
en route to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, is included in the latter's diwan.
Microcosmus
Joseph's reputation rests, however, not on his rabbinical knowledge or his poetical abilities, but on his activity in the field of religious philosophy. In a short treatise written in Arabic (the title being probably Al-'Alam al-Saghir) and, according to Steinschneider, translated by Nahum ha-Ma'arabi into Hebrew under the title Olam Katan, he expounds his views on the most important problems of theology. Though not an original thinker he shows himself to be thoroughly familiar with the philosophical and scientific literature of the Arabs, and imposes the stamp of his own individuality on the subjects treated. The Olam Katan comprises four main divisions, subdivided into sections. After stating the elementary and primary principles of the knowledge of God, the acquisition of which is the highest duty of man, and explaining how the human soul builds up its conception of things, Joseph treats, in the manner of the Arabic Aristotelians, of matter and form, of substance and accident, and of the composition of the various parts of the world. He concludes the first division with the central idea from which the book is evolved, namely, the comparison between the outer world (macrocosm) and man (microcosm), already hinted at by PlatoPlato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
("Timæus," 47b), and greatly developed by the Arabian encyclopedists known as "the Brethren of Sincerity," by whom Joseph was greatly influenced.
Conceptions of the higher verities are to be attained by man through the study of himself, who sums up in his own being the outer world. Joseph therefore devotes the second division of his work to the study of physical and psychological man. There is nothing in the world, he holds, that does not find a parallel in man. In him are found the four elements and their characteristics; for he passes from heat to cold, from moisture to dryness. He participates in the nature of minerals, vegetables, and animals: he comes into being and passes out of being like the minerals; nourishes and reproduces himself like the plants; has feeling and life like the animals. Further, he presents analogies to the characteristics of things: his erect figure resembles that of the terebinth; his hair, grass and vegetation; his veins and arteries, rivers and canals; and his bones, the mountains. Indeed, he possesses the characteristics of the animals: he is brave like a lion, timid like a hare, patient like a lamb, and cunning like a fox.
From the physical, Joseph passes on to deal with the psychical man. Man, he says, is made up of three souls, vegetative, animal, and rational. Of these the rational soul is the highest in quality: it is of a spiritual substance; and its accidents are equally spiritual, as, for instance, conception, justice, benevolence, etc. Imbecility, injustice, malice, etc., are not accidents, but are negations of the accidents of conception, justice, and benevolence. Thus from the knowledge of his physical being man derives his conception of the material world; from that of his soul he acquires his conception of the spiritual world; and both of them lead to the cognizance of the Creator.
Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
in Guide to the Perplexed (I:72) also notes the man-as-microcosm theme, but limits this analogy to one of rulership: Just as man without the rule of his rational faculties would perish, so to the world without its Ruler would perish.
Theological Views
The third division deals with the doctrine of God, the divine attributes, and similar theological problems. Like Saadia GaonSaadia Gaon
Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon was a prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the Geonic period.The first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Arabic, he is considered the founder of Judeo-Arabic literature...
and Bahya ibn Paquda
Bahya ibn Paquda
Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived at Zaragoza, Spain, in the first half of the eleventh century...
, though more precisely and more systematically, Joseph proves the creation of the world (and consequently the existence of a Creator) from its finiteness. He criticizes the theory of the Motekallamin
Kalam
ʿIlm al-Kalām is the Islamic philosophical discipline of seeking theological principles through dialectic. Kalām in Islamic practice relates to the discipline of seeking theological knowledge through debate and argument. A scholar of kalām is referred to as a mutakallim...
(as expounded in the Machkimat Peti of Joseph ha-Ro'eh), who assert that the world was produced by the created will of God. For him the will of God has existed from all eternity, and can not be separated from the essence of God. He claims that creation is timeless, and that before the production of the spheres time did not exist.
From the notion of the existence of God results the conception of the uniqueness of God; for the supposition of a plurality in His essence would nullify the notion of His existence. What the unit is to other numbers—forming and embracing them, yet still differing from them in essence—God is to the created beings. With the doctrine of the unity of God is connected the doctrine of the divine attributes. Here Joseph is in advance of his predecessors Saadia Gaon
Saadia Gaon
Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon was a prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the Geonic period.The first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Arabic, he is considered the founder of Judeo-Arabic literature...
and Bahya ibn Paquda
Bahya ibn Paquda
Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived at Zaragoza, Spain, in the first half of the eleventh century...
; and, like Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, he concludes that no positive attributes, whether essential or unessential, can be posited of God, who is indefinable.
Ethics
The fourth division deals with the duties of man, reward and punishment, and resurrection. Man must serve God with all his heart, and carry out all His precepts, though, owing to the weakness of his intellect, he may not grasp the reason for some of them. With PlatoPlato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, Joseph says that man ought to know three things: (1) that there is a Creator who protects all and disposes of everything; (2) that nothing can be hidden from God; (3) that man can not win the favor of God by sacrifices, but must gain it by good deeds. Joseph asserts man's free will, without which there could be no reward or punishment (see Free Will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
); and he follows Saadia Gaon
Saadia Gaon
Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon was a prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the Geonic period.The first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Arabic, he is considered the founder of Judeo-Arabic literature...
in the solution of the problem of God's prescience. The inequality in the distribution of worldly goods, the transitoriness of the world, the relativeness of the happiness procured by worldly goods, are for Joseph so many proofs that reward and punishment can take place only in the next world. He argues against the doctrine of bodily resurrection in the Messianic time. Though not himself a Motazilite
Mu'tazili
' is an Islamic school of speculative theology that flourished in the cities of Basra and Baghdad, both in present-day Iraq, during the 8th–10th centuries. The adherents of the Mu'tazili school are best known for their having asserted that, because of the perfect unity and eternal nature of God,...
, Joseph accepted a number of Motazilite theories and views (Schreiner, Der Kalam, p. 27).
The Olam Katan was little studied in the Middle Ages, and is very rarely quoted. Although paying a high tribute to Joseph's learning, Maimonides
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
, in his letter addressed to Samuel ibn Tibbon (Pe'er ha-Dor, p. 28b), acknowledges that he has never seen the work, in which, he believes, are expounded the teachings of the Brethren of Sincerity. The Olam Katan is cited by David Kimchi, Jedaiah Bedersi, Meir ibn Aldabi
Meir ibn Aldabi
Meir ibn Aldabi was a writer of the 14th century, son of Isaac Aldabi, "He-Ḥasid" , grandson of Asher ben Jehiel, and a descendant of the exiles from Jerusalem...
, Isaac ibn Latif
Isaac ibn Latif
Isaac ibn Latif was a Jewish neoplatonist philosopher, who lived most of his life in Toledo, the capital of the Christian kingdom of Castile. In 1238 he published the treatise schaar ha-schamajim .- References :...
, and by the author of Ma'amar Haskel. It was edited for the first time by Adolf Jellinek
Adolf Jellinek
----Adolf Jellinek |Drslavice]], nearby Uherské Hradiště, Moravia - December 28, 1893, Vienna) was an Austrian rabbi and scholar...
at Leipsic in 1854. A critical edition was published by S. Horovitz in the Jahresbericht des Jüd.-Theol. Seminars, Breslau, 1903. Joseph was the author also of an Arabic work on logic, entitled Al-'Uyun wal-Mudhakarat, quoted in the Olam Katan.