Saʿadia ben Joseph

Saʿadia ben Joseph (born 882, Dilaz, in al-Fayyūm, Egypt—died September 942, Sura, Babylonia) was a Jewish exegete, philosopher, and polemicist whose influence on Jewish literary and communal activities made him one of the most important Jewish scholars of his time. His unique qualities became especially apparent in 921 in Babylonia during a dispute over Jewish calendrical calculations. He produced his greatest philosophical work, Kitāb al-amānāt wa al-iʿtiqādāt (“The Book of Beliefs and Opinions”) at Sura in 935. His Arabic translation of the Old Testament is exceptionally valuable for its commentaries.

Life

Little is known of Saʿadia’s early years. When he departed from Egypt, at the age of about 23, he left behind, besides his wife and two sons, a distinguished group of devoted students. By that time he had already composed a Hebrew-Arabic dictionary, later expanded and issued under the name ha-Egron. For unknown reasons he migrated to Palestine. There he found a growing community of Karaites, a heretical Jewish sect that rejected the Talmud (the authoritative rabbinic compendium of law, lore, and commentary); this group enjoyed the support of the local Muslim authorities.

Apparently disappointed with the standards of learning in Palestine, he left for Babylonia. There he was confronted with not only the Karaitic schism but also a gnostic trend (derived from an ancient dualistic, theosophical movement), which rejected the foundations of all monotheistic religions. Books such as that of the Persian Jewish heretic Ḥiwi al-Balkhī, which denied the omnipotence, omniscience, and justice of the biblical God and pointed to biblical inconsistencies, were then popular. In the face of such challenges, Saʿadia marshaled his great talents in the defense of religion in general and Jewish tradition in particular. Employing the same manner as Ḥiwi, Saʿadia composed his refutation of him in a somewhat complicated rhymed Hebrew. Then, too, he wrote his Kitāb ar-radd ʿalā ʿAnān (“Refutation of Anan,” the founder of Karaism), a lost work that has been identified with Saʿadia’s partially extant polemical poem Essa meshali.

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In 921 Saʿadia, who by then had attained scholarly prominence, headed the Babylonian Jewish scholars in their conflict with the Palestinian scholar Aaron ben Meir, who had promulgated a far-reaching change in the Jewish calendrical computation. The conflict ended with no definite victory for either side. Yet, Saʿadia’s participation in it demonstrated his indomitable courage and his importance for the Jewish community in Babylonia. Throughout this period he continued his literary polemics against the Karaites. In 928 he completed his Kitāb attamyīz (“Book of Discernment”), a defense of the traditional Rabbanite calendar.

On May 22 of the same year he was appointed by the exilarch (head of Babylonian Jewry) David ben Zakkai as the gaon (“head”) of the academy of Sura, which had been transferred to Baghdad. Upon assuming this office, he recognized the need to systematize Talmudic law and canonize it by subject. Toward this end he produced Kitāb al-mawārīth (“Book on the Laws of Inheritance”); Aḥkam al-wadīʿah (“The Laws on Deposits”); Kitāb ash-shahādah wa al-wathāʾiq (“Book Concerning Testimony and Documents”); Kitāb aṭ-ṭerefot (“Book Concerning Forbidden Meats”); Siddur, a complete arrangement of the prayers and the laws pertaining to them; and some other minor works. In the Siddur he included his original religious poems. These works clearly show the Greco-Arabic methods of classification and composition.

His accomplishments intensified his sense of chosenness and made him more unyielding and less compromising. As it seems, these attitudes alienated some of his friends and provoked the envy of the Exilarch. In 932, when Saʿadia refused to endorse a decision issued by the Exilarch in a litigation, an open breach ensued between the two leaders. The Exilarch excommunicated Saʿadia, and the latter retaliated by excommunicating the Exilarch. After three years of embittered struggle, in which each side enjoyed the support of some rich and politically influential Jews of Baghdad, Ben Zakkai succeeded in having the Muslim ruler al-Qāhir remove Saʿadia from his office. The Gaon went into seclusion.

The years that followed turned out to be the brightest in Saʿadia’s literary career. During these years he composed his major philosophical work, Kitāb al-amānāt wa al-iʿtiqādāt. The objective of this work was the harmonization of revelation and reason. In structure and content it displays a definite influence of Greek philosophy and of the theology of the Muʿtazilī, the rationalist sect of Islām. The introduction refutes skepticism and establishes the foundations of human knowledge. Chapter one seeks to establish creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) in order to ascertain the existence of a Creator-God. Saʿadia then discusses God’s uniqueness, justice, revelation, free will, and other doctrines accepted both by Judaism and by the Muʿtazilī (a great Islāmic sect of speculative theology, which emphasized the doctrines of God’s uniqueness and absolute justice). The second part of the book deals with the essence of the soul and eschatological problems and presents guidelines for ethical living.

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In 937 a reconciliation between the Gaon and the Exilarch occurred, and Saʿadia was reinstated as gaon. In 940 Ben Zakkai died and seven months later his son died, leaving behind a young child. Saʿadia took the orphan into his home and treated him like his own. Saʿadia himself died in September 942.

Saʿadia’s works.

Exact chronology for many of Saʿadia’s works cannot be definitely determined. The most important of these in philology are: Kutub al-lughah (“Books on Grammar”), fragments of which were published by Solomon Skoss, and Tafsīr as-sab ʿīn lafẓah (“The Explanation of the Seventy Hapaxlegomina”), fragments of which were edited by N. Alony.

Saʿadia’s opus magnum was on exegesis. He prepared an Arabic translation of the whole Pentateuch (published by Joseph Derenbourg) and a translation with an extensive commentary on Genesis 1–28, Exodus, and Leviticus. Only a few fragments of this extensive commentary have been published. His translation and commentaries on Isaiah, Proverbs, Job, and Psalms are extant in their entirety. Fragments of his commentaries on Daniel and Canticles, Esther, and Lamentations are preserved in the Geniza collection (fragments of medieval texts found in an old synagogue in Cairo and transferred to various libraries). In his biblical commentaries the Gaon formulated new principles of interpretation modeled on the rules of Greco-Arabic rhetoric.

His anti-Karaite works include Kitāb ar-radd ʿalā Ibn Sākawayhī (“Refutation of Ibn Sākawayhī”) and Kitāb taḥṣīl ash-sharāʾiʿ as-samāʿīyah (“Book Concerning the Sources of the Irrational Laws”). In the latter work the Gaon contends that matters pertaining to the irrational commandments of the Mosaic Law may never be decided by means of analogy but only by the regulations transmitted through oral tradition. Talmudic tradition is therefore, he argues, indispensable. Another anti-Karaite work is the Maqālah fī sirāj as-sabt (“Treatise on the Lights of Sabbath”). It refutes the Karaite injunction forbidding the preparation of light for the sabbath.

In philosophy he wrote a philosophical commentary on the mystical book Sefer yetzira. In contrast to his “Book on Beliefs and Opinions,” this volume does not show any influence of kalām (Islāmic scholastic theology).