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WISDOM OF THE EAST

THE DUTIES OF THE HEART

BY RABBI BACHYE

TRANSLATED, WITH INTRODUCTION

BY EDWIN COLLINS
HELLIER HEBREW  SCHOLAR, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1905

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CONTENTS

Editorial Note - p. 4
Introduction - p. 5

Wisdom, the highest good - p. 15
Seek no reward but wisdom's self - p. 16
The gates of knowledge - p. 17
The ethics of the body and the ethics of the soul - p. 17
Examples of the duties of the heart - p. 18
The duties of the heart are more important than any others - p. 19
The dual duty of the dual man - p. 20
All conduct is conditioned by the heart - p. 20
The duties of the heart are for every time and place - p. 21
Endless virtues spring from those of the heart - p. 22
The duty of using reason: And of taking no dogma on trust - p. 22
Faith without knowledge - p. 22
Belief in the existence of one creator as the basis of ethics - p. 23
The only true unity - p. 24
The examination of creation shows the goodness of the creator - p. 25
Free will and providence - p. 25
Gratitude to god and man - p. 26
Gratitude is due for good intentions - p. 26
The motives of human benevolence - p. 26
Man's obligation of gratitude to god - p. 28
The motive forces that impel man to grateful service - p. 29
The whole of human conduct belongs to the domain of ethics - p. 30
The danger of pride and self-righteousness - p. 32
The danger of pride - p. 32
Humility, true and false - p. 33
The signs and consequences of true humility - p. 34
Humility and egotism - p. 35
Aids to the cultivation of humility - p. 35
The charity of the meek - p. 36
Consistent humility and sincerity - p. 37
Where humility is sin - p. 37
The hall-marks of the meek - p. 37
The pride consistent with humility - p. 38
Humility as a worldly advantage - Contentment - p. 39
The proper study of mankind is man - p. 40
Of trust in god - p. 42
Keeping account with the soul - p. 44
Contemplation leading to communion with god - p. 46
The gate of love - p. 48
The right study of nature leads to nature's god - p. 49
What is repentance - p. 51
The motives to repentance - p. 54
On the possibility of repentance - p. 55
Habits of those that love god - p. 57

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From the INTRODUCTION

BACHYE'S "Guide to the Duties of the Heart" is the unique work that first linked the ethical science of the West with the emotional and spiritual morality of the East. It combines, in an artistic unity, elements drawn from the philosophy and contemplative mysticism of the Arabs, from Biblical and Rabbinic Judaism, and from Greek thought. By exhibiting the spiritual foundations of universal Ethics, and of the moral law of the Bible, in the light of pure reason, Bachye prepared the way for finding that common ground on which, wholly or in part, all the moral religions, and all the non-religious systems of morality, are rooted. Therefore, although actually written in Spain, a land of the West, it forms a fitting opening volume for the "Wisdom of the East Series."

Only a small part of the original finds a place in the following pages; but I have in my translation— sometimes literal, now and again a summarised paraphrase—endeavoured to give a selection of passages connected by the author's central thought, and showing his line of argument and the aim and spirit of his work, instead of a mere collection of pithy sayings and isolated, beautiful, but disconnected reflections. This was the only way of doing justice to an author, some of whose reasonings are out of date, but the spirit of whose main contention is eternally valid; a teacher of virtue and duty, who did not attempt to inculcate this or that individual virtue, but aimed at the formation of character and conditions in which right conduct would be inevitable, so that details might well be left to take care of themselves.

If the modern world owes its delight in physical beauty, and much of its sense of the true in Nature and in Art, to Greece; its ideal of goodness, and practically all the spiritual elements in our thought and feeling, our conception of holiness, and every moral characteristic of civilisation and of culture, have come to us from the Orient. For the form and system of Ethics we may be indebted to the few Hellenic thinkers whose sublime intellects raised them above the phenomenal world into a clear atmosphere of ideas, always suffused with the light of truth and justice; but all the permanent and vital contents of Ethics came, living and pulsating, with their vitalising possibilities, both into that atmosphere and into our life of to-day, with the glow of dawn from the East. Indeed, the two cardinal ideas essential to all present and future moral systems—the sanctity of human life as such, and the, absolutely universal authority and validity of moral law and obligation—are entirely absent from even the writings of Plato, the greatest of the Greeks. These two are among the most definite colours that the prism of modern thought has enabled us to single out in our perception of the pure white light, from the sun of righteousness that shone on Sinai. They are specially characteristic of the Hebrew moral teaching which the three great religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islamism—have spread throughout the world.

In the world's organism, it seems to be the special function of the Oriental peoples to secrete, or to absorb from what is, or may be, beyond and above the physical universe, all that man needs to nourish the life of his soul and to perfect his individuality; while it is the function of the Western civilised nations to show the Eastern peoples how the material resources and the forces of nature may be mastered, and the observed relations which we call nature's laws may be applied to serve the purposes of material life, individual and communal. The Semitic religious, and the Aryan-Oriental mystic, intuitions, seem to be the chlorophyll that draws, from the sunlight of spiritual being, elements essential to the healthy growth of the human race; and if Western humanity is to be saved from becoming a dry and sapless log, it must perennially renew that foliage which brings it into contact with the ambient upper air, warmed by the glow of righteousness and love.

... Rabbi Bachye bar Joseph ibn Bakoda was a contemporary of the poet-philosopher Ibn Gebirol, and held, in the Jewish community, the position of Dayan—an office which combines something of the duties of a judge in civil, religious, and matrimonial causes, with those of a Rabbi authorised to answer questions on all matters of Jewish law and life, and on the application, to special and exceptional cases, of the general principles found in the Bible and Talmud.

Before the writing of his "Duties of the Heart," no systematic treatise on Ethics had appeared among the Jews. Hebrew literature, from the Bible onwards, is, of course, full of ethical and moral teaching, and the same must be said of the Talmud and the Midrashim, ''The Sentences of the Fathers," and of Rabbi Nathan; while "The Masecheth Derech Eretz," Ibn Gebirol's "The Choicest of the Pearls," and "The Son of Proverbs," by Samuel Hannagid, must be mentioned among the chief works with ethical contents. But no scientific working out of a system of ethics based on one central thought, and claiming universal validity, had even been thought of. Bachye also complained that although there was no lack of guidance as to the duties of the body and its members, by which he understood all the outward conduct of life—even honesty in dealing, deeds of charity and benevolence and even the activities of the tongue and lips in prayer and praise, and in good or evil speaking, in telling the truth and in lying—there was no book dealing with the Duties of the Heart and Mind.

It was to supply this want that he wrote, in Arabic, the book which was destined in its Hebrew Translation (by Jehudah ibn Tibbon) to become one of the most popular as well as the most authoritative expositions of spiritual Judaism.

... By the Duties of the Heart Bachye understands the whole of conduct, and of thought in its ideal essence. For he holds that the outward act is, morally, of no significance, except in so far as it represents a manifestation of character and an expression of intention.

The whole of conduct belongs to the domain of ethics. Every act, and every abstention from action, is either right or wrong. Even the amount one eats, the wearing of certain clothes, the use of language, the simplest movements of the body, are, all of them, parts of conduct to be distinguished as either right or wrong. But what makes them so is not the act itself, but the intention with which it is done or left undone. And, since our intentions are conditioned by our state of mind and feeling, the first and the final duty, the foundation of ethics, is the perfection of our own souls.

Thus Bachye is at one with Stephen in asserting that "the moral law has to be asserted in the form : not 'do this,' but 'be this.'"

The perfection of the human soul, however, from which all right conduct must result, and which every righteous act and every righteous thought tends to produce, is only attained by bringing it into complete unison with God, through such a perfect love of Him that His will is our will, and we have no desire that is out of harmony with His wisdom and His benevolence.

... It is interesting to note that, although Bachye is an orthodox Rabbi, his ethics is not a Jewish theological work, but sets forth a motive to right conduct, starting from universal reason, and appealing, not only to the Children of Israel, nor even to the wise and intelligent alone, but to all mankind. Human reason is the ultimate test of conduct, of revelation, and of faith. The duties of the heart are more important than those of the body, because they are of universal application, and not limited by time, or place, or circumstance.
 

EDWIN COLLINS.

Feb. I, 1904.

______________________________________

The following summary draws upon various sources, for example:

An article on Muslim influences in Judaism

An article about the Sufi Influence on Spanish Jews

A Wikipedia article on the Chovot HaLevavot (Duties of the Heart)

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Influences / Background

Islam has a rich religious and cultural tradition very akin to Judaism.

"There was a tradition of Jewish thought which arose in a Muslim milieu and expressed itself principally in Judæo-Arabic writings. Today this tradition usually goes under the name of medieval Jewish philosophy. Its representatives include Saadya Gaon, Bachye ibn Paquda, Ibn Daud, and of course Judah HaLevi and Moses Maimonides.

"It is a well-known fact that the Jewish authors in question were, in general, students of the works of the Muslim Falasifa (philosophers) and acknowledged their debts to them. Moreover they frequently and candidly adopted their interpretations of the works of Plato and Aristotle.

"There is an important difference, however. In Islam, especially Western Islam, where the Judæo-Arabic tradition flourished, philosophical and exegetical literature were fairly distinct enterprises. In the West the preferred philosophic teacher was al-Farabi, whose works have extremely few Quranic references, and refer mainly to classical philosophy and the works of Plato and Aristotle.

"By contrast, in the works of the Judæo-Arabic philosophers, Scripture and its exegesis play an important role."
 

(From Hillel Fradkin - "Philosophy or Exegesis" in Golb, p. 103-105)
 

Bachye ben Joseph ibn Paquda (1040-1080 CE), a dayyan, or judge at the rabbinical court in Saragossa, Spain, was one of the earliest, and most influential Jewish thinkers to become deeply influenced by the Sufis. Ultimately, through his study of Islamic works, he penned the Guide to the Duties of the Heart (c. 1040 CE), a Sufi manual recast as Jewish theology.

While it is impossible to know exactly how Rabbi Bachye initially became influenced by Islamic mysticism, Ibn Paquda was intimately aware of virtually all major Sufi writers up to the time that he lived, quoting them (anonymously) often and using their works as the basis for his own seminal Jewish work.

Duties of the Heart was completely riffled through with Islamic illusions — from direct quotes from hadith, to passages lifted from the Qur'an, Sufi anecdotes and other Muslim source material. The structure, as well, was borrowed from Islamic precursors, with the book being divided into 10 chapters, each representing a "gate," or a specific Sufi virtue that Ibn Paquda explicated. Ultimately, these stations, when correctly followed, would lead to the Sufi prayer ideal: a divine union with God. Taken over from the Sufis, these "gates" presaged the 10 Sephirot of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. He based his representation of these 10 levels of closeness to God on the Sufi al Makki's (d. 996) Qut al-Qulub, the first comprehensive manual of Sufism. The similarities are so striking that Ibn Paquda's work has sometimes been mistaken for a translation of his Sufi mentor's!

Timeline of Islam and Judaism:

c. 500 BCE – completion of most books of the Hebrew Bible
70 CE – destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans
c. 220 – completion of the Mishnah, founding text of Rabbinic Judaism, including Pirkei Avot, a collection of ethical sayings
by c. 400 – completion of the Jerusalem Talmud and early Midrashim
c. 570 – birth of Prophet Muhammad
c. 600 – completion of the Babylonian Talmud
c. 610 – first revelations of the Qur'an to Muhammad
622 – Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to Medina (both now in Saudi Arabia), the Hejira. Muhammad assumes leadership of Medina. Year One in the Muslim calendar.
632 – death of Muhammad
633-642 – Arab / Muslim conquest of Syria (including Palestine), Iraq and Egypt
711-712 – Muslim conquest of Spain
928-942 – in Iraq, Saadya Gaon writes his Arab translation of the Bible and other works
1038-56 – Samuel ibn Naghrela serves as vizier of Granada, high point of Jewish power in Muslim Spain
c. 1080 – in Spain, Rabbi Bachya ibn Paquda writes Duties of the Heart in Arabic
1085 – first beginnings of Christian reconquest of Spain
c. 1139 – in Spain, Judah HaLevi writes the Kuzari in Arabic
1190 – in Egypt, Maimonides writes Guide for the Perplexed in Arabic
1204 – death of Maimonides; his son R. Avraham ben haRambam succeeds him as leader 1200s and 1300s – Maimonides’ son and descendants, leaders of Egyptian Jewry, promote a Jewish version of Sufism as the best path of Jewish piety
1492 – final completion of Christian reconquest of Spain, expulsion of Jews and Muslims

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Peculiarities

The Duties of the Heart became one of the most important Jewish pietistic works produced in the last 1,000 years — and was among the first books ever printed in Hebrew (Naples, 1489). It was written in Judæo-Arabic (but in Hebrew characters) under the title Kitab al-Hidaya ila Fara'id al-Qulub ("Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart", sometimes titled as "Guide to the Duties of the Heart").

The Duties of the Heart is divided into 10 chapters termed Sha'arim ("gates"), corresponding to the 10 fundamental principles which, according to Bachye's view, constitute man's spiritual life. This treatise on the inner spiritual life makes numerous references to both Biblical and Talmudic texts. It draws on the contemporary Muslim / Sufi influences present in his contemporary Medieval Spain and also to the Classics (translated by the school of Hunayn bin Ishaq).

Contents and Message

The essence of all spirituality being the recognition of God as the one maker and designer of all things, Bachye makes the Sha'ar HaYihud ("Gate of the Divine Unity") the first and foremost section. Taking the Jewish Confession, "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One," as a starting-point, the author emphasises the fact that for religious life it is not so much a matter of the intellect to know God as it is a matter of the heart to know and to love Him.

Bachye held it is not sufficient to accept this belief without thinking, as the child does, or because the fathers have taught so, as do the blind believers in tradition, who have no opinion of their own and are led by others. Nor should the belief in God be such as might in any way be liable to be understood in a corporeal or anthropomorphic sense, but it should rest on conviction which is the result of the most comprehensive knowledge and research. Far from demanding blind belief, the Torah appeals to reason and knowledge as proofs of God's existence. It is therefore a duty incumbent upon every one to make God an object of speculative reason and knowledge, in order to arrive at true faith.

Without intending to give a compendium of metaphysics, Bachye furnishes in this first gate a system of religious philosophy that is not without merit. Unfamiliar with Avicenna's works, which replaced Neoplatonic mysticism by clear Aristotelian thought, Bachye, like many Arab philosophers before him, bases his arguments upon Creation. He starts from the following three premises:

(1) Nothing creates itself, since the act of creating necessitates its existence (so also Saadia, "Emunot," i. 2)
(2) The causes of things are necessarily limited in number, and lead to the presumption of a First Cause which is necessarily self-existent, having neither beginning nor end, because everything that has an end must needs have a beginning
(3) All composite beings have a beginning; and a cause must necessarily be created.

The world is beautifully arranged and furnished like a great house, of which the sky forms the ceiling, the earth the floor, the stars the lamps, and Man is the proprietor, to whom the 3 kingdoms - animal, vegetable, and mineral - are submitted for use, each of these being composed of the 4 elements. Nor does the celestial sphere, composed of a 5th element - "Quinta Essentia," according to Aristotle, and of fire, according to others - make an exception. These 4 elements themselves are composed of matter and form, of substance and accidental qualities, such as warmth and cold, state of motion and of rest, and so forth.

Consequently the universe, being a combination of many forces, must have a creative power as its cause. Nor can the existence of the world be due to mere chance. Where there is purpose manifested, there must have been wisdom at work. Ink spilled accidentally upon a sheet of paper can not produce legible writing.


Unity of God

Bachye then proceeds, following chiefly Saadia Gaon and the Mutekallamin (teachers of the Kalam), to prove the unity of God by showing:
 

(1) All classes, causes, and principles of things lead back to one principal cause.
(2) The harmony of all things in nature, the interdependence of all creatures, the wondrous plan and wisdom displayed in the structure of the greatest and smallest of animal beings, from the elephant to the ant, all point to one great designer - the physico-theological argument of Aristotle.
(3) There is no reason for the assumption of more than one creator, since the world manifests but one plan and order everywhere. No one would without sufficient cause ascribe a letter written altogether in the same style and handwriting to more than one writer.
(4) The assumption of many creators would necessitate either a plurality of identical beings which, having nothing to distinguish them, could not but be one and the same - that is, God - or of different beings which, having different qualities and lacking some qualities which others possess, can no longer be infinite and perfect, and therefore must themselves be created, not self-existent.
(5) Every plurality, being a combination of units, presupposes an original unity; hence, even those that assume a plurality of gods must logically admit the prior existence of a Divine Unity - a Neoplatonic argument borrowed by Bachye from the Ikhwan as-Safa (Brethren of Purity).
(6) The Creator can not share with the creatures accidents and substance. The assumption of a plurality, which is an accident and not a substance, would lower God, the Creator, to the level of creatures.
(7) The assumption of 2 creators would necessitate insufficiency of either of them or interference of one with the power of the other; and as the limitation deprives the Creator of His power, unity alone establishes Divine omnipotence.

Bachye then endeavors to define God as the absolute unity by distinguishing God's unity from all other possible unities.


Attributes of God All Negative

Adopting this Neoplatonic idea of God as the one who can only be felt by the longing soul, but not grasped by the reason, Bachye finds it superfluous to prove the incorporeality of God. The question with him is rather, How can we know a being who is so far beyond our mental comprehension that we can not even define Him? In answering this, Bachye distinguishes between 2 different kinds of attributes; namely, essential attributes and such as are derived from activity.

Three attributes of God are essential, though we derive them from creation:

(1) God's existence; since a non-existent being can not create things
(2) God's unity
(3) God's eternity; since the last cause of all things is necessarily one and everlasting.

But Bachye holds that these 3 attributes are one and inseparable from the nature of God; in fact, they are only negative attributes: God can not be non-existent, or a non-eternal or a non-unit, or else He is not God.

The second class of attributes, such as are derived from activity, are most frequently applied to God in the Bible, and are as well applied to the creatures as to the Creator. These anthropomorphisms, however, whether they speak of God as having manlike form or as displaying a manlike activity, are used in the Bible only for the purpose of imparting in homely language a knowledge of God to men who would otherwise not comprehend Him; while the intelligent thinker will gradually divest the Creator of every quality that renders Him manlike or similar to any creature. The true essence of God being inaccessible to our understanding, the Bible offers the name of God as substitute; making it the object of human reverence, and the center of ancestral tradition. And just because the wisest of men learn in the end to know only their inability to name God adequately, the appellation "God of the Fathers" will strike with peculiar force all people alike. All attempts to express in terms of praise all the qualities of God will necessarily fail.

Man's inability to know God finds its parallel in his inability to know his own soul, whose existence is manifested in every one of his acts. Just as each of the 5 senses has its natural limitations - the sound that is heard by the ear, for instance, not being perceptible to the eye — so human reason has its limits in regard to the comprehension of God. Insistence on knowing the sun beyond what is possible to the human eye causes blindness in man; so does the insistence on knowing Him who is unknowable, not only through the study of His work, but through attempts to ascertain His own essence, bewilder and confound the mind, so as to impair man's reason.

To reflect on the greatness and goodness of God, as manifested throughout creation, is consequently the highest duty of man; and to this is devoted the second section of the book, entitled "Sha'ar HaBehinah" (Gate of Reflection).


His Natural Philosophy

Bachye points out a sevenfold manifestation for the creative wisdom in:
 

(1) The combination of the elements of which the earth forms the center, with water and air surrounding it and fire placed above
(2) The perfection of man as the microcosm
(3) The physiology and intellectual faculties of man
(4) The order of the animal kingdom
(5) That of the plant kingdom
(6) The sciences, arts, and industries of man; and
(7) The divine revelation as well as the moral and social welfare of all the nations.

Bachye held that man should think about his own wondrous formation in order to recognise the wisdom of his Maker.

Bachye then surveys the then understood physiology and psychology of humanity; showing the wisdom displayed in the construction of each organ and of each faculty and disposition of the soul; also in such contrasts as memory and forgetfulness - the latter being as necessary for the peace and enjoyment of man as is the former for his intellectual progress. In nature likewise, the consideration of the sublimity of the heavens and of the motion of all things, the interchange of light and darkness, the variety of colour in the realm of creation, the awe with which the sight of living man inspires the brute, the wonderful fertility of each grain of corn in the soil, the large supply of those elements that are essential to organic life, such as air and water, and the lesser frequency of those things that form the objects of industry and commerce in the shape of nourishment and raiment — all these and similar observations tend to fill man's soul with gratitude and praise for the providential love and wisdom of the Creator.


Worship of God

In this view, such understanding necessarily leads man to the worship of God, to which the third section, Sha'ar Avodat Elohim ("Gate of Divine Worship"), is devoted. Every benefit received by man, says Bachye, will evoke his thankfulness in the same measure as it is prompted by intentions of doing good, though a portion of self-love be mingled with it, as is the case with what the parent does for his child, which is but part of himself, and upon which his hope for the future is built; still more so with what the master does for his slave, who is his property.

Also charity bestowed by the rich upon the poor is more or less prompted by commiseration, the sight of misfortune causing pain of which the act of charity relieves the giver; likewise does all helpfulness originate in that feeling of fellowship which is the consciousness of mutual need. God's benefits, however, rest upon love without any consideration of self. On the other hand, no creature is so dependent upon helpful love and mercy as man from the cradle to the grave.


Pedagogical Value of Jewish law

Worship of God, however, in obedience to the commandments of the Law is in itself certainly of unmistakable value, inasmuch as it asserts the higher claims of human life against the lower desires awakened and fostered by the animal man. Yet it is not the highest mode of worship, as it may be prompted by fear of divine punishment or by a desire for reward; or it may be altogether formal, external, and void of that spirit which steels the soul against every temptation and trial.

Still, Jewish law is necessary as a guide for man, says Bachye, since there exists in man the tendency to lead only a sensual life and to indulge in worldly passions. There is another tendency to despise the world of the senses altogether, and to devote oneself only to the life of the spirit. In his view, both paths are abnormal and injurious: the one is destructive of society; the other, of human life in both directions. Jewish law therefore shows the correct mode of serving God by following "a middle way," alike remote from sensuality and contempt of the world.

The mode of worship prescribed by the Law has therefore mainly a pedagogical value, asserts Bachye. It educates the whole people, the immature as well as the mature intellects, for the true service of God, which must be that of the heart.

A lengthy dialogue follows, between the Soul and the Intellect, on Worship, and on the relation of Free Will to Divine Predestination; Bachye insisting on human reason as the supreme ruler of action and inclination, and therefore constituting the power of self-determination as man's privilege.

Another subject of the dialogue is the physiology and psychology of man with especial regard to the contrasts of joy and grief, fear and hope, fortitude and cowardice, shamefulness and insolence, anger and mildness, compassion and cruelty, pride and modesty, love and hatred, generosity and miserliness, idleness and industry.


Divine Providence

Trust in God forms the title and the subject of the fourth gate, Sha'ar HaBitachon. Greater than the magical power of the alchemist who creates treasures of gold by his art is the power of trust in God, says Bachye; for he alone who confides in God is independent and satisfied with what he has, and enjoys rest and peace without envying any one. Yet only God, whose wisdom and goodness comprise all times and all circumstances, can be implicitly confided in; for God provides for all His creatures out of true love, and with the full knowledge of what is good for each.

Particularly does God provide for man in a manner that unfolds his faculties more and more by new wants and cares, by trials and hardships that test and strengthen his powers of body and soul. Confidence in God, however, should not prevent man from seeking the means of livelihood by the pursuit of a trade; nor must it lead him to expose his life to perils. Particularly is suicide a crime often resulting from lack of confidence in an all-wise Providence. Likewise is it folly to put too much trust in wealth and in those who own great fortunes. In fact, all that the world offers will disappoint man in the end; and for this reason the Saints and the Prophets of old often fled their family circles and comfortable homes to lead a life of seclusion devoted to God only.


Immortality of the Soul

Bachye here dwells at length on the hope of immortality, which, in contradistinction to the popular belief in bodily resurrection, he finds intentionally alluded to only here and there in the Scriptures.

For Bachye the belief in immortality is purely spiritual, as expressed in Zech. iii. 7, "I give thee places among these that stand by."


Hypocrisy and Skepticism

Sincerity of purpose is the theme treated in the fifth gate, called Yihud HaMa'aseh ("Consecration of Action to God"); literally, "Unification of Action."

According to Bachye, nothing is more repulsive to the pious soul than the hypocrite. Bachye regarded skepticism as the chief means of seducing people to hypocrisy and all other sins. At first, says Bachye, the seducer will cast into man's heart doubt concerning immortality, to offer a welcome excuse for sensualism; and, should he fail, he will awaken doubt concerning God and divine worship or revelation. Not succeeding therein, he will endeavour to show the lack of justice in this world, and will deny the existence of an afterlife; and, finally, he will deny the value of every thought that does not redound to bodily welfare. Wherefore, man must exercise continual vigilance regarding the purity of his actions.


Humility

The sixth gate, Sha'ar HaKeni'ah, deals with humility. Humility is said to be manifested in gentle conduct toward one's fellowman, whether he be of equal standing or superior, but especially in one's attitude toward God. Humility springs from a consideration of the low origin of man, the vicissitudes of life, and one's own failings and shortcomings compared with the duties of man and the greatness of God; so that all pride even in regard to one's merits is banished.

Pride in outward possessions is incompatible with humility, and must be suppressed; still more so is pride derived from the humiliation of others. There is, however, a pride which stimulates the nobler ambitions, such as the pride on being able to acquire knowledge or to achieve good: this is compatible with humility, and may enhance it.


Repentance

The practical tendency of the book is particularly shown in the seventh section, Sha'ar HaTeshuvah (the "Gate of Repentance"). The majority even of the pious, Bachye says, are not those who have been free from sins, but rather those who have once sinned, yet then felt regret at having done so. As there are sins both of omission and of commission, man's repentance should be directed so as to stimulate good action where such had been neglected, or to train him to abstain from evil desires where such had led to evil actions.

Repentance consists in:

(1) The full consciousness of the shameful act and a profound regret for having committed it;
(2) A determination of change of conduct;
(3) A candid confession of the sin, and an earnest supplication to God asking His pardon;
(4) In a perfect change of heart.

True repentance shows itself in awe of God's justice, in contrition of soul, in tears in outward signs of grief — such as moderation of sensual enjoyment and display, and foregoing pleasures otherwise legitimate — and in a humble, prayerful spirit and an earnest contemplation of the soul's future.

Most essential is the discontinuance of sinful habits, because the longer they are adhered to, the more difficult they are to end.

An especial hindrance to repentance is procrastination, which waits for a tomorrow that may never come. After having quoted sayings of the rabbis, to the effect that the sinner who repents may rank higher than he who has never sinned, Bachye quotes the words of one of the masters to his disciples: "Were you altogether free from sin, I should be afraid of what is far greater than sin — that is, pride and hypocrisy."


Seeing God

The next gate, entitled Sha'ar Heshbon HaNefesh (the "Gate of Self-Examination"), contains an exhortation to take as serious view as possible of life, its obligations and opportunities for the soul's perfection, in order to attain to a state of purity in which is unfolded the higher faculty of the soul, which beholds the deeper mysteries of God, the sublime wisdom and beauty of a higher world inaccessible to other men.

Bachye devotes Sha'ar HaPerishut (the "Gate of Seclusion from the World") to the relation of true religiousness to asceticism. Some amount of abstinence is, according to Bachye, a necessary discipline to curb man's passion and to turn the soul toward its higher destiny. Still, human life requires the cultivation of a world which God has formed to be inhabited, and the perpetuation of the race. As such, asceticism can only be the virtue of a few who stand forth as exemplars.


An Ascetic Life

There are different modes of seclusion from the world. Some, in order to lead a life devoted to the higher world, flee this world altogether, and live as hermits, contrary to the design of the Creator. Others retire from the world's turmoil and live a secluded life in their own homes. A third class, which comes nearest to the precepts of Jewish law, participates in the world's struggles and pursuits, but leads a life of abstinence and moderation, regarding this world as a preparation for a higher one.

According to Bachye, the object of religious practise is the exercise of self-control, the curbing of passion, and the placing at the service of the Most High of all personal possessions and of all the organs of life.


Love of God

The aim of ethical self-discipline is the love of God, which forms the contents of the tenth and last section of the work, Sha'ar Ahavat Elohim (the "Gate of the Love of God"). This is explained as the longing of the soul, amid all the attractions and enjoyments that bind it to the earth, for the fountain of its life, in which it alone finds joy and peace, even though the greatest pains and suffering be imposed on it. Those that are imbued with this love find easy every sacrifice they are asked to make for their God; and no selfish motive mars the purity of their love.

Bachye is not so one-sided as to recommend the practise of the recluse, who has at heart only the welfare of his own soul. A man may be as holy as an angel, yet he will not equal in merit the one that leads his fellow-men to righteousness and to love of God.

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Legacy

The first book of Eastern European Hasidism, Toledot Ya'akov Yosef by Rabbi Ya'akov Yosef of Polnoye, disciple of the Baal Shem Tov (1780 CE) twice includes the saying: "The wise man has said: You have returned from the minor war, now prepare yourselves for the major war". That is, prepare for spiritual struggle which is more important than any material struggle. This is a well-known hadith in Islam. It probably found its way into Hassidic tradition through its appearance in Rabbi Bachye's "Duties of the Heart". He included many Muslim / Sufi teachings and stories in his work, ascribing them to anonymous sages.

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About other editions

Duties of the Heart was translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon in the years 1161-80 under the title "Chovot HaLevavot" (sometimes called "Chovot HaLevavos"). There was another contemporary translation by Joseph Kimhi, but its complete text did not endure the time.

There are numerous complete English translations available.

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QUOTES

p. 15: This Wisdom, or Philosophy, is of three kinds: the Philosophy of Nature, dealing with the properties and accidents of Matter ; the Philosophy of Number and Measurement, the Mathematical Wisdom, including Astronomy and Music ; and Philosophy, properly so called, including the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of His laws, and the rest of the sciences that are concerned with life and mind, and with human souls and spiritual beings. But all divisions of Wisdom are gates which the Creator, Blessed be He, has opened to human beings ...

p. 43: He who trusts in God is able to turn his attention from worldly anxieties and devote it to doing what is right. For, in the restfulness of his soul and the liberty of his mind, and in the diminution of his anxieties in regard to worldly affairs, he may be compared to an alchemist who knows how to turn silver into gold and brass and tin to silver. Only that he is better off; for he needs neither implements nor materials in his alchemy, and he needs not store up his gold in fear of robbers, nor restrict his production to what is only enough for the day and be in fear for the morrow. For he has confidence that God will supply his wants when and where it may be requisite.

p. 36: HE who is humble before God will not only do good to all men, but he will speak kindly to them and of them, and will never relate anything shameful about them, and will forgive them for any shameful things they may say about him, even if they are not worthy of such treatment. It is related of one of the Chassideem, that once when he was taking a walk with his disciples, they passed the carcass of a dog in an advanced stage of decomposition. His disciples exclaimed: "Oh, how this carcass stinks!" He replied : "Oh, how white its teeth are!" so as to counteract their remark.

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