SOLOMON IBN GABIROL
With Gabirol the scene of Jewish intellectual activity changes from the
east to the west. Prior to the middle of the tenth century the centre of
Jewish learning was in Babylonia. The succession of Geonim in the
Talmudical schools of Sura and Pumbadita, and particularly the great
fame of Saadia, made all the other Jewish communities of the world look
to Babylonia as the spiritual centre. They considered it a privilege to
contribute to the support of the great eastern academies and appealed to
their spiritual heads in cases of doubt in religious matters. Some of
this glory was reflected also upon the neighboring countries under
Mohammedan domination, Palestine, Egypt, and Kairuan or northern Africa
to the west of Egypt. Thus all the men, Rabbanites as well as Karaites,
whom we treated so far lived and flourished in the east in one of the
four countries mentioned. Christian Europe was intellectually on a low
level, and as far as scientific studies were concerned, the Jews under
Christian rule were no better than their temporal rulers.
But a new era dawned for Jewish literature with the accession to power
of the Umayyad caliph Abd al Rahman III, as head of Mohammedan Spain or
Andalusia. He was a liberal man and a patron of learning. Hasdai ibn
Shaprut, a cultured and high-minded Jew, was his trusted adviser, and
like his royal patron he protected and encouraged Jewish learning,
Talmudical as well as scientific. When Moses ben Enoch, a learned
emissary from the Babylonian Academy, was ransomed by the Jewish
community of Cordova and made the head of a Talmudical school in that
city, the beginning of the end of Babylonian Jewish supremacy was at
hand. Moses ben Enoch the Talmudist, Menahem ben Saruk, the grammarian
and lexicographer, and Dunash ben Labrat, the poet--all three under the
distinguished patronage of Hasdai ibn Shaprut--inaugurated the long line
of Spanish Jewish worthies, which continued almost five centuries,
constituting the golden era of Jewish literature and making of Spain
the intellectual centre of all Jewry.
Solomon ibn Gabirol was not merely the first Jewish philosopher in
Spain, he was the first Spanish philosopher, that is, he was the first
philosophical writer in Andalusia. Ibn Badja, the first Mohammedan
philosopher in Spain, was born at least a half century after Gabirol.
The birth of Gabirol is generally placed in 1021 and his death in 1058,
though some have put it as late as 1070.
The fate of Gabirol in the history of Jewish literature was a peculiar
one. Highly celebrated as a synagogal poet in the Sephardic as well as
Ashkenazic community, his fame as a great philosopher was early
overshadowed by his successors, and his chief work, the "Fountain of
Life," was in the course of time quite forgotten. The Arabic original
was lost and there was no Hebrew translation. The Tibbonides, Judah,
Samuel and Moses, who translated everything worth while in Jewish
philology, science and philosophy from Arabic into Hebrew, either did
not know of Gabirol's masterpiece or did not think it important enough
to translate. To judge from the extant fragments of the correspondence
between Samuel ibn Tibbon and Maimonides, it would seem that both were
true; that is that Samuel ibn Tibbon had no access to Gabirol's "Fons
Vitæ," and that if he had had such access, Maimonides would have
dissuaded him from translating it. Maimonides actually tells his
translator[82] that the only books worth studying are those of Aristotle
and his true commentators, Alexander of Aphrodisias, Themistius,
Averroes. Alfarabi and Avicenna are also important, but other writings,
such as those of Empedocles, Pythagoras, Hermes, Porphyry, represent a
pre-Aristotelian philosophy which is obsolete, and are a waste of time.
The books of Isaac Israeli on the "Elements" and on "Definitions," are
no better, seeing that Israeli was only a physician and no philosopher.
He is not familiar with the "Microcosmus" of Joseph ibn Zaddik, but
infers from a knowledge of the man that his work is based upon the
writings of the "Brothers of Purity"; and hence, we may add, not
strictly Aristotelian, and not particularly important. Not a word is
here said about Gabirol, apparently because Samuel ibn Tibbon had not
inquired about him. But from Maimonides's judgment concerning the works
of "Empedocles," we may legitimately infer that he would have been no
more favorable to Gabirol; for, as we shall see, Gabirol's system is
also based upon a point of view similar to that of the so-called
"Empedocles." What the Tibbonides left undone was, however, partially
accomplished about a half century later by the commentator and critic
Shem Tob Falaquera (1225-1290). Apparently in agreement with Abraham ibn
Daud that Gabirol's profuseness in his philosophic masterpiece made it
possible to reduce it to a tenth part of its size, Falaquera did not
find it necessary to translate the whole of the "Mekor Hayim" into
Hebrew, giving us instead a translation of selected parts, which in his
estimation contained the gist of Gabirol's teaching. The absence of a
complete Hebrew translation of Gabirol's philosophical work meant of
course that no one who did not know Arabic could have access to
Gabirol's "Mekor Hayim," and this practically excluded the majority of
learned Jews after the first half of the thirteenth century. But the
selections of Falaquera did not seem to find many readers either, as may
be inferred from the fact that so far only one single manuscript of this
translation is known.
_En revanche_, as the French would say, the Christian Scholastics of the
thirteenth century made Gabirol their own and studied him diligently.
His fundamental thesis of a universal matter underlying all existence
outside of God was made a bone of contention between the two dominant
schools; the Dominicans, led by Thomas Aquinas, opposing this
un-Aristotelian principle, the Franciscans with Duns Scotus at their
head, adopting it as their own. "Ego autem redeo ad sententiam
Avicembronis," is a formula in Duns Scotus's discussion of the principle
of matter.[83]
The translation of Gabirol's philosophy into an accessible language,
which was not considered desirable by Jews, was actually accomplished by
Christians. About a century before Falaquera a complete translation into
Latin was made in Toledo of Gabirol's "Fountain of Life," under the
title "Fons Vitæ." This translation was made at the instance of Raymond,
Archbishop of Toledo in the middle of the twelfth century, by Dominicus
Gundissalinus, archdeacon of Segovia, with the assistance of a converted
Jewish physician, Ibn Daud (Avendehut, Avendeath), whose name after
conversion became Johannes Hispanus or Hispalensis. Unlike the Hebrew
epitome of Falaquera this translation was not neglected, as is clear
from the rôle Gabirol's philosophy plays in the disputations of the
schools, and from the fact that there are still extant four manuscripts
of the complete translation, one of an epitome thereof, and there is
evidence that a fifth manuscript existed in 1375 in the Papal
library.[84] As Ibn Sina was corrupted by the Latin writers into
Avicenna, and Ibn Roshd into Averroes, so Ibn Gabirol became in turn,
Avencebrol, Avicembron, Avicebron; and the Scholastics who fought about
his philosophy had no idea he was a Jew and celebrated as a writer of
religious hymns used in the synagogue. He was regarded now as a
Mohammedan, now as a Christian.
This peculiar circumstance will help us to get an inkling of the reason
for the neglect of Gabirol's philosophy in the Jewish community. It is
clear that a work which, like the "Fons Vitæ," made it possible for its
author to be regarded as a Mohammedan or even a Christian, cannot have
had the Jewish imprint very deeply stamped upon its face. Nay more,
while the knowledge of its having been translated from the Arabic may
have been sufficient in itself to stamp the author as a Mohammedan,
there must have been additional indications for his Scholastic admirers
to make them regard him as a Christian. An examination of the work lends
some semblance of truth to these considerations.
Gabirol nowhere betrays his Jewishness in the "Fons Vitæ." He never
quotes a Biblical verse or a Talmudic dictum. He does not make any overt
attempt to reconcile his philosophical views with religious faith. The
treatise is purely speculative as if religious dogma nowhere existed to
block one's way or direct one's search. Abraham Ibn Daud, the author of
the philosophical treatise "Emunah Ramah" (The Exalted Faith), and the
predecessor of Maimonides, criticises Gabirol very severely, and that
not merely because he disagrees with him in the conception of matter and
finds Gabirol's reasoning devoid of cogency and logical force--many bad
arguments, he says, seem in the mind of Gabirol to be equivalent to one
good one--but principally because Gabirol failed to take a Jewish
attitude in his philosophizing, and actually, as Ibn Daud tells us,
maintains views dangerous to Judaism (below, p. 198).
This will easily account for the fact that Gabirol, celebrated as he was
as a poet, was lost sight of generally as a philosopher. The matter is
made clearer still if we add that his style in the "Mekor Hayim" is
against him. It is devoid of all merit whether of literary beauty or of
logical conciseness and brevity. It is diffuse to a degree and
frequently very wearisome and tedious. One has to wade through pages
upon pages of bare syllogisms, one more flimsy than another.
Finally, the point of view of Gabirol was that of a philosophy that was
rapidly becoming obsolete, and Maimonides, the ground having been made
ready by Ibn Daud, gave this philosophy its death-blow by substituting
for it the philosophy of Aristotle.
We now understand why it is that, with few exceptions here and there,
Gabirol's philosophical work was in the course of time forgotten among
the Jews, though his name Avicebron as well as some of his chief
doctrines were well known to the Scholastic writers. To be sure, even
students of Scholastic literature had no direct access to Gabirol's
treatise as it was never printed and no one knew whether there were
still any manuscripts of it extant or not. The only sources of
information concerning Avicebron's philosophy were Aquinas's
refutations, and Duns Scotus's defence, and other second-hand references
in the writings of the Scholastics. Who Avicebron was no one knew. It
was not until 1819 that Amable Jourdain,[85] in tracing the history of
the Latin translations of Aristotle, came to the conclusion that more
must be known about the philosophy of Avicebron's "Fons Vitæ" if we
intended to understand the Scholastics. In 1845 Solomon Munk discovered
in the national library at Paris the epitome of Falaquera mentioned
above, and comparing it with the views of Avicebron as found in the
discussions of the Scholastics, made the important discovery that the
mysterious Avicebron was neither a Mohammedan nor a Christian but a Jew,
and none other than the famous poet Solomon ibn Gabirol. Then began a
search for copies of a Latin translation, which was rewarded amply. Both
Munk and Seyerlen discovered manuscript copies of the "Fons Vitæ," and
now both the Hebrew epitome of Falaquera and the Latin translation of
Gundissalinus are accessible in print.[86] So much for the interesting
history of Gabirol. Now a word as to his views.
Shem Tob ibn Falaquera, in the brief introduction which he appends to
his epitome of the "Mekor Hayim" says, "It seems to me that Solomon ibn
Gabirol follows in his book the views of the ancient philosophers as we
find them in a book composed by Empedocles concerning the 'Five
Substances.'[87] This book is based upon the principle that all
spiritual substances have a spiritual matter; that the form comes from
above and the matter receives it from below, _i. e._, that the matter is
a substratum and bears the form upon it." He then adds that Aristotle
attributes a similar view to his predecessors, but that this view is
inconsistent with Aristotle's own thinking. For in his opinion what is
material is composite and possessed of potentiality. Hence only those
things have matter which are subject to generation and decay, and in
general change from one state to another.
Without going into detail as to the nature of this work of Empedocles
named by Falaquera as the source of Gabirol's views--expositions of
these so-called Empedoclean views and fragments from Empedocles's book
have been found in Arabian and Hebrew writers[88]--it is sufficient for
us to know that it has nothing to do with the real Empedocles, the
ancient Greek philosopher; that it was another of the many spurious
writings which circulated in the middle ages under famous names of
antiquity; and that like the "Theology of Aristotle," and the "Liber de
Causis," mentioned in the Introduction (p. xx), it was Neo-Platonic in
character.
Thus Gabirol was a Neo-Platonist. This does not mean that he did not
adopt many important Aristotelian conceptions. Neo-Platonism itself
could not have arisen without Aristotle. The ideas of matter and form,
and potentiality and actuality, and the categories, and so on, had
become the fixed elements of philosophical thinking, and no new system
could do without them. In this sense Plotinus himself, the founder of
Neo-Platonism, is an Aristotelian. When we speak of Gabirol as a
Neo-Platonist, we mean that the essence of his system is Neo-Platonic.
He is not a dualist, but a monist. God and matter are not opposed as two
ultimate principles, as they are in Aristotle. Matter in Gabirol is
ultimately identified with God. In this he goes even beyond Plotinus.
For whereas in Plotinus matter occupies the lowest scale in the
gradation of being as it flows from the One or the Good (_cf._
Introduction, p. xxxviii), and becomes equivalent to the non-existent,
and is the cause of evil, in Gabirol matter is the underlying substance
for all being from the highest to the lowest, with the one exception of
the Creator himself.[89] It emanates from the essence of the Creator,
forming the basis of all subsequent emanations.[90] Hence the spiritual
substances of the celestial world, or, to use a more technical and more
precise term--since spirit is not located in heaven or anywhere
spatially--the intelligible world, have matter underlying their
form.[91] In fact, matter itself is intelligible or spiritual, not
corporeal.[92] Corporeality and materiality are two different things.
There are various gradations of matter, to be sure; for the prime matter
as it emerges from the essence of the Creator pervades all existence
from highest to lowest, and the further it extends from its origin the
less spiritual and the more corporeal it becomes until in the sublunar
world we have in the matters of its particular objects, corporeal
matter, _i. e._, matter affected with quantity and magnitude and figure
and color.[93] Like Plotinus, Gabirol conceives of the universe as a
process of a gradually descending series of existences or worlds, as the
Kabbalistic writers term them; these cosmic existences radiating or
flowing out of the superabundant light and goodness of the Creator. The
two extremes of this graded universe are God at the one end, and the
corporeal world at the other. Intermediate between these are the
spiritual substances, Intelligence, Soul and Nature.[94] Man as a
microcosm, a universe in little, partakes of both the corporeal and
intermediate worlds, and hence may serve as a model of the constitution
of the macrocosm, or great universe. His body is typical of the
corporeal world, which consists of the lowest matter, viz., that which
has no other form except that of corporeality, or extension, and the
forms of figure, color, and so on, borne on top of the extension.[95]
Body as such is at rest and is not capable of action. To act it needs an
agent. Hence it needs an agency to compose its parts and hold them
together. We call this agency Nature. Man's body also grows, is
nourished and propagates its kind as do plants. This likewise must have
its non-corporeal cause. This we call vegetative soul. Man has also
sense perception and local motion like the animals. The principle or
substance causing this is the animal soul. Man also thinks and reasons
and reflects. This is brought about by the rational soul. Finally, man
has a still higher function than discursive thought. The latter has to
search and to pass from premise to conclusion, whereas the apprehension
of the intelligence takes place "without seeking, without effort, and
without any other cause except its own essence, because it is full of
perfection." In other words, it is immediate intellectual intuition of
which Gabirol speaks here. The Intelligence is capable of this because
it has in itself, constituting its essence, all the forms of existence,
and knowledge means possession of the forms of the things known.
As man is typical of the universe, it follows that there are cosmic
existences corresponding to the principles or powers just enumerated in
man, and the relation of the latter to the former is that of the
particular to the general. Hence there is a cosmic Intelligence, a
cosmic soul embracing the rational, the animal and the vegetative parts,
and a cosmic nature. Of these the more perfect is the cause of the less
perfect; hence the order in which we named them represents the order of
causation or of emanation from the prime source.
The lowest of these emanations is the matter which sustains extension or
magnitude, and with it the process ceases. This matter is no longer the
source of an additional form of existence. The various qualities and
attributes which inhere in this corporeal matter are caused by the
spiritual substances above. For like the prototype of all generosity and
goodness the First Essence or God, every one of the spiritual substances
proceeding from him has the same tendency of imparting its form or forms
to the substance next below it. But the forms thus bestowed are no
longer the same as they are in the essence of the bestowing substance,
as it depends upon the recipient what sort of form it will receive. An
inferior receiving substance will receive a superior form in an inferior
way. That is, the form which in the substance above the one in question
is contained in a spiritual and unitary manner, will be transformed in
the substance below it into something less spiritual, less unified, and
more nearly corporeal, _i. e._, visible and tangible. Hence the visible
and tangible, and in general the sensible qualities of particular things
in the sublunar world, are in reality descended from a line of spiritual
ancestors in the forms of the simple substances, Intelligence, Soul and
Nature. But it is their distance from the prime source, which increases
with every transmission of influence, together with the cruder nature of
the receiving substance, that makes the resulting forms corporeal and
sensible. The matter may be made clear if we use the analogy of light,
which is invisible as long as it is in air because it penetrates it,
but becomes visible when it comes in contact with a gross body which it
cannot penetrate. It then remains on the surface condensed, and becomes
visible to the senses.
We thus see that the higher substance acts upon the lower and contains
all that is found in the latter, though in a more perfect and simple
manner. The lower substances flow from the higher and yet the latter are
not diminished in their essence and power.[96]
That ordinary material objects are composed of matter and form is
admitted and we need not now prove it, as we have already discussed the
subject in the Introduction, where we gave an outline of the
Aristotelian philosophy. The principle peculiar to Gabirol is that not
merely the material objects of the sublunar world, but that the
intelligible or spiritual substances also are composed of matter and
form.[97] Whenever two things have something in common and something in
which they differ, that which they have in common is the matter, that in
which they differ is the form. Two things absolutely simple must be
prime to each other, _i. e._, they must have nothing in common, for if
they have anything in common they have everything in common, and they
are no longer two things but one. Hence a spiritual substance must be
composite, for it must have something by which it differs from a
corporeal substance, and something, viz., substantiality, which it has
in common with it. In the same way the intelligible substances,
Intelligence and Soul, have their substantiality in common, and they
differ in form. Hence they are composed of matter and form, and the
matter must be the same in all the intelligible substances; for their
differences are due to their forms, hence if their matters also
differed, they would have to differ in form, but matter as such has no
form. Hence matter in itself is everywhere the same.
As the Intelligence is the highest existence next to God, and is
composed of matter and form, these are respectively the universal matter
and universal form, embracing all subsequent matters and forms.[98]
Hence the Intelligence in knowing itself knows everything, as everything
is contained in it. And as it is prior to everything and the cause of
everything it has an immediate knowledge of all things without effort or
searching.
But what is the origin of universal matter and universal form which, in
constituting Intelligence, are the fundamental principles of all
existence?[99] The answer is they come from the First Essence, God.
Unity comes before duality or plurality, and there is no true unity
except in God. Whatever issues from him is _ipso facto_, as a product
which is not God, affected with duality. Matter and Form is this
duality. Their union is necessary and real, and it is only in thought
that we can keep them apart. In reality they form a unit, their union
varying in perfection according as they are nearer or further away from
their origin. Hence the union is closest in Intelligence, the first
divine emanation, and least close in corporeal objects of the sublunar
world, where plurality is the order of the day.
This process by which universal matter and form issue from God may be
called creation.[100] But we must conceive of it on the analogy of water
flowing from a fountain in continued and uninterrupted succession. The
only difference is that the emanation from God takes place without
motion and without time.
The union of universal form and universal matter must be thought of as a
stamping of the form upon the matter. Matter has in itself no actual or
definable existence. It serves merely as a _tabula rasa_, as a potential
background, as an empty receptacle, as a reflecting mirror for form to
be written, filled out, impressed or reflected therein or upon. Hence we
may view God as the spectator, universal matter as the mirror, and
universal form as the reflection of the spectator in the glass. God
himself does not enter the glass, only his reflection is outlined
therein. And as matter and form are really the whole world, it would
follow that the universe is a reflection of God, though God remains in
himself and does not enter the world with his essence.
We may also picture to ourselves this impression of form upon matter on
the analogy of speech. The speaker's words impress ideas upon the soul
of the listener. So God speaks and his Word or Will impresses form upon
matter. The world is created by the Word or the Will[101] of God.
In all these similes matter appears as something external to God, upon
which he impresses form. But this is not strictly true, since matter has
no real existence without form, and has never so existed. The existence
of matter and form is simultaneous, and both come from God, matter from
his essence, form from his attribute, or his Wisdom, or his Word, or his
Will. And yet in God, who is a perfect unity, essence and attribute are
one. It is the Will of God, not God himself, that must be regarded as
the spectator, whose outline is reflected in the mirror of matter in the
above simile. It is the Will of God that writes form upon the chart of
matter, and thereby produces a world. It is in virtue of the Will that
God is said to be in everything.
But what is this will of God as distinguished from God himself, since in
God there can be no duality of any kind? Gabirol's answer is not clear
or satisfactory. The will, he says, is identical with God if we consider
it apart from its activity; considered as active it is different from
the divine essence. Exactly to describe it is impossible, but the
following is an approximation. It is a divine power producing matter and
form, binding them together, pervading them throughout their extent
above and below, as the soul pervades the body, and moving and ordering
everything.
God himself, or the First Essence, can be known only through the Will as
pervading everything, _i. e._, through his effects in the world. And in
this way too only his existence can be known but not his essence as he
is in himself, because God is above everything and infinite. The soul
may know Intelligence because though the latter is above the soul there
is some similarity between them. But the First Essence has no similarity
to Intelligence, therefore no intelligence can know it.
There is a kind of mystic knowledge by which man may come in touch with
the spiritual substances and rise even to universal matter, which is
above Intelligence. "If you wish to form a picture of these substances,"
the master says to the disciple in the "Fons Vitæ," "you must raise your
intellect to the last intelligible, you must purify it from all sordid
sensibility, free it from the captivity of nature and approach with the
force of your intelligence to the last limit of intelligible substance
that it is possible for you to comprehend, until you are entirely
divorced from sensible substance and lose all knowledge thereof. Then
you will embrace, so to speak, the whole corporeal world in your being,
and will place it in one corner of your soul. When you have done this
you will understand the insignificance of the sensible in comparison
with the greatness of the intelligible. Then the spiritual substances
will be before your eyes, comprehending you and superior to you, and you
will see your own being as though you were those substances. Sometimes
it will seem to you that you are a part of them by reason of your
connection with corporeal substance; and sometimes you will think you
are all of them, and that there is no difference between you and them,
on account of the union of your being with their being, and the
attachment of your form to their forms." The pupil assures the teacher
that he has followed this advice and seen the whole corporeal world
floating in the spiritual substances as a small boat in the sea, or a
bird in the air. "When you have raised yourself to the first universal
matter," replies the teacher, "and illumined its shadow, you will see
there the wonder of wonders. Pursue this therefore diligently and with
love, because this is the purpose of the existence of the human soul,
and in this is great delight and extreme happiness."[102]
But Gabirol does not promise a knowledge of the Most High even through
this royal road of ecstasy, unless we suppose that in the promise of
seeing in universal matter the wonder of all wonders there may be a
covert allusion to a glimpse of the deepest secret of all, the essence
of God.
All knowledge is according to Gabirol embraced in the following three
topics, (1) Matter and Form, (2) the Active Word or Will, (3) the First
Essence or God. By far the larger part of the "Fons Vitæ" is devoted to
the first subject. Only brief hints are given of the second and third,
and Gabirol refers us to a special work of his on the Will, which he
says he wrote. There is no trace of any such treatise. At any rate it is
clear from the little that is contained on the Divine Will in the "Fons
Vitæ" that the Will forms an important element in Gabirol's philosophy.
This is the more remarkable because it is not an essential element in
Neo-Platonism, upon which Gabirol's system is based. Nay, the doctrine
of a divine will scarcely has any place in the form of emanation taught
by Plotinus. The cosmic process is conceived there as necessary and
impersonal. And but for the introduction of the Will in the "Fons Vitæ"
we should be forced to understand Gabirol in the same way. The
difficulty in Neo-Platonism is that God is at the same time transcendent
and, through his powers or emanations, immanent in the world. God is
above all being and at the same time is the cause of and pervades all
existence. Gabirol must have felt not merely this purely philosophical
difficulty, but as a Jew, Pantheism as well as impersonalism must have
been objectionable to him. Hence he mitigates both by introducing the
divine will as mediating between God and the world. This brings God in
closer and more personal touch with his creation. The cosmic process is
not a necessary and impersonal flow or radiation but a voluntary
activity having a purpose. The solution is unsatisfactory, as all such
solutions are bound to be, because it introduces as many difficulties as
it solves. The nature of this divine Will is ambiguous. If it is God's
will, and God is the One in whom there can be no distinctions, we have
only a new word, and nothing is solved. If on human analogy we are
inclined to take the will seriously, we are endangering God's unity.
This dilemma Gabirol does not succeed in removing. His system still has
a strong flavor of Pantheism, and moreover his identification of the
Will of God with the Wisdom and the Word of God, and his hypostatization
of the latter as in a sense a being distinct from God, reminds us
strongly of Philo's Logos, which became the Logos of Christianity, the
second person in the Trinity. This is the reason why William of
Auvergne, bishop of Paris in the thirteenth century, regarded Avicebron
as a Christian. And these same reasons were no doubt adequate to
estrange Jewish readers, as Abraham ibn Daud expressly tells us about
himself, though his terms are general (see above, p. 62).
Gabirol is also the author of an ethical work which he composed in 1045.
Though of little importance philosophically, or perhaps because of this,
the "Tikkun Middot ha-Nefesh" (Improvement of the Qualities of the Soul)
fared much better than its more important companion, the "Mekor Hayim."
Not only did it have the privilege of a Hebrew translation at the hands
of the father of translators, Judah ibn Tibbon, but the original Arabic
itself is still extant and was recently published with an English
translation by Stephen S. Wise (1901).[103] The Hebrew translation also
had the good fortune of being reprinted several times. This is due to
the fact that the "Tikkun Middot ha-Nefesh" is a popular work, dealing
with morals, and does not go into metaphysical questions. It is full of
Biblical citations, which stamps it as Jewish; and there are also in it
quotations from Arabic writers serving to illustrate the argument and
lending variety and interest to the style.
The larger question of the aim of human life is touched on in the "Fons
Vitæ." We are told there that the ultimate aim of man's existence is
that the soul should unite with the upper world to which it
belongs.[104] The particular human soul is according to Gabirol a part,
though not in a physical sense, of the cosmic soul, which is one of the
universal spiritual substances (see above, p. 66). Hence its own real
existence is spiritual and eternal, and independent of the body. Its
entrance into the body obscures its spiritual vision, though it does not
lose all touch with the higher world from which it came. The senses and
the data of sense perception are not an end in themselves; they are only
a means for the soul through them to recall the higher knowledge which
was its own in its spiritual existence, and thereby win its return to
the intelligible world. Man's duty therefore in this world is to strive
to attain this higher life for his soul. This is brought about by means
of _knowledge_ and _practice_. This knowledge has to do with knowing all
things as they really are, and particularly the intelligible substances
and the Prime Essence. Practice signifies to keep away as far as
possible from things of sense, which are foreign to the soul and might
injure it. What more particularly the things are which are beneficial to
the soul, and what are injurious, we learn from Gabirol's ethical
treatise. Man's soul has a higher and a lower nature. The higher power
is the reason or rational soul, the lower is the animal or vegetative
soul; and man's business is to see that the reason rules over the lower
nature.
Gabirol does not give us any test by which we can tell whether a given
act or feeling belongs to the lower or higher nature except to say that
the appetites are diseases of the body which must be cured; that they do
not belong to the rational soul, and to satisfy them is not the
attainment of a good. Gabirol's method of treating virtue and vice, or
rather the virtues and the vices, is to relate them to the five senses
and the four humors in man, which in turn correspond to the four
elements, fire, air, water, earth, and the four primitive qualities,
hot, cold, moist, dry. This division of the elements, the humors, the
qualities and the senses was a commonplace of the physiological and
medical science of the time. We have met it in Isaac Israeli (see above,
p. 3), and it goes back to Aristotle and Galen and Hippocrates. The
originality, though a queer one to be sure, of Gabirol is to bring the
ethical qualities of man into relation with all these. The
approximations are forced in every instance and often ludicrous. Instead
of attempting to give a psychological analysis of the qualities in
question, he lays stress on their physical basis in one of the five
senses, as we shall see presently.
The great world, we are told, was created out of the four elements, and
similarly man, the microcosm, also consists of four natures
corresponding to the elements. Thus the four humors, upon the harmonious
combination of which the health of man's body depends, viz., blood,
phlegm, black gall, and red gall, correspond respectively to air, water,
earth, fire. Man is endowed besides with five senses. If he is wise he
will use his senses properly and in the right measure, like a skilful
physician who calculates carefully what proportion of each drug should
be prescribed.
The sense of sight is the noblest of the senses, and is related to the
body as the sun to the world. The philosophers have a wonderful saying
concerning the eye that there are spiritual tints in the soul which are
visible in the movements of the eyelids--pride and haughtiness, humility
and meekness. Accordingly the ethical qualities due to the sense of
sight are pride, meekness, modesty and impudence, besides the
subordinate qualities derived from these.
Pride is common in a person of a warm disposition in whom the red gall
predominates. Many wise men exhibit this quality out of place, fools
adopt it until they are mastered by it, and it is prevalent in youth. It
may be useful when it keeps a man away from vice and unworthy things,
inspiring him to rise to nobility of character and the service of God.
But generally it is useless and leads to many evils, especially if it
causes one to be self-opinionated, refusing to seek the advice of
anyone. When a man sees this quality gaining mastery over him, he should
consider the origin and end of existing things. When he sees that all
things are destined to pass away, and himself likewise, his pride will
change to humility.
Meekness is closer to virtue than the quality mentioned before, because
he who possesses it withholds his desire from seeking gratification. It
is a quality manifested by the prophets and leads to honor. "The fruits
of lowliness," a philosopher has said, "are love and tranquillity."
Contentment is of a kind with meekness. The greatest riches are
contentment and patience. He who esteems his rank but lightly enhances
man's estimation of his dignity. A wise man has said, "Be humble without
cringing, and manly without being arrogant. Arrogance is a wilderness
and haughtiness a taking refuge therein, and altogether a going astray."
Modesty is connected with humility but is superior to it, for it is a
sister of reason, and reason, as everybody knows, is the most important
quality, which separates man from beast and brings him near to the
angels. You never see a modest person without sense, or a person of good
sense who is not modest. A man must be modest not only before others but
also to himself. Modesty and faithfulness, it is said, are closely
related, and the one cannot be had truly without the other.
The impudent man is disliked by God and by man, even if he be wise and
learned. If one has this quality it is the duty of his friend and
associate to break him of it by reproving him. It is of value only when
used in defence of the Torah and in behalf of God and the truth.
Space will not permit us to treat in detail of the other senses and the
virtues and vices depending upon them, but we shall indicate briefly
Gabirol's method of relating the ethical qualities to the physical
senses.
Thus the sense of hearing, which is next in importance to sight has as
its qualities hate, love, mercy and cruelty. It takes some fine insight,
he says, to see the connection of these qualities with the sense of
hearing, but the intelligent and discerning reader will find this hint
sufficient. I hope he will not blame me, Gabirol continues, if I do not
bring together all the reasons and the scriptural passages to prove
this, for human flesh is weak, especially in my case on account of my
vexatious experiences and disappointments. We find in the Bible love
associated with hearing: "_Hear_, O Israel ... and thou shalt _love_ the
Lord thy God" (Deut. 6, 4). Hate follows hearing in the phrase: "When
Esau heard the words of his father ... and Esau hated Jacob" (Gen. 27,
34-41). Mercy is related to hearing in Exod. (22, 26), "And I will hear
for I am merciful." Finally cruelty is to refuse to listen, as we find
in the case of Pharaoh (Ex. 9, 12), "And the Lord hardened the heart of
Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them."
In a similar manner Gabirol proves that the sense of smell has four
qualities, anger, favor, envy, wide-awakeness; the sense of taste, the
four qualities, joy, sorrow, regret, calmness; while liberality,
niggardliness, courage and cowardice are related to the sense of touch.
The relation of the ethical qualities to the senses, humors, elements
and primitive physical qualities is exhibited in the following table, as
it appears in the Arabic text of the "Aslah al-Ahlak," the original
title of Gabirol's ethical work.
[Illustration]
Among Gabirol's religious poems there is one which interests us
particularly because it bears traces of the philosophy of the "Fons
Vitæ." It is the most important of his hymns and is found in the
prayer-book of the Sephardic ritual for the Day of Atonement. "The Royal
Crown," as the poem is entitled, is an appeal to God for mercy and
forgiveness, and is based upon the contrast between the greatness of God
and the insignificance of man. The first part is therefore devoted to a
poetical description of God's attributes and the wonders of the cosmic
system, as conceived in the astronomical science of the day. A few
quotations will give us an idea of the style and character of the hymn
and its relation to the "Fons Vitæ."
"Thine are the mysteries, which neither fancy nor imagination can
comprehend; and the life, over which dissolution hath no power. Thine is
the _Throne_ exalted above all height; and the habitation concealed in
the eminence of its recess. Thine is the existence, from the shadow of
whose light sprung every existing thing; of which we said, under its
protecting shadow shall we live....
"Thou art One, the first of every number, and the foundation of all
structure. Thou art One, and in the mystery of the Unity all the wise in
heart are astonished; for they cannot define it. Thou art One, and thy
Unity can neither be lessened nor augmented; for nothing is there
wanting or superfluous. Thou art One, but not such a one as is estimated
or numbered; for neither plurality, nor change, form, nor physical
attribute, nor name expressive of thy quality, can reach thee...."
In the same way he treats God's other attributes, existent, living,
great, mighty. Then he continues:
"Thou art light, and the eyes of every pure soul shall see thee; for the
clouds of iniquity alone hide thee from her sight.... Thou art most
high, and the eye of the intellect desireth and longeth for thee; but it
can only see a part, it cannot see the whole of thy greatness....
"Thou art God, who by thy Divinity supportest all things formed; and
upholdest all creatures by thy Unity. Thou art God, and there is no
distinction between thy godhead, unity, eternity or existence; for all
is one mystery; and although each of these attributes is variously
named, yet the whole point to one end.
"Thou art wise, and wisdom, which is the _fountain of life_, floweth
from thee; and compared with thy wisdom, the knowledge of all mankind is
folly. Thou art wise; and didst exist prior to all the most ancient
things; and wisdom was reared by thee. Thou art wise; and hast not
learned aught from another, nor acquired thy wisdom from anyone else.
Thou art wise; and from thy wisdom thou didst cause to emanate a ready
_will_, an agent and artist as it were, to draw existence out of
non-existence, as light proceeds from the eye. Thou drawest from the
source of light without a vessel, and producest everything without a
tool."
Then follows a description of the constitution of the sublunar world,
the terrestrial sphere consisting of part earth, part water, and being
surrounded by the successive spheres of air and fire. Then follow in
order the spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, the spheres of the fixed stars, and the outermost sphere
embracing all and giving to the entire heaven the diurnal motion from
east to west. He then continues:
"Who can understand thy tremendous mysteries, when thou didst exalt
above the ninth orb, the sphere of the _Intelligence_; that is the inner
temple; for the tenth shall be holy to the Lord. This is the sphere
which is exalted above all the highest, and which no imagination can
reach; and there is the hiding-place, wherein is the canopy for thy
glory....
"O Lord! who can come near thy understanding, when thou didst place on
high above the sphere of the Intelligence the _Throne of thy glory_,
where is the glorious dwelling of the hiding-place; there also is the
mystery and the _foundation_ (matter); so far the intellect may reach
and no further; for above this art thou greatly exalted upon thy mighty
throne, where no man may come up to thee....
"Who can comprehend thy power, when thou didst create from the splendor
of thy glory a pure lustre? From the rock of rocks was it hewn, and dug
from the hollow of the cave. Thou also didst bestow on it the spirit of
wisdom, and didst call it soul. Thou didst form it hewn from the flames
of intellectual fire, so that its spirit burneth as fire within it. Thou
didst send it forth to the body to serve and guard it; it is as fire in
the midst of it, and yet doth not consume it; for _from the fire of the
soul the body was created_, and called into existence from nothing,
because the Lord descended thereto in fire."
Here we see the Intelligence spoken of as standing above the heavenly
spheres. This clearly represents the cosmic Intelligence as a creation
of God, "which is exalted above all the highest," hence the first
product of God's light. And yet the _Throne of Glory_ is said to be
placed even above the sphere of the Intelligence. He speaks of it as the
mystery and the foundation (Yesod), beyond which the intellect cannot
reach. This is apparently a contradiction, but becomes clear when we
learn what is meant by the Throne of Glory, and by "foundation." In the
"Fons Vitæ" Gabirol tells us that matter receives form from the First
Essence through the medium of the Will, which latter therefore, as it
bestows form upon matter, sits in it and rests upon it. And hence, he
says, matter is as it were the stool (cathedra) of the One. The word
"yesod" (foundation) which Gabirol applies in the "Keter Malkut" (Royal
Crown) to the Throne of Glory is the same that Falaquera uses for matter
throughout in his epitome of the "Mekor Hayim." Hence it is clear that
the Throne of Glory which is above the Intelligence is nothing else than
Gabirol's matter. And we know from the "Fons Vitæ" that matter is really
prior to Intelligence as it exists in the knowledge of God, but that in
reality it never was, as a creation, without form; and that with form it
constitutes the Intelligence. Finally there is also a reference in the
poem to the will as emanating from God's wisdom, and like an "agent and
artist drawing existence out of non-existence as light proceeds from the
eye." The process of creation is thus compared with the radiation of
light in the sentence just quoted, and likewise in the following: "Thou
drawest from the source of light without a vessel, and producest
everything without a tool."
We do not know whether Gabirol wrote any commentaries on the Bible--none
are extant, nor are there any references to such works--but from his
exegetical attempts in his ethical work discussed above (p. 71 ff.) and
from citations by Abraham ibn Ezra of Gabirol's explanations of certain
passages in Scripture, we gather that like Philo of Alexandria before
him and Maimonides and a host of philosophical commentators after him,
he used the allegorical method to reconcile his philosophical views with
the Bible, and read the former into the latter.[105]
Thus we are told that Eden represents the presence of God, the garden
planted in Eden stands for the angelic beings or, according to another
interpretation, for the world of sense. By the river which flows out of
Eden is meant prime matter which issues from the essence of God
according to the "Fons Vitæ." The four divisions of the river are the
four elements; Adam is the rational soul, Eve, as the Hebrew name
indicates, the animal soul, and the serpent is the vegetative or
appetitive soul. The serpent entices Adam to eat of the forbidden tree.
This means that when the lower soul succeeds in controlling the reason,
the result is evil and sin, and man is driven out of the Garden, _i. e._,
is excluded from his angelic purity and becomes a corporeal being.
It is clear from all this that Gabirol's omission of all reference to
Jewish dogma in the "Fons Vitæ" was purely methodological. Philosophy,
and religion or theology should be kept apart in a purely philosophical
work. Apologetics or harmonization has its rights, but it is a different
department of study, and should be treated by itself, or in connection
with exegesis of the Bible.
While it is true that Gabirol's influence on subsequent Jewish
philosophy is slight--at most we find it in Moses and Abraham ibn Ezra,
Abraham ibn Daud and Joseph ibn Zaddik--traces of his ideas are met with
in the mysticism of the Kabbala. Gabirol's "Fons Vitæ" is a peculiar
combination of logical formalism with mystic obscurity, or profundity,
according to one's point of view. The latter did not appeal to pure
rationalists like Ibn Daud or Maimonides, and the former seemed
unconvincing, as it was employed in a lost cause. For Neo-Platonism was
giving way to Aristotelianism, which was adopted by Maimonides and made
the authoritative and standard philosophy. It was different with the
Kabbala. Those who were responsible for its spread in the thirteenth
century must have been attracted by the seemingly esoteric character of
a philosophy which sees the invisible in the visible, the spiritual in
the corporeal, and the reflection of the unknowable God in everything.
There are certain details also which are common to both, such as the
analogies of irradiation of light or flowing of water used to represent
the process of creation, the position of the Will, the existence of
matter in spiritual beings, and so on, though some of these ideas are
common to all Neo-Platonic systems, and the Kabbala may have had access
to the same sources as Gabirol.