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Bidding Information
Lot #    12394
Auction End Date    12/20/2005 10:30:34 AM (mm/dd/yyyy)
          
Title Information
Title (English)    Hovot ha-Levavot (Duties of the Hearts)
Title (Hebrew)    חובת הלבבות
Author    [Miniature] R. Bahya b. Joseph ibn Paquda
City    Amsterdam
Publisher    Joseph b. Solomon Proophs
Publication Date    1778
          
Collection Information
Independent Item    This listing is an independent item not part of any collection
          
Description Information
Physical
Description		    [8], 238 ff., 127:75 mm., light age staining, nice margins, stamps. A very good copy bound in contemporary leather boards, rubbed.
          
Detailed
Description		    In the introduction to this work R. Bahya divides the obligations incumbent upon the religious man into duties of the members of the body (hovot ha-evarim), those obligations which involve overt actions; and duties of the hearts (hovot ha-levavot), those obligations which involve not man's actions, but his inner life. The first division includes the various ritual and ethical observances commanded by the Torah, e.g., the observance of the Sabbath, prayer, and the giving of charity, while the second consists of beliefs, e.g., the belief in the existence and unity of G-d, and attitudes or spiritual traits, e.g., trust in G-d, love and fear of H-im, and repentance. The prohibitions against bearing a grudge and taking revenge are also examples of duties of the hearts. R. Bahya explains that he wrote this work because the duties of man's inner life had been sorely neglected by his predecessors and contemporaries whose writings had concentrated on religious observances, that is, the duties of the members of the body. To remedy this deficiency Bahya wrote his work, which may be considered a kind of counterpart to the halakhic compendia of his predecessors and contemporaries. Just as their halakhic compendia contained directions for the actions of the religious man, so Bahya's work contained directions for his inner life. Hovot ha-Levavot was translated into Hebrew by R. Judah ibn Tibbon in 1161, and it became popular and has had a profound influence on all subsequent Jewish pietistic literature. Several abridgments were made of the Hebrew translation, and the work was translated into Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Yiddish. In more recent times it has been translated into English (1962), German (1856), and French (1950).
          
Paragraph 2    ... עם פירוש ... מנוח הלבבות ... נדפס מחדש [דף על דף, על-פי אמשטרדם תקכ"ח] ... בשנת יהי ל'בי ת'מים בח'ק'יך
          
Reference
Description		    CD-EPI 0105768; EJ; JE
        
Associated Images
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Listing Classification
Period
  
18th Century:    Checked
  
Location
Holland:    Checked
  
Subject
Other:    Ethics
  
Characteristic
Bindings:    Checked
Miniatures:    Checked
Language:    Hebrew
  
Manuscript Type
  
Kind of Judaica