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:   

Hovot ha-Levavot (Duties of the Heart), the classical ethical work of R. Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda. Hovot ha-Levavot is an ethical and philosophical classic on man’s obligations to God. Bahya (Bahye) ben Joseph ibn Paquda (late 11th century), a resident of Saragossa in Muslim Spain, was a dayyan and paytan (liturgical poet), but little else is known about him. He is remembered today for Hovot ha-Levavot written in Arabic, as Kitab al-Hidaya ila Faraid al-Qulub and translated into Hebrew in 1161 by Judah ibn Tibbon. Bahya’s reasons for writing Hovot ha-Levavot are stated in the introduction, where, after dividing a person’s duties into those of the body and of the heart, he observes that the latter, “confirmation of our faith in the contents of the Torah by logical demonstrations” is not the subject of a specific work. R. Bahya writes in the introduction, This department of knowledge, the science of the Duties of the Heart, had, I saw, been entirely neglected. No work had been composed, systematically setting forth its principles and divisions. I was so greatly surprised that I said to myself, Possibly this class of duties is not positively enjoined by the Torah, but is only an ethical obligation, the aim of which is to teach us the right and proper way. Possibly it belongs to the class of supererogatory practices that are optional, for which we will not be called to account nor be punished if we disregard them. And therefore our predecessors omitted to treat of it in a special work. A careful examination, however, by the light of Reason, Scripture and Tradition, of the question whether the Duties of the Heart are obligatory or not, convinced me that they indeed form the foundation of all the Precepts, and that if there is any shortcoming in their observance, no external duties whatever can be fulfilled.

Hebrew Description:   

... עם פירוש ... מנוח הלבבות ... נדפס מחדש [דף על דף, על-פי אמשטרדם תקכ"ח] ... בשנת יהי ל'בי ת'מים בח'ק'יך

Referenceד:   

CD-NLI 0105768; EJ; JE