Abridgment of Baḥya Ibn Paqūda’s Duties of the Heart

Introduction

Now too, when the Torah is almost forgotten, He has forewarned us through His men of piety, men of dedication, and men of knowledge. For we have found this dedicated, pious, and wise man from Spain, R. Baḥya, who spoke wonderfully on piety and devoutness, and he brought together and categorized the statements of our sages, of blessed memory, that are scattered throughout the Talmud, as well as the words of the gaon R. Se‘adya and all the pious men, and philosophers, and devout individuals. He thereby composed a single work that deals with the commandments of the duties of the heart, through which the crookedness of the heart can be straightened, that men may put away their purpose, and that He may hide pride from man (Job 33:17).

As he wrote his book in Arabic, it was not mentioned in the sacred texts until God awakened one of the scholars of Spain, who was learned in the Torah of the Lord, and was wise in all fields and knew three languages, and who possessed unparalleled expertise in grammar. This was the brilliant sage R. Judah Ibn Tibbon who provided a fine translation of this work, using excellent language and clear expressions, with the aid of our master and elder, the pious and wise R. Meshullam ben Jacob, may the memory of this righteous and holy individual be for a blessing, as our sages have said: Merit is brought about by means of the worthy [see, e.g., b. Shabbat 32a]; and he was worthy and brought merit to the many, and thus the merit of the many is due to him. [ . . . ]

I thought to myself that every day we toil for no purpose, because of the great losses we suffer in our talmudic studies. For when we enjoy our meager successes in this area, we increase our pride and arrogance many times over, and as a result we proceed to condemn most of the inhabitants of the world, in our great anger and lust. In our many sins, the name of the Torah is almost profaned by those who study it, for people say that you cannot find anyone as prideful and conceited and filled with anger and malice as Torah scholars. This is due to the way they act with great arrogance and they lord over everyone else, until people say about them, “They are cursed for gaining wisdom. What good will their studies and their cleverness do for them, other than increase their pride and superiority?” They will bring upon themselves years in Gehenna, and their wisdom will be a stumbling-block for them, as they will be punished on its account. This is because one transgression of theirs outweighs many sins of other people, and regarding them it is stated: The ways of the Lord are right, and the just walk in them; but transgressors stumble in them (Hosea 14:10). How can we fail to consider that which we have seen with or own eyes and heard with our own ears, and of which we are fully aware, that our achievements in the Torah in relation to the sages who lived in our own time are nothing more than a drop in the ocean, all the more so in relation to those sages who came before them, who interpreted the Torah for us and from whose waters we drink. It is true to say of them that the more wisdom they acquired, the more humble and God-fearing they became, whereas we have betrayed both God and man. [ . . . ]

I made a commitment to read this entire book once a year, near the ten days of repentance [from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur], to review the fundamentals and the proofs for them that this scholar compiled. I then made a further commitment to read all ten sections, in the short versions that I wrote, each and every week, and I divided them into seven parts, so that I could read them in seven sessions. Regarding the first three sections, since they deal with the unity of God, and we cannot comprehend the depths of the proofs and responses, I conveyed them in brief form in accordance with my requirements, with their general terms and basic stipulations, and I determined that all three should be read on one day. When it came to the middle five sections, which pertain to the needs of man and his life in this world and the world-to-come, I was a little more expansive and allotted to each of them a separate day. As for the last two sections, they are too lofty for us to grasp in our limited intellects and due to the myriad troubles that distract us in our impure land, as their topic is the highest levels and the noblest attributes of all the qualities of the prophets, pious ones, and holy individuals. I therefore established that both sections should be read on the Sabbath, which is a day of rest, when we leave aside worldly occupations, a day that is entirely dedicated to the service of the Omnipresent. Perhaps we will improve ourselves a little by recalling their pleasant words and their great sanctity and piety. I also took it upon myself to read twice a day, morning and evening, the ten rhymes which he included at the end of his book, so that I would be constantly reciting them. One who reads them at length and with concentration should take care to accept upon himself everything included in them.