Ethical Instruction

Hayya Ga’on (attrib.)

Early 11th Century

First of all my words, O son: fear God.
  Go, get up, and hear what I say.
And before all your labor [or: worship], you should start,
  at all times, with prayer to your God.
It is incumbent on you to arise early each morning,
  to give thanks to Him; it is incumbent on Him to [fulfill] your needs.
Constantly beseech God’s presence,
  and then He will fulfill all your requests.
Observe the statutes, observe the commandments and the Torah,
  and know that your life is bound up in them. [ . . . ]
Eat bread with salt, and pasture on grasses,
  and do not beg for a penny from the wealthy.
Choose death, and hide in your grave,
  and do not go to ask from your relatives.
Why should you be an asker of an asker?
  Ask from God! Isn’t all in God’s hand?
Do not sleep; consider the ant [see Proverbs 6:6],
  and do not let your leg be lazy.
Store up in the summer, month by month,
  what you will eat in the days of winter and ice.
And if you leave your home to seek your sustenance,
  keep in mind her of your covenant [i.e., your wife].
See the dove, which travels for its sustenance,
  but the same day it returns to its dwelling.
And though the eagle goes far for its food,
  on the same day it goes to seek its home.
Visit your fellow sparingly, lest he get sick of you,
  and turn away from people of falsehood and lies.
Stand not at the doors of the nobles,
  and do not yearn for their delicious foods.
Do not rejoice at someone’s terrible, frightful day,
  lest the same come to you on that very day. [ . . . ]
All your days, love the wife of your youth,
  and keep her affection bound in your heart.
And speak not with your neighbor’s wife,
  and do not be a brother or associate of scoffers.
Keep your eyes away from a strange woman,
  and from an alien woman, who speaks smoothly.
Let her heart fear you, tremble from you and your rebuke,
  and do not know her company [or: her secrets].
If you sire sons and daughters,
  at all times rebuke them, but with kindness.
Buy them books, with all your means,
  and get them a tutor from a young age.
Greatly bequeath your wealth to the teacher
  whom you bequeath to your son. [ . . . ]
Prefer to stay home during the rainy days, take rest.
  Do not go into the muddy mire and muck.
In the winter, do not go on journeys.
  Prefer to go out on the days when kings go out [i.e., warm, dry days; see 2 Samuel 11:1]. [ . . . ]
How nice, how pleasing, are friends,
  together, and the brothers when occupied.
Do not trust women or slaves,
  and do not entrust them with any secrets.
If you lustily uncover a tooth1 to a young man,
  a jeerer will uncover your nakedness, your shame.
Avoid rage, anger, and shame.
  Build in the summer, not in the winter.
Do not eat to satiety in your home,
  [neither] forget the one asking at your door.
Consider all people the same,
  and always be in fear of Him.
Consider your fellow’s son as your own,
  and his father as if he were your grandfather.
And do not delay kindness for your neighbor
  until tomorrow—lest tomorrow come, and you be gone.
Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[The precise meaning of this idiom is unclear.—Ed.]

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

Engage with this Source

This lengthy didactic poem is metered according to the quantitative system adapted from Arabic poetry to Hebrew poetry; it is an early example from the Eastern world of this type of poetics, which would become ubiquitous throughout the medieval period. Each line of verse, one per aphorism, can be broken into two rhymed parts or hemistichs, which together form a rhymed couplet. The simple, repetitive meter and the rhyme scheme are characteristic of medieval Hebrew and Arabic didactic poetry. The poem—which offers a wide range of ethical and practical advice—is often attributed to Hayya, but there is no definitive proof of his authorship.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Poetry

9th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Hayya Ga’on

939–1038

The last and perhaps the greatest of the Babylonian geonim, Hayya (or Hay) bar Sherira was educated in the academy of Pumbedita, in Baghdad, at the feet of his father, the influential Sherira Ga’on. Uniquely among the geonim, Hayya was promoted to be co-head of the academy together with his father, and the two often wrote responsa jointly. During his leadership, the academy was facing financial difficulties, and so Hayya engaged in a tireless campaign to maintain connections with the Jewish diaspora, composing letters and legal works for Jews worldwide and fundraising. Hayya was generally less receptive to Arabic culture than some other geonim, but his writings integrated Islamic theological terminology and evinced similar concerns. He composed several legal monographs in Judeo-Arabic that were of lasting influence, and his Judeo-Arabic dictionary was an early foray into that genre. Recent discoveries in the Cairo Geniza have suggested that Hayya was a more impressive poet than previously thought.

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