Foundation of Reverence and Secret of Torah: Introduction and Chapter One

Introduction

Thus says Abraham the author: I have ventured now to speak, and I wish to elaborate, for I require a firm foundation. With the help of Him who brings low and raises high I shall arrange twelve chapters. I shall say at the outset that the only advantage of man over the beast is the supernal soul possessing wisdom that shall return to the Lord who bestowed it, after it has come to know its Creator and Master. For it was placed in the body to show it, to teach it the works of its Lord and observe His commandments. Wisdom gives life to its owner. There are many wisdoms, each one beneficial, and all of them as rungs on a ladder to ascend to knowledge of the truth. Happy are those whose hearts’ eyes have been opened and who flow to the Lord and His goodness as their final destiny.

Chapter 1

There are savants among the Jews whose whole wisdom consists in knowing the words of the Masoretes and their honored markings and cherished notes, indicating every open and closed paragraph, every “write thus but read thus,” every plenary or defective spelling, every enlarged or miniscule or superscript letter, every dotted word, as well as the count of verses, words, and letters in each of the books. Truly, there is reward in their endeavor, as they are like the guardians of the walls of the city; on their account, the Lord’s Torah and holy books have stood in their proper pattern without addition or loss. It is good for the savant to understand some of these matters but also to set one’s heart to understanding the meaning of the books, for the words are like bodies and the meanings like souls. If a person does not understand the meanings, all the effort will be in vain and the labor like the wind. It is comparable to holding a book of cures in one’s hand but wearying oneself to count how many pages are in the book, and how many lines [or, columns] on each page, and how many letters in each line; but from such labor, one could not be able to heal a sore. [ . . . ]

There are others whose entire wisdom consists of the grammar of the holy language: to know the conjugations and their divisions, the auxiliary letters, the word-roots, the nouns, the intransitive and transitive verbs in their many patterns, the prefixes and prepositions, and how the verbs combine syntactically [with other parts of speech]. [ . . . ] The truth is that it is good for a savant to study some of this wisdom, but he should not [exclusively] engage with it, reading books [like those] of R. Judah the first grammarian, the ten books of R. Marinos, and the twenty-two books of R. Samuel ha-Nagid. About the likes of these, Solomon said: of making many books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

And there are others who are always perusing the Torah, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, as well as their Aramaic Targum [translations]. [ . . . ] But the truth is that even though the Torah is the source of life and the foundation of all the commandments, there is no power in the savant to know a single complete commandment from the Torah if he does not consider the words of the Oral Torah. For it is written concerning the Sabbath, You shall do no work (Exodus 20:10). But who can interpret for us the primary categories of work and their derivatives, or the measurements of the sukkah, or the critical quantity that constitutes extortion? More generally, all the commandments require interpretation from the words of the tradition. [ . . . ]

And there are many sages who have not studied the Masoretic notes, and who consider grammar to be a vain pursuit, nor have they studied the biblical text or unpacked its meaning. From their youth onward they have studied only the Talmud, which is the interpretation of the Mishnah, according to their various methods, each of which has a sound basis, for from the Talmud we come to know all the commandments through whose performance a person can attain life. [ . . . ]

The savant will not be able to know all this unless he studies the science of the constellations and knows the procession of the sun and the moon. Moreover, he cannot understand the science of the constellations unless he first learns geometry, for it is like the foundation of a ladder set in the ground, whose top reaches the heavens. And from consideration of the constellations and the seasons, he will come to know the exalted work of the Lord. [ . . . ] Furthermore, the savant will not understand how the human soul resembles that of his Creator in five ways [see b. Berakhot 10a] unless he knows psychology, and he will not understand this unless he first studies astrology, which is quite profound.³ It is also necessary that the savant know logic, which is the measure of all science. And our ancients admonished us: “Be diligent in studying what you should answer the heretic.”⁴ [ . . . ]

The sages of the Talmud in our generation study by many methods. Some study to know what is forbidden and permitted in accordance with the teaching of our righteous forebears. Some study in order to know the homiletical interpretations and to add others, seeking a meaning for every plenary and deficient spelling. But I will tell you this principle: the prophets did not pay scrupulous attention to verbal minutiae and variations of phraseology, but only to the meaning to be conveyed, which is the main thing. [ . . . ]

There are those who study Talmud to aggrandize themselves over their colleagues. Such a person will deal especially in the Order of Torts [b. Nezikin]. He will receive a reward [or, wage] for instructing the ignorant and correcting those in error. But if all Israel were righteous, there would be no need for the Order of Torts. [ . . . ]

A person is obligated to perfect himself and to know the precept of the Lord, who created all. He should exert himself with all his might to understand God’s works. Then he will know his Creator. [ . . . ] More generally, how shall a person seek to know what is too exalted for him, but not know his own soul and body? Only one who knows natural science and all its proofs, as well as logic, can know the principles that are eternally valid. And one can know the science of the stars [i.e., astronomy and astrology] by conclusive proofs from the sciences of arithmetic, geometry, and proportions—then one will be able to ascend higher and higher, to know the secret of the soul and the supernal angels and the world to come. From the Torah and the words of the prophets and of the sages of the Talmud, a person may become wise and understand profound secrets that were hidden from the eyes of many. I will expound some of them. The gaon R. Se‘adya composed his Book of Doctrines and Beliefs. It contains chapters that are rightly argued, as well as others that have no logic to his argument.⁵ I shall turn now to speak on the commandments as my abilities permit, and may the Holy One guide me on a straight path [see Psalms 107:7]. Who is a teacher like Him? (Job 36:22).