My son, join your soul

This ten-line Hebrew mnemonic poem was composed by Baḥya Ibn Paqūda and placed at the end of his philosophical and ethical treatise, The Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart. Each line refers to the subject of one of the ten chapters of the book; for example, the first chapter is titled “On the Unity of God,” and the first line of the poem expresses the idea that, by declaring the Unity of God, one can unite one’s soul to the divine. Baḥya writes explicitly at the end of the treatise that the poem is meant to be memorized as an easy way to remember the main themes of the work. The first Hebrew letters of each line make up an acrostic of Baḥya’s name.