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Saadia
Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, gaon, Jewish philosopher, and exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic. Known for his works on Hebrew linguistics, ''Halakha'', and Jewish philosophy, he was a student of the philosophical school known as " Jewish Kalam". In this capacity, his philosophical work entitled ''The Book of Beliefs and Opinions'' represents the first systematic attempt to integrate Jewish theology with components of ancient Greek philosophy. Saadia was also very active in opposition to Karaite Judaism in defense of Rabbinic Judaism. Biography Early life Saadia was born in Dilāẓ in the Faiyum in Middle Egypt in 892. He immigrated to ancient Israel (in the Abbasid province of Bilad Al-Sham) in 915 at the age of 23, where he studied in Tiberias under the scholar Abu Kathir Yaḥya al-Katib (known as Eli ben Yehudah ha-Nazir in Hebrew), a Jewish mutaka ...
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The Book Of Beliefs And Opinions
''The Book of Beliefs and Opinions'' (; ) is a book written by Saadia Gaon (completed 933) which is the first systematic presentation and philosophic foundation of the dogmas of Judaism. The work was originally in Judeo-Arabic in Hebrew letters with quotations from the Torah. The first Hebrew translation was done in 1186 by Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon, titled ''Emunot ve-Deot'' ( ''Beliefs and Opinions''). An unabridged translation into English by Samuel Rosenblatt was published in 1948. An introduction prefaces the work and has ten chapters; it was completed in 933. Premise and introduction The work was mainly written to defend Rabbinic Judaism against Karaite Judaism, which rejects the Oral Torah (Mishnah and Talmud). In his detailed introduction, Saadia speaks of the reasons that led him to compose it. His heart was grieved when he saw the confusion concerning matters of religion that prevailed among his contemporaries, finding an unintelligent belief and unenlightened views ...
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Jewish Philosophy
Jewish philosophy () includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern ''Haskalah'' (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism, thus organizing emergent ideas that are not necessarily Jewish into a uniquely Jewish scholastic framework and worldview. With their admission into broader modern society, Jews with secular educations embraced or developed entirely new philosophies to meet the world's demands in which they now found themselves. Medieval rediscovery of ancient Greek philosophy among the ''Geonim'' of 10th-century Babylonian academies brought Rationalism, rationalist philosophy into Tanakh, Biblical-Talmudic Judaism. During the ''Geonic'' period, philosophy was generally in competition with Kabbalah. Both schools would become part of classic Rabbinic literature, though the decline of scholastic r ...
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Judeo-Arabic
Judeo-Arabic (; ; ) sometimes referred as Sharh, are a group of different ethnolects within the branches of the Arabic language used by jewish communities. Although Jewish use of Arabic, which predates Islam, has been in some ways distinct from its use by other religious communities, it is not a uniform linguistic entity. Varieties of Arabic formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arab world have been, in modern times, classified as distinct ethnolects. Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encompassing four languages: Judeo-Moroccan Arabic (aju), Judeo-Yemeni Arabic (jye), Judeo-Egyptian Arabic (yhd), and Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic (yud). Judeo-Arabic, particularly in its later forms, contains distinctive features and elements of Hebrew and Aramaic. Many significant Jewish works, including a number of religious writings by Saadia Gaon, Maimonides and Judah Halevi, were original ...
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Sura Academy
Sura Academy () was a Jewish yeshiva located in Sura in what is now southern Iraq, a region known in Jewish texts as "Babylonia". With Pumbedita Academy, it was one of the two major Jewish academies from the year 225 CE at the beginning of the era of the Amora sages until 1033 CE at the end of the era of the Gaonim. Sura Academy was founded by the Amora Abba Arikha ("Rav"), a disciple of Judah ha-Nasi. Among the well-known sages that headed the yeshiva were Rav Huna, Rav Chisda, Rav Ashi, Yehudai ben Nahman, Natronai ben Hilai, Saadia Gaon, and others. History Abba Arikha arrived at Sura city to find no lively Jewish religious public life, and since he was worried about the continuity of the Jewish community in Babylonia, he left his colleague Samuel of Nehardea and began working to establish the yeshiva that would become Sura Academy. Upon Abba Arikha's arrival, teachers from surrounding cities and towns descended upon Sura. The Academy of Sura was formally founded ...
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Faiyum
Faiyum ( ; , ) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location. Name and etymology Originally founded by the ancient Egyptians as Shedet, its current name in English is also spelled as Fayum, Faiyum or al-Faiyūm. Faiyum was also previously officially named Madīnat al-Faiyūm (Arabic language, Arabic for ''The City of Faiyum''). The name Faiyum (and its spelling variations) may also refer to the Faiyum Oasis, although it is commonly used by Egyptians today to refer to the city. The modern name of the city comes from Coptic language, Coptic / ' (whence also the personal name '), meaning ''the Sea'' or ''the Lake'', which in turn comes from late Egyptian language, Egyptian ''pꜣ-ym'' of the same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris; the extinct elephant ancestor ''Phiomia'' was named after it. Ancient history Archaeo ...
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Jewish Kalam
Jewish Kalam was an early medieval style of Jewish philosophy that evolved in response to Kalam in Islam, which in turn was a reaction against Aristotelianism. The term "Jewish Kalam" is used by modern historians, but is not a term by which Jewish thinkers designated themselves. In all likelihood, they were simply known by the Arabic term "Kalamists", as they are referred to by Maimonides and other Jewish writers. The best known practitioner of Jewish Kalam was Saadia Gaon, and Jewish Kalam represented the philosophical battlefield upon which Saadia attacked the proponents of Karaite Judaism. Maimonides in his ''The Guide for the Perplexed'' frequently references and disputes positions of Kalam, both Jewish and Muslim, and in general conveys an opinion of Kalam that is highly uncomplimentary. Judah Halevi also makes reference to Jewish followers of the Kalam, but mentions only Karaite Jews. Basic principles of Jewish Kalam Some of the basic principles of the Jewish Kalam are as ...
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Fayyum
Faiyum ( ; , ) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location. Name and etymology Originally founded by the ancient Egyptians as Shedet, its current name in English is also spelled as Fayum, Faiyum or al-Faiyūm. Faiyum was also previously officially named Madīnat al-Faiyūm (Arabic for ''The City of Faiyum''). The name Faiyum (and its spelling variations) may also refer to the Faiyum Oasis, although it is commonly used by Egyptians today to refer to the city. The modern name of the city comes from Coptic / ' (whence also the personal name '), meaning ''the Sea'' or ''the Lake'', which in turn comes from late Egyptian ''pꜣ-ym'' of the same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris; the extinct elephant ancestor '' Phiomia'' was named after it. Ancient history Archaeological evidence has found occupations around the ...
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Dosa Ben Saadia
Dosa ben Saadia (; ; – 1018) was a Talmudic scholar and philosopher who was the Gaon of Sura from 1012 until his death in 1018. Biography Born in Tiberias in about 935, his father Saadia Gaon was a prominent figure, the Sura Gaon from 928 to 942. In a letter written in 928, his father mentions his older brother Sheerit, although he does not mention Dosa. This has led scholars to place Dosa's birth around 935, meaning that he was only a young boy when his father died in 942. In 953, Sheerit and Dosa compiled a list of their father's books. Ibn Daud states in Sefer ha-Qabbalah that Dosa wrote a biography about his father entitled ''The Story of Rav Saadia and the Benefits He Did for Israel'' which was written in an epistle to Hasdai ibn Shaprut. Some state that Samuel ben Hofni was the last Sura Gaon, although in his commentaries Judah al-Madari includes Dosa in a list of the Sura Gaons. Dosa is also mentioned in the glossary of The Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides, who ...
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Eli Ben Yehudah Ha-Nazir
Eli ben Yehudah ha Nazir ben Zechariah, Arabic Abu Kathir Yahya al Katib ("Father of Kathir, Yahya the Scribe", fl. Tiberias, 910s), was a grammarian and philologist of the Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic languages. He may have been among the teachers in Tiberias of Saadia. His Arabic language treatise is entitled ''Usul al-Lugha al-'ibraniyya'' (c. 915) أصول اللغة العبرانيّة ("Origins of the Hebrew language").Ra'anan S. Boustan, Raʻanan S. Boustan, Oren Kosansky ''Jewish studies at the crossroads of anthropology and history'' p221 2011 "44 Among those who expressed this belief was 'Eli ben Yehudah ha-Nazir, a native of Tiberias, who wrote in a linguistic treatise of ca. 915 that when he had doubts about the accuracy of his work on the language of the Bible, .." He also commented on the opinion regarding the dagesh pronunciation of the Hebrew letter Resh Resh is the twentieth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoen ...
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Geonim
''Geonim'' (; ; also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura Academy , Sura and Pumbedita Academy , Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate. They were generally accepted as the spiritual leaders of the Jewish community worldwide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the ''Resh Galuta'' (exilarch) who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands. ''Geonim'' is the plural of (''Ga'on'') , which means "pride" or "splendor" in Biblical Hebrew and since the 19th century "genius" as in modern Hebrew language, Hebrew. As a title of a Babylonian college president it meant something like "His Excellency". The ''Geonim'' played a prominent and decisive role in the transmission and teaching of Torah and Halakha, Jewish law. They taught Talmud and decided on issues on which no ruling had been rendered during the period of the Talmud. Era The per ...
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Abraham Ibn Daud
Abraham ibn Daud (; ) was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer, historian and philosopher; born in Córdoba, Spain about 1110; who was said to have been killed for his religious beliefs in Toledo, Spain, about 1180. He is sometimes known by the abbreviation Rabad I or Ravad I or Ravaad I or Ra'avad I. His maternal grandfather was Isaac Albalia. Some scholars believe he was the Arabic-into-Latin translator known as ''Avendauth''. Works His chronicle, a work written in Hebrew in 1161 under the title of ''Sefer ha-Qabbalah'' (; some manuscripts give the title as ''Seder ha-Qabbalah'', i.e. the "Order of Tradition"), in which he fiercely attacked the contentions of Karaism and justified Rabbinic Judaism by the establishment of a chain of traditions from Moses to his own time, is replete with valuable general information, especially relating to the time of the Geonim and to the history of the Jews in Spain. In his book he attempted to explain how the pre-Inquisition Spanish Jewish communi ...
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Karaite Judaism
Karaite Judaism or Karaism is a Rabbinic Judaism, non-Rabbinical Jewish religious movements, Jewish sect characterized by the recognition of the written Tanakh alone as its supreme religious text, authority in ''halakha'' (religious law) and theology. Karaites believe that all of the Mitzvah, divine commandments which were handed down to Moses by God were recorded in the written Torah without any additional Oral Torah, Oral Law or explanation. Unlike mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, which regards the Oral Torah, codified in the Talmud and subsequent works, as authoritative interpretations of the Torah, Karaite Jews do not treat the written collections of the oral tradition in the Midrash or the Talmud as binding. Karaite interpretation of the Torah strives to adhere to the plain or most obvious meaning (''peshat'') of the text; this is not necessarily the literal meaning of the text—instead, it is the meaning of the text that would have been naturally understood by the ancient He ...
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