SAADYA
(882–942)

Saadya, sometimes called al-Fayyumi from the section of Upper Egypt in which he was born, had a brilliant career as the most distinguished intellectual leader of Jewry in his age. He was twenty-three when he left his Egyptian home to play his part on the wider stage of Palestine, Syria, and Babylonia. By this time he had already composed the first known Hebrew dictionary and an important treatise refuting the views of Anan ben David, the founder of the rationalistic Karaite sect. In 921, the rabbis of Babylonia challenged the authority of the Palestinian rabbis to fix the Hebrew calendar. Saadya's defense of the position of the Babylonian rabbis was most effective; he was rewarded by appointment to the rabbinical academy at Sura in Babylonia; and a few years later, in 928, he was the first non-Babylonian ever to be named as the head (gaon ) of the academy. His tenure of this position was neither calm nor prolonged. Disputes with the exilarch of the Babylonian Jewish community led to the removal of Saadya and his retirement from active participation in the life of the community. His last years saw a burst of literary creativity.

The writings of Saadya truly signalized the birth of a new creative period in Jewish life. He was a pioneering student and productive scholar in many fields of Jewish concern, including Hebrew grammar and philology, biblical exegesis, and Jewish liturgy. The early attacks on the views of Anan were followed by a long series of writings against Anan's fellow sectarians; since Karaism, a movement that rejected rabbinical and Talmudic law, was at this time the major internal threat to the unity of Jewish life, Saadya's anti-Karaite polemics continued throughout his career. The primary activity of Saadya's public life was in the legal field, and here his contributions were outstanding. In addition to commentaries on Talmudic treatises, Saadya wrote at least ten systematic monographs on a variety of Jewish legal subjects; one of these, Inheritance, is preserved in its entirety in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It was published in 1897 under the editorial care of Joel Mueller. Fragments of others still exist. Saadya was the first to translate the Old Testament into Arabic; this translation, still in use, is notable for its use of paraphrase where a literal translation would have been subject to censure for anthropomorphism. He also composed the earliest known commentary on Sefer Yetzira (The book of creation), an important work of the Jewish mystical tradition.

Thus his major philosophical work, The Book of Beliefs and Opinions (Arabic title, Kitab al-ʿamanat waliʾtikadat ; Hebrew title, Sefer ha-emunoth weha-deoth ), probably completed in 933, is but one of a long list of eminent contributions for which Saadya is remembered. He was probably impelled toward a systematic consideration of the relation between the religious beliefs of Judaism and the opinions arrived at through rational investigation both by the comparable activities of Muslim philosophers—the kalam and other schools—and by the quasi-rational approach characteristic of most of the Karaite spokesmen. In the intellectual milieu of the tenth century, the philosophical issues with which Saadya was concerned were widely and thoughtfully debated. Muslim philosophers of this age had far more of the corpus of Greek philosophical literature available to them than had their compeers in the Christian West. Saadya's Book of Beliefs and Opinions may best be described, therefore, as a philosophical apologetics for rabbinite Judaism. The Muʿtazilite school of Muslim philosophers generally presented their systematic treatises in the form of theodicies, treating first of the unity of God and then of his justice. Saadya's philosophical work is similarly patterned but assigns a rather larger share of the discussion to the second, ethical part then to the first, more purely metaphysical and theological one.

Prefaced to the ten sections into which the body of the work is divided is an introductory treatise in which Saadya justifies his engaging in this sort of philosophical enterprise. Here he enters into questions of the sources of human knowledge, the relations of belief and doubt, and the prevalent view that rational speculation necessarily leads to heresy. He argues that not the use of reason, but exclusive dependence on human reason is undesirable. Properly used, in combination with revelation, rational speculation supports revealed religion. From this discussion Saadya moves, in the first major section, to a proof of the doctrine of creation out of nothing and a refutation of twelve contrary views. In the second major section of his book, Saadya discusses the unity of God and demonstrates how the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is based upon a misinterpretation of certain scriptural verses. Treatise three defends the idea of a divine law for God's creatures as a necessary demand of reason and urges the need for prophecy and prophets as the vehicle by means of which the divine law is transmitted to men.

From the fourth treatise to the end of the work, Saadya's concern is more with ethical questions and the consequences for men's future redemption of their obedience or disobedience to the divine precepts delivered by the prophets. In these sections, he defends on rational grounds all of the major doctrines of the Jewish tradition. The tenth and last treatise is of slightly different character; it presents an ethic of the middle way as the proper guide to man's conduct in the affairs of daily life. Thus we may say that Saadya concluded his work on religious philosophy with a secular ethic.

See also Jewish Philosophy; Mysticism, History of.

Bibliography

Les oeuvres complètes de Saadia was edited by J. Derenbourg (6 vols., Paris, 1893–1896). Saadya's Book of Beliefs and Opinions may be found in a translation from the Arabic by Samuel Rosenblatt in the Yale Judaica Series, Vol. I (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1948).

For material on Saadya, see Jacob B. Agus, The Evolution of Jewish Thought (New York and London: Abelard-Schuman, 1959); Joseph L. Blau, The Story of Jewish Philosophy (New York: Random House, 1962); Julius Guttman, Philosophies of Judaism, translated by D. Silverman (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964); Isaac Husik, History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy (New York: Macmillan, 1916); Henry Malter, Saadia Gaon: His Life and Works (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1921); and Three Jewish Philosophers. Philo, Saadya Gaon, Jehuda Halevi, selections with introductions by H. Lewy, A. Altman, and I. Heinemann, eds. (New York: Meridian Books, 1960).

J. L. Blau (1967)