Solomon Ibn Gabirol Research Articles

Lamentations by a Jewish poet on his skin affliction: Solomon Ibn Gabirol

Solomon Ibn Gabirol was a highly respected medieval Jewish poet and philosopher who lived in Spain. He suffered from a distressing, chronic cutaneous disorder of unknown etiology, which he poetically portrays in his poetry by using fantastic and grotesque imagery derived from Biblical sources. This contribution provides examples of Ibn Gabirol's remarkable poetry, which spotlights the immense human suffering and misery that can result from skin diseases.

The Man Who Made His Own Eve

Tortured by an incurable skin disease, the medieval Hebrew poet and philosopher, Solomon Ibn Gabirol [c. 1021-1070?], is said to have created a female golem, or robot, to ease his loneliness and suffering. “The Man Who Made His Own Eve,” recounts the story of Gabirol’s incredible invention and the personal and tragic consequences of his daring.

Ibn Gabirol and Judah ha-Levi’s Usage of Dialogue: The Role of the Disciple in Fons Vitae and that of the King in Kitāb al-Khazarī

The literary framework of Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s Fons Vitae is a conversation between a master and a disciple. In this article, the nature of the disciple’s questions will be analyzed in order to explain the advantages of the dialogical process in Ibn Gabirol’s thought. The literary framework of Judah ha-Levi’s Kitāb al-Khazarī is similar to that of Fons Vitae. Ha-Levi’s composition is built as a conversation that allegedly took place between the king of the Khazars and a Jewish scholar (ḥaver). Analysis of the king’s responses to the ḥaver shows that the king did not fully understand the ḥaver’s lessons, in which the deep meaning of Judaism is taught. In this article, the king’s responses will be analyzed and, likewise, the question of Judah ha-Levi’s intention in using this literary sophistication. As is shown in this article both famous Andalusian poets and thinkers, R. Judah ha-Levi and R. Solomon Ibn Gabirol, masters of linguistic phrasing and style, used the dialogical form not only as an opportunity to present their world views, but also as a method by which to critique their own philosophies.

Uriah Kfir. A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry. Leiden: Brill, 2018. 164 pp.

Reviewed by: A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry by Uriah Kfir Jonathan Decter Uriah Kfir. A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry. Leiden: Brill, 2018. 164 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000187 "The Hidden Praises of Time Have I Seen" is a panegyric by a poet named Pinḥas, a rival of the more famous Todros Halevi Abulafia (1247–d. after 1298), in honor of Don Çag Yiẓḥak ben Ẓadok, a courtier in the service of Alfonso X of Castile. The poem opens with a fictional poetic speaker recounting a "prophetic" vision, a gathering in which poets come from all directions to boast over their specific locales. After the representatives of the East, North, and South speak, they call for the prince of the West, but no one answers until Pinḥas himself steps forth and boasts of its qualities. The participants "whisper to one another about [End Page 214] the one for whom kingship is fitting" until Time (i.e., Fate) interjects, "What have I to do with North, East, and South? The West have I acquired! / Behold, my seal and its cord [Genesis 38:18] are yours; the mark of dominion have I set upon your beloved's forehead." The "beloved," of course, refers to the addressee of the poem, Don Çag Yiẓḥak ben Ẓadok. Pinḥas's masterful poem participates in a discourse of post-Andalusian Hebrew poetry that centered on geography, a subject of cultural import after the period of the great Hebrew poets of al-Andalus (Samuel ha-Nagid, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Judah Halevi, etc.) had come to a close. Clearly for Pinḥas, the West (which meant Spain from a Mediterranean perspective) could claim superiority over other regions, and here the claims of poetic accomplishment and political legitimacy dovetail poignantly. The recent book by Uriah Kfir, based on a Hebrew doctoral dissertation (Tel Aviv University), provides an in-depth view of the fascinating dynamics of geographic debate in Andalusian and post-Andalusian Hebrew literature. (The dissertation also offers critical editions of many of the texts discussed.) The approach departs from existing scholarship in that previous scholars (with a few exceptions) have thought more in terms of literary development across geography rather than the way in which geography itself functions as a topic within medieval Hebrew literature. Rather than focusing on the degree to which post-Andalusian poets depended on, selectively absorbed, or departed from Andalusian literary conventions, Kfir investigates the cultural tensions of place, wherein al-Andalus and later Christian Iberia functioned as a "center" with a venerated literary tradition, while other locales—including Italy, Provence, Egypt, and Iraq—functioned as its "periphery." In approaching the corpus in this way, Kfir reads through prisms that have been employed fruitfully in postcolonial theory in Europe and the United States, including within the field of modern Hebrew literature. The book is divided into two main sections, the first of which deals with the Iberian "center" from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. Here Kfir discerns a four-part process ("distinction, amplification, promotion, and preservation") by which the hegemonic claims of the earliest generations of Andalusian poets are reproduced by authors of Christian Iberia for the retention of hegemony in the face of rising Hebrew centers in Provence and the Islamic East. Kfir first shows how the great poets of what has been termed the Golden Age of Hebrew poetry in al-Andalus promoted the primacy of the Jewish culture of the Islamic West. Thus Samuel ha-Nagid asserted not only his literary prowess but also his independence from Hai Gaon of Baghdad in legal matters. Andalusian Jews represented themselves as the descendants of Jerusalem exiles, hence claimants of pure Hebrew speech, and also as the inheritors of Eastern geonic authority. Hebrew authors of Christian Iberia, though they departed from their predecessors in significant ways, could make the case for continuing the Andalusian tradition most easily and represent their superiority not as a matter of mere emulation but rather as one of innate ability. The second part of the book presents a series of case studies of authors from Iraq, Egypt, Italy, and Provence during the thirteenth...

A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry by Uriah Kfir

Reviewed by: A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry by Uriah Kfir Jonathan Decter Uriah Kfir. A Matter of Geography: A New Perspective on Medieval Hebrew Poetry. Leiden: Brill, 2018. 164 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009419000187 "The Hidden Praises of Time Have I Seen" is a panegyric by a poet named Pinḥas, a rival of the more famous Todros Halevi Abulafia (1247–d. after 1298), in honor of Don Çag Yiẓḥak ben Ẓadok, a courtier in the service of Alfonso X of Castile. The poem opens with a fictional poetic speaker recounting a "prophetic" vision, a gathering in which poets come from all directions to boast over their specific locales. After the representatives of the East, North, and South speak, they call for the prince of the West, but no one answers until Pinḥas himself steps forth and boasts of its qualities. The participants "whisper to one another about [End Page 214] the one for whom kingship is fitting" until Time (i.e., Fate) interjects, "What have I to do with North, East, and South? The West have I acquired! / Behold, my seal and its cord [Genesis 38:18] are yours; the mark of dominion have I set upon your beloved's forehead." The "beloved," of course, refers to the addressee of the poem, Don Çag Yiẓḥak ben Ẓadok. Pinḥas's masterful poem participates in a discourse of post-Andalusian Hebrew poetry that centered on geography, a subject of cultural import after the period of the great Hebrew poets of al-Andalus (Samuel ha-Nagid, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Judah Halevi, etc.) had come to a close. Clearly for Pinḥas, the West (which meant Spain from a Mediterranean perspective) could claim superiority over other regions, and here the claims of poetic accomplishment and political legitimacy dovetail poignantly. The recent book by Uriah Kfir, based on a Hebrew doctoral dissertation (Tel Aviv University), provides an in-depth view of the fascinating dynamics of geographic debate in Andalusian and post-Andalusian Hebrew literature. (The dissertation also offers critical editions of many of the texts discussed.) The approach departs from existing scholarship in that previous scholars (with a few exceptions) have thought more in terms of literary development across geography rather than the way in which geography itself functions as a topic within medieval Hebrew literature. Rather than focusing on the degree to which post-Andalusian poets depended on, selectively absorbed, or departed from Andalusian literary conventions, Kfir investigates the cultural tensions of place, wherein al-Andalus and later Christian Iberia functioned as a "center" with a venerated literary tradition, while other locales—including Italy, Provence, Egypt, and Iraq—functioned as its "periphery." In approaching the corpus in this way, Kfir reads through prisms that have been employed fruitfully in postcolonial theory in Europe and the United States, including within the field of modern Hebrew literature. The book is divided into two main sections, the first of which deals with the Iberian "center" from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. Here Kfir discerns a four-part process ("distinction, amplification, promotion, and preservation") by which the hegemonic claims of the earliest generations of Andalusian poets are reproduced by authors of Christian Iberia for the retention of hegemony in the face of rising Hebrew centers in Provence and the Islamic East. Kfir first shows how the great poets of what has been termed the Golden Age of Hebrew poetry in al-Andalus promoted the primacy of the Jewish culture of the Islamic West. Thus Samuel ha-Nagid asserted not only his literary prowess but also his independence from Hai Gaon of Baghdad in legal matters. Andalusian Jews represented themselves as the descendants of Jerusalem exiles, hence claimants of pure Hebrew speech, and also as the inheritors of Eastern geonic authority. Hebrew authors of Christian Iberia, though they departed from their predecessors in significant ways, could make the case for continuing the Andalusian tradition most easily and represent their superiority not as a matter of mere emulation but rather as one of innate ability. The second part of the book presents a series of case studies of authors from Iraq, Egypt, Italy, and Provence during the thirteenth...

Filosofía y poesía en Ibn Gabirol

Rabbi Solomon ibn Gabirol (Avicebrón) was perhaps the greatest Neo-Platonist in the medieval Arabic philosophic tradition, and the greatest medieval Hebrew poet. In the following discussion, the author studies a short poem (Ahabtikha: "I Have Loved You") from Ibn Gabirol's classic philosophy work Fons Vitae, and he tries to clarify some of the poem's enigmas. The poem does relate to the teachings of the Fons Vitae, but does so in a nonphilosophic manner, making no use of philosophic terminology or argument.

Aquinas against spiritual matter

Nature of angels have been the object of interest of Christian thinkers since the times of the Fathers of the Church when the teaching of Holy Scriptures was confronted with Late Ancient Philosophy. The teaching on the intellectual beings in noetic realm was very important especially for Neoplatonic philosophers. It was Plotinus who first used Aristotelian concept of hyle noete (intellectual mater) to describe the distinctions between spiritual beings. His opinions evolved at ancient Neoplatonic systems and found its place in Arabic and Jewish philosophy. Idea of intellectual matter took its fully developed form in the writings of Avicebron (Solomon ibn Gabirol). His work Fons vitae was early translated to Latin in twelve century and was widely read. Through this work much of Neoplatonic philosophy was transferred to Latin Europe along with the teaching on spiritual beings and spiritual matter. St Thomas Aquinas, who confronted his ideas building systematic angelology, also knew work of Avicebron. The main problem of Christian angelology at his time was to show the difference between the nature of angels and God. This distinction did not played the key role in pre-christian systems, because there was no Scripture like concept of the one God as the only creator who transcends all beings. For the medieval Christian thinkers the idea of spiritual mater seemed to be very helpful in resolving this issue. It allowed them to claim that angels as creatures had spiritual matter in their essences while God was pure form and pure act. St Thomas Aquinas explained this difference in unique way using his new metaphysics. He argues that God is subsistent act of being (ispum esse substitens) and angels do not have their own essence identical with their being. Spiritual beings (often called by him „separated substances”) are composed of act of being (ipsum esse) and essence, which is form (forma). Thanks to such explanation there is no need to claim that there is a spiritual matter in nature of angels and Aquinas formulates arguments refuting this idea. In De substantis separatis he shows that such solution allows to reject spiritual matter and helps to demonstrate that angels have purely spiritual nature. His approach to the problem also preserves the claim of fundamental difference between God and spiritual creatures.

“Is This Thy Voice?”: Rhetoric and Dialogue in Solomon Ibn-Gabirol’s Liturgical Poems of Redemption [Piyyutei Ge’ulah] by Ariel Zinder (review)

Reviewed by: “Is This Thy Voice?”: Rhetoric and Dialogue in Solomon Ibn-Gabirol’s Liturgical Poems of Redemption [Piyyutei Ge’ulah] by Ariel Zinder Itay Marienberg-Milikowsky אבן גבירול הֲקוֹלֵךְ זֶה הַקוֹל’: היבטים רטוריים ודיאלוגיים בפיוטי הגאולה של ר’ שלמה (“Is This Thy Voice?”: Rhetoric and Dialogue in Solomon Ibn-Gabirol’s Liturgical Poems of Redemption [Piyyutei Ge’ulah]). By Ariel Zinder. Pp. 133. Jerusalem: Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2012. Paper, NIS 79. Shlomo Ibn Gabirol, who lived in the first half of the eleventh century, is considered one of the fathers of Hebrew poetry in Andalusia’s Golden Age. The cultural climate of that period largely dictated an adherence to conventions, but this did not prevent him from imbuing these forms with personal expression, in both his secular and his sacred poetry. One of the best examples of this is the way Ibn Gabirol shaped the redemption (ge’ulah) piyyut (liturgical poems that, on Sabbaths and holiday mornings, embellish the Ga‘al Yisrael blessing that closes the section of the service devoted to the recitation of the Shema Yisrael prayer). Their particular beauty has gained these poems a special place both in traditional culture and in modern scholarship. Ariel Zinder’s book examines these poems from the vantage point of their performative character, that is, as texts that are actually chanted (or at least intended for this purpose) by a prayer leader and community of worshippers in the synagogue. As Zinder sees them, they are texts meant to do something in the world—to affect the community, and move he to whom the prayers are addressed. This perspective, explicitly influenced by J. L. Austin’s linguistic theory, shows itself to be particularly fruitful for a poetic corpus that stands out for a complex compositional structure, in which the voices of different speakers alternate, each one presenting an argument of its own. The introduction to the book discusses the common current scholarly approaches to the redemption piyyutim of Ibn Gabriol. Zinder is able to show how these positions differ in their understanding of the function these piyyutim are meant to serve. Likewise, he shows how these positions sometimes reflect the way these scholars see the complex composition of the poems. In his first chapter, Zinder delves into the interrelation between the rhetorical and poetic dimensions of the poems, showing how the tension between these two aspects deepens the dialogic quality of the piyyut. This quality, at its best, is not illusory, he says—it is not a cover for what is really a single voice (like that of Socrates, speaking for Plato, in the later Platonic dialogues) but rather a convoluted representation of a multi-faceted reality in which each voice is by necessity incomplete. The dialogic structure is not constrained to the role of an organizing principle of the text, but turns it into “a churning field of forces and voices that vie against and with each other to create a comprehension of the experience of exile and to bring about divine intervention [to end it]” (p. 16, my translation). [End Page 467] Chapter 2 maps out the voices that speak in Ibn Gabirol’s redemption piyyutim, describing the psychological, class, and gender characteristics that emerge from the linguistic-rhetorical choices attributed to each voice. Especially worthy of note here are Zinder’s stimulating analysis of the prayer leader’s alternation between different positions in the space between the Jewish people and its God, and of the lyrical mode of the people’s voice, with all the complexity that its representation as female implies. Chapter 3, the book’s climax, bears the title “From the Strophe to the Whole Poem” (p. 77). Here Zinder demonstrates what happens in the poems beyond the voice of the distinct speakers in each individual single strophe—voices he clearly delineated in the previous chapter—when they become part of the mixture heard again and again in the poem as a whole. Here Zinder offers an ample tool kit for analyzing the finest threads in the textual fabric, threads that cannot be adequately described by blunt terms like “order” and “structure.” Thus, “enwrapping” takes place when a strongly expressive word is secreted between other words that soften its impact; “channeling” is...

A Gathering for Our Time: The Dream of the Poem as an Anthology

A Gathering for Our Time:The Dream of the Poem as an Anthology Jonathan P. Decter Peter Cole's The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 offers fresh translations of a rich corpus of Hebrew verse, some known to English reading audiences, some presented here for the first time. In addition to establishing himself as a fine poet in his own right, Cole had already applied his poetic talent to translating select poems of two of the great Hebrew poets of al-Andalus, Samuel Ha-Nagid and Solomon Ibn Gabirol. His translation style mixes the contemporary with the archaic, eschewing the Elizabethan and Victorian styles of earlier translators (what Cole calls a "wax-museum-like school of translation", 17), abandoning the rhyme of the original, but nonetheless preserving many idioms and allusions strange to the English ear within a sound world that gives that same ear thrill, aiming first and foremost to re-create something of the original's power and force. But it is not Cole's translation method that I wish to address here - this [End Page 167] is best left to other translators. Rather, I wish to discuss The Dream of the Poem as an anthology, pointing first to a few of the early English anthologies (between 1851 and 1917) that include the Hebrew poets of Spain, and then returning to the contemporary intellectual, cultural and political worlds to which Cole's volume speaks most eloquently.1 Of all literary forms, the anthology might appear, at first glance, to be the one in which an author comments least upon the material being presented (whether the editor includes texts in the original language only, his or her own translations, or the translations of others). Especially when there are no introductory or critical notes, it would seem that the compiler simply brings together materials as they truly exist, allowing the reader an opportunity for a convenient perusal of literary history. Yet, in the very process of sifting through materials and selecting texts, giving certain authors greater representation than others, choosing principles of organization and juxtaposing texts in specific orderings, the anthologist creates a narrative of literary history and suggests meaning.2 No anthology can escape being a partial representation of a literary corpus, and every anthology is shadowed by its own "anti-anthology" - the body of texts not selected. Anthologies are written for their own historical moments. They generally presume, seek to create, or have the effect of creating literary canons, collections of texts from bygone eras deemed relevant to a contemporary community for preservation and interpretation. The selection of texts can be informed by any number of motivating factors that pertain to aesthetic criteria, moral standards, modes of self-representation, nationalism, and the intended use of texts (performative, contemplative, devotional, etc.). It has been argued convincingly that many literary canons were established in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in order to establish the boundaries of communities; Gregory Jusdanis writes, "[T]he canon serves as a utopian site [End Page 168] of continuous textuality in which a nation, a class, or an individual may find an undifferentiated identity" (59). In the case of nations, canons -and anthologies with them- allow for a staking out of intellectual territory that parallels physical territorial claims. Jewish anthologies of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries served as sites for the exploration of cultural identities, especially as Jews increasingly identified themselves as a "nation" whose past could be reconstructed and reclaimed in the same way as that of the German, French or Greek nations. This was the case whether the anthologies were produced in German by scholars of the Wissenschaft des Judentums (science of Judaism), in Hebrew by Zionist intellectuals, or in English by British and American scholars, rabbis, and translators, though each type of anthology imagined community differently and was directed toward a different purpose. An anthology could stand as a monument to a religious past within a modern, secular Jewish context or could be collected for devotional purposes in the spirit of religious revival; it could demonstrate the Jewish contribution to universal quests for truth and beauty or could stress a singular fascination with the...

Medieval Opinions on the Spanish School of Hebrew Poetry and its Epigones

Since Solomon Ibn Gabirol left the world and Moses Ibn Ezra, Jehudah Halevi, and Abraham Ibn Ezra died, the well of poetry has dried up, inspiration has disappeared, and God’s spirit no longer manifests itself. None of their successors can compare with them. We backward ones, like beggars, gather the crumbs and refuse that have fallen from their table. We hasten day and night over the ways trodden by them, but we cannot equal them.1

Cosmology and Cosmogony in Doresh Reshumoth, a Thirteenth-Century Commentary on the Torah

During the intellectual ferment of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Kabbalist speculation emerged in Provence and Spain amid the background of neoplatonism. The Kabbalah was not, however, the only field of Jewish intellectual endeavor in which neoplatonic speculation found expression. Thinkers of the tenth and eleventh centuries, such as Isaac Israeli and Solomon ibn Gabirol, had elaborated neoplatonic philosophies; by the mid-twelfth century, however, this trend appears to have spent itself. An unpublished thirteenth-century manuscript from the collection of David S. Sassoon preserves an anonymous Hebrew biblical commentary, Doresh Reshumoth, which embodies aspects of neoplatonic thinking that were developed independently of the Kabbalah. In this paper, I shall attempt to reconstruct the cosmology and cosmogony that were accepted by the author of this commentary, and to place that cosmology and cosmogony within the broader context of medieval Jewish intellectual history. Some of the discussion that follows is necessarily technical and involved, but the conclusions to be drawn from this study are of much wider import. The connections between the earliest phases of the Kabbalah and neoplatonism have long been suggested; with the help of Doresh Reshumoth, I hope to render some of these connections explicit by focusing on particular concepts that were shared by both trends. Moreover, I hope to trace the different trajectories taken by the Kabbalah and neoplatonism at a critical juncture.

Of a Pietist Gone Bad and Des(s)erts Not Had: The Fourteenth Chapter of Zechariah Aldahiri's Sefer hamusar

Zechariah Aldahiri, a sixteenth-century Yemenite Jewish traveler and respected religious scholar, composed his rhymed prose narrative, Sefer hamusar, while imprisoned along with the rest of the San'a Jewish community, in 1568. He hoped the lesson (musar) of these afflictions that befell us on account of our many sins would spur the reader to humility and piety. But Sefer hamusar is not exclusively devoted to moral edification. Inspired by the Arabic Maqamat of al-Hariri (1054-1122), the Tahkemoni of Judah Alharizi (c. 1165-1225), and the Mahbarot of Immanuel of Rome (c. 1265-1335), it is an engaging belletristic confection of folk tales, animal fables, riddles, and travel accounts, interwoven with pious admonitions, religious polemics, messianic speculations, and philosophical and kabbalistic meditations. This article explores the work's fourteenth chapter, setting it in its cultural and literary historical contexts. In telling his tale of a pietist turned rhymester and swindler, Aldahiri draws on the philosophical language of Solomon Ibn Gabirol's Keter malkhut; has his characters engage in witty gastronomic repartee; and laces his narrative with deceptions, duplicity, and guile. The several portions of this entertaining maqama are tied together by the idea of musar, a term translates the curricular and social ideal known in Arabic as adab, while retaining its biblical sense of reproof and moral instruction. Like Sefer hamusar as a whole, the fourteenth chapter is both a hilarious belletristic spoof and a cautionary tale exposing human weakness and excess.

<strong>Of a Pietist Gone Bad and Des(s)erts Not Had:</strong> The Fourteenth Chapter of Zechariah Aldahiri's <em>Sefer hamusar</em>

Zechariah Aldahiri, a sixteenth-century Yemenite Jewish traveler and respected religious scholar, composed his rhymed prose narrative, Sefer hamusar, while imprisoned along with the rest of the San'a Jewish community, in 1568. He hoped that the lesson (musar) of these afflictions "that befell us on account of our many sins" would spur the reader to humility and piety. But Sefer hamusar is not exclusively devoted to moral edification. Inspired by the Arabic Maqamat of al-Hariri (1054-1122), the Tahkemoni of Judah Alharizi (c. 1165-1225), and the Mahbarot of Immanuel of Rome (c. 1265-1335), it is an engaging belletristic confection of folk tales, animal fables, riddles, and travel accounts, interwoven with pious admonitions, religious polemics, messianic speculations, and philosophical and kabbalistic meditations. This article explores the work's fourteenth chapter, setting it in its cultural and literary historical contexts. In telling his tale of a pietist turned rhymester and swindler, Aldahiri draws on the philosophical language of Solomon Ibn Gabirol's Keter malkhut; has his characters engage in witty gastronomic repartee; and laces his narrative with deceptions, duplicity, and guile. The several portions of this entertaining maqama are tied together by the idea of musar, a term that translates the curricular and social ideal known in Arabic as adab, while retaining its biblical sense of reproof and moral instruction. Like Sefer hamusar as a whole, the fourteenth chapter is both a hilarious belletristic spoof and a cautionary tale exposing human weakness and excess.

Selected poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol

Selected poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol

On Translating Keter Malkhut

On Translating Keter Malkhut Adena Tanenbaum A Crown for the King: Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Translated from the Hebrew by David R. Slavitt. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, xii + 88 pp. The Andalusian Hebrew poets of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were formidably accomplished. Talmud scholars and dayyanim, biblical exegetes and grammarians, Neoplatonic philosophers, physicians, and astronomers, they epitomized the broad, curricular ideals of their unique Judeo-Arabic culture. The wide-ranging learning and life experience of these so-called courtier-rabbis informs their vast corpus of Hebrew poetry, sacred and secular. When they pour out their devotions, they blend traditional Jewish piety with philosophical meditations on the human soul, or descriptions of the universe drawn from Greco-Arabic cosmology. When they contemplate the fleeting pleasures and evanescence of human life, they mine [End Page 349] biblical wisdom literature alongside Arabic gnomic poetry. And when they celebrate erotic love or the joys of imbibing, they voice worldly themes and motifs inspired by their Arabic courtly models in the language and imagery of Scripture, playfully subverting the original sense of the sacred text. Transposing these splendid creations into English is a di3cult, exacting task. To most contemporary readers, the poems are products of an unfamiliar and distant cultural milieu. Andalusian aesthetic ideals demanded a formal prosody and classical diction that are no longer in vogue. The verse is virtuosic, written in pure biblical Hebrew. It is replete with biblical allusions whose artfully modified resonances would have been recognized and appreciated by medievals raised on Scripture, but are often lost on modern audiences. At the same time, it adapts and naturalizes Arabic quantitative meters, rhyme schemes, and rhetorical devices, furnishing complex sound patterns, tightly knit and carefully balanced lines, and intricate wordplays that are virtually impossible to reproduce in English. Like the talmudic query Keitsad merakedim lifnei hakallah-How does one praise the bride when dancing before her?-translation poses a dilemma. Does one adhere cautiously to the original, or does one embellish judiciously? (The School of Shammai held that one should not enhance the truth, while the School of Hillel insisted that every bride deserves to be called beautiful and graceful.)1 Should one translate into clear prose, to preserve the meaning as faithfully as possible? Or does one craft a verse rendition whose stylistic refinement parallels the effect of the original, but takes liberties with the wording? Each translator grapples with the often incompatible demands of fidelity: to the form, sense, tone, register, texture, and impact of the poem. And, aware that complete fidelity is unattainable, each makes certain sacrifices and takes certain liberties. The publication of David Slavitt's A Crown for the King affords an opportunity to reflect on a recent spate of translations. Characterized by a broad range of approaches and philosophies, these renderings may nevertheless be divided into prose and verse. The former group includes Leon Weinberger's Twilight of a Golden Age, which presents a generous selection of Abraham Ibn Ezra's sacred and secular poetry. Despite their stanzaic layout, Weinberger's English versions are direct, matter-of-fact translations that forgo not only rhyme and meter, but even less rigorously formal features such as rhythm, syntactic inversions, or internal and near-rhymes.2 [End Page 350] By contrast, T. Carmi's recently reissued Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse displays a keen sensitivity to language. A poet in his own right, Carmi favors clear and unadorned prose translations that hew closely to the original without becoming slavishly literal. His stated goal-admirably met-is "to render the poems idiomatically and to capture something of their tone and movement, without betraying' their literal level."3 Yet, in dispensing with formal niceties, even Carmi's fine English versions cannot suggest the carefully crafted shape, texture, or cadences of the Hebrew. His continuous prose lines are accurate and unaffected but give no inkling of the symmetrical, self-contained, end-rhymed stichs so beloved of the poets. Among those who opt for verse translation, there is also a rich variety of approaches. At one end of the spectrum, Raphael Loewe notes that, like Christians who spoke European vernaculars but wrote poetry in Latin, the Andalusian Hebrew poets conversed...

A Crown for the King (review)

Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 348 Reviews A CROWN FOR THE KING. By Solomon Ibn Gabirol. David R. Slavitt, trans. pp. xii + 88. New York, NY: Oxford, 1998. David R. Slavitt's A Crown/or the King brings Solomon Ibn Gabirol's philosophical poem into its third English translation. Israel Zangwill's bilingual edition (The Royal Crown. JPS: 1923), and the solid translation of Bernard Lewis (The Kingly Crown. London: Vallentine, Mitchell: 1961) are both out of print but still available on library shelves. Do we need a new translation? After forty years, an accessible and contemporary version of a classic text is welcome. Surely, too, a great poem cannot have too many translators, and, at least according to its translators, Ibn Gabirol's Keter Malkhut is a great poem. If you like reading philosophical poetry, particularly of the neo-Platonic type, perhaps it is. Slavitt has reproduced (literally, by photo offset) the Hebrew text of Zangwill's edition, unfortunately without any of the critical apparatus Zangwill painstakingly appended to his work. Although Slavitt never claims to be producing a scholarly study, some readers may find problematic his unacknowledged reliance on a Hebrew text Zangwill constituted carefully from some two dozen manuscripts. I. A. Zeidman's critical edition of the text in Hebrew (Jerusalem: 1950) seems not to have attracted Slavitt's attention at all. Moreover, both Zangwill's and Lewis's English texts have influenced Slavin's interpretation of the Hebrew, so that his translation often echoes and even rephrases the earlier works. The brief introduction depends heavily on Lewis; the first half (especially pp. vii-x) essentially abridges parts of Lewis' introduction (see pp. 14-19). There is no extended discussion or overview of the poem, whose tripartite thematic structure is highlighted both in Lewis' introductory remarks and in the subdivided format of his translation. Zeidman concisely captured the essence of this structure in the triad c-t.-m i1"'''~' .-.,,~, ("the Creator, Creation and Mankind" p. 6). In contrast, Slavitt's compares Ibn Gabirol's solitary religious ecstasies to Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav (p. ix) and the poet's use of biblical citation to Eliot's Waste Land (p. xii). The analogies are unfortunate. "Solitary contemplation and private prayer" (p. ix), for one, were never considered an adequate substitute for public worship in eleventh-century Spain. And shibbutz, the weaving together of biblical verses and fragments to construct a new text, was not unique to Ibn Gabirol but a hallmark of the Spanish Jewish poetic school. Slavitt's spare bibliography will not provide Hebrew Studies 41 (2000) 349 Reviews additional context; only two of the twenty cited works actually treat Ibn Gabirol or his work. Slavitt is capable of a pliant English style, which sometimes achieves the tone of "intimacy and power" he ascribes to his source (p. ix). Of all three translators, Slavitt tries most to harness the vitality of common speech, and his text is generally easy to read. Ibn Gabirol's sleek elegance of expression can result in extremely spare Hebrew constructions, which Slavitt often refonnulates in an expansive, sometimes improvisatory, style. Sometimes the additions are overdone, although this is a matter of taste as well as accuracy . For instance, at the end of section VII, Ibn Gabirol states succinctly: i'Min MS, ,r,o, i'Min 'b~p ~ .nnrn 9~~n ,., s,:lOm l'lTI .c'1Il1 "M nnM [1l.6~9]. Literally, the passage reads: "You are the Light of the world. The eye of the intellect yearns for You and is astounded; it can see the [light's] edge but not its entirety." Slavitt translates, "You are light that is eternal: the intellect's eye that was made to behold you and yearns for you catches only glimmerings, but all of you we cannot see: it is at once so glorious and blinding." Or, as another example, the end of section I reads: ,,0., n.un rum rr:::n 1S, "o'm [1.14]. This becomes: "Yours is the secret of secrets: your love of creation, the yearning of all the fonns for material being, your love, that is, of your creatures, of us" [2]. (And compare Zangwill: "In Thee is the veiled...

The Great Tradition: Further Studies in the Development of Platonism and Early Christianity

Plato and the Golden age a Platonist Ars Amatoria Speusippus on pleasure reclaiming the heritage of Moses - Philo's confrontation with Greek philosophy the formal structure of Philo's allegorical exegesis orthodoxy and eclecticism - middle Platonists and new-Pythagoreans Plutarch and the end of history logos and trinity - patterns of Platonist influence on early Christianity pleroma and noetic cosmos - a comparative study the mind of Plotinus Plotinus, the first cartesian? notre perception du monde exterieur selon Plotin et Berkerly singing without an instrument - Plotinus on suicide a kind of warmth - some reflections on the concept of grace in the neoplatonic tradition Plotinus and the Chaldaean oracles Porphyry's doctrine of the One Porphyry and Iamblichus in Proclus - commentary on the Parmenides Iamblichus and Henads again philosophy and theology in Proclus - some remarks on the philosophical and theological modes of exegesis in Proclus' Platonic commentaries the neoplatonic exegesis of the statesman myth Damascius on the ineffable some aspects of Damascius' treatment of the concept of Dynamis the roots of reason in John Scottus Eriugena Solomon ibn Gabirol's doctrine of intelligible matter.

Spanish-Hebrew Poetry and the Arabic Literary Tradition: Arabic Themes in Hebrew Andalusian Poetry

Offers an introduction to the history of the Jews of the Iberian peninsula and the political situation of Muslim Spain during the 11th century as well as an introduction to Arabic poetry, its genres and poetical theory, and the relation between Arabic poetry from the East and that of al-Andalus. This book deals extensively with the different Arabic poetic genres and their Hebrew equivalents, focusing on the four main poets Samuel Ha-Nagid, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Moses Ibn Ezra and Yehuda Ha-Lewi. At the end conclusions are drawn about the use of Arabic themes in Hebrew Andalusian poetry.

Sephardic Influences on the American Jewish Liturgy

12 SHOFAR Fall 1992 Vol. 11, No. 1 SEPHARDIC INFLUENCES ON THE AMERICAN JEWISH LITURGY Eric 1. Friedland As of the fall of 1992 Dr. Friedland will have served for twenty-five years as the Sanders Professor ofJudaic Studies under a unique consortial arrangement in the Dayton area involving the United Theological Seminary (United Methodist), the University ofDayton (Roman Catholic), and Wright State University (state). There has hardly ever been a time when the Sephardic influence was not felt within the Ashkenazic orbit. One has only to think of the Lurianic rite used by the Hasidim which heavily interfuses Sephardic elements in an Ashkenazic nusa!J. Judah Halevi's "Yom le-yabashah nehepkhu me~lim" is found in many Ashkenazic prayerbooks in the geullab section for the· Seventh Day of Passover. Lateiy the Sephardic influence has manifested itself in the zesty folksong, "Eyn Adir k-Adonay," which came to us by way of Israel and has happily caught on in many a synagogue in this country. Probably less noticed are the Sephardic "Hashkivenu" in one ofthe Friday night services from the Reform Gates of Prayer and a version of the Sabbath and Festival Ashkenazic "Hashkivenu" shortened according to Sephardic specifications in the new Reconstructionist Kol Hanesbamab (1989). Since the 1940s the Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform rites have all carried Solomon ibn Gabirol's "Sha~ar avaqqeshkha" ("Early will I seek Thee, my Rock and Refuge strong") to introduce Sabbath morning worship. All of them too take up Moses ibn Ezra's "El nora 'alilah"! for the Concluding Service on Yom Kippur. The Conservative lIn a letter to author, Bernard H. Mehlman, rabbi of Temple Israel in Boston, who initiated the singing of"El nora 'alilah" at his Reform temple during Ne'ilah, mentioned the fuct that during his assistantship at Temple Sha'aray Tefila in New York City his senior, Rabbi Bernard Bamberger, was wont to chant this engaging piyyut during the last service for the Day of Atonement. It is hardly a coincidence that Bamberger's predecessor, Frederick De Sepbardic Influences on tbe AmericanJewisb Liturgy 13 Movement's MaPzor (1972) for the selfsame service even embraces the petition for the opening of the gates of blessing in an alphabetic acrostic. According to Lawrence Hoffman, the Reform Gates of Repentance .borrowed this entreaty straight from the Conservative Ma};Jzor, which in turn appropriated and extracted it from the Sephardic Kaddish Titqabbel, "Te'anu ve-te'ateru,,,2 for the High Holy Days. What' is not generally known is that a goodly proponion of the piyyutim for the Day of Atonement in the Reform prayerbook, such as they are, is of Sephardic provenance, and has been thus since the second volume of The Union Prayer Book first came out in 1894. One might easily grasp how Sephardic pieces make their way into the non-Onhodox American Siddur, panicularly if they are seen as Israeli and are catchy, singable, and shon. But what of the more sophisticated "Sha- ~ar avaqqeshkha," "EI nora 'alilah," and "Te'anu ve-te'ateru"? How did they filter into the American prayerbooks? How did the Reform Gates of Repentance, as a case in point, wind up with at least a half-dozen Sephardic liturgical poems only slightly outnumbered by its Ashkenazic selections? Seldom does anything quite happen overnight, appearances notwithstanding . The rule applies no less in the sphere of liturgical change. In concrete terms, the Sepharadizing tendence began in earnest little under two centuries ago,' while on the other hand scholarly literary and esthetic appreciation for the creative outpourings of Spanish Jewry came significantly into its own a couple of decades later. As for substantial replacement ofthe standard Ashkenazic piyyutirn with Sephardic ones, this did not really occur in bold fashion and on a full-scale basis until a large segment of Central European, German-speaking Jewry emigrated to the New World. The first official non-Onhodox prayerbook to be issued, in 1819, was the famed Hamburg Gebetbucb, its Hebrew title Seder ba-'Avodab. In pan because of a Sephardic component in the German synagogue'membership rolls and in pan because of a growing aversion to what were perceived as Sola Mendes-who pastored Sha'aray Tefila...

Plato, Aristotle, and the Concept of Woman in Early Jewish Philosophy

The purpose of this paper is to consider the relationship between ancient Greek philosophy and early Jewish philosophy in the particular concept of woman articulated by Philo, Solomon Ibn Gabirol (Avicebron), Moses Ben Maimon (Maimonides), and Leone Ebreo (Jehudah Abrabanel). While the concept of woman proposed by Jewish thought has often been approached through a study of religious writings or historical documents, there has been little written on the specifically philosophical components of the theory of woman’s identity. This paper will seek to demonstrate the similarities and differences in the concepts of woman in four Jewish philosophers who lived between the first and the sixteenth centuries AD. In addition, the relation between these views and the theories of Plato and Aristotle will be examined.