Judah ibn Tibbon's letter to his son Samuel

morningstar

Sun, Jan 14 2007, 5:10 pm

In light of recent discussions on this site about children at risk, causes, and appropriate responses, I found the following excerpt from the ethical will of Rabbi Judah ibn Tibbon (1120-1170 C. E. ) very interesting. Judah was born in Granada, Spain and eventually migrated to Southern France. He is well known as a translator from Arabic to Hebrew.

"My son, listen to my precepts, neglect none of my injunctions. Set my admonition before your eyes; thus shall you prosper and prolong your days in pleasantness! . . .

You know, my son, how I swaddled you and brougth you up, how I led you in the path of wisdome and virtue. I fed and clothed you, I spent myself in educating and prtecting you. I sacrificed my sleep to make you wise beyond your fellows and to raise you to the highest degree of science and morals. These twelve years I have denied myself the usual pleasures and relaxations of men for your sake, and I still toil for your inheritance.

I have honored you by providing an extensive library for your use, and have thus relieved you of the necessity to borrow books. Most students must bustle about to seek books, often without finding them. But you, thanks be to G-d, lend and borrow not. Many books, indeed, you own two or three copies. I have besides made for you books on all sciences, hoping that your hand might them all as a nest.

Seeing that your Creator has graced you with a wise and understanding heart, I journeyed to the ends of the earth and fetched for you a teacher in secular sciences. I minded neither the expense nor the danger of the ways. Untold evil might have befallen me and you on those travels, had not the Lord been with us!

But you, my son, did deceive my hopes. You did not choose to employ your abilities, hiding yoruself from all your books, not caring to know them or even their titles. Had you seen your own books in the hand of others, you would not have recognized them; had you needed one of them, you would not have known whether it was with you or not, without asking me; you did not even consult the catalogue of your library.

Therefore, my son! Stay not your hand when I have left you, but devote yourself to the study of Torah and to the science of medicine.But chiefly occupy yourself iwth the Torah, for you ahve a wise and understanding heart, and all that is needful on your part is ambition and application. I know that you will repent of the past, as many have repented before you of their youthful indolence. . .

Excerpted from Eyewitness to Jewish History by Rabbi Benjamin Blech

morningstar

Sun, Jan 14 2007, 10:58 pm

Being that this thread is very quiet:
Some of the things I find striking:

1. He does not blame himself for the follies of "youthful indolence." He sees this as his son's problem, not his own.
2. He does not hesitate to state that he has gone over and beyond in his love for his son. No self-recrimination about being too controlling.
3. He also feels very comfortable telling his adult son how he should improve ( In a section I omitted, he tells his son that he should treat his wife better).
4. At the same time that he is critical of his son, taking as a given that the problem is his son's not his, he is also strongly states his confidence in his son's native ability, and his trust that his son will take his advice and shape up. No predictions of gloom and doom here.

Amazing how times and attitudes have changed.

Mevater

Sun, Jan 14 2007, 11:05 pm

I googled the name and got this:

There are no later Jewish scholars that question God's priority, however exactly it may be defined. This is not the case with regard to the doctrine of creation ex nihilo which never achieved unanimous acceptance. Thus, in describing creation, Ibn Ezra writes: 'Most biblical commentators explain that the word bara indicates creation ex nihilo....[Ibn Ezra rejects this and concludes:] the meaning of bara is to cut or to set a boundary. The intelligent person will understand [to what I am alluding.]' The implication of this, and some other comments of Ibn Ezra, is that he believed that the world was created by giving form to eternal matter. Indeed, Ibn Ezra has been understood this way by R. Joseph Tov Elem and R. David Arama.....Somewhat later, Gersonides maintained that the world was created from eternal matter, and he describes his view at length in book six of his Milhamot Hashem. Samuel Ibn Tibbon is another of the medieval scholars who does not accept creation ex nihilo. [Shapiro, p.194]

One need not be an esotericist to see that there are serious problems with Maimonides claiming that one who doubts creation ex nihilo is a heretic with no share in the world to come. Without getting into the much discussed problem of Maimonides true view of creation, it is clear from Maimonides' exoteric teaching in the Guide that even he did not regard creation ex nihilo as a fundamental religious doctrine.

Does this mean, that if this writing is accurate, he was an Apikores?

Imaonwheels

Wed, Jan 17 2007, 3:09 am

Whose article is that? What is the source?

By eternal matter mean hiuli in Hebrew? If so, it is not apikorsis and the Ramnban holds this way as well.

Quote:

One need not be an esotericist to see that there are serious problems with Maimonides claiming that one who doubts creation ex nihilo is a heretic with no share in the world to come. Without getting into the much discussed problem of Maimonides true view of creation, it is clear from Maimonides' exoteric teaching in the Guide that even he did not regard creation ex nihilo as a fundamental religious doctrine.

This quote says something about the author that does not bring me to trust his writing.

shalhevet

Wed, Jan 17 2007, 4:00 am

Quote:

Principle I. To know the existence of the Creator

To believe in the existence of the Creator, and this Creator is perfect in all manner of existence. He is the cause of all existence. He causes them to exist and they exist only because of Him. And if you could contemplate a case, such that He was not to exist…then all things would cease to exist and there would remain nothing. And if you were to contemplate a case, such that all things would cease to exist aside from the Creator, His existence would not cease. And He would lose nothing; and oneness and kingship is His alone. Hashem of strength is His name because He is sufficient with His own existence, and sufficient [is] just Him alone, and needs no other. And the existences of the angels, and the celestial bodies, and all that is in them and that which is below them…all need Him for their existence. And this is the first pillar and is attested to by the verse, “I am Hashem your God.”

Principle IV. God’s Antiquity

This is that God existed prior to everything, and exists after everything. This is proved many times throughout scripture and is attested to by the verse, “Meuna Elokei kedem.”

ie Rambam teaches in his 13 principles that Hashem existed prior to everything ie nothing at all existed before Him (there was no before, since He is eternal) and that He created everything.

(The translation is from http://www.mesora.org/13principles.html)

I have already started a thread about this dangerous practice on imamother (and I'm sure in real life too) of people to get information by googling and then everything is seen as having equal weight once it's in a quote box here: blogs, missionary/reform/conservative sites, papers written by a 15 yr old for his end of semester project, anti-religious newspapers as against official sites checked by rabbonim or quotes from the Torah, Rambam, SA etc.

And people post such things without even giving a source. Exploding anger

Imaonwheels

Wed, Jan 17 2007, 5:38 am

I have people fight me adamently when I tell them wikipedia is a useless at best source on anything Jewish.

Also, everyone who has an axe to grind or finds that the frum or charedi world doesn't recommend him as a scholar starts a blog mixing his ignorance, heresy and LH into a easily consumable form and I find these blog entries discussed on all of the most serious frum forums.

Ask me again why women need to a learn a lot and from the inside. Lies abound and we here...are all on the net.

Last edited by Imaonwheels on Wed, Jan 17 2007, 5:43 am; edited 1 time in total