A History of Mediaeval Jewish PhilosophyHusik, Isaac
ReligionJewish
A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy
Husik, Isaac
Philosophy, Jewish; Philosophy, Medieval
Meekness is closer to virtue than the quality mentioned before, because
he who possesses it withholds his desire from seeking gratification. It
is a quality manifested by the prophets and leads to honor. "The fruits
of lowliness," a philosopher has said, "are love and tranquillity."
Contentment is of a kind with meekness. The greatest riches are
contentment and patience. He who esteems his rank but lightly enhances
man's estimation of his dignity. A wise man has said, "Be humble without
cringing, and manly without being arrogant. Arrogance is a wilderness
and haughtiness a taking refuge therein, and altogether a going astray."
Modesty is connected with humility but is superior to it, for it is a
sister of reason, and reason, as everybody knows, is the most important
quality, which separates man from beast and brings him near to the
angels. You never see a modest person without sense, or a person of good
sense who is not modest. A man must be modest not only before others but
also to himself. Modesty and faithfulness, it is said, are closely
related, and the one cannot be had truly without the other.
The impudent man is disliked by God and by man, even if he be wise and
learned. If one has this quality it is the duty of his friend and
associate to break him of it by reproving him. It is of value only when
used in defence of the Torah and in behalf of God and the truth.
Space will not permit us to treat in detail of the other senses and the
virtues and vices depending upon them, but we shall indicate briefly
Gabirol's method of relating the ethical qualities to the physical
senses.
Thus the sense of hearing, which is next in importance to sight has as
its qualities hate, love, mercy and cruelty. It takes some fine insight,
he says, to see the connection of these qualities with the sense of
hearing, but the intelligent and discerning reader will find this hint
sufficient. I hope he will not blame me, Gabirol continues, if I do not
bring together all the reasons and the scriptural passages to prove
this, for human flesh is weak, especially in my case on account of my
vexatious experiences and disappointments. We find in the Bible love
associated with hearing: "_Hear_, O Israel ... and thou shalt _love_ the
Lord thy God" (Deut. 6, 4). Hate follows hearing in the phrase: "When
Esau heard the words of his father ... and Esau hated Jacob" (Gen. 27,
34-41). Mercy is related to hearing in Exod. (22, 26), "And I will hear
for I am merciful." Finally cruelty is to refuse to listen, as we find
in the case of Pharaoh (Ex. 9, 12), "And the Lord hardened the heart of
Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them."
In a similar manner Gabirol proves that the sense of smell has four
qualities, anger, favor, envy, wide-awakeness; the sense of taste, the
four qualities, joy, sorrow, regret, calmness; while liberality,
niggardliness, courage and cowardice are related to the sense of touch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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