A History of Mediaeval Jewish PhilosophyHusik, Isaac
ReligionJewish
A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy
Husik, Isaac
Philosophy, Jewish; Philosophy, Medieval
Those souls which instead of elevating the two lower souls, vegetative
and animal, were misled by them, will perish with the latter. Between
the two extremes of perfection and wickedness there are intermediate
stages, and the souls are treated accordingly. Those of the proud will
rise in the air and flying hither and thither will not find a resting
place. Those which have knowledge, but no good deeds, will rise to the
sphere of the ether, but will be prevented from rising higher by the
weight of their evil deeds, and the pure angels will rain down upon them
arrows of fire, thus causing them to return below in shame and disgrace.
The souls of the dishonest will be driven from place to place without
finding any rest. Other bad souls will be punished in various ways.
Those souls which have good deeds but no knowledge will be placed in the
terrestrial paradise until their souls recall the knowledge they had in
their original state, and they will then return to the Garden of Eden
among the angels.[147]
CHAPTER VIII
ABRAHAM BAR HIYYA
Abraham bar Hiyya, the Prince, as he is called, lived in Spain in the
first half of the twelfth century. He also seems to have stayed some
time in southern France, though we do not know when or how long. His
greatest merit lies not in his philosophical achievement which, if we
may judge from the only work of a philosophical character that has come
down to us, is not very great. He is best known as a writer on
mathematics, astronomy and the calendar; though there, too, his most
important service lay not so much in the original ideas he propounded,
as in the fact that he was among the first, if not the first, to
introduce the scientific thought current in the Orient and in Moorish
Spain into Christian Europe, and especially among the Jews of France and
Germany, who devoted all their energies to the Rabbinical literature,
and to whom the Arabic works of their Spanish brethren were a sealed
book.
So we find Abraham bar Hiyya, or Abraham Savasorda (a corruption of the
Arabic title Sahib al-Shorta), associated with Plato of Tivoli in the
translation into Latin of Arabic scientific works. And he himself wrote
a number of books on mathematics and astronomy in Hebrew at the request
of his friends in France who could not read Arabic. Abraham bar Hiyya is
the first of the writers we have treated so far who composed a
scientific work in the Hebrew language. All the others, with the
exception of Abraham ibn Ezra, wrote in Arabic, as they continued to do
until and including Maimonides.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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