Saadia Ben Joseph Gaon (892-942), the Hebrew name of Said al-Fayyumi, was a rabbi who was also a prominent Jewish exilarch, philosopher, and exegete. Born in upper Egypt in 892, he died in Babylonia at Sura in 942. The name "Saadia," is apparently the Hebrew equivalent of his Arabic name, "Sa'id." In an acrostic of the Hebrew introduction to his first work, the Agron, he calls himself Said ben Yosef, but later he wrote his name Saadia. Events Poppo of Thuringia, count of the march in Thuringia,is deposed by the German Carolingian king Arnulf of Carinthia Arnulf of Carinthia invades Great Moravia Duke Guido of Spoleto crowned Roman Emperor in April The former Silla general Gyeonhwon attacks the city of Gwangju and declares himself king. ... Events Kaminarimon, the eight-pillared gate to Japans Kinryuzan Sensouji Temple is erected. ... Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbÄ«;; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbÄ«) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished,. In the ancient Judean schools the sages were addressed as רִבִּי (Ribbi or Rebbi... The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Exegesis (Greek ἐξηγεῖσθαι to lead out) is an extensive and critical interpretation of any text, or especially of a holy scripture, such as of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Koran, etc. ... Events Poppo of Thuringia, count of the march in Thuringia,is deposed by the German Carolingian king Arnulf of Carinthia Arnulf of Carinthia invades Great Moravia Duke Guido of Spoleto crowned Roman Emperor in April The former Silla general Gyeonhwon attacks the city of Gwangju and declares himself king. ... Babylonia was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... Sura was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia that was a major center of Talmud scholarship, that together with the city of Pumbeditha, gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud. ... Events Kaminarimon, the eight-pillared gate to Japans Kinryuzan Sensouji Temple is erected. ... Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by 6 million people mainly in Israel, parts of the Palestinian territories, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Arabic (العربية al-arabiyyah, or less formally arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Wikipedians Instill Knowledge about Interesting and Pertinent topics, waxing Eloquent Developing Information Abundance Acrostic poems are related to crossword puzzles in that they can be read in multiple directions. ... For other uses, see Agron. ...

Saadia, in "Sefer ha-Galui", stresses his Jewish lineage, claiming to belong to the noble family of Shelah, son of Judah (see I Chron. IV. 21), and counting among his ancestors Hanina ben Dosa, the famous ascetic of the first century. Expression was given to this claim by Saadia in calling his son Dosa. Nothing else is known of the latter. Regarding Joseph, Saadia's father, a statement of Ben Meïr has been preserved saying that he was compelled to leave Egypt and died in Jaffa, probably during Saadia's lengthy residence in the Holy Land. The usual epithet of "Al-Fayyumi," represented in Hebrew by the similar geographical name "Pitomi", refers to Saadia's native place, the Fayum in upper Egypt. Jaffa (Hebrew יָפוֹ, Standard Hebrew Yafo, Tiberian Hebrew Yāp̄ô; Arabic يَافَا Yāfā; also Japho, Joppa), is an ancient city located in Israel. ... The phrase The Holy Land (Arabic الأرض المقدسة al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah; Hebrew ארץ הקודש;, Standard Hebrew Éreẓ haQodeÅ¡, Tiberian Hebrew ʾÉreá¹£ haqQāḏēš; Latin Terra Sancta) generally refers to Palestine. ... Al Fayyum is one of the governorates of Egypt located in the centre of the country. ...

Little is known of his youth and education. At age 20 Saadia completed his first great work, the Hebrew dictionary which he entitled Agron. At 23 he composed a polemic against Anan ben David, thus beginning the activity which was to prove important in opposition to Karaism, in defense of traditional Judaism. In the same year he left Egypt and settled permanently in Palestine. Saadia was in Aleppo, on his way from the East when he learned of Ben Meïr's regulation of the Jewish calendar, which endangered the unity of Judaism. Saadia addressed a warning to him, and in Babylon he placed his knowledge and pen at the disposal of the exilarch David ben Zakkai and the scholars of the academy, adding his own letters to those sent by them to the communities of the Diaspora (922). In Babylonia he wrote his "Sefer ha-Mo'adim," or "Book of Festivals," in which he refuted the assertions of Ben Meïr regarding the calendar, and helped to avert from the Jewish community the perils of schism. ... Anan Ben David is often considered to be the founder of the Karaite movement (a form of Judaism that split off from rabbinic Judaism due to its rejection of the oral law), or at least the founder of one of the main groups forming the Karaite movement. ... Karaite Judaism is a Jewish denomination characterized by reliance on the Tanakh as the sole scripture, and rejection of the Oral Law (the Mishnah and the Talmuds) as halakha (Legally Binding, i. ... Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ... Palestine (Latin: Syria Palæstina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina, ארץ־ישראל Eretz Yisrael; Arabic: فلسطين Filasá¹­Ä«n) is the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the banks of the Jordan River, plus various adjoining lands to the east. ... Old Town Aleppo viewed from the Citadel Aleppo is also the name of two townships in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. ... Look up Diaspora in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The term diaspora (Ancient Greek διασπορά, a scattering or sowing of seeds) is used (without capitalization) to refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the... Events Births Deaths March 26 - Al-Hallaj, Sufi writer and teacher Categories: 922 ...

His dispute with Ben Meïr was an important factor in the call to Sura which he received in 928. He was made gaon (rabbinic leader) by the exilarch David ben Zakkai; and the ancient academy, founded by Rav, entered upon a new period of brilliancy. There were many who viewed did not wish to see a foreigner as the head of the academy; and even the mighty exilarch himself, whom the aged Nissim Naharwani had vainly attempted to dissuade from appointing Saadia, found, after two years, that the personality of his appointee was far different from that of the insignificant and servile geonim whom he had succeeded, and who had done the exilarch's bidding. Events Dao Kang Di succeeds Gong Hui Di and is followed in the same year by Tai Zu, all of the Dali Gu Dynasty in southeast China. ...

In a probate case Saadia refused to sign a verdict of the exilarch which he thought unjust, although the gaon of Pumbedita had subscribed to it. When the son of the exilarch threatened Saadia with violence to secure his compliance, and was roughly handled by Saadia's servant, open war broke out between the exilarch and the gaon. Each excommunicated the other, declaring that he deposed his opponent from office; and David b. Zakkai appointed Joseph b. Jacob as gaon of Sura, while Saadia conferred the exilarchate on David's brother Ḥasan (Josiah; 930). Ḥasan was forced to flee, and died in exile in Khorasan; but the strife which divided Babylonian Judaism continued. Saadia was attacked by the exilarch and by his chief adherent, the young but learned Aaron ibn Sargado, in Hebrew pamphlets, fragments of which show a hatred on the part of the exilarch and his partizans that did not shrink from scandal. Saadia did not fail to reply. ...

The Sefer ha-Galui

He wrote both in Hebrew and in Arabic a work, now known only from a few fragments, entitled "Sefer ha-Galui" (Arabic title, "Kitab al-Ṭarid"), in which he emphasized with great but justifiable pride the services which he had rendered, especially in his opposition to heresy.

The seven years which Saadia spent in Baghdad, far from the gaonate, did not interrupt his literary activity. His principal philosophical work was completed in 933; and four years later, through Ibn Sargado's father-in-law, Bishr ben Aaron, the two enemies were reconciled. Saadia was reinstated in his office; but he held it for only five years. David b. Zakkai died before him (c. 940), being followed a few months later by the exilarch's son Judah, while David's young grandson was nobly protected by Saadia as by a father. According to a statement made by Abraham ibn Daud and doubtless derived from Saadia's son Dosa, Saadia himself died, as noted above, in 942, at the age of fifty, of "black gall" (melancholia), repeated illnesses having undermined his health. A street map of Baghdad Average temperature (red) and precipitations (blue) in Baghdad *See Bagdad, Tasmania for the Australian town of a similar name. ... Events Jersey was seized by William Longsword, Duke of Normandy . ... Events Births Brian Boru, high king of Ireland Abul-Wafa, iranian mathematician Deaths ar-Radi (Caliph of Baghdad) Athelstan, who was succeeded by his half-brother, Edmund Categories: 940 ...

Works

Exegesis:

Saadia translated into Arabic most, if not all, of the Bible, adding an Arabic commentary, although there is no citation from the books of Chronicles.

Hebrew Linguistics:

(1) Agron (2) Kutub al-Lughah (3) "Tafsir al-Sab'ina Lafẓah," a list of seventy (properly ninety) Hebrew (and Aramaic) words which occur in the Bible only once or very rarely, and which may be explained from traditional literature, especially from the Neo-Hebraisms of the Mishnah. This small work has been frequently reprinted. For other uses, see Agron. ... Kutub al-Lughah is a work of Hebrew linguistics by Saadia Gaon, twelve Books on Language which are also designated as the twelve parts of a work entitled The Book on Language, in which, as the author himself states in his Sefer ha-Galui, he sought to explain the i...

Halakhic Writings: Halakha (Hebrew: הלכה; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish rabbinic law, custom and tradition. ...

(1) Short monographs in which problems of Jewish law are systematically presented. Of these Arabic treatises of Saadia's little but the titles and extracts is known and it is only in the "Kitab al-Mawarith" that fragments of any length have survived. (2) A commentary on the thirteen rules of Rabbi Ishmael, preserved only in a Hebrew translation. An Arabic methodology of the Talmud is also mentioned, by Azulai, as a work of Saadia under the title "Kelale ha-Talmud". (3) Responsa. With few exceptions these exist only in Hebrew, some of them having been probably written in that language. Note: This is based on an entry from the 1906 public domain Jewish Encyclopedia The responsa literature, known in Hebrew as Sheelot U-teshuvot (questions and answers), is the body of written decisions and rulings given by rabbis to questions addressed to them. ...

(1) The "Siddur" The siddur is the prayerbook used by Jews the world over, containing a set order of daily prayers. ...

Siddur of Saadia Gaon

(2) Of this synagogal poetry the most noteworthy portions are the "Azharot" on the 613 commandments, which give the author's name as "Sa'id b. Joseph", followed by the expression "Alluf," thus showing that the poems were written before he became gaon. The Siddur (prayerbook) of Saadia Gaon is the first known attempt to transcribe the weekly ritual of Jewish prayers for week-days, Sabbaths, and festivals. ...

Philosophy of Religion:

The "Emunot we-De'ot."

(1) Emunoth ve-Deoth (Kitab al-Amanat wal-l'tiḳadat) Emunoth ve-Deoth written by Rabbi Saadia Gaon, was originally called Kitab al-Amanat wal-ltikadat (Book of the Articles of Faith and Doctrines of Dogma) the work was the first systematic presentation and philosophic foundation of the dogmas of Judaism. ...

(2) "Tafsir Kitab al-Mabadi," an Arabic translation of and commentary on the "Sefer Yetzirah," written while its author was still residing in Egypt (or Palestine).

Polemical Writings:

(1-3) Refutations of Karaite authors, always designated by the name "Kitab al-Rudd," or "Book of Refutation." These three works are known only from scanty references to them in other works; that the third was written after 933, is proved by one of the citations. (4) "Kitab al-Tamyiz" (in Hebrew, "Sefer ha-Hakkarah"), or "Book of Distinction," composed in 926, and Saadia's most extensive polemical work. It was still cited in the twelfth century; and a number of passages from it are given in a Biblical commentary of Japheth ha-Levi. (5) There was perhaps a special polemic of Saadia against Ben Zuṭa, though the data regarding this controversy between is known only from the gaon's gloss on the Torah. (6) A refutation directed against the rationalistic Biblical critic Ḥiwi al-Balkhi, whose views were rejected by the Karaites themselves; (7) "Kitab al-Shara'i'," or "Book of the Commandments of Religion," (8) "Kitab al-'Ibbur," or "Book of the Calendar," likewise apparently containing polemics against Karaite Jews; (9) "Sefer ha-Mo'adim," or "Book of Festivals," the Hebrew polemic against Ben Meïr which has been mentioned above. (10) "Sefer ha-Galui," also in Hebrew and in the same Biblical style as the "Sefer ha-Mo'adim," being an apologetic work directed against David b. Zakkai and his followers.

Significance

Saadia Gaon was a pioneer in the fields in which he toiled. The foremost object of his work was the Bible; his importance is due primarily to his establishment of a new school of Biblical exegesis characterized by a rational investigation of the contents of the Bible and a scientific knowledge of the language of the holy text.

Saadia's Arabic translation of the Bible is of importance for the history of civilization; itself a product of the Arabization of a large portion of Judaism, it served for centuries as a potent factor in the impregnation of the Jewish spirit with Arabic culture, so that, in this respect, it may take its place beside the Greek Bible-translation of antiquity and the German translation of the Pentateuch by Moses Mendelssohn. As a means of popular religious enlightenment, Saadia's translation presented the Scriptures even to the unlearned in a rational form which aimed at the greatest possible degree of clearness and consistency. Arabization is the gradual transformation of an area into one populated by Arabs. ...

His system of hermeneutics was not limited to the exegesis of individual passages, but treated also each book of the Bible as a whole, and showed the connection of its various portions with one another.

The commentary contained, as is stated in the author's own introduction to his translation of the Pentateuch,not only an exact interpretation of the text, but also a refutation of the cavils which the heretics raised against it. Further, it set forth the bases of the commandments of reason and the characterization of the commandments of revelation; in the case of the former the author appealed to philosophical speculation; of the latter, naturally, to tradition.

The position assigned to Saadia in the oldest list of Hebrew grammarians, which is contained in the introduction to Ibn Ezra's "Moznayim," has not been challenged even by the latest historical investigations. Here, too, he was the first; his grammatical work, now lost, gave an inspiration to further studies, which attained their most brilliant and lasting results in Spain, and he created in part the categories and rules along whose lines was developed the grammatical study of the Hebrew language. His dictionary, primitive and merely practical as it was, became the foundation of Hebrew lexicography; and the name "Agron" (literally, "collection"), which he chose and doubtless created, was long used as a designation for Hebrew lexicons, especially by the Karaites. The very categories of rhetoric, as they were found among the Arabs, were first applied by Saadia to the style of the Bible. He was likewise one of the founders of comparative philology, not only through his brief "Book of Seventy Words, "already mentioned, but especially through his explanation of the Hebrew vocabulary by the Arabic, particularly in the case of the favorite translation of Biblical words by Arabic terms having the same sound.

His Philosophy of Religion

See main article: Emunoth ve-Deoth

In his "Kitab al-Amanat wal-I'tikadat" - "Emunoth ve-Deoth" (see above) Saadia became the creator of the Jewish philosophy of religion. Emunoth ve-Deoth written by Rabbi Saadia Gaon, was originally called Kitab al-Amanat wal-ltikadat (Book of the Articles of Faith and Doctrines of Dogma) the work was the first systematic presentation and philosophic foundation of the dogmas of Judaism. ... Emunoth ve-Deoth written by Rabbi Saadia Gaon, was originally called Kitab al-Amanat wal-ltikadat (Book of the Articles of Faith and Doctrines of Dogma) the work was the first systematic presentation and philosophic foundation of the dogmas of Judaism. ...

Relations to Mysticism

In his commentary on the "Sefer Yetzirah" Saadia sought to render lucid and intelligible the content of this mystical work by the light of philosophy and other knowledge, especially by a system of Hebrew phonology which he himself had founded. He did not permit himself in this commentary to be influenced by the theological speculations of the Kalam, which are so important in his main works; and in his presentation of the theory of creation he made a distinction between the Bible and the book on which he commented, even omitting the theory of the "Sefer Yeẓirah" regarding the creation of the world when he discussed the various views on this subject in the first section of his "Kitab al-Amanat wal-I'tiḳadat." From this it may be concluded that he did not regard the "Sefer Yeẓirah"—which he traces ultimately to the patriarch Abraham—as a real source for a knowledge of the theory of Judaism, although he evidently considered the work worthy of deep study.

See also

• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Rabbi

Jewish philosophy is not a universally agreed-upon term, but it does exist as a field of scholarship. ... Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ... Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī;; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished,. In the ancient Judean schools the sages were addressed as רִבִּי (Ribbi or Rebbi...

External links

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1901-1906 Jewish Encyclopedia. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. ...