Who was the mysterious Avicebron, author of Fons Vitae, that shook Christian philosophy in the Middle Ages?
The Rambam took reason and philosophy to its
fullest limit, thereby raising the hackles of many other great Jewish
philosophers. In this segment, I examine three figures (preceding and following
the period of the Rambam) and their unique approaches to the challenges facing
Judaism in their day.
Who is the mysterious
Avicebron? In the Middle Ages, the great European philosophers were heavily
influenced by him
Many years ago, I went to Yom
Kippur services in a Yemenite synagogue. Just as Musaf ended, the worshippers
began a section of prayers that I had never heard of before. As I looked into
the Mahzor, I was surprised to realize that they were all chanting from an
astronomy textbook- written as poetry, but as discussion of astronomy,
nevertheless. What on earth was this and what did astronomy have to do with Yom
Kippur. So here is the story behind it:
The Mystery Philosopher: author
of Fons Vitae, known as Avicebron
There is a masterpiece of
philosophy in the middle ages known as Fons Vitae- The Source ( of Fountain) of
Life. The medieval philosophers identified the author as “ Avicebron.” This was
a mystery akin to determining “Who really wrote Shakespeare”.
( Source :based on Jewish
Encyclopedia article. in italics)
What Was This Book?
Medieval etching showing Fons Vitae
“Fons Vitæ” is a
philosophical dialogue between master and disciple. The book derives its name
from the fact that it considers matter and form as the basis of existence and
the source of life in every created. It was translated from the Arabic—the
original title having probably been “Yanbu’ al-Ḥayat “—into Latin in the year
1150 under the patronage of Archbishop Raymond of Toledo,.Jourdain called
attention in 1843 to the important place of Avicebron in the history of
philosophy. Haureau, in his “History of Scholastic Philosophy” (1850), dwelt on
the philosophy of Avicebron as known through the citations in the “De
Substantiis Separatis” of Aquinas.
The chief doctrines of the
“Fons Vitæ” may be summarized as follows: (1) All created beings are
constituted of form( extension) and
matter. (2) This holds true of the physical world, of the “substantiis
corporeis sive compositis,( “Corporeal substances or compound )” and is not
less true of the spiritual world, of the “substantiis spiritualibus sive
simplicibus( Spiritual substances or simple),” which latter are the
connecting-link between the first substance, “Essential prima(first essence),”
that is, the Godhead, and the “substantia, quæ sustinet novem prædicamenta (A
substance, which supports nine categories),” that is, the substance divided
into nine categories—in other words, the physical world. (3) Matter and form
are always and everywhere in the relation of “sustinens(forebearing)” and “sustentatum,(aiding)”
“propriatum( propriate)” and “proprietas,” substratum and property or
attribute.
[The English to the Latin is my attempt at translating
philosophical terms]
What was his impact? Influence on Scholasticism.[ Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a
critical method of philosophical analysis predicated upon a Latin Catholic theistic curriculum which dominated teaching in
the medieval
universities in Europe
from about 1100 to 1700. ]
The treatment accorded him
by the Christian world. Jourdain held, without exaggeration, that a knowledge
of the philosophy of the thirteenth century was impossible without an
understanding of the "Fons Vitæ" and its influence. Regarded as the
work of a Christian philosopher, it became a bone of contention between the
Platonist Franciscans led by Duns Scotus, who supported … and the Aristotelian
Dominicans led by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, the latter holding in
special horror the possible influence of Arabic-Jewish philosophy on Christian
doctrine.
. . . Dominicus
Gundisallimus, who not merely translated the "Fons vitæ" into Latin,
but incorporated the ideas of Gabirol into his own teaching. William of
Auvergne refers to the work … as a Christian, and praises him as "unicus
omnium philosophantium nobilissimus .[the noblest of all philosophers]" .
The most zealous of the
champions … theory of the universality of matter is Duns Scotus, through whose
influence the basal thought of the "Fons Vitæ," the materiality of
spiritual substances, was perpetuated in Christian philosophy, influencing
later philosophers even down to Giordano Bruno. who refers to "the Moor,
Avicebron.”
[Bruno- a Catholic priest who preached
Copernicus Sun-centered universe]
Who was that Masked
Philosopher?
In 1846 Solomon Munk
discovered among the Hebrew manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, a
work by Shem-Ṭob Palquera, which, upon comparison with a Latin manuscript of
the "Fons Vitæ" of Avicebron, proved to be a collection of excerpts
from an Arabic original of which the "Fons Vitæ" was evidently a
translation. Munk concluded that Avicebron or Avencebrol, who had for centuries
been believed to be a Christian scholastic philosopher, was identical with the
Jew Ibn Gabirol
(sample manuscript of Shem Tov Falquera, whose quotes gave away the secret of Fons Vitae)
Here is now more about ibn
Gabirol from the Jewish Encyclopedia-now I can use his name for us.
Spanish poet, philosopher,
and moralist; born in Malaga about 1021; died about 1058 in Valencia. He is
called by Grätz "the Jewish Plato," and by Steinschneider "the
most original philosophical writer among the Jews and Arabs." The name
"Avicebron" is a corruption of "Ibn Gabirol" ("Ibngebirol,"
"Avengebirol," "Avengebrol," "Avencebrol,"
"Avicebrol," "Avicebron"). Little is known of Gabirol's
life. His parents died while he was a child.
. When barely twenty
Gabirol wrote "'Anaḳ," a versified Hebrew grammar, alphabetical and
acrostic, consisting of 400 verses divided into ten parts
…. All testimonies agree
that Gabirol was comparatively young at the time of his death, which followed
years of wandering. The year of his death was probably 1058 or 1059,
His statue in his native Malaga, Spain. “The most excellent city hall erected this plaque for the 900th
anniversary of Aben Gabirol, poet and philosopher from Málaga”
And in Ceasarea, Israel today
Gabirol was the first
teacher of Neoplatonism in Europe. …Philo .. . Orientalized European philosophy
and prepared the way for its Christianization. A thousand years later Gabirol
Occidentalized Greco-Arabic philosophy and restored it to Europe. Strangely enough, the
philosophical teachings of Philo and Gabirol were alike ignored by their fellow
Jews; and the parallel may be extended by adding that Philo and Gabirol alike
exercised a very considerable influence in extra-Jewish circles: Philo upon
primitive Christianity, and Gabirol upon the scholasticism of medieval Christianity.
Gabirol, unlike other
medieval Jewish philosophers who regarded philosophy as the "hand-maid of
theology," pursued his philosophical studies regardless of the claims of
religion, keeping "his philosophical speculation free from every theological
admixture."
In this respect Gabirol is
unique. The "Fons Vitæ" shows a total and absolute independence of
Jewish religious dogma; not a verse of the Bible nor a line from the Rabbis is
cited. For this reason Gabirol exercised comparatively little influence upon
his Jewish successors—though this may be accounted for on the ground of the
predominance of Aristotelianism from the twelfth century—and was accepted by
the scholastics as a non-Jew, as an Arab or a Christian.
"The Improvement of the Moral
Qualities" is an ethical treatise which has been called by Munk "a
popular manual of morals. 1045
Gabirol's poetical
productions are characterized by Al-Ḥarizi in the following terms: "Rabbi
Solomon the Little ["ha-Ḳaton"] spread such a fragrance of song as
was never produced by any poet either before or after him. The poets who
succeeded him strove to learn from his poems, but, were unable to reach even
the dust of his feet as regards the power of his figures and the force of his
words. If he had lived longer he would surely have accomplished wondrous things
in poetry; but he was snatched away when still young, . . . and his light was
extinguished before he had completed his thirtieth year"
("Taḥkemoni," xviii.).
Keter Malkhut
Though Gabirol the
philosopher was forgotten in Israel, Gabirol the poet kept alive the
remembrance of the ideas of the philosopher; for his best-known poem,
"Keter Malkut," is a religio-philosophical treatise in poetical form,
the "double" of the "Fons Vitæ."
In his "Keter
Malkut" or "Royal Crown," a philosophical and ethical hymn in
rimed prose, he describes the universe as composed of spheres one within the
other. It is a detailed panegyric of the glory of God both in the material and
in the spiritual world, permeated with the loftiest ethical and religious thoughts
In many liturgies it occurs as part of the Day of Atonement service.
Fragment of old manuscript
Illuminated Manuscript of Keter opening verses
Title page of Ladino Mahzor for High Holy Days, with ddition of
Keter Malkhut]
Here is an excerpt of some Hebrew and English.
Chapter 2ב׳
אַתָּה אֶחָד. רֹאשׁ כָּל
מִנְיָן. וִיסוֹד
כָּל בִּנְיָן:
Thou
art One, the first of every number, and the foundation of every structure,
אַתָּה אֶחָד. וּבְסוֹד
אַחְדוּתְךָ חַכְמֵי לֵב יִתְמָהוּ.
כִּי לֹא יָדְעוּ מַה הוּא:
Thou
art One, and at the mystery of Thy Oneness the wise of heart are struck dumb,
For they know not what it is.
אַתָּה אֶחָד. וְאַחְדוּתְךָ לֹא יִגְרַע וְלֹא יוֹסִיף. לֹא יֶחְסַר וְלֹא יַעְדִּיף:
Thou
art One, and Thy Oneness can neither be increased nor lessened, It lacketh
naught, nor doth aught remain over.
אַתָּה אֶחָד. וְלֹא
כְּאֶחָד הַקָּנוּי
וְהַמָּנוּי. כִּי
לֹא יַשִּׂיגְךָ רִבּוּי
וְשִׁנּוּי. לֹא תֹאַר וְלֹא כִנּוּי:
Thou
art One, but not like a unit to be grasped or counted, For number and change
cannot reach Thee. Thou art not to be visioned, nor to be figured thus or thus.
Thou
art One, but to put to Thee bound or circumference my imagination would fail
me. Therefore I have said I will guard my ways lest I sin with the tongue.
אַתָּה אֶחָד.
גָבַהְתָּ וְנַעֲלֵיתָ מִשְּׁפוֹל וּמִנְּפוֹל. וְאִילוֹ הָאֶחָד שֶׁיִּפּוֹל:
Thou
art One, Thou art high and exalted beyond abasement or falling, "For how
should the One fall?"
Selected
Religious Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol, trans. Israel Zangwill. JPS,
Philadelphia, 1923
http://aleph.nli.org.il:80/F/?func=direct&doc_number=002018647&local_base=NNL0
Ibn Gabirol is
following the science of his day:
Medieval Arabic copy of Ptolemy’s Almagest. Here is a mathematical solution to the problem of irregular planetary motion around the earth. It is based on the assumption of both circular and elliptical motions and made possible accurate predictions of planetary positions.
Chapter
10 Earth
Who
shall utter Thy mighty deeds, For Thou madest a division of the ball of the earth
into twain, half dry land, half water,
And
didst surround the water with the sphere of air, In which the wind turneth and
turneth in its going, And resteth in its circuits,
And
didst encompass the air with the sphere of fire,
And
the foundations of these four elements are but one foundation, And their
sources one,
And
from it they issue and are renewed, "And from thence was it separated and
became four heads."
[Note- the Ball of
the earth”= Hebrew- Kadoor. NOBODY THOUGHT THE EARTH WAS FLAT-forget what they
told you in school about Columbus and people being afraid to fall off the edge
of the earth]
Chapter
12 Moon
Who
shall tell Thy praises? For Thou madest the Moon the chief source whereby to
calculate Appointed times and seasons, And cycles and signs for the days and
the years.
Her
rule is in the night, Until the coming of the fixed hour
When
her brightness shall be darkened And she shall clothe herself with the mantle
of gloom.
For from the light of the Sun is her
light, And
should it hap on the night of the fourteenth that both of them stand On the
line of the Dragon, So that it cometh between them,
Then
the Moon shall not convey her light, And her illumination shall be extinguished,
To the end that all the peoples of the
earth shall know That they are the creatures of the Most High, And however
splendid they be There is a Judge above them to humble and exalt.
[The lunar eclipse
happens when the Sun is in the line of the Dragon-Draco Constellation-( Teli),
between Big and Little Bear. Refers to ancient myth that a dragon swallows the
moon.]
Nathless
she shall live again after her fall And shall be resplendent again after her
darkness,
And
when she is in conjunction with the Sun at the end of the month,
If
the Dragon shall be between them, And both shall stand upon one line,
Then
the Moon shall stand before the Sun like a projecting blackness And shall hide
the light thereof from the sight of all beholders,
In
order that all who behold may know That the sovereignty is not with the hosts
and legions of heaven
But
that there is a Master over them, Obscuring and irradiating,
For
height behind height He keepeth, yea, and the heights beyond them, And they
that imagine the Sun is their god
At
such time shall be ashamed of their imaginings, For their words are then
tested,
And
they shall know 'tis the hand of the Lord hath done this And that the Sun hath
no power And His alone is the rule who can darken its light,
Sending
to it a slave of its slaves, A beneficiary of its own kindly glow, To becloud
its radiance, To cut off the abominable idolizing thereof, ''And let the Sun be
removed from sovereignty.''
Chapter
15
Who
shall understand Thy secret? For Thou hast encompassed the sphere of this
shining one With a fourth sphere, wherein is the Sun
That
completeth his circuit in a perfect year.
And
his body is one hundred and seventy times greater than that of the earth,
According to indications and devisings of intellect.
And
he is the apportioner of light to all the stars of the heavens, And giveth to
kings salvation And majesty, dominion and awe,
And
reneweth marvels on the earth, Whether for war or for peace,
And
rooteth up kingdoms, And establisheth and exalteth others in their stead
And
hath power to abase and uplift with a high hand,
But
all according to the will of the Creator who created him in wisdom.
Every
day he prostrateth himself before the King, And taketh his stand in the house
of his course,
And
at dawn he raiseth his head And boweth towards the west in the evening.
"In
the evening he goeth down and in the morning he returneth."
Chapter
16
Who
can grasp Thy greatness? For Thou hast appointed the Sun for the computing Of
days and of years, and appointed periods,
And
to make the fruit-tree to burgeon, And, under the sweet influence of the
Pleiades and the bands of Orion, The green shoots luxuriant.
Six
months he journeyeth towards the north to warm the air, And the waters, the
woods, and the rocks,
And
as he draweth nigh to the north, The days grow longer and the seasons wax,
Till
there is found a place where the day is so lengthened That it lasteth six
months, According to confirmed indications,
And
six months he journeyeth towards the south In his appointed courses
Till
there is found a place where the night is so lengthened That it lasteth six
months, According to the proof of searchers.
Chapter
26 God beyond Intelligence
Who
can approach Thy seat? For beyond the sphere of Intelligence hast Thou
established the throne of Thy glory; There standeth the splendour of Thy veiled
habitation,
And
the mystery and the foundation. Thus far reacheth Intelligence, but cometh here
to a standstill,
For
higher still hast Thou mounted, and ascended Thy mighty throne, "And no
man may go up with Thee."
Chapter
33 This connects it to Yom Kippur
O
God, I am ashamed and confounded To stand before Thee with this my knowledge
That
even as the might of Thy greatness, So is the completeness of my poverty and
humbleness,
That
even as the might of Thy potency So is the weakness of my ability,
And
that even as Thou art perfect, so am I wanting.
For
Thou art a Unity, and Thou art living, Thou art mighty, and Thou art permanent,
And Thou art great, and Thou art wise, and Thou art God!
And
I am but a clod, and a worm, Dust from the ground,
A
vessel full of shame, A mute stone, A passing shadow,
"A
wind that fleeth away and returneth not again." To an asp akin,
Deceitful
underneath, Uncircumcised of heart,
Great
in wrath, Craftsman in sin and deception,
Haughty
of eye, Short in forbearance, Impure of lips,
Crooked
of ways, And hot-footed.
What
am I? What is my life? What my might and what my righteousness?
Naught
is the sum of me all the days of my being, And how much the more so after my
death!
Chapter
40
O
my God, I know that those who implore favour from Thee
Have
for ambassadors their antecedent virtues, And the righteousness which they have
heaped up,
But
in me are no good deeds, For I am shaken and emptied like a stripped vine,
And
I have no righteousness, no rectitude, No piety, no uprightness,
No
prayer, no plea, No innocence, no faith,
No
justice, no quality of goodness, Neither service of God nor turning from sin.
May
it be Thy will, O Lord our God and God of our Fathers, Master of the Worlds, To
have mercy upon me, And be Thou near me,
To
favour me with the visitation of Thy goodwill, And to lift up to me the light
of Thy face,
And
to show me Thy graciousness!
……
Then
will I say: I thank Thee, O Lord, that though wroth with me, Thine anger is
turned away and Thou hast comforted me. Thine, O Lord, is loving-kindness In
all the goodness Thou hast bestowed on me,
And
which Thou wilt bestow till the day of my death.
And
for all this it behooves me to give thanks, To laud, to glorify, to extol Thee.
By
the mouth of Thy creatures O yield Thyself praise, By those hallowing Thee be
Thou self-sanctified,
Through
those owning Thy Unity cry Thou Thy oneness, With the lips of Thy glorifiers
chant Thee Thy glory,
And
exalt Thee in rhapsody through Thine exalters, Supremely upborne on Thy
worshippers' breath,
For
'mid the gods and their works, O Lord, there is none like to Thee and Thine.
May
this word of my mouth and my heart's true thought Find, O Rock and Redeemer,
the favour sought.
