A: A: 9 9 8 2 4 BAA 509 S7M29 ^J: ^1 ':''■' 'i . ■'' ■■ ^'(- IW\L]IR PERSOiMIFTCAllON OF SOUL AND BODY The Library University of California, Los Angeles gift of Mrs. Cummings, 1 963 REPRINTED FROM THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW NEW SERIES VOLUME II. NUMBER 4 PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY BY PROF. HENRY MALTER PHILADELPHIA 'HE DROPSIE COLLEGE FOR HEBREW AND COGNATE LEARNING 1912 PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY A Study in Judaeo- Arabic Literature^ By Henry Malter, Dropsie College JudaEo-Arabic authors are very fond of variously personifying the human body and soul, both separately and in their relations to one another. The instances are so numerous, the sources from which the various personifica- tions are to be collected so widely scattered, and the aspects under which they were conceived so manifold, that the writer, working without a sufficient library, must at once surrender his ambition of giving an exhaustive study on the subject. Aside from some casual remarks, no attempt has hitherto been made at gathering and grouping the ma- terial according to some principle. The following may be taken as a modest beginning in this direction. The subject is closely connected with the general idea that the universe and man are parallel ; that whatever is found in the world without, in the macrocosm, is reflected or finds its counterpart also in the man, the microscosm. This doctrine is very old, being traceable not only to Pyth- agoras and Plato (Munk, Guide, I, 354, n. i), but also to the oldest Babylonian lilterature (Hugo Winckler, Die babylonische Knltur, Leipzig 1902, p. 33). The Talmuds and Midrashim afford numerous instances of analogies I See this Review, 191 i, p. 459, n. 12, 471, n. 42. A preceding study belonging to p. 457, n. 10, is soon to appear elsewhere. 453 209G44"6 454 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW between parts of the universe and of the human body; see particularly ]n: 'ain niax, ed. Schechter, c. 31 and the references given there. For several years I have been collecting material on this subject in mediaeval Hebrew literature, and hope to treat it elsewhere. Here I limit my- self to the analogy between soul and body without regard to the idea of microcosm. The oldest instance of personification of soul and body in Jewish literature is, to my knowledge, the passage in b. Nedarim 32^. The "little city, and few men within it" (Eccl. 9, 14-16) is interpreted there as signifying the human body and its limbs, the "great king." who builds bulwarks against the city, is the evil spirit (yin "li.*"), and the "poor wise man," who delivers it by his wisdom, yet is remembered by no one, is the good spirit (niu "iV"'). The same interpretation is given by the Targum and Midrash Kohcl. rah. on the verses referred to; comp. Bahya, Duties, V, 5, near beginning; Zohar, Dnrs, HI, 234&-235&; Samuel Ibn Tibbon, D"'On llp% Pressburg 1837, p. 92. Very ingenious is the metaphor employed in b. Sanhe- drin 91a (occurring also in Lev. rah, c. 4, § 5, and Tan- huma, section Kip'>i) to express the relation between soul and body. They are both compared to two men, one lame, the other blind, who, when called to account for the despoliation of the king's garden which they were appointed to watch, denied the deed on the ground of their physical disabilities. The king, however, placed the lame man on the shoulders of the Ijlind one and demonstrated to them the way in which they had jointly committed the crime. The application is to the flesh and the spirit. When soul and body are arraigned before the Almighty they disown responsibility for their sins in this world. The soul alleges PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUIv AND BODY — MAVfER 455 that it had not the physical organs for committing sin, the body contends that without initiative from the soul it was incapable of any action, God thereupon reunites body and soul and metes out punishment to both together. This beautiful parable found its way also among the Arabs. The "Brethren of Purity," a humanistic society of Arab philos- ophers of the tenth century, reproduce the story with vari- ous embellishments characteristic of these Mohammedan writers and their fondness for vivid imagery.'' The Arabic superscription of the parable is "Al-Hindi," the Hindoo, thus declaring it to be of Hindoo origin. Steinschneider, however, cites various instances, where Arabic Hindi, Hebrew ""lin, and Latin Indus are errors for Yahudi, ^"lltT' , and Jndciis (mediaeval spelling), and believes this to be the case also here. The Arabs received the parable from the Jews, not from the Hindoos, as the latter are not known to have applied it to soul and body." This hypothesis is not acceptable. A quotation from Richard Garbe's "Die Samkhya- Philosophic" (1894), p. 164, (taken from Karika 21), kindly communicated to me by Professor George F. ^ See Dieterici, Anthropologic der Araber, Leipzig 1871, p. ni-113. ° II libra di Sidrach, Rome 1872, p. 8, n. 2: "almeno non mi e noto che questa favola fosse applicata dagli Indiani all' anima ed al corpo"; comp. Hebr. Bibliographie, XIII, 31, especially his posthumous work Rangstreit- Literatur, in Sitsungsh. d. philos. hist. Klasse d. kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wien, CLV (1908), No. IV, p. 58- 60, where the question of the origin of the parable is more thoroughly discussed and also some Hindoo parallels quoted. In a recent work, The Egyptian Elements in the Legend of the Body and Soul by Louise Dudley (Bryn Mawr College Monograph Series, vol. VIII), the learned authoress, over-anxious to prove her thesis, sees in all her material but Coptic and old Egyptian elements. Her general conclusions (p. i49,against Linow and Steinschneider; comp. also p. 160), as the passage from Garbe's work shows, are not at all conclusive. The present article, however, was already under print when the above dissertation came to my knowledge, which precludes a discussion in detail. 456 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW Moore, proves that the ascription is correct and that the Arabs took the parable from the Hindoos. The passage translated reads as follows : "The relation between brute creative matter and the spiritual, but inactive, soul is compared to the alliance be- tween the blind and the lame man. Finding themselves hopelessly entangled in a thicket, one took the other on his shoulders and both reached safety. The lame man is the soul. It has the power of vision, but according to the doctrine of the Samkhya-system it can neither move nor act. The blind man is matter. It has the power of movement, and executes all of the world's actions, but it neither sees nor comprehends." Through what channels the idea came into the Talmud, I am unable to say. The Brethren of Purity, or the ''Noble Friends," as they also call themselves at times,* could hardly have had any knowledge of the Talmud, since ■* I use the translation "Brethren of Purity," which is commonly met with in the works of European writers, especially those of Dieterici, who has edited and translated into German most of their writings. The real mean- ing of the arabic 'Ihwan es-§afa is, as Goldziher (Muhammedanische Studien, I, 9, n. I, and more partcularly in the periodical "Der Islam," Strassburg 1910, I, 22-26) has proved, "The True Friends"; comp. Steinschneider, JQR., XVII, 581 (357). In Hebrew literature they are mostly referred to by some general epithet, as D'aiOnpH, D»03nn, n'B1Dl'?»Bn (nns) nvp ; comp. for instance Moses Ibn Ezra, in the periodical J1'S, II, 120, 1. 8 from bottom, with Dieterici, Anthropologic, p. i. iio f . ; see also below, note 32. Palquera is to my knowledge the only author, who, in CpSD. 20b, 450, top, refers to thern as D'pTlin Dninm D'JDKJn DTINn, corresponding to the Arabic aISJI *liJt-!»Vlj •S^'aaJI j^J»-' ('Ihwan cs§afa, ed. Dieterici, p. 624, top); comp. also cpDD, 45'': D'30K3n D'yiH . Joseph Albo, 'Itf^arim, III, and one of the versions of Mainionides' Letter to Samuel Ibn Tibliou (0"3mn maicn Y^^p, Leipzig 1859, p. zSrf) quote by the Arabic ;K13K KBvSm ; comp. Kaufmann, Attrihiitcnlehre. 336, and Ilorovitz' Introduction to Ibn $addilf's pp dSiJ?, VII, n. 31, 32- PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY — MALTER 457 there was no Jew in their ranks. Be that as it may they have been more than generous in their return to the Jews for what they have taken from the latter. For Jewish Hterature abounds in instances of allegories of soul and body, nearly all of which are taken directly or indirectly from the works of these humanists. As there is no other principle to guide us in the arrangement of the following quotations, they may be grouped historically according to the authors in whose works they first occur. In the Apophthegms of the Arab Honein b. Ishak (died 873)° Hippocrates is creditea with the sentence: b^lif nbv^ C'sycya m«-in n^yoD fiin ibn, "the intellect is to the body as the light is to the eye." This comparison is very fre- quently met with in the works of Arabic as well as Jewish authors. So Avicenna (died 1038) \r^^ l/"^c^^V'^^ ^""Vj lijLail *♦-•. which expresses the same idea." In a work of Al-Farabi (died 950)' the comparison is made not with reference to the human soul or intellect in general, but to the "active" intellect in particular: mxn p ^yisn h2t*n DH'^l nisnn |» l^'OE:•^ onv Similarly Al-Gazzali (died iiii), Ethics, 151, 155. In the work Q'j"'JDn "inao, attributed to Ibn Gabirol, at the end of mtJ'nDn -lyt', the sentence reads: siljn "iix EJ'SJn p nSiyn "iix t'DK^n i^r'XDl. Most of the He- brew authors, drawing a line between the soul ( t'EJ ) and ' Translated into Hebrew by Judah Al-IJarizi under the title '*1D10 D'B1Dl'?»En, II, 8, beginning, ed. Loewenthal, Frankf. a. M. 1896, p. 35- • Haneberg, Zur Erkenntnisslehre von Ibn Sina und Albertus Magnus, Munich 1866, p. 66, § 9; see also Avicenna's Compendium of Psychology published by Landauer, ZDMG., XXIX, 37 1, 1. 5- ^ niWXOjn mSnnn, published by H. Filipowskl in e]'DNn, Leipzig 1849, I, s. The passage is quoted by Hillel b. Samuel (thirteenth century), in tyBjn 'SlOjn, yb, and by Shem Tob Palquera, niSj?Qn, 15, who does net mention Al-Farabi's work. 458 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW the intellect (^35^'), carry the simile to both/ The sentence occurs in its original Arabic form in an anonymous Arabic commentary on Canticles/ Without mentioning any source the author simply says : |D bySD^X bpvbn ri^no IS no^y npi IM^K p DOK'^X n!5no ;xd:x!?x. The origin of this compar- ison is Aristotle's De Anhna, II, i." \'ery frequent is another comparison, likewise of Aris- totelian origin," following which the soul is a craftsman and the body the tool of his trade. Saadia is here the first Jewish author to make use of this idea, when he says in reference to the soul: nnn □••^3^ n:mjn X"'n s-'H^' " and a little further : ^x "in^* xiaJ Sd ^ya -3 ;i"iJ3 s^X ^ysn X^ X'n:;' D'bsno 'h2. Later authors are still more explicit on the subject." With the Brethren of Purity this comparison has * See e. g. Joseph Ibn 'Aljnin, 101(2 IBD , 103, 174, top, and in "31p n"2Din nnityn, Leipzig 1859, 11, 45?^; Simon Duran, ni2K PO, 19b, iob, S3b. ° Steinschneider's Festschrift, 53, bottom. "> 6jf 6' 7} oiluQ Kal j'l dvvafiig tov bpyavov ?/ il'i'XV [sc. EV7£?J;(eia farn']. TO Se aufia to 6vvnfi£i bv • aX/J uarrep 6 btp'^a/uog y Kopr/ Kal r/ dijug, KCiKEc 7] TJ'VXV Kal oufia TO l^uov ; comp. Zeller, Philosophic der Griechen, 3d ed., IT, 2, p. 487, n. i, especially Steinschneider's annotation to Maimonides' nin^n IDXO, 17, n. 30, and Hcbr. Cbersetsungen, 23, n. 150. " Zeller, /. c. In the so-called Pseudo-Theology of Aristotle it is re- peatedly asserted in the name of the "divine philosopher" Plato that the soul is the real man and the body only the latter's instrument; see the Arabic text, edited by Dieterici, Leipzig 1882, p. 120 (German translation, 122), 149. " Emunot, Constantinople 1562, p. 546, .\rabic text, edited by Landauer, P- "95. 1- 7; the later Hebrew e-Ji; see his 'Uyiin almasa'il, c, 20, apiid Schmoelders, Documcnta Philosophiac Arabum, Bonn 1836, p. 23. By "inner" senses are understood those functions of the soul or 460 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW news to the king, the hands are his servants, and so on.'* This simile is not original with the Brethren of Purity. It was used earlier, in less detail however, by Al-Farabi in a treatise on the soul." An interesting parallel to this simile appears in Avicenna's Compendium of Psychology, Zm/G., XXIX. 353: j}^[-]\ j^\ c\^X\ (i '^'}.\ :Ji ^\^\'^< ^^\ ;^llj ^^^\ ^=rji <:i\j^«Vl ju^. ^^\^ tf^allj J.j}^ i^_«dl a^il^j -^I-^'^ s^vX'^ U[H i -^i-^^^ = to deceive) is applied to the soul, which is deceived into a calamitous association with the body. "And the ship was like to be broken" (Jonah, I, 4) is taken as an allusion to the frailty of the human body, constantly threatened by the storms of life. The lengthy exposition of the Zohar was translated literally into Hebrew and made part of a later Midrash on the book of Jonah." The metaphor is ^ 'Ih'van es-^afa, ed. Dieterici, 457: 7- ^lo -.ij^j A"„A_-1D Jl^i-I *o njV cno, in Jellinck's Bet ha-Midiasch, I, 103 f. ; comp. Jellinek, ib., p. XIX. For the Aramaic of the Zohar I quote a part of the passage of the Hebrew translation of the Midrash: W HQCin U n3»BDS TTCf n:r PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY — MALTER 465 very frequently met with in the works of philosophic writers. So Ibn 'Aknin, D"30in nniKTi yDp , II, 45«: bainn ai i?D3 nioSK'n nt^'iy n\n^C' ^je-n pnni ...DO^ro ':^ mDbt^'^ ^JK'n pooK'DJni...n:''EDn ninbt^ Nin 0. The same, but more elaborately, he says in his iDio nSD, 173. The whole discussion of Ibn 'Aknin in the Kobes is found almost verbally in Palquera's K'DJn IQD, c. 3, a work which is wholly based on Avicenna's Compendium of Psychology mentioned before." Palquera uses the met- aphor also in c. 15 of the same work as also in some of his other works.'" The Italian author Hillel b. Samuel (thir- teenth century),'" the Karaite Aaron b. Elijah (fourteenth century)/' and the Christian scholastic Thomas Aquinas quote it in the name of Plato.'^ '131 iDcnS nncn n'iNm. '* See Steinschneider, Hebr. Vhersetzungen, 18, n. 122?; and p. 989, No. 5- 52 See his DlSnn niJIN, JQR., 1910, p. 471, where the simile is quoted as a D'JIOTpn Svfti, by which the Brethren of Purity are to be understood; see above, note 4; comp. also yWTi »1X, Hanau 1716, p. 140-16^, and Stein- schneider, Hebr. Bibliogr., XIII, 30. =5 B>B:n a3n Dion 1D3 Piuni irisn . Elsewhere in the same work (p. 134)" he compares the body to a chariot which conveys the soul to its celestial abode : inyn u "iL"s* C'Djn naaio xin f\)in ]vb]} ^JSK'O ^x , a metaphor found very frequently also in the writings of Avicenna/' Among Jewish writers mention may here be made of the anonymous authors of the Kitab ma'atii al-nafs^^ and of the fragmentary commentary on Canticles*" referred to above. Shem Tob Palquera says :** noSiy ^x nab^ -invoi ii'S>:b 32-id nrn^ fiun n-'bsn. Very remarkable in this connection is a passage in a later Midrash in which the Messianic verse "iinn bv aaiii 'jy " 'Ihwan es-^afd, ed. Dieterici, 457: f'W^ i_*)\j(lD Ju3-1j Jl-J^ C^yW^^) ^_^^^X^ UJ-^^^ sJ^\)^ ; comp. Dieterici. Anthropologie, 17, 43, 127 f. /^ " Comp. also ib., i^ bottom (B'BjS n21J?1 naSIO riUH) and the passage quoted above, note 14. " See Mehren, Les Rapports de la philosophie d'Avicenne avec I'Islam, Louvain 1883, p. 15. " See that work, p. 63, 1. 20; nn»D1"lE IHU' hSk DINB^Na »n panC nSyC TBjnS rh'iVi hSk DlsSxa ; comp. Goldziher ad locum, p. 50. Abraham Ibn Ezra on Exod. i, 1 says: Dm 113^2 .... sS Nipn HJvH'H mKH nOtTJ nS nJICKin nation aSn (comp. also his commentary on Deut. 6, 5, and on Isa. 66, 14); similarly Judah Ilalevi, Kiizari, II, 26 [Vtrh ]1trKin Hinnn). The purpose of these authors, however, is not the application of the simile, but the designation of the heart as the organ in which the soul resides. For details on this matter see Kaufniann, Sinnc, 63, n. 70. *• Stcinschneider's Festschrift, 58, bottom. *' DiSnn mJN, JQR., 1910, p. 471; comp. Steinschnelder, Hebr. Bibliogr., XIII. 30 f. PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUl, AND BODY — MAI.TER 467 (Zech. 9, 9) is interpreted as a reference to the poor soul riding the body." The original source of this group of similes is Plato's Phaedo."' The spirit of mediaeval gloom and asceticism manifests itself in another group of metaphors in which the body is likened to a prison or dungeon,*^ a grave from which the soul escapes only at the moment of death," an unburied corpse carried on a bier by the soul/* Again the body is an idolater, a heretic, a hypocrite, a fool, Satan, devil, a courtesan, with whom the soul, an inexperienced stranger" *- mJN cmo, ed. Buber, Vienna 1894, I, 159. The Midrash offers two interpretations as follows: Ht 'ij? iStIJO JV2K1 'JJ?! 1:D0 pTHO »:j? S'SD nh^yr^ niinn» aryi eiiJjn r\n t5*B:n aSytr mtan '?>• aam ens n'n» ik eiUjn tlUn |0 n"2pn 1J?'CV ; comp. Goldziher, Kitab, 47, n. 2. Jedaiah ha-Penini of Beziers, oSlJ? flJ'nS , c. 16, beginning, uses the same metaphor, warning the intellect against the allurements of the "braying ass" ( m'J?3 nni'?3D nana ItrX niin«). His commentator Moses Ibn IJabib justifies this upbraiding of the body by a reference to a passage in b. Berakot 30 (rmOB'D *1J?13 IIDn HJItrXI) which he interprets in the same way. In Baljya's nnDlfl it is the body that is termed iSm ]V3K ':j? Si ; comp., on the other hand, his Duties, V, 5, where, following the Talmud, Nedarim 32b (see above, p. 454), he applies pDO to the soul; comp. Kohel. rab., 4, 13. *^ See Dieterici, Macrocosmos, 14; comp. also Phaedrus, 246 A, where the soul is described as a charioteer {ijvioxoq). ** j^\)aj>^ li" 5"*** ' '^i'™on, ed. Dieterici, 451; comp. Dieterici, Welt- seele, 32 f., Macrocosmos, 97. " 'Ihwdn, 513, 586; Dieterici, Weltseele, 91, 189, Anthropologie, 126. " Dieterici, Anthropologie, 131. *' The idea of the soul being a stranger in this world is a favored theme also with Jewish authors; see for instance Babya, Duties, III, 2: S^BTIB' D'syn D'Bun nSiya «i3: wim jvSi'n oSijrn jo itJi ':nn dsj? Kin and a little further: nj:3 Sam ISH nSi pTHD lS |'K '"133 XintP 'JBO SoCm; comp. also ib., IV, 4, ed. K6nigsberg 1858, p. 101 (B-Ban mi^ u'? Sj? hSj^M 468 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW in this world, is brought in contact, who takes advantage of the stranger's inexperience and by her demoraHzing power brings him to ruin." All this found expression also in Jewish mediaeval literature. To collect all passages bearing on the subject would be a tiresome and unprofitable task. Bahya Ibn Pakuda's Exhortation (nn^in) alone contains nearly all the epithets of the body enumerated above,^° while the famous moralizing Bxamen Mundi ( nmn D^iy ) of Jedaiah ha-Penini ofifers a still richer collection of such terms. The figures of the prison, grave, corpse, and the like, which occur frequently also in the works of P^hilo, were a favorite with the liturgical poets.'" There is another category of metaphors intimately related to those under discu.«sion. The Arabs as well as the Jews often substitute the world for the body. Thus the world, too, aside from being represented as an ocean Tn"iy3 ), VIII, 3, last Meditation; Goldziher, Kitab, 44, n. i. Jedaiah ha- Penini's DtIJ? fUTia abounds in phrases expressing the same thought. The soul is "kidnaped from the king's palace" and made to "live among strangers" (Ona: X'l inS ... iSd »S3>n naUJ), a "traveler on the road taking lodging in an inn" (]177 nntSJ miX3, ib., c. 14-15), and so forth; comp. Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibliogr., XIII, 13; Goldziher, Kitab, 47, n. i, 3; see also "inam -\ht2n p, c. 20. ■*' Dieterici, Anthropologic, 131 f. The reader can rest assured that our authors do not fail to give the soul the good advice not to heed the jugglery of the woman-body, who, they assure, if treated with indifference by her intended victim, will soon desist from her coquetry {ib., 132). " Aside from the lengthy description of the body as a deceiver and seducer the author calls it also IJDO. 0310 IJBI DKOi ^\X, kSi \h fiyT vh naian, mVDOl IDIOO id (=: heretic) , and the like; comp. also his Duties, V, 5, beginning. Jedaiah, c. 14, in allusion to Gen. 40, 15, puts in the mouth of the soul 1122 'mw \nv ; c. 15 he uses 1DK0 and Sbn n'2 =■ dungeon. •* See the numerous references in Steinschneider's Polcmische und apologetische Literatur, 298, n. 21, and Hebr. Bibliogr., XIII, 12 f.; comp. also Magazin fiir die Wissenschaft des Judentums, III, 190, n. *. PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY — MALTER 469 and as a race-track (see above) it is also spoken of as a courtesan," a prison," a fortress, a workshop," a harvest- field, where death is the reaper," and a shaky bridge." Jewish literature bristles with parallels/^ Sometimes the authors conceive also of the soul as a spiritual world, or, the world to come, and then soul and body appear as two opposed worlds, or, in a bolder figure, as two women-rivals, '^ An Arabic proverb quoted by O. Bardenhewer, Hermetts Trisme- gisti...de castigatione animae, Bonn 1873, p. 28, reads: * »«J <^» ?c. S U-AJl "The world is a prostitute, one day she is with a spice-dealer, another with a horse-healer" (baitar =: veterinarian). Comp. '131 niinaa pcni rra'jra iien nyia^* m^ ncaiS nyiT nanS nSityo Safi (in pjaSn, II, 383); Dukes, D'Onp Snj, 47, No. 27; Menahem Meiri, on Prov. 7, 23. It should be noted that the Arabic "dunya," world, as well as the Hebrew S^fl (and ]l3t), denote also, as in the above instances, worldly blessings, fortune; comp. the description of the world (nature) as a woman in the Arabic text apud Bardenhewer, /. c, 8, § 11, and especially n'?iy DJ'na, c. 10, end. °^ Dieterici, Anthropologie, 144. *' 'liiwan, 449; Dieterici, Weltseele, 30. " Tiieitrici, Anthropologie, ^3, 127 f.; comp. '/ftaw, 457: 0'»*"'^ tJ** j\ju,ll5" °^ Dieterici, Logik, 169. •* Some references are given by Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibliogr., IX, 169, top, XIII, 12 f., 30 f. The eighth chapter of the oSlJ? flVna begins with the words: I'Sj? n:2 yiyi Itr:! ]OTm ... :iJ?1T D' oSiyn; comp. Chotzner, JQR., VIII, 419; Palquera, mSyan, 71: 13 B"» n03 o'jiyn Ht KIH D'H HTI '131 mKH fiK nn3«Dn niK':inni nmpno, and ibn uisdai, iitjni nSon ]3, c. 14:13 13Cn Ski vSy n3y •1B';i3 nrn cSiyn. The latter sentence is quoted also in JU'PI OV, ed. Hanau 1716, p. ya, top, and by Moses Ibn ^abib in his commentary on D7iy HiTlS, 336. 470 THD JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW who constantly quarrel with one another. So Gazzali, Ethi:s, 157: D"'JTxc»n niD2 TIB'S Nin -l^^<^1 ntn n^^iyn ^^k'dk' yn DTsn DHD nnxn ny-mK' ;»t ^3 "'3 nnv tik'si myrDi n-iro "loai nnsn. Gazzali is probably the source of Bahya:" pl'Vpn nnxn nvin "icxs nnv ^t'D xan oSiyni nrn n^iyn n»Ki D'^i^n . The sentence seems to be of Hindoo origin as it occurs also in the romance "Prince and Dervish,"°* which was translated from Arabic into Hebrew under the title "i^TJni "l^on p by the same Abraham Ibn Hisdai who translated the aforementioned work of Gazzali. There, c. 14, the sentence reads as follows : nrn dW"! b^K) nnx "iDNl m^^«^ oysn nnsn msn anx'B' ^3 nnv tik'^ Nan oi^iyni.^' Immanuel of Rome ( bxiJOy nnano, Makama 19), rimes: nnv TiB'D X2ni nrn D^iyn nnva mry in^n vn "ik'x Dann tDsi mnxn Pi^^pntr ny nnxn nvnn x^ majD •'JK'ni nnsK'a nnxn*". Ibn Hisdai provides the two women with the names of Hannah and Peninnah (I Sam. i), Hannah figur- "' Duties, VIII, 3, beginning of the 2sth Meditation. Baliya's depend- ence upon 6azzali has been proved by A. S. Yahuda, see Goldziher, REI., 1904, p. 154 ff- '" See Steinschneider, Hebr. tjbersetzungen, 864 f. ** Moses Ibn Pabib, 26a, bottom, drew, according to Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibliogr., XIII, 30, n. 12, upon Ibn Ilisdai. Ibn Ilabib's version, however, is somewhat different (mnsn nocn nnNH tf^hU n02 ). The sentence is quoted also by Samuel ^imhi (1346); see Steinschneider, ib., p. 106. *" The ed. pr., Brescia 1491, and ed. Lemberg 1870, p. 149, bottom, have erroneously Cl'piyntS' for ri'Spntf which is the reading of ed. Con- stantinople. Saul b. Simon who first published Palquera's ]1J'n '"IS (Cremona 1557) and claims to have reproduced its contents from memory (see this Review, 1910, p. 173, n. 42) has embodied in his memory numerous passages from Immanuel's work. Thus the whole lengthy passage in Immanuel's Makdmas, from which the above sentences are taken, is reproduced literally, with a few omissions, in the ]1Jl»n 'IS , ed. Ilanau 7a. There, too, the reading is B\'>p\ffr)1ff . The work ought to be republished from the original MS. found in the collection of the late David Kaufmann. PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY — M ALTER 47 1 ing, of course, as the better of the two/^ Immediately before the sentence just quoted Ibn Hisdai quotes the say- ing of a wise man"^ that this world is the paradise of the wicked and the prison of the righteous : |'0n py nrn D^iyn pDNOn nOKOl. This, too, is found in the works of Al- GazzaH"" and Immanuel." Joseph Ibn Saddik, who is also to be mentioned here, has ( }Dp D^iy, "j(), bottom) : nDN31 D"'ytJ'"in riJJi D''"'pjb in on rr'a sint^ D^iyn i^y loxj. Ibn Hisdai is also the source for Immanuel's ^NIK'J Dn ^an ^cm:i S2n D^iyn .*' In nvjni "jbon p , /. c, the sentence reads : Nnn D^iyb pK'np nrn D^iyn dj."* The Arabic Humanists often conceive of the body also as a covering, as the outside protection of something more precious that is placed within. Thus they frequently com- pare the soul in the body to an embryo in the mother's womb, the chick in the t^g, the pearl in the shell, or the ** Comp. Dukes, Beitrage, II, 103, addition to p. 56 (in Steinschneider's Hebr. Obersetsungen, 867, n. 117, erroneously "36"), who refers to a similar conception in the Hitopadesa. *^ The Brethren of Purity attribute the sentence to the Prophet; see Dieterici, Anthropologic, 144; Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibliogr., XIII, 13, n. 8. «^ pns »iT«a, 218: utrn ]jn pB'Kin idno Nin ntn DSij;n. The words pt^NI and 'JC refer to the righteous and the wicked whom the author had described in the preceding pages, (iazzali and IJan §addik seem to have escaped the notice of Steinschneider, /. c. ^ The older editions have corruptedly I'O'O nj» for I'On ]nj? . while ed. Lemberg, 149, bottom, has ]'0Xf3n 1CN01 J'O'n IIDJ,* which gives no sense at all. «' So also in ;u«n n^, /. c. ** In this form the sentence was made use of by Ibn ITabib, /. c. 22 a, top, where, however, the word t3J and, perhaps, also a reference to the source were omitted in print, rendering the passage unintelligible; see ib., 26a, 33b (see above, p. 469, note 56) where two other sentences taken from Ibn ^isdai are introduced by v'?B'02 D3nn (nO«03) nON 1M1. 472 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW man in the garment." The comparison of the soul with an embryo is not merely the creation of a fertile imagina- tion but part of a well defined system. According to these authors, when the individual soul is sent down from heaven, where she was at one with the universal soul, to join the human body, she is made to forget the wisdom that was hers in the former abode,^* She must now regain it " 'Ihwan, 599: -^J\ 4J>C l:J^\ ^yj\ clJ> il-^Vl .!_• jjrj,!*- 4,»_»JLil_J ■?- (ui. The following is a collection of metaphors given by the authors under the superscription Jt^^|» ^al)\ i\ ^l— llllU l3 (on the similitudes of soul and body) ib., 195: J^,^^L 'yJ^V j' il ;.;U^ ^\ iiV^ A-J-^J viiSll^ ^'^\ llJ^^ JU-^lj ^_^*l-. ^jJi^W P\^-^* -^-=^^J /"'^ CT^^ sj,^'^^ A-.i-tj <_-J_^~-^j *J' }** ir*^" k.l'iojl ^^^^J \>» Jb ioj'' I''''' brevity's sake I give only the contrasts: embryo — womb, boy — school, inhabitant — habitation, rider — beast, captain — vessel, king — subject, artisan — (his) shop, workman — material, master — pupil ; "and in proportion as the body grows old and decrepit, the soul grows young and vigorous"; comp. Dieterici, Logik, 142, Macrocosmos, 97, Microcosmos, 184, Naturanschauung, 83. *' That the soul is deprived of her previous knowledge when entering this world is taught already in the Talmud, Niddah 306: HoS 'nSoit '1 t^lT qiDo t2'3oi] ncixi icKi Sj? iS pi'?T *iii ... Scipor Dpjc'? ia« 'yD2 T^m^ ^h^r\ □Sii'n imnS ksc JV31 ... nSa minn Sa imn inaSoi ... ibid nyi oSiyn ...nSa niinn S3 inStrOl ve Sj? nmOl K2 InSd. The anonymous author of the Kitab ma'&ni al-nafs, who wrote under the influence of the Brethren of Purity, refers very often to this passage in support of this (Platonic) theory; comp. Goldziher's notes on pp. 28, 56, 62 of that work, where numerous PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY — MALTER 473 through her own efforts in her earthly career. At the outset of her career on earth she, therefore, resembles the embryo awaiting development and perfection. The em- bryonic soul, in virtue of her divine origin, naturally seeks to repossess herself of the lost treasures of wisdom and grandeur, which she can accomplish only through con- stant application to study and search after truth (avauvTiat^) , Here, however, she meets with the stubborn resistance of her earthly companion. In his low passions and desires he tries to divert her from the right path and to drag her into the mire of worldly pleasures. If she is strong enough to withstand the temptations and subdues the enemy, mak- ing him subservient to her higher aims, she fulfills her mission on earth, and on the day of death, departing from the body, she returns to her celestial home, where, in re- ward of her long struggles and sufferings, she is admitted to the galaxy of angels that surround the throne of God. The death of the body is, therefore, the birth of the soul,** the final act in the evolution from embryo to full maturity. If, on the other hand, the soul yields to the seductions of the body, neglects her higher duties, and indulges in sensual desires, she has failed in the purpose for which she was sent. On departing from the body she is denied admittance parallels from Arabic sources are given, to which the Pseudo-Theology of Aristotle, edited by Dieterici, Leipzig 1882, p. 95 f., may be added; see also the work 'jsn np2K, part III, c. 2, ed. Warsaw 1876, p. 42; Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrash, I, 154. *° 6azzali who did not care much for the Brethren of Purity and once stigmatized them as the lowest class of philosophic popularizers (comp. Goldziher, REJ., XL,IX, 160), labors under the same conceptions. In his Ethics, 219, he clearly says: r»3t? mS Kin mori; comp. the long parable in Palquera's CpaQ 45, and Steinschneider, Hebr. tJbersetsungen, 40, n. 281. 474 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW to the heavenly spheres and doomed to eternal wanderings between heaven and earth.'" These ideas are not original with the Brethren of Purity. They are of common occurrence in Neo-Platonic literature. Various Jewish writers, some even older than the authors of the Encyclopaedia, move along the same lines. What is of special interest to us here is that even the similes themselves, peculiar as they are, were made use of by Jewish writers. Thus in Bahya's Duties, III 9, we read : nnsxn p nvun nS'Spai n^in p n-'^K's Iod Dni which is literally the same as quoted above from the works of the 'Ihwan." For the contrast of schoolboy and school I do not know of any direct parallel in Jewish literature." The underlying idea, however, namely that the soul was '" The thought is also familiar in the Talmud; comp. Shabbat iS2b: S'JH D'yci hvi ... main kD3 nnn nmij o'pn:? Str inotr: idis itj?'Sx h oSiyn qiDs *ioij? "inK -[nSdi □Sij.'n eiiD2 noiy nns ■i«'?oi) nnSim moon (ntS nt inOCi ]^V^pm; comp. also Sifre, HWi, 4°. DHiB, 139; Kohel. rab., 3, 21; Saadia, Einunot, ed. Cracow, 137 (whose version of the passage agrees more with Abot dirabbi Nathan, c. 12), and especially Goldziher, Kitab, 53 f.. notes on pp. 65, 66, who quotes also Isaac Israeli (end of ninth century) and passages from the Zohar. See also Schdrr, |'lSnn, VIII, 19. The last pages of Ibn ?addik's ]t2p dSiJ? are devoted to the presentation of this theory; see Horovitz, Psychologic, 198 ff. It should be noticed that in "iSon 'D Ttim, c. 35, the same views are expounded by the Dervish to the docile Prince. jedaiah, dSij? d^'hs , c. 14 (cnn Dno nniSj,*3 ncK D'Sano n'n'ncD mS'T nVfinriS) may also be referred to; comp. Ibn yabib, ad locum. The whole matter is closely connected with the theory of the pre-mundane exist- ence of the soul; comp. Ginzberg, Die Haggada bet den Kirchenv'dtern, Berlin 1900, p. 23, 36; Goldziher, /. c, 49. " See the Arabic text just quoted; Dieterici, Anihropologgie, 17, 44, 126. '^ For the metaphor man and garment see above, p. 463, note 26, the quotation from Palquera's tTpSO and p. 465, note 35, the quotation from nT1« mon (Aquinas). PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUIv AND BODY — MALTER 475 sent down to this world for study and introspection, so as to merit by her own efforts the reward that is intended for her in the world to come, is taught also by Jewish philosophers." Of a more general character is the conception of the body as a cloud obstructing the light of the sun (soul)" and can be met with in various forms also in the works of Jewish authors." Special emphasis was laid on the personi- fication of the soul as a dove which is ensnared in the mazes of the body.'* A similar idea is expressed by the author of the commentary on Canticles, in Steinschneider's festschrift, texts, p. 50, 1. 6 from below : lins'^n nnK' xni^noi ^JQDN 'bx Kn3"iNJ 3N"iii^Ki xnnnn nxiji xnpis diinis pn fioDiriD rna nn mini "bys* "^x Diisnbxi. "The soul is compar- able to a dove which is placed between a peacock that is above her and a raven that is under her, the latter pulling her repeatedly downward and the former upward."" In conclusion it must be stated that while in nearly all the instances discussed above the Jewish authors appear to have followed Arabic models, there is a considerable number of metaphors scattered in haggadic and midrashic" '* The authors are too numerous to be quoted. Saadia expounds this idea in the fourth chapter of his Emitnot; comp. Horovitz, Psychologie, 45 f., particularly Goldziher, Kitab, 47 f. '* Dieterici, Anthropologie, 131 f. " Comp. Baljya, Duties, VIII, 3, 14th Meditation: njcn JO TIN f'pH '1D1 riXtn, which is entirely in the style of the 'Iffwan; the commentary on Canticles, /. c, 50, 1. 8, from bottom, 56, 1. 14 ff. ; Pseudo-Empedocles in Kaufmann's Studien liber Salomon Ibn Gabirol, 22, top: mil? XTItf CSan 103 '" Discussed by Goldziher, Kitab, 49 f. ; Der Islam, I, 25. The simile quoted above, p. 464, note 30, is conceived under another aspect and does not belong here. " Comp. fCohel, rab. 2, 14, § 2. " See Levit. rab., 4, § 8. 476 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW literature, which seem to have originated with the Jews. A collection of these similes, however, was not within the scope of the present article. Only a few that bear some semblance to similes treated already may be pointed out in passing. Thus in Levit. rah., 34, § 3, it is reported of Hillel that when he left his disciples he used to say that he is going to attend to his guest in the house. On being asked whether he is troubled with guests every day he answered. Is not that poor soul a guest in the body? to-day she is here, to-morrow she may be gone." Mediaeval authors often allude to the soul as a bird kept prisoner in a cage or flying about seeking rest. A. similar conception is found already in Sanh. 92a, Lcvit, rah., 4, § 5 • T'lXi nmis minn iidv ."' The KabbaHsts designate the " inoS xon x'n jn xov keu ij2 h'h s':d3s inS KnaiSjr see: ]nm Xrn X'n n'S. This passage bears strong resemblance to the popular sentence "I2p2 inOI JN3 DTH, which occurs in injni "[SoH p , c. l6, and, curiously enough, also in a later Midrash; see Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch, I, 23, and Buber, KmJKT '"lED, 82. *» Possibly it is this conception of the soul as a bird that underlies Ezekiel 13, 18-21; see Dudley (as above, note 4), p. 29, n. 25, and especially Steinschneider, Rangstreit-Literatur, 58, n. i, who considers this conception as the basis for the custom to open a window at the moment of a person's death, so that the soul may fly out. Prof. Ginzberg refers me to the Midrash on Psalms, ed. Buber, p. 102: nStrSci D'BiS SyS 3Jn ^03 HOn HOCJ oSiya riD'jjiB'Oi inotr: nxxv jc mxtrai mntrn mna nnSni iS;n2 micp nxn mXC mOlSnn )n ]m (comp. also Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch. V, 45, and p. XXI, top). Here the soul appears as a kind of flying locust, or a grasshopper, a figure which may be of Greek origin; see e. g. Plato's Phaedrus, 248 E; Pseudo-Theology of Aristotle, 10, Dieterici's German translation, 198. The Greek rjivxy means also butterfly, which, because of its rising from the larva, may have been taken as a symbol of life and immortality. The Kabbalist Eleazar of Worms (thirteenth century) in his work irEJn nosn , which was published anony- mously (Lemberg 1876), refers to this Midrash by 3inD ^nXVO ; see ib., id (C'BiD nS B"! mOC? 'n nS V< trean) and 6b. The work, to which Prof. Schcchter called my attention, is a fantastic glorification of the soul, interspersed with kabbalistic mysteries which yield but little for our purpose; comp. Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibliogr., XVII, 53; Briill, Jahrbiicher, V, 198. PERSONIJ^ICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY — MALTER 477 souls as "holy birds that fly about chirping and praying for the holy people of Israel." Thus the Zohar in a lengthy exposition on the subject (section pbn, p. 392) interprets the verse n"'3 nsVD IIDV DJ (Ps. 84, 4) as referring to the souls of the righteous that find shelter in the most hidden palace of the divine presence which is called "1IQV }p". On certain days of the year, particularly in the months of Nisan and Tishri, these souls leave their holy retreat every morning and, fluttering above the various divisions of paradise, praise the Lord and pray for the life of all mankind.^' Jedaiah ha-Penini, oSiy DJ^na, c. 15 says: pjvn TiD ■'T'2 mit^'p ma^^jn -nD"'^* ma ins x-ni, and Zerahiah ha-Yevv'ani, n::"n 'D, c. 12 beginning: f\)]}:i ...noKOn •'3 ym ijp ^x 31C'"' dSo' -iK'sai rniVD2 C'srun.*^ The metaphor was common, however, also among the Arabs. The historian " np'N xSaTi Kinni inhT d'hSk nriN-i nh ]'";i t'jj xnn KT012 xSs'n »= Nnc'2 n'N ;'0'tr'"i ;'avi ... K»pnxn pn^nn pSn n'2 ns^^a iibs dj KnjJT jnitr oj Sj? iTnnxi ... p^co pnn jij'st ntr'n «ovi ;d«: 'ov ;i:'xi Kn3K« NEii'E:? Kinm siE!{i N1BV '?D3 ;e:{eso I'-iExn n'n3 nm nn Sa SoSj? \srn Xtt'J '33 "n Sy «m'?i*1 n^npn. This passage of the Zohar is the basis for an Aramaic prayer in the Polish ritual, provided for the first twelve days of Nisan (D'S'B'jn '0'), which I used to recite as a boy and which reads as follows: pcnp iTioci h^; h^irt inDHS Dvn I'KnB' ... pxi 'n» j;"»2i .'?N"it5" Ktynp Noy '^j? j'sSsoi pnntfm ]»esbsoi jnEV3 ptrmnon D'n'jK nnsT «S ]»:; n^Sj? -lon'Ni Ntrnp NinxS 'cnp nes -i:n S^'i'm D'jsn '131 "inSlT. Zunz remarks somewhere that the Jews sometimes sing logic, lament in mathematics, and pray metaphysics. The above prayer may serve as an illustration of the latter part. »' An epigram in "injni "iSoH p, c. 5, end, reads: im im3 'Sips 'Hn *im n'? nX^fOI D^Om laCJ nSI pie, but this is perhaps only an allusion to Ps. 124, 7. 478 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW Al-Mas'udi" relates of the pre-Islamitic Arabs that they believed the soul was a bird living in the human body, and that when a person dies the soul continues to flutter about the grave and to bewail the death of its former compan- ion. Highly poetical is the portraiture of man as a lamp enkindled by the Torah which is a spark of God, the body representing here the wick, while the soul is compared to the oil."' So Jedaiah, /. c, c. 15, beginning: 2n^ N''n minn 1VJ nix nin)^ np'inii vpbn ':^2 nnxni n-oK'n ■'nt^'v^ a^nt'o TiDn?D 1^3 n'an xbnn"' moxni Dnoaonn "it nn ptr inot:': nSnsj nS^riQ mix. The same metaphor is used by Zerahiah ha-Yewani, "^'''n 'D, c. 5, as the sixth of his proofs for reward and punishment in the hereafter/" Of a somewhat similar nature is the exposition of the author of the commentary on Canticles, who drew upon Mohammedan sources : D^yn nn^N xn^Q -id:''Q nS^na^^x niiy nh^x xn-'S psn"' "ribx hdojSx jx xo i:v DZiiba l^is jxidSx ^yt"D ixjbx nb'risSx "'S iar xo nat' psbx npi ilDDj!^xa pbynn. "Know that the sperm in which the embryo assumes existence is to be compared to a wick and that the spirit is l)lown into the former just as the fire is communicated to the latter, so that the lamp burns ; this ** Les Prairies d'or, III, 310; comp. Derenburg in Geiger's Jiidische Zeitschrift, VI, 293. The idea that the soul mourns over the dead body is common also in rabbinical literature; comp. b. Shabbat 1520, bottom, especially p. Yebamot, c. 16, § 3; see also 113nn 'D of Berechiah ha-NaVdan, edited by Gollancz, Eondon 1902, p. 50. "* Comp. Shem Job Ibn Shcm T"b, the commentator of Maimonides' Guide, niCm, section niVn . end: CNHty MK1 ]2h> ... WBiS TOT JDBTI «3 niri'nc Sao -ny: n^n^ ;Qtrni nS^ncn «inc. "* For other similes of this author sec ih., end of c. 1. PERSONIFICATIONS OF SOUL AND BODY — MALTER 479 is what takes place when the soul joins the sperm at the time of coming into existence."" Bahya's representation of the evil spirit as a spider that spreads its network around the window gradually ob- structing the light of the sun,*' and, likewise, his comparison of the soul with an unpolished metallic plate which be- comes bright by friction,'" seem to be of Arabic origin, though I do not know the source at present. Of doubtless Jewish origin is the symbolical descrip- tion of the human body and its organs as paralleling the Tabernacle and its various vessels. Already in the New Testament the body is called tabernacle (II Cor. 5, i. 4; Pet. I, 13-14) ; Jewish mediaeval authors took up the idea showing the correspondence in detail. The sources are rather numerous and require special treatment.'^ *^ Steinschneider Festschrift, 51, bottom; comp. Kiisari, II, 26: CCjni nS'riBn cxia anSn ncpna 12 iB'p'B' ... »y2a on mi2 dn <3 lannn nh; so also Dunash Ibn Tamini in his commentary on the book m'^' , London 1902, p. 71, bottom. *' Duties, VIII, 3, 14th Meditation; comp. b. Sukkah 520. «» lb., VIII, 4. *" See Kiisari, II, 26 (comp. above p. 462) and the reference given by Cassel (2) ad locum, p. 129; Abraham Ibn Ezra, on Exod., 26, i, and especially Steinschneider, Hebr. (Jbersetcungen, 997, n. i. Some of the references in that note are misprinted. Numerous parallels between the vessels of the Tabernacle and organs of the human body will be found in the Ktyin tmn, ed. Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrasch, III, 175 f. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 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