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Saadia Gaon: The Book of Beliefs and Opinions (Yale Judaica Series)

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This is a complete English translation by Samuel Rosenblatt of the Arabic version of Saadia Gaon's "The Book of Opinions and Beliefs". It also includes a brief introduction to Saadia and his works, notes on the translation, and extensive indices.
"The Book of Opinions and Beliefs" is the first systematic treatment of the fundamentals of Judaism, and a classic of Jewish philosophy. It consists of ten treatises besides for an introductory treatise, and the topics covered include the relationship between faith and knowledge, creation and the existence of God, the nature of God, divine commands and prohibitions, obedience and disobedience, reward and punishment, the nature of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, the redemption, and proper conduct and virtues. A variant version of the treatise on the resurrection is included as an appendix.
In my opinion, the most difficult treatises are the introductory treatise on the relationship between faith and knowledge, and the treatise on creation and the existence of God, which includes an ingenious version of the cosmological argument. Nevertheless, the book is generally accessible. It is also very well organized, the argumentation is rigorous, and the treatment of the topics is comprehensive and deep.
I recommend this book highly for those interested in the fundamentals of Judaism and Jewish philosophy. An abridged translation by Alexander Altmann of "The Book of Opinions and Beliefs" is also available. Readers may also be interested in the more difficult "Guide for the Perplexed" by Maimonides, and the easier "Duties of the Heart" by Ibn Pakuda. The latter focuses on ethics, but also includes chapters on the existence and nature of God.

Samuel Rosenblatt, who translated Saadiah Gaon's (882-942) philosophical classic The Book of Beliefs and Opinions into English in 1948, called Saadiah's magnum opus "the first systematic presentation of Judaism as a rational body of beliefs."
Saadiah's goal was to teach the truth of Judaism. He insisted that Jews should not adhere to traditions without thought. People must use their intelligence. They should not be afraid to ask daring questions about doctrine. This is not only permitted, it is mandatory. The source of the truth is irrelevant. Whether Greek philosophy or Moslem theology, the sole test of an idea is whether it is logical and consistent with science and experience. Any truth that helps clarify the Bible is welcome.
Yet, he insisted that reason cannot negate divine revelation. People do not have sufficient intelligence and knowledge to be certain that what they reason is true. Thus God aided Jews by giving them "ready-made truths" through revelation with which to govern their lives. Philosophical reflection, therefore, only furnishes secondary evidence of the authenticity and value of Torah teachings, for the Torah is the first and most reliable source of the truth.
Thus, Saadiah took his ideas from whatever source satisfied his inclination. However, despite his statements about the use of reason, because he relied upon his understanding of the Torah's revelation, Saadiah accepted improvable notions because they were ancient traditions.
1. He insisted that Jews believe that God created the world from nothing.
2. God is indivisible, unique and incorporeal. Biblical statements depicting God acting as a human must be understood as figures of speech, for God has no body.
3. God created the world as an act of grace, to make people happy. He revealed His laws to them because He knew that the laws would assure this happiness. There are two kinds of divine laws: those understandable by human reason, and those that the human mind cannot understand.
4. Humans are the goal of creation and have free will. God has foreknowledge of how people will act but does not restrict people in any way.
5. When humans act, their deeds leave an imprint on their soul, either ennobling or debasing it. God keeps a record of people's merits and demerits and rewards and punishes people in the hereafter, but he renders some rewards and punishments during a person's life.
6. Saadiah rejects the notion that when people die, their souls are reborn in another person or animal. Souls were created when the body of the individual was created and the soul is immortal thereafter. The soul returns to the body with the revival of the body after death. Punishments for crimes must be inflicted on the body and soul jointly since the two acted jointly.
7. There are three stages in the life of the soul after death. First, the soul abides in heaven until all the souls that God intends to create have completed their earthly life. This is followed by the messianic period and resurrection when bodies and souls are reunited. Then, when the material world ends, all souls will be transferred to a place where they will live forever. The righteous will live in bliss and the wicked will suffer.
8. Saadiah refutes the Christian concept of the messiah. He lists fifteen characteristics of the messianic period, none of which can be applied to the Second Temple era when Christians believe the messiah appeared. One example is that wars will cease in the messianic period.
9. In his final section, Saadiah became the first Jew who applied the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle's famous doctrine of the golden mean to Jewish ethics.
Saadiah's Book of Beliefs and Opinions influenced many of his coreligionists and his book contains ideas that many Jews still accept. However, it should be recognized that the great Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) refuted virtually all of Saadiah's beliefs. He considered them a theology developed to dampen fears and give unfounded hopes - not philosophy, which is founded on reason, science and provable truths. Readers may want to read my review of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed.

In the 10th century, Saadia Gaon, a Babylonian Torah scholar, wrote this book to address a wide variety of topics, using both reason and scripture. In addition to endorsing traditional Jewish views, Saadia sought to address topics seemingly left up for grabs by the Torah. Tbe book begins with the most abstract material, and then gets more specific (and perhaps a bit less deep) towards the end.

The first two chapters (or "treatises") address tbe nature of creation. In the first (and deepest) chapter, Saadia seeks to prove that God created the universe out of nothing. This chapter was a bit over my head in spots. One interesting sidelight: Saadia addresses a dozen alternative theories, and implies that the first alternative is the most credible, the second is the second most credible, and that the last is the weakest. But in my untutored opinion Saadia's order of proceeding is not obviously logical: his top alternative is that God created the universe out of "eternal spiritual beings" (p. 50) and the allegedly weakest alternatives are "skepticism" (i.e. that "it is proper for man to refraining from believing anything becuase they calim that human reasoning is full of uncertainties" (p. 80) and the views "of those who feign complete ignorance" (p. 82). But the latter alternative seems to me stronger than the former. Either 9th-century people viewed the world very differently than I, or Saadia was putting the weaker alternative first in order to strengthen his argument.

The second chapter discusses the nature of God- asserting that God is One and has no body. Interestingly, Saadia rejects the common midrashic view that the various names of God in the Torah refer to different Divine attributes. Instead, Saadia points out that Scriptures often uses names interchangeably (p. 99). He criticizes Trinitarian Christianity on the ground that if God is not a physical being, he cannot possibly have multiple attributes which differ from each other because "anything that harbors distinction within itself is unquestionably a physical being" (p. 103). According to Saadia, God is like truth- something that cannot be perceived by the senses yet nevertheless exists (p. 131).

In the third chapter, Saadia discusses the Torah's laws and the reason therefor. He asserts that some commandments are obviously supported by reason, and the rest exist either because God has "imposed upon us a profusion of commandments and prohibitions in order thereby to increase our reward" (p. 140) or to teach submissiveness to God (p. 141). In addition, some of the latter group may have minor rational purposes: for example, the dietary laws discourage idolatry because man is unlikely to "worship what has been given to him for food, nor what has been declared unclean for him." (p. 144) Interestingly, Saadia does not explain why non-Jews were not given such revelations.

In this chapter, Saadia also defends the validity of Scripture and related traditions, on the ground that if people did not accept authentic tradition, they could not believe anything beyond what their senses perceived - for example, they could not be certain that a law was in fact issued by the government (p. 156). Moreover, it is unlikely that a large number of people would be fooled by a false impression (p. 157). Of course, religious traditions differ from others in a variety of ways: their advanced age, and the existence of conflicting traditions.

Most of the last half of the book relates to the afterlife. Saadia endorses the traditional Jewish view that a messiah will deliver Israel (and will rule over the resurrected Jewish dead). He also asserts that eventually, all people who have ever lived (including non-Jews) will be judged and sent to paradise or eternal damnation, both of which involve variations of light and fire (pp. 348-50) This view is based partially on citations to Scripture (many of which seem to be to be out of context- but then again, maybe I am not reading the same translation as Saadia did, and perhaps my translation is not as good) and partially on reason. Specifically, Saadia reasons that the injustice prevalent in the world can be remedied only by rewards and punishments in the afterlife (pp. 325-26). Less persuasively, he asserts that punishment should be eternal as a deterrent to evil (p. 344)- an argument that is not particularly persuasive because would-be evildoers (a) have no way of knowing what God's punishments are (especially if they have not read Saadia's book) and (b) may not think they are doing anything punishable. Moreover, the idea of eternal punishment seems inconsistent with Saadia's view that God disapproves of misconduct "only on our account, because of te harm they might inflict upon us." (p. 190)

The last chapter is the most practical. Saadia lists a variety of good things (e.g. prayer, food, sex) and says that the ideal person should balance these needs rather than pursuing one to the exclusion of others.

This book is great, but the seller is something else.
They never responded to my emails, and shipping was unbelievably slow.