that the putting into practice of the teachings of this tractate leads one to prophecy. I shall later expound the truth of this assertion, because upon it depends a number of ethical principles.
Further, I deem it fit to preface the commentary on the respective Halakot[1] proper by some useful chapters, from which the reader may learn certain basic principles which may later serve as a key to what I am going to say in the commentary. Know, however, that the ideas presented in these chapters and in the following commentary are not of my own invention; neither did I think out the explanations contained therein,[2] but I have gleaned them from the words of the wise occurring in the Midrashim, in the Talmud, and in other of their works, as well as from the words of the philosophers, ancient and recent, and also from the works of various authors,[3] as one
- ↑ I. e., the verses of Abot.
- ↑ See H. Malter, Shem Tob Joseph Palquera, in JQR (new series), vol. I, p. 163, n. 21.
- ↑ The “ancient” philosophers upon whom M. drew, although not always from the sources (see Munk, Guide, I, p. 345, n. 4; Rosin, Ethik, p. 5, n. 4), are Socrates, Plato, the Stoics, especially Aristotle (see Introduction, p. 5, n. 2), Alexander of Aphrodisias (Moreh, I, 31; II, 3), and Themistius (Ibid., I, 71). By the “recent” philosophers M. means Abu Nasr al-Farabi (Ibid., I, 73, 74; II, 15, 18, 19; III, 18), Ibn Sina, al-Gazzali, Abu Bekr Ibn al-Zaig (Ibid., I, 74; II, 24 twice; III, 29), but hardly Ibn Roshd (Averröes). The “works of various authors” refers to the ethical writings of M.’s Jewish predecessors, among whom were Saadia, Ibn Gabirol, Baḥya, Bar Ḥiya, Ibn Zaddik, Yehudah ha-Levi, Abraham Ibn Ezra, and Ibn Daud. See M.’s Letter to Ibn Tibbon, in Ḳobeẓ Teshubot ha-Rambam, II, 28b; Munk, Ibid., I, p. 107, n. 1; p. 345, n. 4; p. 433, n. 2; 434, n. 4; III, p. 417, n. 2, and p. 438, n. 4; Beer, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon pp. 47-50; Geiger, Nachgelassene Schriften, III, Moses ben Maimon, p. 41; Kaufmann, Attributenlehre, p. 324, n. 186; Rosin, Ibid., pp. 5-25, 96, n. 3; Wolff, Acht Capitel, Introduction, XII-XIII; Cohen, Charakteristik, in Moses ben Maimon, I p. 79; in JE, articles on the Greek, Arabic, and Jewish philosophers mentioned in this note, and article by I. Broydé, Arabic Philosophy—Its Influence on Judaism, II, p. 58. On M.’s relation to Ibn Roshd, see Munk, Notice sur Joseph ben-Jehouda, p. 31, and n. 1; Steinschneider, Catal. Bodl., Moses Maimonides.
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