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414 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
YEDAYA BEDARESI,
A FOURTEEKTH CeNTCRY HeBREW PoET AND PHILOSOPHER.
The year 1306 enjoys a terrible notoriety in the annals
of the Jews of France. At the beginning of that year,
Philip IV, surnamed Le Bel, issued an edict of expulsion
against all the Jews living in any of his dominions. The
edict practically confiscated all the property of the French
Jews, and its terms were so rigorous that any Israelite
found on French soil after a certain short space of time
became liable to the penalty of death. Philip's mandate
was promptly executed by the royal officers, and some
100,000 Jews were mercilessly driven out from their native
land — a land in which their fathers had already resided
long before Christianity had become the dominant religion
there. In consequence of this expulsion, several far-famed
Jewish seats of learning that had long been established in
various French towns, such as those of Beziers, Liinel, and
Montpellier, ceased to exist, since masters and pupils
became, like the rest of their unhappy co-religionists,
weary wanderers and fugitives. One of these was Yedaya
En-Bonet ben Abraham Bedaresi, the object of the present
essay.
Yedaya, known also under the poetical pseudonym of
Penini, has left no documentary evidence concerning the
incidents of his life. The best biography, however, of
a man like Yedaya is undoubtedly that which is found in
his own works. Biographical material from such a source
is, however, liable to vary with the judgment of the critic.
Thus there is some diversity of opinion among bibliogra-
phers as to the exact date of Yedaya's bii-th, for while
YEDAYA BEDARESI 415
Bartolocci, Wolf, and de Rossi assert that he was boru in
1298, Steinschneider and Neubauer put the year of his
birth between x 25^ and 1 260, without, however, attempting
to fix the year of his death. Graetz, again, maintains that
Yedaya was born in 1280, and died about 1340, and that
his birth-place was Beziers, and not Barcelona, as some
bibliographers assert^. The only indisputable fact in
connexion with Yedaya's early education is this, that he
entered the school of Rabbi MeshuUam of Beziers when
he was fifteen years old.
From Yedaya's numerous and multifarious writings it is
obvious that he was a philosopher and a moralist, a tal-
mudical scholar and an expert in medicine, and above all,
a clever writer of Hebrew prose and poetry. It is chiefly
to his latter capacity that Yedaya owes his prominent
position among the Jewish savants of the Middle Ages, and
for that reason special attention will have to be paid in the
course of this essay to his chef d'oeuvre, entitled D^iy nJTia,
or The Examination of the World. It is true that Graetz
finds fault with this poetical composition, of which he
thinks that it has the appearance " of empty grandiloquence
and artificiality." But, on the other hand, Munk, in his
Melanges, p. 495, and Buxtorf, in his BihUotheca Rabbinica,
speak very highly of Yedaya's poetical talent, and the
latter calls The Examination of the World an excellent
literary production. And indeed, the same opinion will
be shared by all those readers of the ohj? nJ'na who, like
Munk and Buxtorf, are not prejudiced against it on the
ground that its style is not so pure, elegant, and clear
as that met with in some of the writings of the most
prominent representatives of the so-called Spanish and
Italian schools of Hebrew poetry. In fact, the little book
in question has always enjoyed an extraordinary popularity
among the Jews ; and it is astonishing to notice the com-
paratively large number of manuscripts of the original,
' Comp. Graetz's Gesch. d. J., VII, p. 277.
4l6 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
and of the commentariea on it, which are to be found in
various libraries. In addition to this, it may also be
mentioned that the same book has passed through more
than foiiy-four editions, issued with or without com-
mentaries at various times and in various countries, and
has been frequently translated into German, as well as
into Jargon, once into Latin, English, French, Italian, and
Polish. It is interesting to note that the eleventh and
twelfth chapters of one of the German editions, issued at
Prague in 1795, by Moses Kunitz, were rendered into
German by Moses Mendelssohn ; and that the French
translation, published at Paris in 1639, by Ph. d'Aquin,
was dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu. The English veraion,
which appeared in London in 1806, was inscribed by its
author, Rabbi Tobias Goodman, to "The Most Reverend
Solomon Hirschell, Presiding Rabbi of the German Jews " ;
and the Latin one, which has for its title, Examen mundi,
B. J. BedreshUae, latina interpretation e, was done by
A. Uchtman, and issued at Ley den in 1650.
It is curious to notice that the editor of the fii'st of the
forty-four known editions of the a?lj? fiO'na, printed, as some
bibliographers think, at Mantua between 1476 and lA^o,
was a lady called Estellina, the wife of a certain Abraham
Conath. She was assisted in her task by Jacob Levy, of
Tarascon. The last known edition of the book under
notice, or rather the greater part of it, was published only
a few years ago by Dr. Harkavy, of St. Petersburg, from
a MS. in his possession. Dr. Harkavy is also the owner
of a hitherto unpublished commentary on the same book,
composed in 1508 by Isaac Mon9on, of Reggio. In some
prefatory lines, the author states that he was induced to
write his commentary because he had noticed that many
Jewish young men in his country were in the habit of
learning the original by heart, without knowing anything
about its contents ^. This curious remark stiU holds good
nrvDa no 'is ■nm» crivc ns 11 nsbna cMynrsn o'linarr wmto rrd) '
.orto pm DiV) nnaD arpnwBffiai
YEDAYA BEDARESI 417
in its application to the mode in vogue in Russia and
Poland, where parts of the Hebrew Bible are often learnt
by heart by the Jewish youth in a mechanical manner,
whilst their contents remain unknown to the learners.
Yet there is something to praise in the method. The
young may easily commit to memory passages which they
will subsequently understand, and thus their minds may
be stored with fine thoughts. In truth, all systems of
education proceed on these lines. But the method is
undoubtedly a dangerous one.
As regards the style and composition of the ch^y 'Tin,
which seems to have been composed by Yedaya after the
expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306, it must be
admitted at the outset that the general reader will not find
them quite in harmony with his modern taste. Already
de Sacy, in his Magasin encyclopedique, III, p. 321, censures
the author of that book for his employing therein certain
Biblical phrases in a different sense from that which they
bear in the Bible. But he readily admits that the Church
fathers during the Middle Ages, and certain Arabic writers,
have, at all times, taken the same liberties respectively
with the Scriptures and the Koran. The finest of the
Spanish-Jewish poets, not excluding Ibn Gebirol himself,
allowed themselves the same license ; while Charizi often
derives his whole point from the witty misuse of a familiar
Biblical phrase. Despite this defect, it cannot be denied
that the Bechinath Olani possesses a peculiar charm of its
own. This will easily be detected by those readers who,
being well versed both in the Hebrew Bible and in the
Midrash and the Talmud, cannot fail to appreciate the art
with which Biblical phrases, used with an occasional
striking play on words, are composed into a mosaic.
Take, for instance, the following few sentences which
occur in Chapter IX ^ : " By no means let thy pride in
— ^^«ji3T ^1nb urh» rm nxs'T orn t>5 — toidd: msonn m«cn rvnn vh '3 ce» '
nnp"? 3?n oma pin lonnn •. "jwe: mso os'Jpa itom am 'D^« wvcn vn «ta vrri
.yvian n«i -|ni« ta«m Diswn p crrtsn cm nin — -jwtn ten Timt ]n
4l8 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
possessing wealth b3 of long duration, for at any moment
may a blast come from God, which will scatter and disperse
all thy treasures. Then will vanish as nought the fifty
thousand ducats for which thou hast bartered thy soul, and
thy former honour and glory will likewise depai*t at the
sudden reverse of thy fortune. Or a fire may come down
from heaven, and devour thee along with thy five myriads
of ducats." Here it will at once be seen how cleverly the
author uses for his own purpose certain phrases found in
the second chapter of 2 Kings, in connexion with the prophet
Elijah, and how striking the play on the word TtJDn is.
As this peculiar mode of composition is a marked feature
in the whole ohy '"Tin, a few more examples, having, how-
ever, a somewhat different form, may be given here for the
sake of illustration. In Chapter IV we read as follows ^ :
'• Thy longings in sooth are but passion and lust.
Thy strength sinks asunder like crumbling light dust;
Thy treasures, like thorns, are surrounded with stings.
And thy most lovely possessions but worthless things.
Thy pride is enkindled like flames in the night,
Thy riches, like insects, soon hasten their flight."
And again, in Chapter XI, the author gives the following
description of the four seasons of the year ^:
" The lovely Spring gives me no peace,
For constant cares disturb my ease.
The Summer, too, is full of pain,
Its glow and heat are but my bane.
The Autumn has no charms for me,
From cold and ills I ne'er am free.
When Winter brings its snow and frost.
Oh, then I am undone and lost."
'jrpy D'ttJin nwraoa ni3i«3 »3iD»pWT nw vh a's^n '
nnn aepn nrnjo rooo »5S'p' '3p'S' nipisaa «n3 yip' yp"
.D3n '»ta^ T13C1 n33 ri'D* rnon Tjoa 1^ nvrro »3a^ rprv nra^ ocirr fj^nn
YEDAYA BEDARESI 419
Another conspicuous feature of the nhy ''•na is its frequent
use of poetical metaphors, which the author employs with
great aptitude and force. The eighth chapter of the book
in question, beginning with the words fipir D'' 73nn, may
fitly serve as an illustration of this, and the following free
English translation of it will afford the reader at the same
time an insight into the general contents of the whole poem.
It runs as follows :
"The world is as a boisterous sea of immense depth and
width, and Time forms a fragile bridge built over it. The
upper end thereof is fastened to the ground by means of
weak ropes, and its lower end leads to a place which
is shone upon by the rays of the divine light, emanating
from God's majesty. The breadth of the bridge is but one
short span, and has no lattice work to atford protection
from falling over it. Over this narrow path thou, O son
of man, art compelled constantly to go, and notwithstanding
all thy might and glory, thou canst not turn either to the
right or to the left. Now, threatened as thou art on both
sides with death and destruction, how canst thou sustain
thy ordinary courage, and how can thy hands remain firm ?
In vain dost thou pride thyself on the possession of vast
treasures obtained by thee by vileness and wickedness ;
for of what avail are they to thee when the sea rises, and
rages, and foams, thus threatening to wreck the little hut
wherein thou livest [meaning the body] 1 Canst thou boast
to be able to calm and subdue its powerful waves, or wiliest
thou try to fight against them ? Intoxicated with the wine
of thy vanity, thou art pushed hither and thither, until
thou sinkest into the mighty abyss ; and tossed about from
deep to deep, thou wilt at last submerge into the foaming
surge, and no one will bring thee up to life again."
The ninth and eleventh chapters of the dhjj ''na contain
some passages which refer to the author's own sufferings,
caused to him by the aforementioned expulsion of the Jews
from France, and to the cowardice displayed on that
occasion by some wealthy French Jews, who, in order to
420 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
be permitted to remain in the country, and to retain their
earthly possessions, had embraced Christianity. How
shamefully these renegades behaved in the face of the
great calamity which had befallen their French co-reli-
gionists may be seen from the following passages, which
occur in Chapter XI. They run thus ^:
" What care they for those gloomy envoys of fate ?
They dance all the night, and they rise very late.
Feasting they love, and high play and flirtation,
And laughter, and pleasure, and wild dissipation.
They look upon evil, of whatever sort,
As a mirth-causing jest, and an iimocent sport."
These few extracts from the ohy 'Tia, together with the
above-given English translation of its eighth chapter, may
suffice to convey an idea of the style and contents of the
whole book. The latter has certainly several faults, which
chiefly consist in the frequent use the author makes therein
of Chaldaic and Aramaic words and phrases, a proper
translation of which is almost impossible. Yet, on the
whole, this little poetical composition of Yedaya deserves,
for the sake of its many peculiarities, that honourable
position which has been accorded to it by general consent
in the wide domain of Hebrew literature.
Another small treatise, composed by the same author
when he was eighteen years old, is one that bears the title
of D-iSJa i»1S^V, and has for its subject "The Defence of
Women." Till about ten years ago it only existed as
a unique MS. in the Bodleian Library ; but Dr. Neubauer
published it for the first time in the Jubelschrift (Berlin,
1888), issued by some friends of Zunz on the occasion of
his celebrating his ninetieth birthday, under the title of
D"'t?J aniN (The Women's Friend). This title is more appro-
priate than the one it originally bore, for the simple reason
vv\s 'nnw niVs 'paru r\irsf< 'pwin
r:nrt >:'n prrsoa vri ^nnoa inijiBrT nan nmo
YEDAYA BEDAKESI 42I
that the treatise in question was evidently written by
Fedaya in opposition to another composed, in 1 208, by the
physician, Judah ben Sabbatai, under the title of n'B>3 N31E>
[The Woman-hater), in which the author's strong aversion
to the fair sex is clearly put forth. The Q'K'3 3niN, which
Yedaya dedicated to two friends of his, viz. to Meir and
Judah, the sons of Don Solomon Del Infanz, is written
in rhymed prose, intermixed with a few short verses. Its
style is rather heavy, and all that can be gathered from
its subject-matter is this, that a certain king, called Cushan
Rishataim, a great woman-hater, did once wage war against
an army composed of the friends of the fair sex, and led on
by a general named Seria. The latter ultimately defeated
the king and his hostile troops, and, out of gi-atitude for
his great victory, he himself was proclaimed king by his
followers. Under his reign, a new and happy era opens
for women in general, who are then wooed, and married,
and loved more dearly than ever before, and wedded life
is everywhere declared to be the most desirable state in
existence. The D'CJ 2mN closes with the description of
the appearance of Judah ben Sabbatai's ghost on earth,
and of how it agrees with all Yedaya's statements made
there, with the exception of one. Every man, the ghost
declares, ought certainly to marry once; but it would be
the height of folly on his pai't if he were to enter again
upon the matrimonial state, after his first marriage had
turned out a failure.
In passing, it may be mentioned that the same controversy
about the merits and demerits of the married state was
still carried on in the sixteenth century among some
learned Jewish writers in Italy. Among these are most
conspicuous : Jacob of Fano, who in his poem Dniajn ''uT^
{The Shields of the Mighty), makes a strong attack on
women, and Judah Sommo, of Portaleone, who in his
treatise, D''B'3 po {The Women's Protector), which exists as
a MS. in the Bodleian Library, presents himself as a
champion of women. To these writers may be added
422 THE JEWISH QUAKTERLY KEVIEW
Messer Leon (flourished at Mantua at the end of the
fifteenth century), who, in a commentary of his on the
thirty-first chapter of Proverbs, seizes the opportunity of
eulogizing the female sex in general, and a few specially
named women in particular. Among these he also men-
tions Laura, the lady-love of the poet Petrarch ; and it is
interesting to notice the trouble which the author takes
in that commentary to prove that Laura was by no means
a myth, as some writers on Petrarch consider her, but that
she really existed in person, and was greatly distinguished
by her exquisite beauty and grace.
Resuming now our review of Yedaya's literary com-
positions, especially of those he wrote when he was still
very young, we have to refer to a Hebrew hymn of his,
well known under the title of poiDn nt^pa, the formal
characteristic of which is this, that each word of it begins
with the letter fnem (d). Bartolocci, in his Bibliotheca
Rabbinica, III, p. 7, gives the same hymn the title of
Dt?? rhnn (Praise of God). This seems to have been
Yedaya's first literary attempt, as it is generally assumed
that it was composed by him at the age of fourteen. His
father, Abraham, himself a writer of Hebrew verses of
inferior quality, was so delighted with his son's hymn, that
he sang its praises in a short Hebrew quatrain. Although
from a literary point of view, the Supplication of the
Memniin has little to recommend it, it has passed through
fifteen editions, and has frequently been translated into
German, and once also into Latin by Hil. Prache, who
published his translation at Leipsic in 1662.
Another short composition belonging to an early period
in Yedaya's life is his DTian iSD (The Book of Paradise),
which was composed by him at the age of seventeen, and
appeared for the first time in print at Constantinople in
151 7. It is divided into four chapters, each of which has
a different heading, while the fourth chapter is again sub-
divided into four sections. The principal subjects discussed
in these chapters are (a) The worship of God ; (b) Friendship
YEDAYA BEDARESI 423
and Enmity ; (c) The Lack of Stability in the World ; and
(d) Tho Desirability of studying Science after the usual
Devotions. From this it will be seen that Yedaya had
already in early life displayed a taste for writing on moral,
ethical, and philosophical themes ; but this early taste was
greatly developed in him at a later period of his life.
After having reached his manhood, he wrote several other
treatises of a similar description, each of which will be
briefly noticed here.
1. anrn pB*^ (The Golden Tongue). This forms part of
a commentary (existing as a MS.) on the Agada and the
Midrashim, and was first printed at Venice in 1599.
2. A MS. bearing the inscription: B^nsi ni3N n3D» B'na
nio^ro nnjN (Commentary on the Ethics of the Fathers, and
on the Agadoth in the Talmud).
3. ni^VJnnn rem {An Apologetical Letter). This well-
known and often-quoted letter was addressed by Yedaya
to Rabbi Solomon ben Adereth (^''^ci), on the occasion of
his publicly censuring the Jewish communities of the
Provence for their occupying themselves with scientific
studies. There a passage occurs, which throws some light
on the author^s own enlightened ideas in reference to the
same subject. It runs as follows: "We cannot give up
science ; it is as the breath of our nostrils. Even if Joshua
would appear and forbid it, we would not obey him ; for
we have a warranty who outweighs them all, viz. Maimuni,
who recommended it, and impressed it upon us. We are
ready to set our goods, our children, and our lives at stake
for it 1."
4. A Liturgical Poem. It is composed of a number of
words, each of which begins with the letter aleph (n), and
refers, according to Graetz^, to the sufferings endured by
the French Jews banished from France in 1306.
5. A Treatise on Medicine, based on a similar work
composed by the Jewish philosopher, Ibn-Sina.
' Comp. Miss L6wy's translation of Graetz's Gesch. d. J., IV, p. 47.
« Gesch. d. J., VII, p. 269.
424 THE JEWISH QUAETEELY REVIEW
6. nyin ana {A Treatise on Intellect). This is also based
on another book treating of a kindred subject, and bearing
the inscription niijanom ^atrn iqd, the author of which is
Al-Fabri. A Latin translation of the latter treatise exists
under the title of De Intellectu et Intellecto, Venice, 1595.
7. nonn bsB'a niyin (Opinions on Matenal Intellect).
8. jPTXon 'asna "iDNDH is a philosophical treatise on the
movements of bodies, and has been quoted by Ibn-Habib
under the title of njsn '•asin ana.
9. niDXynnn ana [Treatise on Consolidation).
10. Is a MS. without any title; but judging from its
contents, it seems to correspond with the nVJ'Dn nn^vn neo,
once quoted by the same Ibn-Habib.
11. nimp "lano {The Desert of Kedenioth). This is a
commentary on the twenty-five propositions placed by
Maimonides at the beginning of the tenth chapter of his
D'aiaj mic.
12. Is a Hebrew poem, having for its subject the thirteen
articles as arranged by Maimonides.
The authorship of the following four compositions is also
attributed to Yedaya :
1. A Divan, compiled by a member of the family' of
Bedaresi, and that member is, according to Luzzatto, no
other but Yedaya.
2. l^D iJlvc {The Pleasures of a King) is a short treatise
on the game of chess, and has several times appeared in
print.
3. Wolf, in his Bibliotheca Rabbinica, I, p. 403, attributes
to Yedaya the authorship of a commentary on another
commentary written by Abraham Ibn Ezra on the Book
of Genesis, the former of which exists as a MS. in a Paris
library.
4. nawnn n-iJS {A Letter of Response). This letter, which
was published by Dr. Berliner in 1888, and copies of which
are found in various MSS., is attributed to Yedaya by
Bartolocci and de Rossi.
From all hitherto said about Yedaya and his multifarious
YEDAYA BEDARESI 425
writings, it will be seen that he fully deserves the recogni-
tion accorded to him by several biographei-s. Indeed, his
name will always be honourably mentioned among the host
of other Jewish savants living during the Middle Ages,
who, often as exiles and fugitives, and amidst all kinds of
sufferings and deprivations, did not neglect their habitual
researches into almost every domain of mental culture.
Nay, in spite of the many obstacles Yedaya must have
met with in his daily occupation, he found leisure to
enrich Hebrew literature with a number of works which
are even now read with some pleasure and advantage.
J. Chotzner.
