- "Duties of the Heart" - Excerpts from the author's
introduction
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- R. Bachaya ben Josef ibn Paquda
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- "Our sages have said that if a person performs a mitzvah but
has no intention of doing it for the sake of Heaven, he receives no
reward for it."
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- "Whoever has the intellectual capacity to verify what he
receives from tradition, and yet is prevented from doing so by his own
laziness, or because he takes lightly G-d's commandments and Torah, he
will be punished for this and held accountable for negligence."
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- "If, however, you possess intelligence and insight, and through
these faculties you are capable of verifying the fundamentals of the
religion and the foundations of the commandments which you have
received from the sages in the name of the prophets, then it is your
duty to use these faculties until you understand the subject, so that
you are certain of it - both by tradition and by force of reason. If
you disregard and neglect this duty, you fall short in the fulfillment
of what you owe your Creator."
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- Devarim 17:8-10 states: "If a case should prove too
difficult for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea
and plea, between (leprous) mark and mark, or other matters of dispute
in your courts, ....you must act in accordance with what they tell
you."
- Regarding this passage, Rabbi Bachya states: "the verse does
not say,.....simply accept them on the authority of Torah sages,...and
rely exclusively on their tradition. Rather, (Scripture) says that you
should reflect on your own mind, and use your intellect in these
matters. First learn them from tradition - which covers all the
commandments in the Torah, their principles and details - and then
examine them with your own mind, understanding, and judgment, until
the truth become clear to you, and falsehood rejected, as it is
written: "Understand today and reflect on it in your heart,
Hashem is the G-d in the heavens above, and on the Earth below, there
is no other". (Ibid, 4:39)
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