Solomon Ibn Gabirol
Solomon Ibn Gabirol
(Shelomo ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol, also known as Solomon ben Judah and his Latinized name, Avicebron) (ca. 1021-1058, b. Málaga, d. Valencia)
Gabirol was a Spanish Jewish poet and philosopher who revived the study of Neoplatonism in Europe.
While he is credited with having created a golem, he is actually famous for his work Fountain of Life (Fons Vitae or Mekor Hayyim). Originally, this book had been attributed to “Avicebron” or “Avencebrol,” who history had thought perhaps to be an Arabic Muslim philosopher, until around 1846, when the identification was made to Gabirol. The work has five treatises concerning the matter and form of substance in order to seek the most simple, primordial, underlying substance, which indicates there being an universal matter and form (i.e., the one and the same substance constitutes everything that is, the highest and the lowest forms of existence). Interestingly, this work cites neither the Jewish Bible nor Rabbinic scholarship.
Philosophically, Gabirol became a point of contention in later medieval Christian philosophy between Duns Scotus (who leaned Platonist) and Albertus Magnus and Aquinas (who leaned Aristotelian—Aquinas believed spiritual substance to be immaterial and form to be singular in every substance, hence a direct conflict of views). (William of Auvergne praises Gabirol highly, although also calls him Christian.)
Gabirol’s theory of creation is termed “cosmo-ontology”—in Neoplatonism, such are apophatic theological considerations worked out alongside (human) ontological theories (of being); for Gabirol, such is argued to be the consideration of human being (ontology) that aims to transformation (we can liken this to a spiritual exercise … where ontology or even epistemology converge with ethics).
(Shelomo ben Yehuda ibn Gabirol, also known as Solomon ben Judah and his Latinized name, Avicebron) (ca. 1021-1058, b. Málaga, d. Valencia)
Gabirol was a Spanish Jewish poet and philosopher who revived the study of Neoplatonism in Europe.
While he is credited with having created a golem, he is actually famous for his work Fountain of Life (Fons Vitae or Mekor Hayyim). Originally, this book had been attributed to “Avicebron” or “Avencebrol,” who history had thought perhaps to be an Arabic Muslim philosopher, until around 1846, when the identification was made to Gabirol. The work has five treatises concerning the matter and form of substance in order to seek the most simple, primordial, underlying substance, which indicates there being an universal matter and form (i.e., the one and the same substance constitutes everything that is, the highest and the lowest forms of existence). Interestingly, this work cites neither the Jewish Bible nor Rabbinic scholarship.
Philosophically, Gabirol became a point of contention in later medieval Christian philosophy between Duns Scotus (who leaned Platonist) and Albertus Magnus and Aquinas (who leaned Aristotelian—Aquinas believed spiritual substance to be immaterial and form to be singular in every substance, hence a direct conflict of views). (William of Auvergne praises Gabirol highly, although also calls him Christian.)
Gabirol’s theory of creation is termed “cosmo-ontology”—in Neoplatonism, such are apophatic theological considerations worked out alongside (human) ontological theories (of being); for Gabirol, such is argued to be the consideration of human being (ontology) that aims to transformation (we can liken this to a spiritual exercise … where ontology or even epistemology converge with ethics).
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Fountain of Life: The idea of the “fountain,” while a common symbol of emanation, this work creative reworks the idea from a creative reading of Genesis wherein the waters of the Garden of Eden represent the source of the unfolding of the cosmos. Their gushing flow invokes the ‘River of Life,’ dynamic pouring forth that links all existence together. However, the source that overflows is not necessarily God’s emanating activity—for God still creates ex nihilo, but from this ex nihilo then comes that which emanates. (And, further, either before, during, or after emanation emanates, there is a creation ex aliquo, a creation of matter and form, so that all comes to be through mediation of matter, as opposed to coming directly, unmediated.)
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Fountain of Life: Treatise V, Sec. 43 (Union with the Source of Life)
Creation as a flow of water and a reflection of form in a mirror ...
- WATER: Note: the commonality of emanation described through metaphors of water ...
- Etymologically, “emanation” means “to flow forth or stream,” indicating how causality pours forth from God. The image most often applied to emanation is the bubbling over of water—e.g., think about the cyclical biological process of clouds producing rain, rain falling (procession), evaporation happening (reversion), clouds reforming, and raining forth again (procession), etc.. The image’s use has a long history: Iamblichus described causality as emanation, as “ever-flowing and unfailing creativity;” Proclus explains that “Every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it, and returns to it;” Damascius names the effect as “flowing” from its cause; Pseudo-Dionysius describes the Cherubim as the “effusion of wisdom,” God and His attributes as “outpouring” to His creatures, and God’s creativity as “bubbling over” and “bubbling forth;” and Romans 11:36 captures it as: “From him and to him are all things.”
- MIRROR: Note: the frequency of the imagery of mirrors ...
- We have seen references in Augustine’s Confessions to 1 Corinthians 13:12: through a glass/mirror darkly—the idea that our current divine knowledge is limited, but one day—at union—we will see clearly … and more explicitly in Al-Ghazzali: Pt.I, Sec.8: “The heart is like a bright mirror; repugnant traits are like smoke and darkness which, when they touch it, darken it so that tomorrow one will not see the Divine Presence and it will become veiled …” (18).
- We have seen references in Augustine’s Confessions to 1 Corinthians 13:12: through a glass/mirror darkly—the idea that our current divine knowledge is limited, but one day—at union—we will see clearly … and more explicitly in Al-Ghazzali: Pt.I, Sec.8: “The heart is like a bright mirror; repugnant traits are like smoke and darkness which, when they touch it, darken it so that tomorrow one will not see the Divine Presence and it will become veiled …” (18).
- Here, Gabriol compares creation further to a word a person pronounces—form and meaning impressed on ear and intellect. Sound is like universal matter that sustains all particulars (particular sounds), whereas the manifest form (the word said) is like the form of the word that is heard … Creation is like speech—the articulation sustains the manifest and invisible (meaning), so that both forms exist together.
The pupil wants to press forward, though Gabirol cautions that form and matter theory do not account for everything, and urges him patience. One must seek to grasp their essences. This grasping will purify the soul … NOTE: understanding, seeking knowledge, is a spiritual exercise.
What is above all this? The pupil asks. The purpose—Gabriol responds … “the knowledge of the world of the Divinity, which is the maximum totality” (199). Such is achieved in two ways: “The first is through the knowledge of the will in so far as it flows into all matter and form. The second is through the knowledge of the will in so far as it encompasses matter and form, which is the most exalte power, and which is not commingled with anything material or formal” (199). From this pursuit, one will escape death and be joined with the source of life.
To aid the achievement, separate oneself from the sensible things, immerse the mind in intelligibles, attach oneself to the One, who bestows the good.
When this is done: “He will gaze upon you, and He will be generous with you, as befits him” (200).
Most famous poem, below, said to be a double of Fountain of Life
Solomon Ibn Gabirol's “Royal Crown”
an excerpt translated by Israel Abrahams, Chapters on Jewish Literature, 1889:
My God, I know that those who plead
To you for grace and mercy need
All their good works should go before,
And wait for them at heaven's high door.
But I have no good deeds to bring,
No righteousness for offering,
No service for my Lord and King.
Yet do not hide your face from me,
Nor cast me out far from you;
But when you command my life to cease,
O, may you lead me forth in peace
To the world to come, to dwell
Among your pious ones, who tell
Your inexhaustible glories.
There let my portion be with those
Who arose in eternal life;
There to purify my heart right,
In your light to see the light.
Raise me from the deepest depths to share
Heaven's endless joys of praise and prayer,
That I may evermore declare:
Though you were angered, Lord, I will give thanks to you,
For now your wrath is past, and you do comfort me.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol's “Royal Crown”
an excerpt translated by Israel Abrahams, Chapters on Jewish Literature, 1889:
My God, I know that those who plead
To you for grace and mercy need
All their good works should go before,
And wait for them at heaven's high door.
But I have no good deeds to bring,
No righteousness for offering,
No service for my Lord and King.
Yet do not hide your face from me,
Nor cast me out far from you;
But when you command my life to cease,
O, may you lead me forth in peace
To the world to come, to dwell
Among your pious ones, who tell
Your inexhaustible glories.
There let my portion be with those
Who arose in eternal life;
There to purify my heart right,
In your light to see the light.
Raise me from the deepest depths to share
Heaven's endless joys of praise and prayer,
That I may evermore declare:
Though you were angered, Lord, I will give thanks to you,
For now your wrath is past, and you do comfort me.