Let’s begin our discussion of Saadia philosophy by discussing the opening paragraph on pages 94-95 of your reading. According to Saadia, the divinely revealed law (the Torah) constitutes the essence of Judaism. He writes: “I declare that our Lord (be He exalted and glorified) has informed us through the words of His prophets that He wishes us to lead a religious life by following the religion which He instituted for us. This religion contains laws, which He has prescribed for us, and which it is our duty to keep and to fulfill in sincerity.” The Torah is revealed through God’s “messengers.” They are biblical prophets, but also, implicitly, rabbis, who saw themselves as successors of biblical prophets. Judaism, according to Saadia, is centered on the sincere following of the revealed law, as communicated by God’s messengers.

Saadia concludes the paragraph by addressing the relationship between the revealed Torah and human reason: “His messengers established these laws for us by wondrous signs and miracles, and we commenced to keep and fulfill them forthwith. Later we found that speculation confirms the necessity of the Law for us. It would, however, not have been appropriate to leave us to our own devices.” According to Saadia, reason proves that the Torah is necessary, but it is too weak to arrive at the Torah on its own. Hence, you cannot rely on human reason alone to guide you to the truth. You need revelation. Once, human reason receives laws through the revelation from God and prophets, it affirms their necessity. In Saadia’s view, human reason and God’s revelation are fully compatible. Reason conflicts with the Scripture only when the reason is faulty, when it is a pseudo-reason. In their relationship, however, reason plays the role of a junior partner by following the lead of revelation.

Saadia then proceeds to distinguish between the two classes of laws in the Torah. He divides all the commandments of the Torah into two categories: rational laws and laws that require revelation. He describes the first category on page 97 of your reading: “In regard to all the things which He commands us to do, He has implanted approval of them in our Reason; and in regard to all things which He forbids us to do, He has implanted disapproval of them in our Reason.” Saadia then lists the laws that belong to this category. They include gratitude to God; the prohibition of blasphemy; social justice; the demand to love thy neighbor; the prohibition of murder, theft, adultery, rape, and lying. In a way that Saadia describes them, these laws operate similar to the laws of physics, such as, for example, the law of gravity: they are universal, in a sense that they apply in every place; eternal, in a sense that they apply at any time; and they are known by unaided human reason, in a sense that you do not need special revelation to arrive at these laws, because these laws are part of our natural programming as human beings. Everyone knows that stealing, murdering, or committing adultery is bad. These commandments should appear in every single law code in the world. Rational laws are laws of nature or “natural law.”

The second category of laws includes laws that require special revelation: “The Second Class of Law concerns such matters as are of a neutral character from the point of view of Reason, but which the Law has made the objects of commandment in some cases, and of prohibition in others, leaving the rest in their neutral state” (p. 100). These laws include laws of the Sabbath and other religious festivals, the dietary laws, and various laws regulating sexual intercourse. These laws are not required by reason alone. They are not like the laws of physics, which apply in every place and at every time. They are “neutral” from the point of view of Reason. We know about these laws only because they have been revealed to us by God. They should be followed because they are commanded by God, although Saadia then proceeds to prove that these laws have “some minor and partial motives of a useful character.” The second category of laws is unique to the Torah and Jewish law.

Saadia’s distinction is all-inclusive. There are only two possibilities: the law is rational or it requires special revelation. At the end, however, Saadia goes back to the first category of rational laws to argue that they also need revelation. On p. 103 of your reading Saadia notes: “Then I reflected still more deeply and found that mankind is fundamentally in need of the prophets, not solely on account of the revelational laws, which had to be announced, but also on account of the rational laws, because their practice cannot be complete unless the prophets show us how to perform them. Thus, for instance, Reason commands gratitude towards God for the blessings received from Him, but does not specify the form, time, and posture appropriate to the expression of such gratitude. So we are in need of prophets. They gave it a form which is called ‘Prayer’; they fixed its times, its special formulae, its special modes and the special direction which one is to face when praying.” In other words, Saadia considers the rational laws concerning religion and morality to be general principles, whose concrete content is unclear. Their practice cannot be complete unless prophets show us how to perform them. For example, there is a rational law to show gratitude to God, but we don’t know how to do this until a prophet teaches the commandment and establishes rules of prayer. Whereas the natural law provides us with general principles, according to which we should live our lives, the revelation supplies specific guidelines to implement these principles on practice.

In his work, Saadia affirms harmonious existence between the Torah and the human reason. He views the human reason as being in need of guidance on account of both revealed and natural laws. The Torah, revealed by God through prophets and, by implication, through their successors, rabbis, provides such guidance.

REL 107: Judaism in History I Saadia Gaon

“I declare that our Lord (be He exalted and glorified) has informed us through the words of His prophets that He wishes us to lead a religious life by following the religion which He instituted for us. This religion contains laws, which He has prescribed for us, and which it is our duty to keep and to fulfill in sincerity.”

“His messengers established these laws for us by wondrous signs and miracles, and we commenced to keep and fulfill them forthwith. Later we found that speculation confirms the necessity of the Law for us. It would, however, not have been appropriate to leave us to our own devices.”

“Rational Laws” “In regard to all the things which He commands us to do, He has implanted approval of them in our Reason; and in regard to all things which He forbids us to do, He has implanted disapproval of them in our Reason.”

“Laws that Require Revelation” “The Second Class of Law concerns such matters as are of a neutral character from the point of view of Reason, but which the Law has made the objects of commandment in some cases, and of prohibition in others, leaving the rest in their neutral state.”

“Then I reflected still more deeply and found that mankind is fundamentally in need of the prophets, not solely on account of the revela-tional laws, which had to be announced, but also on account of the rational laws, because their practice cannot be complete unless the prophets show us how to perform them. Thus, for instance, Reason commands gratitude towards God for the blessings received from Him, but does not specify the form, time, and posture appropriate to the expression of such gratitude. So we are in need of prophets. They gave it a form which is called ‘Prayer’; they fixed its times, its special formulae, its special modes and the special direction which one is to face when praying.”

سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي The name of Saadia Gaon shown in Arabic.