Baḥyā ben Joseph ibn Paqūda, the Jewish Neoplatonist, was the author of the first systematic philosophic work on ethics in the Jewish tradition. Beyond the fact that he served as a judge (dayyan) of the rabbinical court in Saragossa, details of his life are unknown. About 1040 he wrote in Arabic Al-Hidaja ila Faraid al-Qulub (Guide to the duties of the heart). This work, as translated into Hebrew about 1160 by Judah ibn Tibbon, under the title Hoboth Ha-Lebaboth (Duties of the Heart), has achieved great popularity, both in full text and in abridged versions.

Baḥyā's work cites Arabic as well as Jewish philosophers and contains many fine quotations from Arabic literature. There are considerable similarities between his...