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BASIC PRINCIPLES
BASIC P R I N C I P L E S
‫עקרים‬
‫עסרים‬
•IT•
(Book of Roots), by Rabbi Joseph Albo of fifteenth-century Spain, belongs to the last of the philosophical classics
of medieval Judaism. I t is counted among the famous works of Rav
Saadyah Gaon (Emunoth v'Deoth), Bahya ibn Pakuda (Hovoth ha-Levavoth), Yehudah Halevi (Kuzari), Abraham ibn Daud (Emunah Ramah), Moses Maimonides (Moreh Nevukhim), Ralbag (Milhamoth
ha-Shem), and Hasdai Crescas (Or Adonai). The Sefer ha-Ikkarim,
concerned mainly with Jewish dogma, is a vindication of Judaism
particularly directed against the onslaughts of those who used every
method of violence and persuasion to convert the Spanish Jews.
Hasdai Crescas, who was the teacher of Albo, reduced the thirteen
principles of faith, formulated by Maimonides, to six; Albo, however,
reduced them to three basic dogmas: Existence of God, Divine Revelation, and Retribution. To deny these three is heresy, according to
Albo, while doubting other beliefs, which he classifies as derivatives
(anafim), is not heretical. The derivative beliefs include the creation
of the world out of nothing (ex nihilo); the supreme rank of Moses'
prophecy; the resurrection of the dead; the Messiah. Albo maintains
that the three basic dogmas can never be changed, because they are
implied in the first two commandments spoken by God himself. The
rest of the commands may be changed as a temporary measure.
Rabbi Joseph Albo (1380-1444) systematized the fundamentals of
the Jewish religion and influenced the study of Jewish dogmatism of
the later generations. The necessity to establish religious dogmas resuited primarily from challenges to Judaism from the outside. Against
the attitude of those of formulated Jewish dogmas, Rabbi Isaac
Abravanel (1437-1508), statesman and religious philosopher, maintained that there was no need for making distinctions between sets
of Jewish doctrines, declaring that " i t is improper to lay down basic
principles, since we should believe everything in the Torah."
According to Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), leader of
Jewish orthodoxy, Judaism embraces six hundred and thirteen precepts, but knows no dogmas (Nineteen Letters). Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), many-sided Italian-Jewish scholar, wrote: "The
principal dogma of Judaism is the belief in the divine origin of the
Torah (Torah min ha-shamayim) and the acceptance of the yoke of
the mitzvoth" (Penini Shadal).
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