Jedaiah Ben Abraham Bedersi - Sefer Ha-Pardes

Sefer Ha-Pardes

Bedersi's Talmudical knowledge must have been equally extensive; for, as may be seen in the introduction to his commentary on the Aggadah of the Talmud, he was but fifteen years old when he entered the Talmudical school of R. Meshullam. At the age of seventeen he produced his ethical work Sefer ha-Pardes (The Book of the Garden). This treatise, first published at Constantinople in 1515 (?) and reproduced by Joseph Luzzatto in Ozar ha-Ṣifrut, iii., is divided into eight chapters:

1. on isolation from the world, and the inconstancy of the latter
2. on divine worship and devotion
3. on instruction, and the sciences that men should acquire after having familiarized themselves with their religious obligations
4. on the laws and the conduct of the judge
5. on grammar
6. on sophism
7. on astronomy
8. on rhetoric and poetry