Bahya Ben Asher - Other Works

Other Works

His next most famous work was his Kad ha-Kemah ("Receptacle of the Flour") (Constantinople, 1515.) It consists of sixty chapters, alphabetically arranged, containing discourses and dissertations on the requirements of religion and morality, as well as Jewish ritual practices. Kad ha-Kemah is a work of Musar literature, the purpose of which is to promote a moral life. In it Bahye discusses the following subjects: belief and faith in God; the divine attributes and the nature of providence; the duty of loving God, and of walking before God in simplicity and humility of heart; the fear of God; Jewish prayer; benevolence, and the love of mankind; peace; the administration of justice, and the sacredness of the oath; the duty of respecting the property and honor of one's fellow man; the Jewish holidays, and halakha (loosely translated as "Jewish law".)

Another work of Bahye, also published frequently, and in the first Mantua edition of 1514 erroneously ascribed to Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, Nahmanides, bears the title of Shulkhan Arba ("Table Four"). It consists of four chapters, the first three of which contain religious rules of conduct regarding the various meals, while the fourth chapter treats of the banquet of the righteous in the world to come.

A work might have been written by Rabbi Bahye under the title of Hoshen ha-Mishpat ("Breastplate of Judgment".) Reference to this work is made only once by him, and it is unknown if this work was actually written or not.