Publisher's Synopsis
Chovot HaLevavot or The Duties of the Hearts, is the primary work of the Jewish scholar Bahya ibn Paquda, a rabbi to have lived in the Taifa of Zaragoza in al-Andalus in the eleventh century. It was written in Judeo-Arabic in the Hebrew alphabet circa 1080 under the title Book of Direction to the Duties of the Heart, sometimes titled Guide to the Duties of the Heart, and translated into Hebrew by Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon in 1161-80 under the title Torat Chovot HaLevavot. There was another contemporary translation by Joseph Kimhi, but its complete text did not endure time.
The Duties of the Heart is divided into ten sections termed - Gates corresponding to the ten fundamental principles which, according to Bahya's view, constitute human spiritual life. This treatise on the inner spiritual life makes numerous references to both Biblical and Talmudic texts.
This book is the most important moral book in the Torah of Israel.
