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Rabbi Joseph ben Jacob ibn Tzaddik (?-1149) was a Spanish rabbi, poet, and philosopher. A Talmudist of high repute, he was appointed in 1138 dayyan at Cordova, which office he held conjointly with Maimon, father of Maimonides, until his death. Joseph was also a highly gifted poet, as is attested by Alharizi.〔Saul Isaac Kämpf, ''Nichtandalusische Poesie'', i. 13.〕 Several of Joseph's religious poems are found in the Sephardic and African machzorim; and a poem addressed to Judah ha-Levi, on his visit to Cordova en route to Palestine, is included in the latter's diwan. == Microcosmus == Joseph's reputation rests, however, not on his rabbinical knowledge or his poetical abilities, but on his activity in the field of religious philosophy. In a short treatise written in Arabic (the title being probably ''Al-'Alam al-Saghir'') and, according to Moritz Steinschneider, translated by Nahum ha-Ma'arabi into Hebrew under the title ''Olam Katan'', he expounds his views on the most important problems of theology. Though not an original thinker (at every point of his system he borrows very largely from Solomon Ibn Gabirol's ''Fons Vitæ''), he shows himself to be thoroughly familiar with the philosophical and scientific literature of the Arabs, and imposes the stamp of his own individuality on the subjects treated. The ''Olam Katan'' comprises four main divisions, subdivided into sections. After stating the elementary and primary principles of the knowledge of God, the acquisition of which is the highest duty of man, and explaining how the human soul builds up its conception of things, Joseph treats, in the manner of the Arabic Aristotelians, of matter and form, of substance and accident, and of the composition of the various parts of the world. He concludes the first division with the central idea from which the book is evolved, namely, the comparison between the outer world (macrocosm) and man (microcosm), already hinted at by Plato ("Timæus," 47b), and greatly developed by the Arabian encyclopedists known as "the Brethren of Sincerity," by whom Joseph was greatly influenced. Conceptions of the higher verities are to be attained by man through the study of himself, who sums up in his own being the outer world. Joseph therefore devotes the second division of his work to the study of physical and psychological man. There is nothing in the world, he holds, that does not find a parallel in man. In him are found the four elements and their characteristics; for he passes from heat to cold, from moisture to dryness. He participates in the nature of minerals, vegetables, and animals: he comes into being and passes out of being like the minerals; nourishes and reproduces himself like the plants; has feeling and life like the animals. Further, he presents analogies to the characteristics of things: his erect figure resembles that of the terebinth; his hair, grass and vegetation; his veins and arteries, rivers and canals; and his bones, the mountains. Indeed, he possesses the characteristics of the animals: he is brave like a lion, timid like a hare, patient like a lamb, and cunning like a fox. From the physical, Joseph passes on to deal with the psychical man. Man, he says, is made up of three souls, vegetative, animal, and rational. Of these the rational soul is the highest in quality: it is of a spiritual substance; and its accidents are equally spiritual, as, for instance, conception, justice, benevolence, etc. Imbecility, injustice, malice, etc., are not accidents, but are negations of the accidents of conception, justice, and benevolence. Thus from the knowledge of his physical being man derives his conception of the material world; from that of his soul he acquires his conception of the spiritual world; and both of them lead to the cognizance of the Creator. Maimonides in ''Guide to the Perplexed'' (I:72) also notes the man-as-microcosm theme, but limits this analogy to one of rulership: Just as man without the rule of his rational faculties would perish, so to the world without its Ruler would perish. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph ibn Tzaddik」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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