Thammasat University students who are interested in philosophy, ethics, ethnography, folklore, literature, Jewish history, and related subjects may find a newly available book useful.

The Book of the Orchard is an Open Access book, available for free download at this link:

https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58147

The author is Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi, a Provençal Jewish poet, physician, and philosopher. People from southeastern France or Provence, are described as Provençal.

The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of Provençal life and culture.

Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi was born in the 1200s, almost one thousand years ago, in Béziers in Southern France.

Bedersi was a very creative student who started publishing at age fifteen. At age seventeen he produced an ethical work, The Book of the Orchard. In it, he discussed:

• being isolated from the world, and how the world is changeable;
• worship of, and devotion to, God;
• learning, and sciences that should be studied after religion has been investigated;
• law and how judges behave;
• grammar;
• false arguments intended to deceive;
• astronomy;
• rhetoric and poetry.

At age eighteen, he published a work in defense of women, titled The Rustling of Wings.

Dr. David Torollo, Lecturer at the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, has prepared a new critical edition with English translation of The Book of the Orchard.

The book gathers wise epigrams and parables that teach moral lessons on different topics, such as the service of God, friendship, the deceitfulness of the world, medicine, logic, music, magic, and poetry. It is also a collection of sayings that express the author’s personal views and feelings about different religious topics and secular sciences.

Dr. Torollo observes about the book:

From the information in the prologue, we may infer that the work was written when [Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi] was quite young, and the concluding paragraph of the work suggests that the author was 17 years old, making the probable date of composition around 1290. In what is a common topos in the introductions to wisdom works in Iberia and Provence, a friend asks the author to undertake the project. Jedaiah acknowledges that it is a difficult commission, since this friend wants a brief work on ethics, and says that he will try to offer new content, without copying what he has read in ancient books. He then explains the method for writing the work: that the language be beautiful, so the epigrams will be enjoyable; that the sayings be short and concise, so they will be easy to memorise; and that the content be clear, so it will be comprehensible for those who listen to it. He goes on to explain why he has given the compilation the title [The Book of the Orchard]…through his composition, he wants to demonstrate that even a small orchard— i.e., his short book—can enclose wonderful trees, i.e., great knowledge.

The book begins:

It happened in the days of youth, when my friends and I were having a good time reciting sayings on moral attributes… that one of my close and beloved friends urged me to compose for him a short treatise on moral themes: something that would suffice any human being in order to behave properly with his fellow men and with himself. He forced me to undertake his request, so I wrote him a treatise that I titled ‘The Book of the Orchard’, and here I begin it. My friend, you requested from me a [written] memorial of universal principles on human moral attributes regarding the suitable way for a man to put them into practice in dealings with himself, his time, and his neighbours, and you asked me to make this memorial pleasant and general. But though your wish compelled me, I realised that if I quoted everything [said by] the ancients in the myriad books that they have composed, I would not only fail to help you, but would certainly harm you, for their books and their style are worthier of you than my own book and style; and in transmitting their words it is impossible not to [sometimes] miss their intention. Despite this, I found my soul committed to undertake your request due to your eminence, but it is impossible to do this without providing new ideas and opinions that are not found among the ancients, and this is something that is very hard to produce. These things cannot be produced and perfected unless three conditions [are met]: The first condition: the elegance of the language that will be used in expressing the content. The need underlying this condition is that the moral content must be sweet and enjoyable, so people continue learning it excellently and diligently. The second condition: universality and conciseness of language on the most desired characteristics of [proper] behaviour. This condition is necessary because it will facilitate the preservation of sayings and expedite their memorisation, until people’s mouths are familiar with them and harvest them for the great value that they contain. The third condition: that the author… ought to be clear in his formulations while keeping them general, so the content is understood by listeners through a willing understanding without the need for extreme seclusion or discussion among people, lest they get it wrong. The need underlying this condition is that [in this way] people will adopt the proper behaviour, increasing their learning through the sayings, and [avoiding] the harm of incorrect understanding. As long as [these conditions] are met, the difficulty in providing this content will be overcome. Therefore, after your pleas implored and pressed me to work diligently in the execution of your request, I composed for you a few things and named the compilation ‘The Book of the Orchard’. The reason for such a title is that an orchard is smaller than a garden, and its owner uses it just for taking a walk, without profiting from it or its seedlings.

Among the author’s other observations:

• Those killed by foolishness are more numerous than those revived by intelligence.
• Make yourself generous, lavish, and stingy: your generosity for the worthy poor, your stinginess for the worthless fools, and your lavishness [for yourself] to be rescued and protected from serious harm.
• This world is fraud and deception; the wise man knows it and flees from it, while the naïve one wrestles with its sweetness and fails.
• A pious man was asked: what is the thing that has prevented you from having enemies? He said: forgiveness.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)