[Avodah] If I knew Him....

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jan 07, 2009 at 09:21:00PM -0500, Yitzhak Grossman wrote:
:> T613K at aol.com wrote:
:>> I have heard it as "Ilu yadativ, hayisiv" -- "if I knew Him, I would be 
:>> Him."  Is that correct, and where does it come from?
...
: R. Y. Albo attributes it to "the wise man", so it's apparently not from
: Rambam, or he'd know that and say so.

In <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedaiah_ben_Abraham_Bedersi>, the
wikipedia entry on Yedaiah haBedersi (R' Yedaiah ben Avraham from
Beziers), they mention Isaac Husic's (Gratz College, d. 1939; translated
the Ikkarim and author of "A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy")
position that haBedersi was the chakham in question.

HaBedersi, in turn, wrote 37 chapter poem "Bechinas haOlam", after the
expulsion from France. He finds a spiritual connection to their treatment
of the Rambam's work. He concludes had this description of the Rambam:

    Finally, turn neither to the left nor to the right from all that the
    wise men believed, the chief of whom was the distinguished master
    Maimonides, of blessed memory, with whom no one can be compared from
    among the wise men who have lived since the close of the Talmud;
    then I shall be sure that thou, enriched with all the knowledge of
    religion and philosophy, wilt fear the Lord thy God.

So, it's quite likely that while the Rambam wasn't the Ikkarim's
"the wise man", my guess that it flowed from the Rambam's basic
Yodei'ah-Yadu'ah-Dei'ah unity is probably valid.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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