Emunoth Ve-Deoth - Premise and Introduction

Premise and Introduction

The work was mainly written as a defence of Rabbinic Judaism against the views of the Karaites, who rejected the oral law (Mishna and Talmud).

In his detailed introduction, Saadia speaks of the reasons that led him to compose it. His heart was grieved when he saw the confusion concerning matters of religion that prevailed among his contemporaries, finding an unintelligent belief and unenlightened views current among those who professed Judaism, while those who denied the faith triumphantly vaunted their errors. Men were sunken in the sea of doubt and overwhelmed by the waves of spiritual error, and there was none to help them; so that Saadia felt himself called and duty bound to save them from their peril by strengthening the faithful in their belief and by removing the fears of those who were in doubt.

After a general presentation of the causes of infidelity and the essence of belief, Saadia describes the three natural sources of knowledge: namely, the perceptions of the senses, the light of reason, and logical necessity, as well as the fourth source of knowledge possessed by those that fear God, the "veritable revelation" contained in the Scriptures. He shows that a belief in the teachings of revelation does not exclude an independent search for knowledge, but that speculation on religious subjects rather endeavors to prove the truth of the teachings received from the Prophets and to refute attacks upon revealed doctrine, which must be raised by philosophic investigation to the plane of actual knowledge.