Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi (c. 1270 – c. 1340) () was a Jewish poet, physician, and philosopher; born at Béziers (hence his surname Bedersi). His Occitan name was En Bonet, which probably corresponds to the Hebrew name Tobiah; and, according to the practices of Hachmei Provence, he occasionally joined to his name that of his father, Abraham Bedersi.
In his poems he assumed the appellation "Penini" (, "Dispenser of Pearls"), and because of this appellation the ethical work Mibḥar haPeninim of Solomon ibn Gabirol has been erroneously ascribed to Bedersi.
Early life
Bedersi was a precocious child. He was scarcely fifteen years old when he published his work Baḳḳashat ha-Memin (The Mem Prayer), a hymn of 1000 words, each of which begins with the letter mem (translated into Latin and German). Bedersi's father, very much pleased with those evidences of his child's precocity, expressed his approbation in a short poem which in many editions is given at the end of the hymn. The work contains only mere quibbles on Biblical passages, and is often very obscure; but, considering the age of the author, the facility with which he handles the Hebrew vocabulary is astonishing.
Sefer ha-Pardes
Bedersi's Talmudical knowledge must have been equally extensive; for, as may be seen in the introduction to his commentary on the Aggadah of the Talmud, he was but fifteen years old when he entered the Talmudical school of R. Meshullam. At the age of seventeen he produced his ethical work Sefer ha-Pardes (The Book of the Garden). This treatise, first published at Constantinople in 1515 (?) and reproduced by Joseph Luzzatto in Ozar ha-Ṣifrut, iii., is divided into eight chapters: on isolation from the world, and the inconstancy of the latter on divine worship and devotion on instruction, and the sciences that men should acquire after having familiarized themselves with their religious obligations on the laws and the conduct of the judge on grammar on sophism on astronomy on rhetoric and poetry.
Oheb Nashim
At eighteen he published a work in defense of women, entitled Ẓilẓal Kenafayim (The Rustling of Wings) or Oheb Nashim (The Women-Lover). In the short introduction to this treatise, Bedersi says that he wrote it against Judah ibn Shabbethai's Sone ha-Nashim (The Woman-Hater). The young poet dedicated this composition to his two friends, Meïr and Judah, sons of Don Solomon Dels-Enfanz of Arles. It was written in rhymed prose, and has been edited by Neubauer in the Zunz Jubelschrift, 1884.
Other works
These poetical productions of Bedersi's youth were followed by a number of works of a more serious character, among which were: A philosophical commentary on the Aggadah of diverse parts of the Midrashim such as Midrash Rabba, Tanhuma, Sifre, Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer, and Midrash Tehillim (copies of this commentary are still extant in manuscript in several European libraries). Iggeret Hitnaẓẓelut ("Apologetical Letter"), addressed to Shlomo ibn Aderet, who, at the instigation of Abba Mari, had pronounced an anathema against the works and partisans of Maimonides and against science in general. Bedersi, after having expressed his respect for the upright and learned rabbi of Barcelona, remarked that he and his friends were not indignant about the ban, because science was invulnerable. Their grievance was that Ben Adret should have branded the Jewish congregations of southern France as heretics. From time immemorial, science had been fostered by Jewish scholars on account of its importance for religion. This was true in greatest measure of Maimonides, who studied philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine by the aid of the Greek writers; in theology, however, he was guided by tradition, submitting even in this to the investigations of philosophy. He, Bedersi, therefore, entreats Solomon ben Adret to withdraw the excommunication for the sake of Maimonides—whose works would be studied in spite of all excommunication—for his own (Ben Adret's) sake, and for the good name of Provençal Jewish learning. The Iggeret Hitnaẓẓelut has been incorporated with Solomon ben Adret's Responsa, § 418. Beḥinat ha'Olam ("The Examination of the World")
Behinat ha-'Olam
Beḥinat ha-'Olam (The Examination of the World), called also by its first words, "Shamayim la-Rom" (Heaven's Height), a didactic poem written after the 1306 expulsion of Jews from France, to which event reference is made in the eleventh chapter (compare Renan-Neubauer, Les Ecrivains Juifs Français, p. 37). This poem is divided into 37 short chapters, and may be summarized as follows:
Bedersi concludes his poem by expressing his admiration for Maimonides: