Editing Saadia Gaon (section)

==Works==

===Exegesis===
Saadia translated the Humash and some of the other books of the Hebrew Bible into Judeo-Arabic, adding a Judeo-Arabic commentary.
* Torah
* Isaiah<ref>Translated into Hebrew by Professor Yehuda Ratzaby (http://www.virtualgeula.com/moshe/catd1.jpg, [http://www.chayas.com/pirsum1.doc Machon MosHe 2003 Catalog List], http://hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il/al_haakademya/haverim/haverimbeavar/Pages/yehudaratsabi.aspx {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140831092653/http://hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il/al_haakademya/haverim/haverimbeavar/Pages/yehudaratsabi.aspx |date=2014-08-31 }}).</ref>
* Megillot<ref>Hebrew translation along with original Judeo-Arabic by Rabbi [[Yosef Qafih|Yosef Kafih]] (available online at https://www.hebrewbooks.org/39855 but missing pages רמד-רמה [pages ק-קא were scanned twice]).</ref>
* Tehillim (Judeo-Arabic translation and commentary, which he called ''Kitāb al-tasbiḥ'' [= "the Book of Praise"])<ref>Hebrew translation along with original Judeo-Arabic by Rabbi [[Yosef Qafih|Yosef Kafih]] (https://www.otzar.org/wotzar/book.aspx?8066&lang=eng [first 40 pages viewable for free]).</ref>
* Iyyov (Book of Job)<ref>Hebrew translation along with the original Judeo-Arabic by Rabbi [[Yosef Qafih|Yosef Kafih]] (https://www.otzar.org/wotzar/book.aspx?24835&lang=eng [first 40 pages viewable for free]).</ref> (translated to English by Dr. Goodman),<ref>Published in the Yale Judaica Series as [https://books.google.com/books?id=CTQfVJoZ4zcC The Book of Theodicy] (1988). Goodman writes that his edition "would have been impossible without the careful Arabic edition of Saadiah's translation and commentary that we owe to the indefatigable industry of Ḳāfiḥ, whose notes and glosses are frequently acknowledged in my own" ([https://books.google.com/books?id=CTQfVJoZ4zcC&q=Kafih p. xiv]).</ref> and Mishlei<ref>Hebrew translation along with the original Judeo-Arabic by Rabbi [[Yosef Qafih|Yosef Kafih]] (https://www.otzar.org/wotzar/book.aspx?149875&lang=eng [first 40 pages viewable for free]).</ref>
* Daniel<ref>Hebrew translation along with the original Judeo-Arabic by Rabbi [[Yosef Qafih|Yosef Kafih]] (https://www.otzar.org/wotzar/book.aspx?7871&lang=eng [first 40 pages viewable for free]).</ref>
Saadia translated [[Megillat Antiochus]] into Judeo-Arabic and wrote an introduction.<ref>Extant portion of introduction published with English translation by S. Atlas and M. Perlmann in [https://www.jstor.org/stable/i285737 Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 14 (1944)]: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3622105 Saadia on the Scroll of the Hasmonaeans]. Hebrew translation thereof as well as Saadya Gaon's Judeo-Arabic translation by Rabbi [[Yosef Qafih|Yosef Kafih]], appended to Kafih's edition of Daniel.</ref>

===Hebrew linguistics===
# ''[[Agron (dictionary)|Agron]]''
# ''[[Kutub al-Lughah]]'', also known as ''Kitāb faṣīḥ lughat al-‘ibrāniyyīn'', “The Book of Eloquent Language of the Hebrews”<ref>Aron Dotan, ''Or Rišon Beḥokhmat ha-Lašon'', Jerusalem 1997.</ref>
# "Tafsir al-Sab'ina Lafẓah", a list of seventy (properly ninety) Hebrew (and Aramaic) words which occur in the [[Hebrew Bible]] only once or very rarely, and which may be explained from traditional literature, especially from the Neo-[[Hebraism]]s of the [[Mishnah]]. This small work has been frequently reprinted.

===Halakhic writings===
# Short monographs in which problems of Jewish law are systematically presented. Of these Arabic treatises, little but the titles and extracts is known, and it is only in the "Kitab al-Mawarith" that fragments of any length have survived.
# A commentary on the thirteen rules of [[Rabbi Ishmael]], preserved only in a Hebrew translation by [[Nahum Ma'arabi]]. An Arabic methodology of the Talmud is also mentioned, by [[Chaim Joseph David Azulai|Azulai]], as a work of Saadia under the title "Kelale ha-Talmud".
#[[Responsa]]. With few exceptions these exist only in Hebrew, some of them having been probably written in that language.
# The [[Siddur of Saadia Gaon]] (''Kitāb jāmiʿ al-ṣalawāt wal-tasābīḥ''), containing the texts of the prayers, commentary in Arabic and original synagogal poetry. Of this synagogal poetry the most noteworthy portions are the "Azharot" on the 613 commandments, which give the author's name as "Sa'id b. Joseph", followed by the title "Alluf", thus showing that the poems were written before he became gaon.

===Philosophy of religion===
# [[Emunoth ve-Deoth]] (''Kitāb al-amānāt wa-al-iʿatiqādāt''), the ''Book of Beliefs and Opinions'':<ref>This (כתאב אלאמאנאת ואלאעתקאדאת [Judeo-Arabic]) was the name of Saadia's first edition, later emended by Saadia to אלמכ'תאר פי אלאמאנאת ואלאעתקאדאת (Hebrew: הנבחר באמונות ובדעות) as described by [[Yosef Qafih|Kafih]] on pages 8-9 of his edition (https://www.otzar.org/wotzar/book.aspx?12163&lang=eng).</ref> This work, first compiled in 933 CE, of which several revisions were made until its final redaction,<ref>{{cite book|last=Saadia Gaon|author-link=Saadia Gaon|translator=Yosef Qafih|title=Book of Beliefs & Opinions (Sefer ha-Nivḥar ba-emunot uva-deʻot) |publisher=Mekhkon Mishnat ha-Rambam|year=2011|location=Kiryat Ono|page=6 (Introduction)|language=he|oclc=989874916}}</ref> is considered to be the first systematic attempt to synthesize the Jewish tradition with philosophical teachings. Prior to Saadia, the only other Jew to attempt any such fusion was [[Philo]] {{Harv|Ivry|1989}}. Saadia's objective here was to show the parallelism between the truths delivered to the people of Israel by Divine revelation, on the one side, and the necessary conclusions that can also be reached by way of rational observation, on the other. The effect of these ideas expressed in his philosophical books are clearly reflected in Saadia's story of creation, especially when he comes to deal with the theological problems, such as in the verse of Deuteronomy 4:24: “For the LORD your God is a devouring fire,” which constitutes an example of a verse that cannot be understood in its plain context, but should rather be understood in such a way as not to contradict one's definite knowledge that God does not change, nor can anything corporeal be associated with him.<ref>Ayelet Cohen, ''Linguistic Comments in Saadia's Biblical Commentary'' (Abstract), Haifa University 2017</ref> 
# ''Tafsīr Kitāb al-Mabādī'',<ref>Saadia Gaon's version of the text itself along with his Judeo-Arabic commentary with facing Hebrew translation by Rabbi [[Yosef Qafih|Yosef Kafih]] (https://www.otzar.org/wotzar/book.aspx?23506&lang=eng [first 40 pages viewable for free]).</ref> an Arabic translation of and commentary on the [[Sefer Yetzirah]], written while its author was still residing in Egypt (or Israel), and intended to explain in a scientific manner how the universe came into existence.<ref>''Sefer Yetzirah Hashalem'' (with Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Commentary), [[Yosef Qafih]] (editor), Jerusalem 1972, p. 46 (Hebrew / Judeo-Arabic)</ref> On the linguistic aspect, Saadia combines a debate on the letters and on their attributes (e.g. phonemes), as well as a debate on related linguistic matters.

===Polemical writings===
# Refutations of Karaite authors, always designated by the name "Kitab al-Radd", or "Book of Refutation". These three works are known only from scanty references to them in other works; that the third was written after 933 is proved by one of the citations.
# "Kitab al-Tamyiz" (in Hebrew, "Sefer ha-Hakkarah"), or "Book of Distinction", composed in 926, and Saadia's most extensive polemical work. It was still cited in the twelfth century; and a number of passages from it are given in a Biblical commentary of [[Japheth ha-Levi]].
# There was perhaps a special polemic of Saadia against Ben Zuta, though the data regarding this controversy between is known only from the gaon's gloss on the Torah.
# A refutation directed against the rationalistic Biblical critic [[Hiwi al-Balkhi]], whose views were rejected by the Karaites themselves;
# "Kitab al-Shara'i{{'"}}, or "Book of the Commandments of Religion".
# "Kitab al-'Ibbur", or "Book of the Calendar", likewise apparently containing polemics against Karaite Jews;
# "Sefer ha-Mo'adim", or "Book of Festivals", the Hebrew polemic against Ben Meir which has been mentioned above.
# "Sefer ha-Galui", also composed in Hebrew and in the same flowery biblical style as the "Sefer ha-Mo'adim", being an autobiographical and apologetic work directed against the Exilarch (''rosh galuth''), David b. Zakkai, and his chief patron, Aharon ibn Sargado, in which he proved his own uprightness and equity in the matter of controversy between them.