Three out of four Tuesday evenings a month we will study Duties of the Heart, a philosophical work by Rabbenu Bachya Ibn Paquda (11thcentury Spain).

The book can be accessed for free online at: sefaria.org/Duties_of_the_Heart%2C_Introduction_of_the_Author.1?lang=bi or a physical copy can be bought on Amazon by clicking here. 

The book’s Forward reads, “Rabbenu Bachya Ibn Paquda’s Duties of the Heart is a powerful work that can help you attain a more uplifted state of mind than the one you were in before the reading. It is a book about inwardness and about one’s conception of God. It is about reflection and gratitude, trust and sincerity, discipline and love. It is a book about the inner life.” In Jewish circles we carry a concept of God, yet we rarely have that “God talk.”

The opening sections of the book speak of God, creation, service, trust, and devotion. Then we enter into personal qualities such as humility, repentance, and self-accounting.