Sefer

Mivchar HaPeninim

A choice of pearls

Rabbi Solomon Ibn Gabirel

This great Hebrew poet and philosopher was born in Malaga, Spain, about the year 4782, [1021], and died in Valencia, Spain, at the age of 36 or 37.

Despite his very short life, Rabbi Solomon ibn Gabirel won great fame during his own lifetime, and even more so after his death when his writings became more widely known.

His father Yehuda, was a native of the famous city of Cordova which was at the time under Arab domination. About ten years before Solomon’s birth, when war broke out in that part of the Spanish peninsula, his father moved to Saragossa, also under Arab domination. Later they moved to Malaga, where Rabbi Solomon was born.

Losing his parents at an early age, Rabbi Solomon nevertheless continued his studies of the Talmud, in which he found his only solace. The young Rabbi Solomon was an ardent scholar and became very proficient in the Hebrew as well as Arabic languages and grammar. He also studied astronomy, geometry, and philosophy.

At the age of only 23, Rabbi Solomon Ibn Gabirel wrote his book – Tikkun Middoth Hanefesh, [Improvement of the Qualities of the Soul].

About the same time, he also wrote – Mivchar Hapeninim, [Choice of Pearls].

Both Books were written in Arabic and subsequently translated into Hebrew by Rabbi Yehuda ibn Tibbon. In these books, Rabbi Solomon Ibn Gabirel presents a collection of moral sayings and maxims from Jewish as well as non-Jewish sources.

The manner of Rabbi Solomon ibn Gabirel’s death is shrouded in mystery. Legend has it that he was trampled to death by an Arab horseman, much in the same way that Rabbi Yehuda Halevi lost his life.

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