Bahya Ibn Pakuda was born c. 1050, and lived for some time in Saragossa in Spain. His major work was written in Arabic, but it is most well-known by its Hebrew title Hovot ha-Levavot (Duties of the Heart). It enjoyed enormous popularity and was reprinted many times. In the book Bahya investigates the motivation of Jewish practice and embarks on a philosophical enquiry into the nature of God, religion, and man. He was very much influenced by the Neoplatonism of his age, as well as by the Muslim mystics. This edition by Menahem Mansoor is the first translation of the work from the original Arabic text, and this shows a number of variations from the Hebrew version. He has added an Introduction and Notes which draw attention to the influences on Bahya's thought and to other relevant material. 'The accepted and normative translation . . . reliable and readable. This book belongs in even the smallest collections of Judaica, as well as of ethical literature.' Choice

With the appearance of this volume, an inductive study of the text of Genesis, Biblical Hebrew Step by Step becomes a complete introductory textbook.
Volume 2 includes twenty readings from Genesis and four review lessons. One supplement treats the seven verb patterns in Hebrew; others are a table of plurals of irregular nouns that appear in the readings, a table of irregular verbs, Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew vocabulary, and a key to "self-correcting exercises."

In addition to coverage of Hebrew grammatical structure, reading skills, comprehension, and vocabulary, the book contains special sections on the development of the Hebrew language and its relationship to other Semitic languages.