Saadia's own preface.

He said: Since the praise of God — exalted is His glory — and gratitude to Him for the goodness He bestows are without limit (for the Power for which He is praised, and the Deeds for which He is thanked, have no bound), the most fitting praise is exaltation itself, and the noblest gratitude is to praise without restraint. To God, then, belongs all praise. Blessed is the Existent — whose existence is eternal; the One, in true unity; the Wise, in pure wisdom; the Powerful, with perfect power; the Beneficent, in complete beneficence; exalted above every glorification and every majesty.

Now then: when the Wise One purposed in this book to discipline rational beings and lead them toward His obedience — discipline being of three modes, some stronger than others — the first, and the weakest, is to say to the one being disciplined, 'Do this; do not do that' — without disclosing the consequence of what is commanded or forbidden. (It is enough that, by acting, he draws near to the one who commanded, and by transgressing, he distances himself from the one who forbade — through the act itself.)

The second, stronger than the first, is to reveal to the one commanded and forbidden — alongside the command and prohibition — the fruit of what he chooses by doing them. That is, it is said to him: 'Do this and you shall be recompensed thus; do not do that, lest you be punished thus.' This is stronger than the first, because by it he envisions what happiness or misery would befall him for each act he chooses.

The third, strongest of all, is — along with informing the commanded and forbidden of the fine recompense for obedience — to tell him the story of a people who fulfilled that obedience, and were therefore rewarded and made happy; and, along with informing him of the severe punishment for disobedience, to tell him the story of a people who committed that disobedience and were therefore punished and made wretched. This mode is stronger than the first two, because the experience and trial of those who came before become available to the hearer, and this comes to stand for him in place of direct witness.

So [God] saw fit to send down this book — whose aim is the betterment of His servants — gathering all three modes together, so that it might reach the utmost in perfection and the highest in legal precision. In it He commanded His servants in goodness, forbade them sin, promised them reward for the upright deeds they would perform, and threatened them for the sins; and He told them stories of peoples who came before them and prospered in the land by doing right, and of peoples who corrupted themselves and were destroyed — until no principle of admonition remained that His book did not encompass.

An example of all three modes from the Torah: the speech of the Mighty One — exalted is His glory — to Aaron, that he should not enter at all times into the Holy Place, as it is said, 'And let him not come at all times into the holy place' (Lev 16:2). Then He disclosed the consequence, saying 'lest he die' (Lev 16:2). And He reminded him of what befell his sons when they did the like, saying 'after the death of the two sons of Aaron' (Lev 16:1).

Another example: Solomon, warning against laziness in matters of religion and of this world, says 'Do not love sleep,' etc. (Prov 20:13). Then he makes clear that the fruit of laziness is the loss of every praiseworthy thing, in saying 'the desire of the slothful kills him' (Prov 21:25). And he tells the story of one who was slack in tending his estate, until thorns grew in it and even its fence collapsed — as he says, 'I passed by the field of the slothful man,' etc. (Prov 24:30).

By the right ordering of things, one would put the command first, then the consequence, then the story. But the giving of the Torah was not at the very beginning of time, for wisdom required that it be sent down at the moment when the people had reached their full number — the number at which, going forward, their like would remain. So the Magnificent One — blessed and exalted — saw fit to inform them of the great stories of those who had come before, so that they might imitate what He had praised in their deeds and refrain from what He had condemned in their predecessors' deeds. And He saw fit to arrange and sequence this — from the first of His creation to the time of the giving — and then to command and forbid, promise and threaten, trusting that He is addressing those of sound minds and intellects free of defect.

And know, O reader of this book: despite the sublimity of its power and the nobility of its rank — to which no other book of prophecy can be compared — and despite the eloquence of its expression, which clarifies what was obscure and resolves what was tangled, it is not permissible for the servants [of God] to suppose that He, the Mighty and Exalted, has no proof against them other than it. Rather, they must know that He has two other proofs upon them.

The first comes before this book: it is the proof of reason. By it they know that all visible things and all perceptibles came into being [in time]; that the One who originated them is eternal, never came to be and never ceases; that He is One, and He does not resemble them, nor they Him; that He is the Wise, knowing what will be before it comes to be; that He is the Creator, creating what He wills without preexisting matter; that He is the Just, who does not burden His servants with what they cannot bear — and all the other foundational beliefs that rational proofs yield. From these flow the rational laws — like truthfulness and justice. I will be brief about establishing any of this in the present book, for I did not write this book for those subjects.

The second proof comes after the book: it is the knowledge of the chosen prophets — how they ruled on every event that occurred among the people, and how they performed the traditional laws — laws which the intellect neither demands nor forbids, but whose prescription upon the servant is permissible to be. Once the messengers brought them, they became obligatory. Their quantities and modalities, however, are not stipulated in the book — the amount of prayer, the amount of charity, the modality of the Sabbath, and the rest of what is mandated through traditional knowledge. I will be brief about explaining any of this here as well, because I did not write this book for that purpose; and also because I have already explained these two areas — I mean the matters of [prophetic] choice — at length, in my Long Commentary on the Tafsir of the Torah.

I authored this book only because certain seekers asked me to single out the plain text of the Torah in a separate book — a book unmixed with any discussion of language (its conjugations, derivations, inversions, or metaphors); that does not enter into the questions of unbelievers nor the rebuttal of them; nor into the branches of rational laws, nor how to perform the traditional ones — only the bringing-forth of the meaning of the Torah's text itself.

And I saw that what they had asked of me in this had merit: that the audience might hear the meanings of the Torah — narrative, command, recompense — in a brief and orderly arrangement, so that one who comes seeking a particular story is not delayed by the work of establishing proofs at every turn, which would burden him. And if, after this, the reader wishes to learn the legislation of the rational laws, the modality of performing the traditional ones, and how the objections of any objector against the stories in the book may be answered — let him seek that from the other book [the Long Commentary], for this concise one will alert him to it and lead him there by intent.

And when I saw this, I composed this book as a plain exposition of the Torah's text alone, set down in accord with the knowledge of reason and of tradition. Whenever it was possible for me to deposit in it a single word or letter that would disclose the meaning and intent to one whom a hint of speech suffices, I did so. And in God I seek aid in every interest I pursue — in matters of religion and of this world.