HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Judah Halevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; he, יהודה הלוי and Judah ben Shmuel Halevi ; ar, يهوذا اللاوي ''Yahuḏa al-Lāwī''; 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
. He was born in Spain, either in Toledo or Tudela, in 1075 or 1086, and died shortly after arriving in
the Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy L ...
in 1141, at that point the Crusader
Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establishe ...
. Halevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets, celebrated both for his religious and secular poems, many of which appear in present-day liturgy. His greatest philosophical work was the '' Sefer ha-Kuzari''.


Biography

Convention suggests that Judah ben Shmuel Halevi was born in Toledo, Spain in 1075. He often described himself as coming from Christian territory.
Alfonso the Battler Alfonso I (''c''. 1073/10747 September 1134), called the Battler or the Warrior ( es, el Batallador), was King of Aragon and Navarre from 1104 until his death in 1134. He was the second son of King Sancho Ramírez and successor of his brother Pet ...
conquered Tudela in 1119; Toledo was conquered by
Alfonso VI Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...
from the Muslims in Halevi's childhood (1086). As a youth, he seems to have gone to
Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...
, the main centre of Jewish literary and intellectual life at the time, where he found a mentor in
Moses Ibn Ezra Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, known as Ha-Sallaḥ ("writer of penitential prayers") ( ar, أَبُو هَارُون مُوسَى بِن يَعْقُوب اِبْن عَزْرَا, ''Abu Harun Musa bin Ya'qub ibn 'Azra'', he, מֹשֶׁה ב ...
. Although it is often said that he studied in the academy at
Lucena Lucena, officially the City of Lucena ( fil, Lungsod ng Lucena), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Calabarzon region of the Philippines. It is the capital city of the province of Quezon where it is geographically situated but, in t ...
, there is no evidence to this effect. He did compose a short elegy on the death of
Isaac Alfasi Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi ha-Cohen (1013–1103) ( ar, إسحاق الفاسي, he, ר' יצחק אלפסי) - also known as the Alfasi or by his Hebrew acronym Rif (Rabbi Isaac al-Fasi), was a Maghrebi Talmudist and posek (decider in matters of ...
, the head of the academy. His aptitude as a poet was recognized early. He was educated in traditional Jewish scholarship, in Arabic literature, and in the
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
sciences and philosophy that were available in
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
. As an adult he was a physician, apparently of renown, and an active participant in Jewish communal affairs. For at least part of his life he lived in Toledo and may have been connected with the court there as a physician. In Toledo he complains of being too busy with medicine to devote himself to scholarship. At other times he lived in various Muslim cities in the south. Like most Jewish intellectuals of Muslim Spain, Halevi wrote prose in Arabic and poetry in Hebrew. During the " Hebrew Golden Age" of the 10th to 12th century, he was the most prolific of the Hebrew poets and was regarded by some of his contemporaries, as well as by modern critics, as the greatest of all the medieval Hebrew poets. Like all the Hebrew poets of the Hebrew Golden Age, he employed the formal patterns of Arabic poetry, both the classical monorhymed patterns and the recently invented strophic patterns. His themes embrace all those that were current among Hebrew poets: panegyric odes, funeral odes, poems on the pleasures of life, gnomic epigrams, and riddles. He was also a prolific author of religious verse. As with all the Hebrew poets of his age, he strives for a strictly biblical diction, though he unavoidably falls into occasional
calques In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language whi ...
from Arabic. His verse is distinguished by special attention to acoustic effect and wit. Nothing is known of Halevi's personal life except the report in his poems that he had a daughter and that she had a son, also named Judah. He could well have had other children. The tradition that this daughter was married to Abraham Ibn Ezra does not rest on any evidence, though Halevi and Abraham Ibn Ezra were well acquainted, as we know from the writings of the latter.


Journey to Israel

Halevi's various residences in Spain are unknown; he seems to have lived at times in Christian Toledo, at other times in
Islamic Spain Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mu ...
. Although he occupied an honored position as a physician, intellectual, and communal leader, his religious convictions may have compelled him to want to abandon his homeland to spend his final days in
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. His motivations were likely complex, so he may have felt equally motivated by devotion, depression, and curiosity. The Halkin biography explores the idea that he enjoyed "celebrity" for decades, and suggests that the loss of significant family and friends may have motivated the perilous travels. The uncertainties of Jewish communal status in the period of the
Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...
or the failure of messianic movements may have weighed on him as well, as he considered the future security of the Jewish position in the diaspora. In his treatise known as the ''
Kuzari The ''Kuzari'', full title ''Book of Refutation and Proof on Behalf of the Despised Religion'' ( ar, كتاب الحجة والدليل في نصرة الدين الذليل: ''Kitâb al-ḥujja wa'l-dalîl fi naṣr al-dîn al-dhalîl''), also k ...
'', he claimed that true religious fulfillment is possible only in the presence of the
God of Israel God of Israel may refer to: * God in Judaism, God as understood in Jewish theological discussion * Yahweh, the national god of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah * Tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters YHWH as the name of God, and various ...
, which, the text suggested, was most palpable in the Land of Israel. Contrary to a prevalent theory, his poetry shows beyond doubt that his pilgrimage was a completely individual act and that he had no intention of setting off a mass pilgrimage. Halevi sailed for Alexandria from Spain. Arriving on September 8, 1140, he was greeted enthusiastically by friends and admirers. He then went to Cairo, where he visited several dignitaries, including the Nagid of Egypt, Samuel ben Hanania, and his friend Halfon ben Nathaniel Halevi. He did not permit himself to be persuaded to remain in Egypt, but returned to Alexandria and sailed for Israel on May 14, 1141. Little is known of his travels after this moment. It is estimated Halevi died in July or August, possibly after having reached Palestine, based on a letter from Abu Nasr ben Avraham to Halfon ben Netanel dated November 12, 1141. Legend also has it that Halevi was killed by an Arab horseman as he arrived in Jerusalem, with the first account found within a Hebrew miscellany published around 450 years after Halevi's presumed death. An 1141 letter to a prominent rabbi in Damascus also potentially refers to Halevi's death at the gates of Jerusalem. As only fragments are preserved of this letter, it's unclear whether the writer is discussing Halevi or another Jew. During his last years, Halevi's poetry dealt extensively with the idea of the pilgrimage and described some of it. Documents that remain are panegyric to his various hosts in Egypt, explorations of his religious motivations, description of storms at sea, and expressions of his anxieties and doubts. We are well informed about the details of his pilgrimage thanks to letters that were preserved in the
Cairo geniza The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the ''genizah'' or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, ...
. Poems and letters bearing on Halevi's pilgrimage are translated and explicated in Raymond P. Scheindlin, ''The Song of the Distant Dove'' (Oxford University Press, 2007).


His work

The life-work of Judah Halevi was devoted to poetry and philosophy. The scholar Jose de la Fuente Salvat elevates him as the "most important poet in Judaism of all times". Manuscripts give some grounds for believing that Halevi himself divided his oeuvre into sacred (''shirei hakodesh'') and profane (''shirei hahol'') poetry. The poetry can be divided as follows (following the 1895-1904 edition by Hayyim Brody): # Poems about friendship and laudatory poems (''shirei yedidut veshirei hakavod''): 138 poems. # Pieces of correspondence in rhymed prose (''mikhtavim''): 7 pieces. # Love poems (''shirei ahavah''): 66 poems, including homoerotic poems such as “That Day While I Had Him” and “To Ibn Al-Mu’allim” # Elegies (''kol bochim; kinot vehespedim''): 43 pieces. # Elevation of the soul to Zion; travelling poems (''massa nefesh tziyonah''; ''shirei tziyon veshirei massa''): 23 poems. # Riddle poems (''ḥidot''): 49 poems. # Other poems, various poems (''she’erit Yehudah''; ''shirim shonim''): 120 poems.


Secular poetry

Judah's secular or non-liturgical poetry is occupied by poems of friendship, love, tenderness, humor, and eulogy. Judah must have possessed an attractive personality; for there gathered about him as friends, even in his earliest youth, a large number of illustrious men, like Levi al-Tabban of
Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...
, the aged poet Judah ben Abun, Judah ibn Ghayyat of Granada,
Moses ibn Ezra Rabbi Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, known as Ha-Sallaḥ ("writer of penitential prayers") ( ar, أَبُو هَارُون مُوسَى بِن يَعْقُوب اِبْن عَزْرَا, ''Abu Harun Musa bin Ya'qub ibn 'Azra'', he, מֹשֶׁה ב ...
and his brothers Judah, Joseph, and Isaac, the vizier Abu al-Hasan, Meïr ibn Kamnial, the physician and poet Solomon ben Mu'allam of Seville, besides his schoolmates Joseph ibn Migas and Baruch Albalia. Also the grammarian Abraham ibn Ezra. In Córdoba, Judah addressed a touching farewell poem to Joseph ibn Ẓaddiḳ, the philosopher and poet. In Egypt, where the most celebrated men vied with one another in entertaining him, his reception was a veritable triumph. Here his particular friends were Aaron ben Jeshua Alamani in Alexandria, the nagid Samuel ben Hananiah in
Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, Halfon ha-Levi in Damietta, and an unknown man in Tyre, probably his last friend. In their sorrow and joy, in the creative spirit and all that moved the souls of these men, Judah sympathetically shared; as he says in the beginning of a short poem: "My heart belongs to you, ye noble souls, who draw me to you with bonds of love". Especially tender and plaintive is Judah's tone in his elegies Many of them are dedicated to friends such as the brothers Judah (Nos. 19, 20), Isaac (No. 21), and Moses ibn Ezra (No. 16), R. Baruch (Nos. 23, 28), Meïr ibn Migas (No. 27), his teacher
Isaac Alfasi Isaac ben Jacob Alfasi ha-Cohen (1013–1103) ( ar, إسحاق الفاسي, he, ר' יצחק אלפסי) - also known as the Alfasi or by his Hebrew acronym Rif (Rabbi Isaac al-Fasi), was a Maghrebi Talmudist and posek (decider in matters of ...
(No. 14), and others. In the case of Solomon ibn Farissol, who was murdered on May 3, 1108, Judah suddenly changed his poem of eulogy (Nos. 11, 22) into one of lamentation (Nos. 12, 13, 93 et seq.). Child mortality due to plague was high in Judah's time and the historical record contains five elegies written for the occasion of the death of a child. Biographer Hillel Halkin hypothesizes that at least one of these elegiac poems may have been written in honor of one of Judah's children who did not reach adulthood and who is lost to history. Halevi's poetry includes verses relating to his vocational work as a physician. Halevi's prayer for the physician was first translated into English in 1924.


Love songs

Joyous, careless youth, and merry, happy delight in life find their expression in his love-songs. Many of these are
epithalamia An epithalamium (; Latin form of Greek ἐπιθαλάμιον ''epithalamion'' from ἐπί ''epi'' "upon," and θάλαμος ''thalamos'' nuptial chamber) is a poem written specifically for the bride on the way to her marital chamber. This form ...
and are characterized by a brilliant Near-Eastern coloring, as well as by a chaste reserve. In Egypt, where the muse of his youth found a glorious "Indian summer" in the circle of his friends, he wrote his "swan-song:" "Wondrous is this land to see, With perfume its meadows laden, But more fair than all to me Is yon slender, gentle maiden. Ah, Time's swift flight I fain would stay, Forgetting that my locks are gray."
Drinking song A drinking song is a song sung while drinking alcohol. Most drinking songs are folk songs or commercium songs, and may be varied from person to person and region to region, in both the lyrics and in the music. In Germany, drinking songs are ...
s by Judah have also been preserved.


Riddles

Judah is noted as the most prolific composer of
Hebrew riddles Riddles in Hebrew are referred to as חידות ''ḥidot'' (singular חִידָה ''ḥidah''). They have at times been a major and distinctive part of literature in Hebrew and closely related languages. At times they have a complex relationship ...
, with a corpus of at least sixty-seven riddles,Aurora Salvatierra,
La "Granada" más hermosa: una adivinanza de Yĕhudah Ha-Levi
, ''Biblio'', 47 (1998), 19-36.
some of which survive in his own hand, and even in draft form,/N. Allony,

hirty autograph riddles by R. Yehudah ha-Lev /''Alei Sefer: A Journal for the Study of the Hebrew Book'', 3 (October 1976), 20-43 (repr. Allony, N., 'Šělošim hidot 'otografiot Iě-R. Yehudah ha-Levi,
Studies in medieval philology and literature: collected papers, 4: Hebrew medieval poetry, Volume 4
' (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 1991), pp. 425-48).
though only a few have been translated into English. Judah's riddles are mostly short, monorhyme compositions on concrete subjects such as everyday artefacts, animals and plants, or a name or word; one example is the following:
: What is it that's blind with an eye in its head, :: But the race of mankind its use can not spare; : Spends all its life in clothing the dead, :: But always itself is naked and bare?


Religious poetry

After living a life devoted to worldly pleasures, Halevi was to experience a kind of "awakening"; a shock, that changed his outlook on the world. Like a type of "conversion" experience, he turned from the life of pleasure, and his poetry turned to religious themes. Halevi became a prolific author of
piyyutim A ''piyyut'' or ''piyut'' (plural piyyutim or piyutim, he, פִּיּוּטִים / פיוטים, פִּיּוּט / פיוט ; from Greek ποιητής ''poiētḗs'' "poet") is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, ch ...
. It seems that his profound experience was the consequence of his sensitivity to the events of history that were unfolding around him. He lived during the
First Crusade The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ru ...
and other wars. There was a new kind of religio-political fanaticism emerging in the
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
and Muslim worlds.
Holy war A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...
s were brewing, and Halevi may have recognized that such trends had never been good for the Jews. At the time, life was relatively good in Spain for the Jewish community. He may have suspected things were about to change for the worse, however. His attachment to the Jewish people is an equally significant theme: he identifies his sufferings and hopes with that of the broader group. Like the authors of the
Psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...
s, he gladly sinks his own identity in the wider one of the people of Israel; so that it is not always easy to distinguish the personality of the speaker. Often Judah's poetic fancy finds joy in the thought of the "return" of his people to the Promised Land. He believed that perfect Jewish life was possible only in the
Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...
. The period of political agitation about 1130, when the conflict between
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and Christianity intensified, giving Judah reason to hope for such a return in the near future. The vision of the night, in which this was revealed to him, remained indeed but a dream; yet Judah never lost faith in the eventual deliverance of Israel, and in "the eternity" of his people. On this subject, he has expressed himself in poetry: :Lo! Sun and moon, these minister for aye; The laws of day and night cease nevermore: Given for signs to Jacob's seed that they Shall ever be a nation — till these be o'er. If with His left hand He should thrust away, Lo! with His right hand He shall draw them nigh. His
piyyut A ''piyyut'' or ''piyut'' (plural piyyutim or piyutim, he, פִּיּוּטִים / פיוטים, פִּיּוּט / פיוט ; from Greek ποιητής ''poiētḗs'' "poet") is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, ch ...
, ''Mi Kamokha'', was translated by
Samuel di Castelnuovo Samuel di Castelnuovo, who lived at the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth, was secretary of the Jewish community of Rome. He edited and probably translated into Italian: * Judah ha-Levi's piyyut, ''Mi kamoka'', Ven ...
and published in Venice in 1609.


Liturgical poetry

The longest, and most comprehensive poem is a "Kedushah," which summons all the universe to praise God with rejoicing, and which terminates, curiously enough, in Psalm 103. These poems were carried to all lands, even as far as
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
, and they influenced the rituals of the most distant countries. Even the Karaites incorporated some of them into their prayer-book; so that there is scarcely a synagogue in which Judah's songs are not sung in the course of the service.Zunz, "S. P." p. 231 The following observation on Judah's synagogal poems is made by Zunz: :As the perfume and beauty of a rose are within it, and do not come from without, so with Judah word and Bible passage, meter and rime, are one with the soul of the poem; as in true works of
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
, and always in nature, one is never disturbed by anything external, arbitrary, or extraneous. Judah also wrote several
Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...
hymns. One of the most beautiful of them ends with the words: :On Friday doth my cup o'erflow / What blissful rest the night shall know / When, in thine arms, my toil and woe / Are all forgot, Sabbath my love! :'Tis dusk, with sudden light, distilled / From one sweet face, the world is filled; / The tumult of my heart is stilled / For thou art come, Sabbath my love! :Bring fruits and wine and sing a gladsome lay, / Cry, 'Come in peace, O restful Seventh day!' Judah used complicated
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
meters in his poems, with much good taste. A later critic, applying a
Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...
ic
witticism Wit is a form of intelligent humour, the ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. Someone witty is a person who is skilled at making clever and funny remarks. Forms of wit include the quip, repartee, and wisecrack. Form ...
to Judah, has said: "It is hard for the dough when the baker himself calls it bad." Although these forms came to him naturally and without effort, unlike the mechanical versifiers of his time, he would not except himself from the number of those he had blamed. His pupil Solomon Parḥon, who wrote at Salerno in 1160, relates that Judah repented having used the new metrical methods, and had declared he would not again employ them. That Judah felt them to be out of place, and that he opposed their use at the very time when they were in vogue, plainly shows his desire for a national Jewish art; independent in form, as well as in matter. In 1422, Provencal Jewish scholar
Jacob ben Chayyim Comprat Vidal Farissol Jacob ben Chayyim Comprat Vidal Farissol was a French Jewish scholar of the early 15th century. Born in Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label= Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provenc ...
published a commentary on Judah's liturgical poem "Cuzari". Judah was recognized by his contemporaries as "the great Jewish
national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbo ...
", and in succeeding generations, by all the great scholars and writers in Israel. His poetry and writing have also been considered an early expression of support for Jewish nationalism.


Analysis of his poetry

The remarkable, and apparently indissoluble, union of
religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
,
nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
, and
patriotism Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and sense of attachment to one's country. This attachment can be a combination of many different feelings, language relating to one's own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or histor ...
, which were so characteristic of post-exilic Judaism, reached its acme in Judah Halevi and his poetry. Yet this very union, in one so consistent as Judah, demanded the fulfillment of the supreme politico-religious ideal of medieval Judaism—the "return to Jerusalem". Though his impassioned call to his contemporaries to return to "
Zion Zion ( he, צִיּוֹן ''Ṣīyyōn'', LXX , also variously transliterated ''Sion'', ''Tzion'', ''Tsion'', ''Tsiyyon'') is a placename in the Hebrew Bible used as a synonym for Jerusalem as well as for the Land of Israel as a whole (see Names ...
" might be received with indifference, or even with mockery; his own decision to go to Jerusalem never wavered. "Can we hope for any other refuge either in the East or in the West where we may dwell in safety?" he exclaims to one of his opponents (ib.). The songs that accompany his pilgrimage sound like one great symphony, wherein the " Zionides" — the single motive never varied — voice the deepest "soul-life" alike; of the Jewish people and of each individual Jew. The most celebrated of these "Zionides" is commonly in the synagogue on
Tisha B'Av Tisha B'Av ( he, תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב ''Tīšʿā Bəʾāv''; , ) is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian E ...
: :Zion, wilt thou not ask if peace's wing / Shadows the captives that ensue thy peace / Left lonely from thine ancient shepherding? :Lo! west and east and north and south — world-wide / All those from far and near, without surcease / Salute thee: Peace and Peace from every side."


As a philosopher

Judah Halevi's vision of a God that is accessed through tradition and devotion, and not philosophical speculation, dominates his later work. His position in domain of Jewish philosophy is parallel to that occupied in Islam by
al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...
, by whom he was influenced, yet Judah Halevi strongly despised Islam. Like al-Ghazali, Judah endeavored to liberate religion from the bondage of the various philosophical systems in which it had been held by his predecessors,
Saadia Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon ( ar, سعيد بن يوسف الفيومي ''Saʻīd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi''; he, סַעֲדְיָה בֶּן יוֹסֵף אַלְפַיּוּמִי גָּאוֹן ''Saʿăḏyāh ben Yōsēf al-Fayyūmī Gāʾōn''; ...
, David ben Marwan al-Mekamez, Gabirol, and
Bahya Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda (also: Pakuda, Bakuda, Hebrew: , ar, بهية بن فاقودا), c. 1050–1120, was a Jewish philosopher and rabbi who lived at Zaragoza, Al-Andalus (now Spain). He was one of two people now known as Rabbeinu Behay ...
. In a work written in Arabic, and entitled ''Kitab al-Ḥujjah wal-Dalil fi Nuṣr al-Din al-Dhalil'', كتاب الحجة و الدليل في نصرة الدين الذليل, (known in the
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
translation of
Judah ibn Tibbon Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon (1120 – after 1190) was a translator and physician. Born in Granada, he left Spain in 1150, probably on account of persecution by the Almohades, and went to Lunel in southern France. Benjamin of Tudela mentions him ...
by the title ''Sefer ha-
Kuzari The ''Kuzari'', full title ''Book of Refutation and Proof on Behalf of the Despised Religion'' ( ar, كتاب الحجة والدليل في نصرة الدين الذليل: ''Kitâb al-ḥujja wa'l-dalîl fi naṣr al-dîn al-dhalîl''), also k ...
''), Judah Halevi expounded his views upon the teachings of Judaism, which he defended against the attacks of non-Jewish philosophers, Aristotelian Greek philosophers and against those he viewed as "
heretics Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
".


Editions

The main edition of Halevi's ''diwan'' is Heinrich Brody, ''Dîwân des Abû-l-Hasan Jehudah ha-Levi/Diwan wĕ-hu 'sefer kolel šire 'abir ha-mešorerim Yĕhudah ben Šĕmu'el ha-Levi''. 4 vols (Berlin: Itzkowski, 1894-1930)
vol. 1vol. 2 part 2 (notes), pp. 157-330vol. 3, pp. 1-144vol. 3, pp. 145-308vol. 4
In the 2002 assessment of Tova Rosen and Eli Yassif, this is 'a flawed edition marred by numerous textual mistakes and by the erroneous inclusion of poems by other poets. It was also far from including ha-Levi’s complete oeuvre'. However, 'even today, nearly a century after Brody’s effort, there is still no authorized edition of Judah ha-Levi’s work. The absence of such an edition has been, and will continue to be, an obstacle toward the completion of any creditable study of ha-Levi’s poetry.'Tova Rosen and Eli Yassif, 'The Study of the Hebrew Literature in the Middle Ages: Major Trends and Goals', in ''The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies'', ed. by Martin Goodman, Jeremy Cohen, and David Sorkin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 241-94 (p. 252). Other editions exist of some individual works. *
Selected Poems of Jehuda Halevi
', ed. by Heinrich Brody and Harry Elson, trans. by Nina Salaman (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1974), irst publ. 1924 *
Poemas sagrados y profanos de Yehuda Halevi
', trans. by Maximo Jose Kahn and Juan Gil-Albert (Mexico, diciones mensaje1943). * ''Yehuda Ha-Leví: Poemas'', trans. by Ángel Sáenz-Badillos and Judit Targarona Borrás (Madrid: Clasicos Alfaguara, 1994) * ''Las 'Sĕlīḥot la-'ašmurot' de R. Yehudah ha-Leví: traducción y estudio literario'', ed. and trans. by M.ª Isabel Pérez Alonso, Colección vítor, 415 (Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2017),


References


External links

*
JUDAH HALEVI
''
Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a 22-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, holidays, langua ...
'' article by Daniel J. Lasker and Angel Sáenz-Badillos at
Encyclopedia.com Encyclopedia.com (also known as HighBeam Encyclopedia) is an online encyclopedia. It aggregates information from other published dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference works including pictures and videos. History The website was launched by ...

Judah Halevi
by Barry Kogan at ''
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') combines an online encyclopedia of philosophy with peer-reviewed publication of original papers in philosophy, freely accessible to Internet users. It is maintained by Stanford University. Eac ...
''
"Yehudah Ha-Levi: Poet Philosopher of Sepharad," Video Lecture
by Dr. Henry Abramson of
Touro College South Touro University is a private Jewish university system headquartered in New York City, with branches throughout the United States as well as one each in Germany, Israel and Russia. It was founded by Bernard Lander in 1971 and named for Isaac a ...

The Kitab al-Khazari of Judah Hallevi, full English translation at sacred-texts.com
* ttp://www.blackcatpoems.com/h/judah_ha_levi.html Poems by Judah Ha-Levi– English translations. {{DEFAULTSORT:Halevi, Judah 1070s births 1141 deaths 11th-century Jews of Al-Andalus Philosophers of Judaism Spanish philosophers Khazar studies Hebrew-language poets Jewish poets Jewish apologists People from Toledo, Spain 12th-century Castilian rabbis Judeo-Arabic writers