Judah haLevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; ; ; –1141) was a Sephardic Jewish poet, physician and philosopher. HaLevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew-language poets and is celebrated for his secular and religious poems, many of which appear in present-day Jewish liturgy.

Judah haLevi was born in either Tudela or Toledo The confusion surrounding his place of birth arises from unclear text in a manuscript. Both cities were under Muslim control when he grew up but were conquered by Christian rulers during his lifetime; Toledo by Alfonso VI of León and Castile in 1085, and Tudela by Alfonso the Battler in 1118.

HaLevi likely received a comprehensive education in Jewish texts (including both the Hebrew Bible and Talmud), the Arabic language, and the sciences, including as medicine, mathematics, and philosophy. As a youth, he traveled to Granada, the main center of Jewish literary and intellectual life at the time. There, he modeled work after Moses Ibn Ezra for a competition, sparking recognition for haLevi's aptitude as a poet as well as a close friendship with Abraham ibn Ezra. and the latter quoted haLevi on multiple occasions in his commentary on the Tanakh.

Like other Jewish poets during the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain of the 10th to 12th centuries, he employed patterns and themes of Arabic poetry in his work. His themes embrace all those that were current among Hebrew poets: praise of friends and notable figures, reflections on fate, youth and ageing, expressions of friendship and love, wine and celebration, didactic verse, wedding compositions, poetic riddles, and poems centred on longing for the Land of Israel. His poetry is distinguished by special attention to acoustic effect and wit. Ha-Levi had at least one daughter, reportedly a poet herself, who married Isaac ibn Ezra, son of Abraham ibn Ezra.

Journey to the Holy Land

thumb|Statue in [[Caesarea (modern town)|Caesarea, Israel.]]

Although he occupied an honored position as a physician, intellectual, and communal leader in al-Andalus, haLevi was stirred to journey to the Land of Israel to spend his final days there. In his philosophical treatise the Kuzari, he argues that the presence of the God of Israel is most palpable in the Land of Israel, and it is therefore ideal and most religiously fulfilling for Jews to live there. He ends the dialogue with the rabbi character deciding to leave for Jerusalem, as haLevi himself would.

HaLevi planned to make his own aliyah. His passion for Israel eventually overpowered his hesitation and concerns about leaving his friends, family, and status to live under Crusader rule. Additionally, the uncertainties of Jewish communal status and favor within the government during the period of the Reconquista may have caused him to consider the future security of Jews in the diaspora.

HaLevi's journey is seen either as a personal religious pilgrimage or as a call for the diaspora to reject its blending of Graeco-Arabic-Iberian cultures, with the former representing diasporist views and the latter reflecting Zionist perspectives.

On September 8, 1140, haLevi arrived in Alexandria, where he was greeted enthusiastically by friends and admirers. He then went to Cairo, where he visited several dignitaries and friends. Returning to Alexandria in the spring, haLevi was reportedly denounced and sued by an apostate who claimed haLevi sought to force him to return to Judaism by withholding money belonging to him. However, he was reportedly acquitted through his connections and legal subterfuge. It is uncertain if he arrived safely in Jerusalem or if his departure was delayed and he died in Egypt,

Burial

Tradition places the tombs of Judah haLevi and Abraham ibn Ezra in Cabul, a village in the Galilee.

Poetry

HaLevi's work covers common subjects in Spanish-Jewish poetry and draws on the forms and artistic patterns of both secular and religious poetry. Some formats include the zajal, the , and poems utilizing internal rhyme, classical monorhyme patterns, and the then-recently invented strophic form. About 800 of his poems are known today. Independent haLevi scholar Jose de la Fuente Salvat elevated him to the "most important poet in Judaism of all time". HaLevi composed in Hebrew with kharjas containing Andalusi Arabic and Romance.

Diwan

Shortly after his death, his poetry was collected into a dīwān, apparently in Egypt and based on smaller collections of his poetry already in circulation.

  • Poems about friendship and laudatory poems (): 138 poems
  • Pieces of correspondence in rhymed prose (): 7 pieces
  • Love poems (): 66 poems
  • Elegies () and lamentations and eulogies (): 43 pieces
  • "Elevation" of the soul to Zion () and traveling poems (): 23 poems
  • Riddle poems (): 49 poems
  • On the remnant of Judah () and other songs (): 120 poems

Secular poetry

HaLevi's secular poetry comprises poems of friendship, love, humor, and eulogy. Drinking songs by haLevi have also been preserved,

Friendship

Even in his youth, a large number of renowned literary scholars gathered around him, including Levi ibn al-Tabban of Zaragoza; the aged poet Judah ben Abbas; Judah ibn Ghayyat of Granada; Moses ibn Ezra, Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra, Joseph ibn Ezra, and Isaac ibn Ezra; Meïr ibn Kamnial; the physician and poet Solomon ben Mu'allam of Seville; his schoolmates Joseph ibn Migash and Baruch Albalia, son of Isaac Albalia; and the grammarian Abraham ibn Ezra.

In Córdoba, Spain, haLevi addressed a touching farewell poem to Joseph ibn Tzaddik, the philosopher and poet. In Egypt, celebrated men vied to entertain him; his reception was a veritable triumph. Here, his particular friends included Aaron He-Haver ben Yeshuah Alamani of Alexandria, the nagid Samuel ben Hananiah of Cairo, Halfon Ha-Levi of Damietta, and an unknown man in Tyre. HaLevi sympathetically shared their sorrow and joy, as shown in a short poem: "My heart belongs to you, ye noble souls, who draw me to you with bonds of love".

Elegy

Especially tender and plaintive is haLevi's tone in his elegies. He often utilized the qasida form and meditated on death and fate. 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), Isaac Alfasi, head of the yeshiva in Lucena, Cordoba (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 that mourn the death of a child. Biographer Hillel Halkin hypothesizes that at least one of these honors was given to one of Judah's children who did not reach adulthood and is lost to history. "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."

Many of his poems are addressed to a gazelle or deer according to the custom in al-Andalus,

Religious poetry

Shirei Zion (Songs of Zion)

Halevi's attachment to the Jewish people is a significant theme in his religious poetry; he identifies his sufferings and hopes with those of the broader group. Like the authors of the Psalms, he 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. Though his impassioned call to his contemporaries to return to Zion might have been 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. His Zionides gave voice both to the Jewish people as a whole and to each Jew, and he never lost faith in the eventual deliverance and redemption of Israel and his people:

"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."

One of his Zionides, Tziyyon ha-lo tishali (), laments the destruction of the temple and puts forth the dream of redemption. It is also one of the most famous kinnot Jews recite on Tisha B'Av:

Shirei Galut (Songs of the Diaspora)

Judah combined descriptions from Scripture with personal and historical Jewish experiences to create a distinct form of religiously themed poetry. He used devices such as sound patterns and vivid imagery to evoke the suffering of exile and the fear of the destruction of his people due to a delayed redemption. 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 makes the following observation on Judah's synagogal poems:

"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, and always in nature, one is never disturbed by anything external, arbitrary, or extraneous."

His piyyut Mi Khamokha (), was translated by Samuel di Castelnuovo and published in Venice in 1609.

Much of his work that expresses his personal relationship with God later became liturgical poetry.

  • Selected Poems of Judah Halevi, ed. by Heinrich Brody and Harry Elson, trans. by Nina Salaman (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1974), [first publ. 1924].
  • Poemas sagrados y profanos de Yehuda Halevi, trans. by Maximo Jose Kahn and Juan Gil-Albert (Mexico, [Ediciones mensaje] 1943).
  • 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),
  • Luzzatto, דיואן ר' יהודה הלוי. Lyck, 1864.
  • Rosenzweig, Franz. Jehuda Halevi, zweiundneunzig Hymnen und Gedichte Deutsch. Berlin, [publication date thought to be 1926]
  • Bernstein, S. Shirei Yehudah Halevi. 1944
  • Zmora, ר' יהודה הלוי. 1964
  • Schirmann, שירים חדשים מן הגניזה, 1965

Literary journals and periodicals that have published his work include:

See also

  • Jewish poetry from al-Andalus
  • Maimonides
  • Moses ibn Ezra
  • Samuel ibn Naghrillah
  • Solomon ibn Gabirol

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

  • Judah HaLevi Encyclopaedia Judaica article by Daniel J. Lasker and Angel Sáenz-Badillos at Encyclopedia.com
  • Judah Halevi by Barry Kogan at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • "Yehudah Ha-Levi: Poet Philosopher of Sepharad," Video Lecture by Dr. Henry Abramson of Touro College South
  • The Kitab al-Khazari of Judah Hallevi, full English translation at sacred-texts.com
  • The Kitab al-Khazari of Judah Hallevi, Judeo-Arabic original
  • Poems by Judah Ha-Levi – English translations.