Background
Convention suggests that Judah ben Shmuel Halevi was born in Toledo, Spain in 1075. Few definite facts are known about Judah Halevi. He was born to a family of means.
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Convention suggests that Judah ben Shmuel Halevi was born in Toledo, Spain in 1075. Few definite facts are known about Judah Halevi. He was born to a family of means.
A gifted youth, he received his Jewish training in the school of the famous Talmudist Isaac Alfasi. He also had a secular education in Greek and Arabic philosophy, the poetic arts, and medicine.
Judah worked as a doctor in Toledo but the difficult position of Jews under Christian rule induced him to move to Cordoba in Muslim Spain where he continued his medical practice. Halevi was not happy in the medical profession; he found fulfillment, however, in his poetry, in which he expressed his true genius and gift. He employed the forms and structure of Arabic poetry in his Hebrew verse.
However, when already in his sixties, he was driven by his longing for the Holy Land to leave his home and family and set out for Jerusalem. Reaching Egypt, however, he became involved in various activities, remained for a considerable time. The tragedy of his people is given voice in his national poems, in which he depicts the past glory of Zion and his pain and sorrow at its desolation, as well as his hopes for its restoration. Many of Halevi's religious and national poems have been preserved in the Jewish liturgy. To counter the influence of philosophy on his generation, Halevi wrote Kitab al-Khazari in Arabic to reach a wide audience, particularly among the enlightened. It was translated by Judah ibn Tibbon into Hebrew. The Sefer ha-Kuzari (or the Kuzari), as it is called in Hebrew, is still one of the most popular classics in Judaism. It is written in dialogue and employs the historical and romantic theme of the conversion to Judaism early in the 8th century of the heathen king of the Khazars, a Tatar tribe on the Volga.
Israel is therefore "the heart of the nations, " for like the heart, which sends blood to other parts of the body, Israel supplies the world with ethical and spiritual nourishment. In Messianic times, however, all nations will attain Israel's spiritual level. The language of Jewish prophecy is Hebrew, and its most favored site is the Holy Land. According to legend, he was kneeling at the Wailing Wall when a galloping Arab horseman rode him down and crushed him to death.
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. He was primarily famous as the author of the greatest philosophical work - The Kuzari. His poetry and writing have also been considered an early expression of support for Jewish nationalism.
Unlike earlier Jewish philosophers, Halevi was not concerned in demonstrating that Judaism conforms to the tenets of rationalism, but rather in proving its excellency and its superiority over its two daughter religions, Christianity and Islam. Halevi argues that the God of Judaism requires no rational proof of His existence since He has manifested Himself in history through the people of Israel. He believed that perfect Jewish life was possible only in the Land of Israel.
Judah's religious poetry is characterized by a deep and often mystic yearning and love of God. Halevi's verse is replete with graphic symbolism and simile, embroidered with biblical idioms and allusions.
The first half of his life Halevi seems to have spent in lightheartedness and gaiety, the enjoyment of nature, friends, love, and wine. This is reflected in the mood of his earlier secular verse.
Quotes from others about the person
The scholar Jose de la Fuente Salvat elevates him as the "most important poet in judaism of all times".
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
