Judah Halevi
Spain (1075? - 1141) Timeline
Jewish


Poems by Judah Halevi
Books - Links

Judah (or Yehuda) Halevi was a great Jewish poet, philosopher and court physician who lived in southern Spain/Al-Andalus during the period when the region was a world center of science, philosophy, and mysticism under the Muslim Moors.

Many of Halevi's poems were about the mystical yearning of the Jewish people and their memory of an ancient homeland of Israel, earning him the epithet "Sweet Singer of Zion."

He is also well known for writing the Kuzari (also known as The Book of Argument and Proof in Defense of the Despised Faith), a philosophical treatise written in the form of a dialog between the king of the Khazars and exponents of various belief systems in which the king ultimately chooses to convert to Judaism.

Judah Halevi died traveling to Palestine.

Poems by Judah Halevi


Recommended Books: Judah Halevi

Poetry for the Spirit: Poems of Universal Wisdom and Beauty Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish & Hebrew Poems The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 A Treasury of Jewish Poetry: From Biblical Times to the Present
Poems from the Diwan Ninety-Two Poems and Hymns of Yehuda Halevi Philospher and Prophet: Judah Halevi, the Kuzari, and the Evolution of His Thought Between Mysticism and Philosophy: Sufi Language of Religious Experience in Judah Ha-Levi's Kuzari The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain



Related Links

Rabbi Scheinerman's Home Page - Judah HaLevi
http://scheinerman.net/judaism/personalities/halevi.html
A brief biography and discussion of the philosophy of Halevi (albeit, from a modern Zionizt political perspective).

Medieval Sourcebook: Judah Ha-Levi, The Kuzari
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/kuzari.html
The complete text of the Kuzari online.

Judah Halevi
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Halevi.html
A very brief biography online.
Judah Halevi