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Judah haLevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; ; ; c. 1075 – 1141) was a Sephardic Jews poet, physician and philosopher. Halevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets and is celebrated for his secular and religious poems, many of which appear in present-day Jewish prayer.Blidstein, Moshe; Silverstein, Adam J. (2025). 9780199697762, Oxford University Press.. ISBN 9780199697762
Judah haLevi was born in Tudela, in the region of Navarre, then part of Al-Andalus. Although little is known about his early life or education, it is clear that he was well-versed in Arabic, Hebrew, and classical sciences including medicine and philosophy. In his youth, he began composing Hebrew poetry, and his reputation eventually reached Moses ibn Ezra in Granada. After initial difficulties in traveling due to political shifts, haLevi was able to establish literary connections across major Jewish centers in al-Andalus.
HaLevi's poetic corpus includes a wide array of genres, including panegyrics, friendship poems, wine songs, riddles, didactic verse, and wedding poems. However, he is best remembered for his "Zionides" which powerfully express longing for the Land of Israel. Among the most enduring is Tziyyon ha-lo tishali ("Zion, do you not inquire?"), which became part of synagogue liturgy and was imitated widely. Another famous poem, Libi baMizrah ("My Heart is in the East"), articulates his internal conflict between the comforts of Spain and his spiritual connection to Zion, contrasting the "West" (Spain) with the "East" (Israel). In addition to poetry, HaLevi wrote a philosophical treatise commonly known as Kuzari, which presents a polemical defense of Judaism. The speaker affirms the truth of revealed religion and argues for the spiritual centrality of the Jewish people and their unique connection to the Land of Israel.
Late in life, Judah HaLevi resolved to leave Spain and settle in the Holy Land. He reached Egypt in 1140, where he was warmly received and remained in Alexandria for a year at the request of admirers. In 1141, he sailed for the Land of Israel (at that point the Crusader states Kingdom of Jerusalem) though he likely died shortly after, possibly at sea or near the gates of Jerusalem.
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 Ibn Ezra. As an adult he was a physician and an active participant in trade and Jewish communal affairs. He was in contact with both Jewish and non-Jewish nobles and dignitaries within Spain and around the world. While in Toledo, he supported himself by practicing medicine. He and Abraham ibn Ezra were well acquainted and the latter quoted Halevi on multiple occasions in his commentary on Hebrew Bible.
Like other Jewish poets during the "Golden Age of Jewish culture" of the 10th to 12th century, he employed the patterns and themes of Arabic poetry. 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.
Halevi planned to make his own aliyah: a trip believed to allow spiritual ascension by going "up" to the land. His deep passion for Israel eventually overpowered his hesitation and concerns about leaving his friends, family and status to live under difficult 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 .
Halevi's journey is viewed as either a personal religious pilgrimage or as an urging to the diaspora to abandon their cultural synthesis of Graeco-Arabic-Iberian culture, the former being the Diasporist, the latter a Zionist interpretation.
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, though he was reportedly acquitted through his connections and through legal subterfuge. Halevi's ship set sail from Egypt on May 14, 1141; a letter from Abu Nasr ben Avraham to Halfon ben Netanel dated November 12, 1141 suggests Halevi died in July or August. It is uncertain if he arrived safely in Jerusalem or if his departure was delayed and he died in Egypt, but it can may be reasonably assumed that he was able to reach Palestine in this time.
Legend also has it that Halevi was trampled 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. According to the sixteenth century legend, he died as a martyr while reciting his composition "" in front of the gates of Jerusalem. 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. Raymond P. Scheindlin notes that "the legend of his martyrdom, combined with the prominence of the Land of Israel in his life and works, invested his image with a mystique that had an important afterlife in Zionist literature."
Documents that remain from Halevi's last years are panegyric to his various hosts in Egypt and explorations of his religious motivations for his aliyah, preserved in the Cairo geniza. Some contain imaginary details of the voyage, such as descriptions of a turbulent sea that express trepidation for the journey but hope for the spiritual light that might follow. Poems and letters bearing on Halevi's journey are translated and explicated in Raymond P. Scheindlin, The Song of the Distant Dove (Oxford University Press, 2007).
"My God, heal me and I shall be healed.
Let not Thine anger be kindled against me so that I be consumed.
My medicines are from you, whether good
Or evil, whether strong or weak.
It is Thou who shalt choose, not I.
Of Thy knowledge is the evil and the fair.
Not upon my power of healing I rely.
Only for Thine healing do I watch."
In Córdoba, Judah addressed a touching farewell poem to Joseph ibn Ẓaddiḳ, the philosopher and poet. In Egypt, 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, 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".
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 one of Judah's children who did not reach adulthood and who is lost to history.
Many of his poems are addressed to a gazelle or deer according to the custom in al-Andalus, and his oeuvre includes homoerotic poems such as "That Day While I Had Him" and "To Ibn Al-Mu'allim." They follow established themes in Arabic and Hebrew poetry such as the yearning of the lover contrasted with the cruelty of the beloved, who possesses a shining countenance. It is unknown whether this work reflects personal experience or artistic tradition.
"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:
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.Halevi's poems of longing for Israel like Libi BaMizrah () juxtapose love and pain, and dream and reality to express the distance between Spain and the Middle East and his desire to bridge it. He believed he would find true liberation through subservience to God's will in Israel.
Judah was recognized by his contemporaries and in succeeding generations as "the great Jewish national poet." Some of his poetry and writing has also been considered an early expression of support for Jewish nationalism.
"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 was later established as liturgical poetry.
Judah also wrote several Shabbat hymns. One 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!Judah used complicated Arabic language meters in his poems. However, 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. A later critic, applying a witticism to Judah, has said: "It is hard for the dough when the baker himself calls it bad."'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!'
The Kuzari is structured as a fictional dialogue between the king of the Khazars and representatives of various faiths: a philosopher, a Christian, a Muslim, and a Jewish rabbi, each presenting arguments in favour of their respective traditions. The king, seeking the true religion, evaluates these views and ultimately embraces Judaism as the most authentic expression of divine truth. A central theme is in the work is that God, the people of Israel, and the Land of Israel are inseparably bound, a conviction that inspired the author himself to journey to Jerusalem.
Literary journals and periodicals that have published his work include:
Some anthologies of Hebrew poetry that feature his work include:
In 1422, Provence Jewish scholar Jacob ben Chayyim Comprat Vidal Farissol published a commentary on the Kuzari called the "Beit Ya'akob."
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