author
active 12th century ha-Levi Judah
A celebrated poet, philosopher, and physician of medieval Spain, he gave Hebrew verse a new emotional range and lasting power. His poems of longing for Zion and his philosophical classic Kuzari helped shape Jewish thought for centuries.
1 Audiobook
Ein Diwan
by active 12th century ha-Levi Judah
About the author
Born in al-Andalus around 1075, probably in either Tudela or Toledo, Judah ha-Levi became one of the great Hebrew poets of the Middle Ages. He lived in the rich cultural world of Jewish Spain and was also known as a physician and religious thinker.
His writing ranges from love poems and wine songs to deeply spiritual and liturgical verse, but he is especially remembered for poems about Zion that express longing, devotion, and exile with unusual intensity. He is also known for Kuzari, a philosophical work that presents Judaism through a dialogue and argues for the value of revelation, tradition, and lived religious experience.
Late in life, he set out for the Land of Israel, a journey that became part of his enduring legend. He is thought to have died in 1141, likely in Egypt or shortly after the journey, but his poetry and thought continued to travel far beyond his own time.