Yehuda Halevi

Yehuda Halevi
Author: Hillel Halkin
Publisher: Jewish Encounters
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2010
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0805242066

A profile of the Zionist poet and philosopher offers insight into his representation of 11th- and 12th-century Andalusian Spain, analyzes the religious disciplines that informed his work and traces his fateful voyage to Palestine.

Yehuda Halevi

Yehuda Halevi
Author: Joseph Yahalom
Publisher:
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2009
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

This book follows the life story of the greatest Hebrew poet of medieval times from his first publication in Christian Toledo to his heroic journey toward Zion from Muslim Spain. The description is based, for the first time, on the entire collection of his poetry - "The Diwan", which was edited and re-edited between East and West at every important crossroad of his life. This in turn is done through comparison to autographical letters and contemporary correspondence discovered and collected over the past 50 years in the Cairo Geniza collections. Documentary material and Literary works, which were shun behind the iron wall in The Russian National Library in St. Petersburg, are woven for the first time into one, enabling us to examine closely the intricate relationship between old Jewish traditions and the ideological heritage associated with Halevi's innovative writings in prose and in poetry. Confronting Halevi's "Zion, will thou not ask?" opens the study which is mainly concerned with the story of Halevi's odyssey from Christian to Muslim Spain and eventually to Egypt, including the epic quest to the beloved yet fatal Zion.

Ninety-Two Poems and Hymns of Yehuda Halevi

Ninety-Two Poems and Hymns of Yehuda Halevi
Author: Franz Rosenzweig
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0791493407

This is the first publication in English of Franz Rosenzweig's 1927 translation of and commentaries on ninety-two poems and hymns of the greatest medieval "singer of Zion," Yehuda Halevi (born circa 1080). Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) is widely recognized as one of the greatest Jewish philosophers of the modern period and his Star of Redemption is considered one of the most important twentieth-century contributions to Jewish—and Christian—theology. Rosenzweig's original and brilliant commentaries open a window into the final developments of his own thought: his debates with Protestant theology, his reservations regarding modern science and culture, and his progressive appreciation for the wisdom of the Jewish tradition. They are a testament not only to the profound vision of Judaism embedded in the poetry of Yehuda Halevi, but to the ever vibrant and deepening sagacity of Franz Rosenzweig himself.

Poems from the Diwan

Poems from the Diwan
Author: Judah (ha-Levi)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2002
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9780856463334

One of the finest poets in post-Biblical Hebrew literature, in a major new translation.

The Kuzari

The Kuzari
Author: Judah Halevi
Publisher: e-artnow
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2021-04-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

The Book of the Kuzari is one of the most famous works of the medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet Judah Halevi. It is regarded as one the most important apologetic works of Jewish philosophy. The Kuzari takes place during a conversion of some Khazar nobility to Judaism. Divided into five parts it takes the form of a dialogue between a rabbi and a pagan. The pagan is then mythologized as the king of the Khazars who has invited the rabbi to instruct him in the tenets of Judaism. The Kuzari's emphasis is on the uniqueness of the Jewish people. The ideas and style of the work played an important role in debates within the Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment movement.

The Kuzari

The Kuzari
Author: Judah (ha-Levi)
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Jewish philosophy
ISBN: 9781598269611

Yehuda Halevi

Yehuda Halevi
Author: Hillel Halkin
Publisher: Schocken
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2010-02-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 080524283X

Part of the Jewish Encounter series A masterly biography of Yehuda Halevi, one of the greatest of Hebrew poets and a shining example of the synthesis of religion and culture that defined the golden age of medieval Spanish Jewry. Like Maimonides, with whom he contrasts sharply, Yehuda Halevi spanned multiple worlds. Poet, philosopher, and physician, he is known today for both his religious and secular verse, including his famed “songs of Zion,” and for The Kuzari, an elucidation of Judaism in dialogue form. Hillel Halkin brilliantly evokes the fascinating world of eleventh- and twelfth-century Andalusian Spain in which Halevi lived and discusses the influences that formed him. Relying on the astonishing discoveries of the Cairo Geniza, he pieces together the mystery of Halevi’s last days, with its fateful voyage to Palestine, which became a haunting legend. An acclaimed writer and translator, Halkin builds his account of Halevi’s life and death on his magnificent translations of Halevi’s poems. He places The Kuzari within the wider context of Jewish thought and explains why, more perhaps than any other medieval Jewish figure, Halevi has become an inspirational yet highly controversial figure in modern Jewish and Israeli intellectual life.

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
Author: Yossi Klein Halevi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2019-06-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 0062968661

New York Times bestseller Now with a new Epilogue, containing letters of response from Palestinian readers. "A profound and original book, the work of a gifted thinker."--Daphne Merkin, The Wall Street Journal Attempting to break the agonizing impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, the Israeli commentator and award-winning author of Like Dreamers directly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes. I call you "neighbor" because I don’t know your name, or anything personal about you. Given our circumstances, "neighbor" might be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dream, violators of each other’s sense of home. We are incarnations of each other’s worst historical nightmares. Neighbors? Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor is one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of "the enemy." In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East. This is the first attempt by an Israeli author to directly address his Palestinian neighbors and describe how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes. Halevi untangles the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century. In lyrical, evocative language, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel, using history and personal experience as his guide. Halevi’s letters speak not only to his Palestinian neighbor, but to all concerned global citizens, helping us understand the painful choices confronting Israelis and Palestinians that will ultimately help determine the fate of the region.

The Dream of the Poem

The Dream of the Poem
Author:
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2009-01-10
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1400827558

Hebrew culture experienced a renewal in medieval Spain that produced what is arguably the most powerful body of Jewish poetry written since the Bible. Fusing elements of East and West, Arabic and Hebrew, and the particular and the universal, this verse embodies an extraordinary sensuality and intense faith that transcend the limits of language, place, and time. Peter Cole's translations reveal this remarkable poetic world to English readers in all of its richness, humor, grace, gravity, and wisdom. The Dream of the Poem traces the arc of the entire period, presenting some four hundred poems by fifty-four poets, and including a panoramic historical introduction, short biographies of each poet, and extensive notes. (The original Hebrew texts are available on the Princeton University Press Web site.) By far the most potent and comprehensive gathering of medieval Hebrew poems ever assembled in English, Cole's anthology builds on what poet and translator Richard Howard has described as "the finest labor of poetic translation that I have seen in many years" and "an entire revelation: a body of lyric and didactic verse so intense, so intelligent, and so vivid that it appears to identify a whole dimension of historical consciousness previously unavailable to us." The Dream of the Poem is, Howard says, "a crowning achievement."

The Song of the Distant Dove

The Song of the Distant Dove
Author: Raymond P. Scheindlin
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2008
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0195315421

Judah Halevi (ca. 1075-1141) is the best known and most beloved of medieval Hebrew poets, partly because of his passionate poems of longing for the Land of Israel and partly because of the legend of his death as a martyr while reciting his Ode to Zion at the gates of Jerusalem. He was also one of the premier theologians of medieval Judaism, having written a treatise on the meaning of Judaism that is still studied and venerated by traditional Jews.As a member of the wealthy Jewish elite of medieval Spain, Halevi enjoyed the material pleasures available to the upper classes. Alongside his sacred poetry, he wrote verses about youthful romance, wine songs, and odes to his friends. In midlife, Halevi turned more seriously to religion, eventually abandoning his family and community with hopes of ending his life as a pilgrim in the land of Israel.Miraculously, a number of letters in Arabic were discovered about fifty years ago, some written by Halevi, some written to Halevi, and yet others written about Halevi by his friends in Egypt. These letters preserve a vivid record of Halevi's travels as a pilgrim and of the last months of his life. Raymond Scheindlin has written the first book-length treatment of Halevi's pilgrimage in any language. He tells the story of Halevi's journey through selections from these revealing sources and explores its meaning through discussions of his stirring poetry, presented here in new verse translations with full commentary.In Hebrew verse of unparalleled beauty, Halevi salutes the Holy Land; he argues with friends about his intentions; he sets out his fantasy of crossing the ocean, of walking the hills and valleys of the Land of Israel, and of dying and mingling his bones with its soil and stones. He even confides his secret fears and uncertainties, his longing for his family, and his fear of death at sea. With his consummate skill as a translator of Hebrew poetry and his mastery of Judeo-Arabic culture, Scheindlin provides fresh insights into the literary, religious, and historical facets of Halevi's captivating poetry and fateful journey.