JUDAH HA-LEVI

born c. 1075, , Tudela, Kingdom of Pamplona died July 1141, Egypt Hebrew in full Yehuda Ben Shemuel Ha-levi Jewish poet and religious philosopher. His works were the culmination of the development of Hebrew poetry within the Arabic cultural sphere. Among his major works are the poems collected in Diwan, the Zionide poems celebrating Zion, and the Sefer ha-Kuzari (Book of the Khazar), presenting his philosophy of Judaism in dialogue form. Additional reading J.H. Schirmann's biography of Judah ha-Levi (in Hebrew) in Tarbiz, 9:3554, 219240, 284305, with corrections in vol. 10 and 11 (193740), is the only available, comprehensive study. Previous biographies are incomplete and partly obsolete. Shelomo D. Goitein discovered autographs of Judah ha-Levi and important documents concerning him in the manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza. He summarized his discoveries in The Biography of R. Judah ha-Levi in the Light of the Cairo Geniza Documents, in Proc. Am. Acad. Jewish Res., 28:4156 (1959). For characteristics of Judah ha-Levi's personality, see J. Jacobs, Judah Halevi: Poet and Pilgrim, in Jewish Ideals and Other Essays (1896); I. Heinemann, Introduction, to the English translation of Judah ha-Levi's Kuzari (1947); S.W. Baron, Yehudah Halevi: An Answer to an Historic Challenge, Jewish Social Studies, 3:243272 (1941). The best existing edition of Judah ha-Levi's collected Hebrew poems (his Diwan) has been published by H. Brody, 4 vol. (18941930). The English translations by N. Salaman, Selected Poems of Jehudah Halevi (1924), with the Hebrew originals are also of interest.