Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, A Jewish Poet And Philosopher

Rabbi Yehuda Halevi was a Jewish poet and philosopher. Many consider him the greatest poet of the golden ages. Halevi was born around the year 1080 in Toledo, Spain. His artistic talent was evident from a young age, and his father who was not short of financial means ensured Halevi had the best education possible. Halevi’s poems could be broadly categorized as religious or secular. Aside from his poetry, Halevi also wrote the Kitab al Kuzari in Arabic, a Jewish philosophical guide that is one of the most important religious readings in Judaism. The Kuzari contains dialogue between a Rabbi and Judaism converts of the Khazar tribe. Halevi’s magnetic personality gave him powerful friends across Europe and the Middle East among them Moses†¦show more content†¦He had a lifelong â€Å"longing† to make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Jerusalem and many of his poems reflected this desire. Arguably, the line of his work that was connected to the Holy Land was what he was most renowned for within the Jewish world. Arguably Halevi’s most famous poem My Heart is in the East captures this yearning perfectly. The line â€Å"My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west† –the east referring to Israel and the West his location in Europe-captures the frustration of being so far away from the land of his people. The poem sums up Halevi’s and other Jews’ plight, being torn between the riches of Spain which is albeit dominated by Muslims and Christians, and â€Å"Jerusalem’s dust† where fame and riches do not abound but where the heart is truly at home. The term fetters of Edom can be loosely translated to mean Christianity. The poem would therefore also appear to contain an expression of doubt by Halevi regarding his prospects of ever making it to Zion due to the restrictions and perils placed on travel by Christian and Muslim domination of the Jews and their land. From Jehuda Halevi’s Songs to Zion is an apparent continuation of My Heart is in the East with the first stanza containing the entirety of the latter poem. The five verses of the poem seem to transform progressively through a journey to the Holy Land by