Yehudah Halevi

Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi, celebrated Hebrew poet and scholar, was born in northern Spain in 1075. While he chose medicine as his profession, early on he evinced a love for poetry.

Although he occupied an honored position as a physician, he felt the intolerance of the Almoravid fanatics toward his coreligionists. He had long yearned for a new, or rather for the old, home: the Holy Land. This yearning was deepened by his intense involvement in his religious-philosophical masterpiece, The Kuzari.

In 1141, Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi boarded a ship in the Alexandria harbor to complete the last leg of his journey to the Land of Israel. At this point, authentic records fail. It is nearly certain that the ship completed its ten-day voyage to the coast of the Holy Land. A letter found in the Cairo Genizah mentions that the poet had died soon after this, during the summer of 1141.

We do not know the circumstances of his death. Legend relates that as he approached Jerusalem, overpowered by the sight of the Holy City, he sang his most beautiful elegy, "Zion ha-lo Tish'ali." At that instant, he was ridden down and killed by an Arab horseman who dashed forth from a city gate.