Speech
Yehudah Halevi and the Kuzari, Part 1 (1961)
"True and pure, and without blemish, was his singing, like his soul – the Creator having made it, with His handiwork contented, kissed the lovely soul, and echoes of that kiss forever after thrilled through all the poet’s numbers, by that gracious deed inspired." In these words did Heinrich Heine, the German poet, sing the praises of the most eminent poet ever to write in the Holy Language – or in any other language. That Divine Kiss left its G-dly imprint on Yehudah Halevi’s life, his poetry, his philosophy. To this day, over 800 years later, Halevi shines forth as one of the purest souls and most sublime poets of all times. Rabbi Yehudah Halevi Is, in the estimate of most students of Judaism, the most authentic Jew of the ages. To know Yehudah Halevi is, in a sense, to know what a Jew is and should be. When we study Halevi, as we shall do in this series, and ponder the sweetness of his personality, the grace of his poetry and the charm of his Jewish thought, we are really discovering for ourselves the ideal personality of Judaism. Two great centers of Jewish life and thought flourished during the Middle Ages — the Franco-German center, and that of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal. The Franco-German communities produced the most potent development of Talmudic scholarship — Rashi and the Tosaphists. Its Talmudic learning was far more Intense than that of Spanish Jewry. The Spaniards, on the other hand, were generally less intense as Talmudists, but more inclined to general culture. Spanish Jewry too had its Talmudic giants: Maimonides, Nachmanides, and a host of others. But the Sephardim, unlike the Ashekenazim, were culturally more versatile. — included: science, pottery, medicine, grammar, philosophy. — Franco-Germans reflected feudalism their environment — hemmed in; Spaniards — comparative freedom — both political and cultural — of theirs. — yet all not well time YHL born. Contemporary Moslems, Christians murdering each other in Palestine, Iberia, N.A…
