Rabbi Yehudi Halevi was born in the second half of the 11th century in Moslem Spain ans spent most of his life traveling aroundboth Moslem and Christian Spain, in contact with the leading intellectuals of his time. Deeply involved in the Iberio-Judaic culture of his time, he is known for Jewish literature, both for his secular and religious poetry. Towards the end of his life, he left Spain in order to go to the Land of Israel, to the amazement and consternation of his friends. It is not known for certain if he ever arrived, but legend recounts that he reached Jerusalem and was killed by a passing horseman as he knelt to kiss the stones.
His philosophic work, the Kuzari, is loosely based on the historical episode of the conversion to Judaism of the King of the Khazars in the Middle Ages. The book begins with a recurring dream of the king, in which an angel tells him that his intentions are acceptable to G-d, but not his actions. He then initiates a confrontation between the major contending ideologies of his day - inviting representatives of Islam, Christianity, and philosophy.
Sympathetic to the philosopher, he elicits from the religious representatives the admission that their beliefs are based on Judaism. He then invites a Jewish sage. The rest of the book consists of a dialogue between the sage and the king. |
