Yehuda Halevi: Encyclopedia II - Yehuda Halevi - Youth

Yehuda Halevi - Youth

As a youth Ha-Levi lived a life of pleasure. He mixed pleasure with learning. It is possible that Judah's father, Samuel "the Castilian," sent Judah, who was his only son, to Lucena to be educated in the various branches of Jewish learning at the school of Isaac Alfasi. On the death of his master, Judah composed an elegy (Brody, "Diwan des Abul-Ḥasan Jehuda ha-Levi," ii., No. 14, p. 100). It was probably in Lucena, too, that Judah won the friendship of Alfasi's most prominent pupils, Joseph ibn Migas and Baruch Albalia.

Judah chose medicine as his profession; but he quickly displayed an aptitude and love for poetry. The early ripening of his poetic talent aroused the admiration of his friend and senior, the poet Moses ibn Ezra, who accorded him enthusiastic praise.

He was well acquainted with the productions of the Arabic and the Castilian poets; yet the muse spoke to him in the old and sacred language of the Bible (Hebrew), in which "he sang for all times and places, soon becoming the favorite of the people". His earliest writing followed the structures of Arabic poetry, and dealt with popular Arabic themes: wine, women, and song. He became versed in Greco-Arabic philosophy also. His personal style was characterized by wit, irony, humor and inventiveness with language. It is astonishing to consider that Hebrew was not his native spoken language. The fluid and lively style of his verse reads as if Hebrew was a living language (which was not the case in the middle ages).

After completing his studies, which he, being in easy circumstances, had been able to pursue deliberately, Judah returned to Toledo, where he soon acquired so large a practice that he complained in a letter to his friend David Narboni (Brody, l.c. i. 224, 225) of a lack of tranquility and leisure. He married in Toledo; and from allusions in some of his poems it is evident that his only child was a daughter, through whom he had a grandson, also named Judah.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Youth", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki