National and Personal Melancholy in the Writings of Yehudah Halevi

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1 National and Personal Melancholy in the Writings of Yehudah Halevi Kenneth Collins, mbchb, mphil, phd, frcgp about the author Dr. Kenneth Collins was a general medical practitioner in Glasgow for over thirty years. He served twice as chair of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and as president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council. He chairs the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and was a member of the British Chief Rabbinate Trust for ten years. He has written extensively on Jewish medical history and medical ethics and published several books on Jewish medical history in Scotland. He has written on aspects of Maimonidean medicine and co-edited Moses Maimonides and His Practice of Medicine in 2013 with Fred Rosner and Samuel Kottek. He is the editor of Vesalius, Journal of the International Society for the History of Medicine. Dr. Collins made aliyah in 2009 and is currently a visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. drkcollins@gmail.com ABSTRACT Although a celebrated Hebrew poet whose output covered many genres, and a successful physician, Rabbi Yehudah Halevi ( CE) suffered extreme sorrow over the persecution of the Jewish People by both Christians and Muslims and their exile from the Land of Israel. His poetry conveys his longing An early version of this paper was presented in July 2011 at a conference on Poetry and Melancholy at the University of Stirling, Scotland. 129

2 130 B OR HA TORAH ( ) for Israel and his distress at the Jewish condition in the lands of their dispersal. Taking great risks, he finally traveled to the Holy Land to seek G-d s Presence there, but legend has it that he was killed at the gates of Jerusalem. The life and times of yehudah HALEVI The idea of melancholy comes from a less technological age and suggests a low mood, a depressive physical and mental outlook. Indeed, the term literally means black bile, from the ancient belief that the melancholic personality was caused by an imbalance in body humors. Today, the word depression has come to represent a wide spectrum of mood disorders, which include clinical depression, problems relating to social and societal pressures, and often just simple unhappiness. Endogenous depression is a significant medical problem, suggesting not just a low mood but also lethargy of thought and action that can take months to treat. Therapy usually requires medication or some form of cognitive behavior therapy. In many cultures the poet is seen as dwelling in a place touched by both wisdom and madness, inextricably linked with melancholia. Rabbi Yehudah Halevi ( CE) ranks as one of the greatest of the medieval Hebrew poets of the Jewish Golden Age of Spain. His philosophic writings, published as the Kuzari, remain well known to this day, and much of his religious poetry has entered the liturgy in synagogue prayer books. Contemporary evaluation of his secular poetry and recovery of his later correspondence from the Cairo Geniza have enabled a fuller understanding of the poet and his work. Halevi s life experience included the unpredictable swing between acceptance and hostility in Muslim Spain, and the violence of the First Crusade, which led to massacres across Europe and the end of the Jewish presence in Jerusalem. I shall briefly examine Halevi s poetic writings that reveal his deep personal longings, as well as religious and national sentiments. Halevi uses his poetry to illuminate the extent of his personal despair and the anguish of Jewish life in Europe at that time. His immersion in the comfort of religious experience with its promise of ultimate redemption is balanced by his profound sense of rejection and exile: Storm tossed and afflicted like a ship battered,

3 MELANCHOLY IN THE WRITINGS OF YEHUDAH HALEVI 131 hears once more a psalm of thanks. Come, faithful daughter, out from dark clouds, For the Lord s glory upon you shines. (Yahalom 2009, p. 111) Joseph Yahalom notes that in Halevi s poetry we see the themes of death and captivity extending to disaster, fire, and ill-health, though, of course, these ills can be overcome, as Halevi indicates in his lyrical wedding odes (Yahalom 2009, p. 4). These ideas, which run through his poetry, illustrate both his assessment of personal and national tragedies, and ideals that can transcend them. The use of language to assuage calamity on any level was not unique to Halevi s age and found its classic expression, in strikingly different forms, a century later in the writings of Moses Maimonides ( ). Maimonides, following the belief patterns common in the surrounding Islamic world, viewed philosophy itself as a means of transforming lives. He saw philosophers as physicians of the soul, producing peace of mind and physical tranquility. Maimonides era, just like that of Yehudah Halevi, had its share of Jewish suffering. The Jewish condition of their times could be considered as an illness, producing communal anxiety, disharmony, and depression. Religious and philosophical writings tried to provide the necessary healing. As Joel Kraemer indicates: By comparing himself to a physician and his words to medicine, Maimonides suggested that his aim was to alleviate distress and restore health, and not only to give a strict legal opinion (Kraemer 2008, pp. 1 30). Yehudah Halevi is believed to have been born in Toledo, or possibly further north in Tudela, Spain, in 1075, an area then under Christian rule. Spain, at the time, was a patchwork of Christian and Muslim states, and Halevi s education reflects this cultural milieu. Besides a traditional Jewish scholarly upbringing, he was aware of Arab literature as well as the Greek sciences and philosophy. As a young man, he spent time in Granada with one of his patrons, the poet Moses ibn Ẹzra. Granada was then a great center of Jewish intellectual activity. Its Jewish community had been reconstituted after a horrendous massacre in After Granada was captured by the Almoravids around 1090, however, its Jews had to abandon the city again. Consequently, Halevi lived in various towns and cities in the south of Muslim Iberia.

4 132 B OR HA TORAH ( ) Although he grew up in an Arabic-speaking environment, Halevi s poetry, like that of other Jewish poets of his time, was usually composed in Hebrew. His aptitude as a poet was recognized early, and he produced wedding poems, as well as elegies and eulogies for his patrons. His lamentation for a murdered friend (dated 1108) has an almost Biblical grandeur. While Halevi is usually considered the greatest medieval Hebrew poet, he followed such luminaries as Samuel Ha Nagid (born in Merida in 993) and Solomon ibn Gabirol (born in Malaga in 1021). His oeuvre, probably exceeding that of any other poet, included the full range of secular emotions as well as a prodigious output of piyyutim (religious hymns in Hebrew). These piyyutim form an essential part of synagogue worship in various Jewish religious communities to this day especially in the Sefardic High Holiday prayers. There are even some of Halevi s piyyutim in Karaite liturgy, despite his detailed rebuttal of the Karaite beliefs and the Karaite opposition to rabbinic Judaism in the Kuzari. 1 Possibly, this inclusion is related to the respect that Halevi expressed for the Karaites adherence to the literal meaning of the Torah (Yahalom, p. 96). Halevi s verses sanctify the religious life of the home as well as that of the synagogue. His Sabbath table hymns enhance the mystical as well as physical enjoyment of the day and provide strength to face the week ahead: On Friday doth my cup o erflow, What blissful rest the night shall know, When, in thine arms, my toil and woe Are all forgot, Sabbath my love! Tis dusk, with sudden light, distilled From one sweet face, the world is filled; The tumult of my heart is stilled For thou art come, Sabbath my love! (Hirschfeld 1905) Halevi chose medicine as a profession, most likely in order to provide 1. The Kuzari is an imaginary account of the legendary conversion of the Khazar king to Judaism in the eighth century. It takes the form of a dialogue between a priest, an imam, and a rabbi and the king, who ultimately accepts the arguments of the rabbi. The book also includes a polemic against the Karaite literal view that rejects the rabbinic interpretations and traditions found in the Talmud.

5 MELANCHOLY IN THE WRITINGS OF YEHUDAH HALEVI 133 a reliable income at the time of his marriage. The customary form of medical education before the introduction of formal medical school into the nascent European universities was by apprenticeship to a practicing physician. However, it was also possible to enter the profession merely by learning the traditional medical lore of past masters, such as the writings of Galen, Hippocrates, and Avicenna. Many Jewish physicians, including Maimonides more than half a century later, entered medicine this way. Halevi enjoyed some success in his practice of medicine, dispensing herbal remedies, advising on healthy behavior, and providing psychological counseling, as was the custom for medieval practitioners. However, he was realistic enough about the efficacy of contemporary medical practice to write: I m praised to the skies with all kinds of lies I work day and night and in between at the vanity of medicine Which heals not a thing (Halkin 2010, p. 96) the centrality of ISRAEL One of Halevi s deepest beliefs, possibly following a religious experience of a restored Temple in a powerful dream, was the centrality of the Land of Israel, the Holy Land. Halevi lived in an era of Jewish insecurity. This was the time of the First Crusade, that wreaked destruction and death on Jewish communities in the Rhineland along the Crusaders route. While this was not the time for a mass return to the Land of Israel given the dangers of travel and the Crusader ban on any Jewish presence in Jerusalem Halevi s motivation to make an individual pilgrimage to Jerusalem became increasingly apparent in his verse. He brought together religion, nationalism, and patriotism in the fulfillment of the supreme political-religious ideal of medieval Judaism the return to Jerusalem. Although he realized that the time for messianic redemption had not yet come, nevertheless the location of Jewish aspiration could not be clearer. In this he is almost unique among the medieval Jewish philosophers, who may have shared his yearnings for Zion but did not express anything approaching Halevi s longings in their writings.

6 134 B OR HA TORAH ( ) ל ב י ב מ ז ר ח ו א נ כ י ב סו ף מ ע ר ב א יך א ט ע מ ה א ת א ש ר א כ ל ו א יך י ע ר ב א יכ ה א ש ל ם נ ד ר י ו א ס ר י, ב עו ד צ י ו ן ב ח ב ל א דו ם ו א נ י ב כ ב ל ע ר ב? י ק ל ב ע ינ י ע ז ב כ ל טו ב ס פ ר ד, כ מו י ק ר ב ע ינ י ר או ת ע פ רו ת ד ב יר נ ח ר ב! My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet to me? How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains? A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary. (Salaman 1924) One of the most moving of his odes to Jerusalem is the lamentation beginning, Zion, surely you will inquire after the well-being of your imprisoned ones, which is now a central part of the liturgy for the Ninth of Av fast commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples and other calamities. In this lament Halevi develops the theme that the Land of Israel is unique in a natural as well as metaphysical sense because its air is charged with the divine spirit that nourishes the body as well as the soul (Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot 2010). It is not surprising that this ode has inspired generations of modern Hebrew novels and poems (Yahalom, pp. 1 7). ציון, הלא תשאלי לשלום אסירייך דורשי שלומך והם יתר עדרייך? מים ומזרח ומצפון ותימן שלום רחוק וקרוב שאי מכל עברייך. ושלום אסיר תקוה נותן דמעיו כטל חרמון ונכסף לרידתם על הררייך! לבכות ענותך אני תנים, ועת אחלום שיבת שבותך אני כינור לשירייך. Zion! Do you wonder how and where your captives Are now, and if they think of you, the far-flocked remnants? From north and south, east, west, and all directions, Near and far, they send their greetings

7 MELANCHOLY IN THE WRITINGS OF YEHUDAH HALEVI 135 As I send mine, captured by my longings To weep like Hermon s dew upon your mountains. Mourning your lowliness, I am the wail of jackals; Dreaming your sons return, the song of lute strings. Translated by Hillel Halkin Halevi s conviction about the power of the Land of Israel is elaborated further in the Kuzari. The rabbi in this famous debate maintains that religious fulfillment is possible only in the Presence of the G-d of Israel, which, he believed, is the most accessible in the Land of Israel. Therefore, the rabbi expresses a desire to travel to the Holy Land, despite the dangers on the way. He is no longer content to await divine redemption but must lead the way for the nation to return. Within months of completing the Kuzari, Halevi set sail for the East. ש מ ש ו י ר ח ל עו ל ם ש ר תו, ח ק ו ת ב יו ם ו ל י ל ה ל א נ צ מ תו : ה ם נ ת נו או תו ת ל ז ר ע י ע ק ב ל ה יו ת ל עו ל ם ג ו י ו ל א י כ ר תו. א ם ב ש מ אל ד ו ח ם ב י מ ין ק ר ב ם, א ל י אמ רו נו א ש ב ע ת י ת ע ו תו, א ך י א מ ינו כ י ל עו ל ם ה ם ו כ י ל א י ש ב תו ע ד יו ם ו ל י ל י ש ב תו! Lo! Sun and moon, these minister for aye; The laws of day and night cease nevermore; Given for signs to Jacob s seed that they shall ever be a nation till these be o er. If with His left hand He should thrust away, Lo! With His right hand He shall draw them nigh. (Salaman 1901) It was September 1140 before Halevi arrived in Alexandria on the final stage of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem. As a celebrated poet and philosopher he received an enthusiastic welcome from the Jewish communities of Egypt, and he remained there over the winter, sailing to his destination only in May Recent studies of the documents in the Cairo Geniza have revealed many details about his stay in Egypt and the entreaties for him to remain there. Thus, we find references in

8 136 B OR HA TORAH ( ) the poetry written during his last year to his reception in Egypt as well as his concerns about the pilgrimage. This was to be his final, solitary journey. This greatest of poets was to face a lonely end as he achieved his life s ambition to walk on the soil of the Land of Israel. Though accounts compiled in the century after his death make no mention of how he met his end, one legend has it that he died in the summer of 1141, slain by an Arab as he arrived in Jerusalem. Another version is that he was taken by an angel of G-d. His death at the gates of Jerusalem serves as the supreme metaphor of his life and vision. religious POETRy THAT heals the soul Halevi associated himself completely with the suffering and hope of the Jewish People, often submerging his own persona into a national identity. Next to G-d, the Jewish People stand nearest to his heart; their suffering and hopes are his. Like the authors of the Psalms, he gladly subordinates his own personality to the wider one of the Children of Israel, so that it is not always easy to distinguish the identity of the speaker. Despite his reverence, he can reproach G-d. The following four questions appear in four separate lamentations. Why hast Thou sold us to the oppressors? Shall we be captives forever in a strange land? How long must our anxious hopes drag on? When shall the morn of freedom dawn for Israel? (Translations found in articles/9005-judah-ha-levi) However, Halevi s poetry brings hope, a certain confidence, and ultimately national healing: Bide thou thy time within thy soul be peace, Nor ask complaining when thy pain shall cease; Speak, rhyme, and sing, for victory is thine, Nigh thee my tent is pitched, and thou art mine. (Translations in jewish encyclopedia)

9 MELANCHOLY IN THE WRITINGS OF YEHUDAH HALEVI 137 CONCLusion In The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides indicates that a balanced philosophical approach to Biblical texts can relieve anxiety and soothe the soul. Though this may be unlikely to provide a cure in the contemporary sense of managing mental illness, it can have a profound effect in lifting depressed spirits. The poetry of Yehudah Halevi, in reflecting troubled times, illustrates his clear vision of personal and national redemption, and still possesses the ability to comfort the troubled soul and replace despair with hope. REFERENCES Halkin, Hillel Yehuda Halevi. New York: Schocken Books. This book provides a comprehensive overview of Halevi s poetry as well as a detailed account of his life and times. Hirschfeld, Hartwig English translation of translation into German by Seligmann Heller, published in Retrieved from 1, Jewish Encyclopedia s.v. Judah Ha-Levi. com/view.jsp?artid=643&letter=j. The Jewish Encyclopedia was originally published between 1901 and 1906 in New York. Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot, Commentary Based on the Teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik Jerusalem: OU Press, Koren Publishers. pp Kraemer, Joel L Maimonides, the Great Healer. In Maimonidean Studies, edited by Arthur Hyman and Alfred Ivry. New York: Yeshiva University Press. vol. 5, p. 5. This lead chapter develops the theme with great style and depth. This theme is further developed by David Bakan, Dan Merkur, and David Weiss (Maimonides Cure of Souls: Medieval Precursor of Psychoanalysis. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009), who describe Maimonides cure of souls as an insight-oriented approach to sublimation complementary to the practice of Freudian psychoanalysis (pp ). See also R. Pies Maimonides and the Origins of Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy. vol. 11, pp Salaman, Nina Davis, translator Songs of Exile by Hebrew Poets. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. p. 49. Salaman, Nina Davis, translator, In Selected Poems of Jehudah Halevi, edited by Heinrich Brody. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. Reprinted Yahalom, Joseph Yehuda Halevi: Poetry and Pilgrimage. Jerusalem: Magnes Press.

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eriktology Torah Workbook Bereshiyt / Genesis [1] [2] [3] FOREWORD It should be noted when using this workbook, that we ( Eric, Lee, James, and a host of enthusiastic encouragers ) are not making a statement