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Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi

Yehudah haLevi (also Judah ha-Levi; Hebrew: יהודה הלוי and Judah ben Shmuel Halevi יהודה בן שמואל הלוי; Arabic: يهوذا اللاوي‎; c. 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in Spain, either in Toledo or Tudela, in 1075 or 1086, and died shortly after arriving in the Holy Land in 1141, at that point the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Yehudah haLevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets, celebrated both for his religious and secular poems, many of which appear in present-day liturgy. His greatest philosophical work was The Kuzari.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Halevi
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עַל אַהֲבָתְךָ אֶשְׁתֶּה גְבִיעִי | Al Ahavatekha Eshteh Gəvi’i, a piyyut of Yehudah haLevi (German translation by Franz Rosenzweig 1921)

Contributed on: 11 Aug 2021 by Franz Rosenzweig (translation) | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) |

The text of Yehudah haLevi’s piyyut, “Al Ahavatekha Eshteh Gəvi’i,” with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig. . . .


אֲֽדֹנָי נֶגְדְּךָ כׇל־תַּאֲוָתִי | Adonai Negdekha kol Ta’avati, a piyyut by Yehudah haLevi (early 12th c.) rhyming translation by Alice Lucas (1894)

Contributed on: 21 Sep 2021 by Alice Lucas (translation) | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) |

A rhyming English translation of the piyyut Adonai Negdekha kol Ta’avati. . . .


רָאשֵׁי עָם עֵת הִתְאַסֵּף | When the chiefs of the people meet, a muwassaha poem by Yehudah haLevi (ca. early 12th c.)

Contributed on: 17 Jul 2022 by Herman Prins Salomon (translation) | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi |

“Roshei am et hitasef umlekhim b’sodam” by Yehuda Halevi was translated by Herman Prins Salomon in “Yehuda Halevi and his ‘Cid’” and published in The American Sepharadi (1978), pp. 22-46. . . .


בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי | Preise ihn, meine Seele! | Barkhi Nafshi, a piyyut by Yehudah haLevi in abridged translation by Yehoshua Heshil Miro (1835)

Contributed on: 13 Mar 2022 by Andreas Rusterholz (transcription) | Yehoshua Heshil Miro | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi | Aharon N. Varady (translation) |

“Zweites Gebet vor Neïla” is an abridged, adapted translation by Yehoshua Heshil Miro of the piyyut by Yehudah haLevi “Barkhi Nafshi et Adonai.” There are seven stanzas missing near the end including the final stanza and a portion of the penultimate stanza. The translation was published in Miro’s anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaicher Religion. It first appears in the 1835 edition, as teḥinah №48 pp. 83-85. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №50 on pp. 86-90. . . .


יָהּ, אָנָה אֶמְצָאֶךָּ | Yah, Where shall I find you?, a piyyut by Yehudah haLevi (ca. early 12th c.)

Contributed on: 06 Jun 2020 by Nina Davis Salaman (translation) | the Ben Yehuda Project (transcription) | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi | Aharon N. Varady (translation) |

A piyyut that expresses the paradox of a divinity that is both “Beyond” and “Present.” . . .


אֱלִי, רְפָאֵנִי וְאֵרָפֵא | Eli Refa’eni v’Erafé, the personal physician’s prayer of Rabbi Dr. Yehudah haLevi (ca. early 12th c.)

Contributed on: 06 Jun 2020 by Nina Davis Salaman (translation) | the Ben Yehuda Project (transcription) | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi | Aharon N. Varady (translation) |

The physician’s prayer of Rabbi Dr. Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi in the 12th century CE. . . .


🆕 עַל אַהֲבָתְךָ אֶשְׁתֶּה גְבִיעִי | Al Ahavatekha Eshteh Gəvi’i, a piyyut of Yehudah haLevi (partial translation by Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman)

Contributed on: 31 Jan 2025 by Levi Weiman-Kelman (translation) | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi |

This is a partial English translation of Al Ahavatekha offered by rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman to accompany a video by Nigunim Ensemble presenting their musical setting of the piyyut on Youtube in 2018. . . .


🆕 אִמְרוֹת הָאֵל טְהוֹרוֹת | Imrot ha-El Ṭ’horot — a meorah piyyut for days on which the Decalogue is recited, by Yehuda ben Shmuel haLevi

Contributed on: 11 Feb 2025 by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi |

A meorah — a piyyuṭ to be inserted before the ḥatima of the first blessing of the Shema’ — by the great payṭan Yehuda haLevi. This piyyuṭ was traditionally recited in eastern Ashkenazi communities on Shabbat Yitro and VaEtḥanan, the two Shabbatot where the Ten Commandments are read. Some also included it on the first day of Shavuot for the same reason. . . .


יוֹם שַׁבָּתוֹן | Yom Shabbaton, a Shabbat song by Yehudah haLevi (interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi)

Contributed on: 20 Jan 2020 by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation) | Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) |

An interpretive translation of Yehudah haLevi’s shabbat song, “Yom Shabbaton.” . . .


מִי כָמֽוֹךָ וְאֵין כָּמֽוֹךָ | Mi Khamokha v’Ein Kamokha, a retelling of Megillat Esther in a piyyut for Shabbat Zakhor by Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi (ca. 11th c.)

Contributed on: 17 Feb 2021 by Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) |

The poem Mi Khamokha v-Ein Khamokha, an epic retelling of the book of Esther in verse, was written for Shabbat Zakhor, the Shabbat before Purim, by the great paytan Yehuda ben Shmuel haLevi. It was originally written as a “geulah,” meant to be inserted into the prayer after the Shema in place of the verse beginning with “A new song…” But later Sephardic poskim ruled that it was forbidden to insert piyyutim into the Shema blessings, so in the communities that recite it today it is generally either read after the Full Kaddish as an introduction to the Torah service, or (for instance, in most Spanish and Portuguese communities) within the verse “Kol atzmotai tomarna” in the Nishmat prayer. Wherever you include it in your service, it’s a beautiful and intricately rhymed piyyut, and surprisingly easy to understand at that. It is presented here in a gender-neutral translation with all the Biblical verses cited, alongside a new translation that preserves the fourfold acrostic, two alphabetical and two authorial. –Isaac Gantwerk Mayer . . .