[Lucid thinker and melodious singer. Born at Toledo in the last quarter of the eleventh century, and died in the Orient in the middle of the twelfth. His philosophic work, written in Arabic, has always been a household word in Jewish homes in its Hebrew translation under the title ha-Kozari. His poems are the outburst of a deeply religious soul, and often describe his fervent love for Zion. Though under the influence of Arabic literature, his poems are more Jewish than those of the other great poets of that brilliant epoch.]
1. Ode to Zion[113]
O Zion, wilt thou not inquire about the peace of thy captives, they that seek thy peace and are the remnant of thy flocks? From west and east, from north and south, greetings from them that are far and near take thou on all sides. Greetings also from a slave of yearning, who sheds his tears like Hermon’s dew, and longs that they fall on thy mounts.
I am like a jackal to bewail thy woe; but when I dream of thy restoration, I am a harp for thy songs. My heart moans for Bethel, and Peniel, and for Mahanaim, and all the meeting-places of thy pure ones. There God’s Presence dwells near thee, and thy Creator opened thy gates toward the gates of heaven. The glory of the Lord alone was thy light; the sun, the moon, and stars illumined thee not.
I yearn that my soul be poured forth in the place where God’s spirit was poured out on thy chosen ones. Thou art a royal house, thou art the throne of God, how then can bondmen sit upon the thrones of thy princes?
Would that I were roaming about in the places where God appeared unto thy seers and messengers! Who would make me wings, that I may fly away? I would cause my broken heart to move amidst thy mounts of Bether! On thy ground fain would I lie prostrate; I would take pleasure in thy stones, and would love thy dust! Then standing by the sepulchres of my fathers, I would gaze with rapture on thy choicest graves in Hebron. I would pass through thy forest and Carmel, and stand in Gilead, and gaze with rapture on mount Abarim;—mount Abarim and mount Hor, where are thy two great luminaries, thy teachers who gave thee light.
Thine air is life for the souls, like myrrh are the grains of thy dust, and thy streams are like the honeycomb. It would be pleasant for me to walk naked and barefoot among thy desolate ruins, where once thy temples stood; where thy ark was hidden, and where thy Cherubim dwelled in thy innermost shrines.
I will pluck and cast away the beauty of my locks, and curse fate which denied thy Nazirites in an unclean land. How can it be pleasant unto me to eat and drink, when I see that the curs drag thy young lions? or how can the light of the day be sweet to my sight, when I see the flesh of thine eagles in the mouth of ravens?
O cup of sorrow, gently! desist for a while! for my reins and soul are already filled with thy bitterness. When I remember Oholah, I drink thy poison; and when I remember Oholibah, I drain thy dregs.
O Zion, perfect of beauty, thou hast of yore combined love and grace, and the souls of thy companions are bound up with thee; they that rejoice in thy bliss, are grieved at thy desolation, and bewail thy misfortunes. From the pit of captivity they pant toward thee, and prostrate themselves, each from his place, toward thy gates; the flocks of thy multitude, that are exiled and scattered over mountain and hill, yet do not forget thy folds; that cling to thy skirts, and strive to go up and seize the boughs of thy palm-trees.
Can Shinar and Pathros in their greatness be likened to thee? can they compare their vanity to thy Truthfulness and Light?[114] Unto whom can they compare thy anointed and thy seers, unto whom thy Levites and thy singers? The crown of all vain kingdoms shall change and pass away, but thy strength is for ever, thy crowns are for all generations.
Thy God desired thee for His dwelling, and happy is the man whom He chooses and draws near to dwell in thy courts. Happy is he who waits, and will yet live to see the rising of thy light, when upon him shall thy dawns break forth, to behold the bliss of thy chosen ones, and to exult in thy joy, when the pristine glory of thy youth is restored to thee.
2. Meditations in Mid-Ocean[115]
Wilt thou at fifty still pursue childhood’s folly, while thy days are ready to fly away? Wilt thou flee from the service of God, but eagerly serve men? wilt thou seek the multitude, but forsake the presence of the One who is sought in all affairs? Wilt thou neglect to make provision for thy journey, and sell thy portion for a pottage of lentils?
Unto thee thy soul has not yet said: ‘Enough!’ but her lust bears new fruit each month; turn aside from her advice, and seek God’s counsel; keep away from the five senses. Reconcile thyself to thy Creator in the remainder of thy days which hurry and hasten. Seek not His good will with a double heart, and go not toward enchantments. Be strong as a leopard to do His will, swift as an antelope, and mighty as lions.
Let thy heart not fail in mid-ocean, when thou seest the mountains totter and move to and fro. Worn out are the hands of sailors, and skilful workers keep silence; they walk forward cheerfully, but they turn back, and are ashamed. The ocean is thy only refuge, there is no way to escape, the snares are all around.
The sails flutter and wave, the planks tremble and shake. The wind sports with the waters, like them that cast about the sheaves for threshing; for a while it flattens them like threshing-floors, and then it heaps them up like stacks. When the waves grow mighty, they are like lions; but when they subside, they seem like serpents; billow follows billow, fiercely chasing, like adders that will not be charmed.
The mighty vessel is well-nigh overthrown by a mighty breaker, and the mast and the riggings are loosened. The chambers of the ark are in confusion: no one knows which are the lower, the middle, or the upper ones. They that pull the riggings are in anguish, men and women are sorely grieved; troubled is the spirit of their captains—the bodies are weary of the souls. The strength of masts is of no avail, and the counsel of greybeards no longer pleases. Masts of cedar are counted like stubble, cypress-trees are turned into reeds. Weights of sand are like straw on the surface of the ocean, iron and stone are like chaff.
Then each man prays to his holiness, but thou turnest to the holy of the holies. Thou rememberest the wonders of the Red Sea and the Jordan, which are engraved on every heart. Thou then praisest Him who stills the roaring of the ocean, when its waters cast up mire. Thou mentionest to Him the iniquity of unclean hearts, but He remembers for thee the merit of the holy fathers. He renews His miracles, when thou renewest before Him the song of the dancing of the Mahlites and Mushites.[116] He restores the breath of life unto the bodies, and the dry bones live again. In a moment the billows are stilled, and seem like flocks scattered upon the face of the earth.
The night is (when the sun descends on the degrees, and out comes the heavenly host with its captain) like a Cushite woman whose clothing is inwrought with gold, wrapt up in a diamond-spangled cloak of blue. The stars are perplexed in mid-ocean, like strangers driven out from their dwelling-places; they reflect their light, in their likeness and their image, in the midst of the sea, like flames and fires. The waters and the sky are like brilliant and bright ornaments on the night.
The sea is like the heaven in appearance, they are thus two encompassing seas; and between them is my heart a third sea, when the billows of my new hymns arise.
3. Letter Addressed to Nathan b. Samuel[117]
To the store-house of understanding and stronghold of faith, the crown of the scholars and chief of the speakers, the pride of the Torah and the bowl of the candlestick, our master and teacher Rabbi Nathan the scholar, son of the glory of the greatness of the holiness of our master and teacher Rabbi Samuel the scholar, of blessed memory, from one who bows himself down before him and longs to behold his countenance, Judah the Levite, son of Rabbi Samuel (may his soul be in paradise!).
Stones of the crown lifted on high, glorying in the crown of our generation, deriving their genealogy from the Foundation Stone, and mocking every other precious stone! Thou art the crown that is set upon the stone of salvation; all thy border is of desirable stones: the chief stone is above thee, graceful stones are at thy right and at thy left, and thou hast rays coming forth from thy hand. I shall divide the seas, and stir up the shades, for I shall arouse myself to sing, when Nathan the prophet comes to me. The meditations of my heart are in commotion, and my thoughts impel me to write. Thou didst humble me, yet didst thou delight me, for thou didst lead me with honor, though with heaviness, and put upon me the crown and the testimony. Thou didst robe me with thy raiment, attire me with thy mitres, and strengthen me with thy power. But who can don thy crowns, and who can put on thy wreaths? Gates of justice are thy gates, lofty mountains are thy mountains, and twilights of desire are thy dawns. When thou devisest a law, thou causest the advice of others to fail; when thou counsellest, thou breakest every rod; every mouth becomes dumb, even the eloquent feels ashamed, and they who compose songs have mouths, but speak not: their fountains are stopped up, and they themselves are still as a stone in the presence of a fountain whose waters fail not. Thy heavens do not become black, and thy rains are not withheld. Thy store-houses are filled, and thy spices send forth their fragrance. The manna descends upon him that hearkens to thy words. Wonderful are thy words, and thy compositions are awe-inspiring; they fly to the west and to the south, and speak from on high. Shall Egypt detain such a man, while Jerusalem, as well as the land of Merathaim,[118] longs for thee? Thou art a bundle of myrrh held in the hands and sought betwixt the breasts; thy fame tells concerning thee and likewise about thy thoughts. The mixtures of thy perfumes proclaim before thee: ‘Bow the knee’; and thy books reveal thy secrets. Thy name gave[119] forth thy taste and thy pleasant dainties; the wonderful sage, the exalted crown; yea, thy name is greater than all; our master and teacher, Nathan the scholar, the crown of scholars, the son of the glory of our master and teacher Samuel the scholar, the righteous, of blessed memory. From one who is a portion of thy lights and a tributary of thy rivers, Judah the Levite, thy disciple, the gleaning of thy harvest, and the fallen fruit of thy vintage; who sends his heart ahead of his writings; who is fearful and faint-hearted to consider his affairs. Shall I prosper when I come forth with my ploughshare and coulter to meet the Cherethite and Pelethite, a mighty nation that arranges battle-lines like Benaiah and Ethan? Who am I, what is my life, and what is my desire and wish? Worthless dust, crushed and ill; fearful on account of my iniquity and the sins of my youth and old age. Yet I ventured to stand upon thy thresholds with my supplications, though I am but a wayfarer that turns aside to tarry for a night, a Levite who sojourns there. Wherewith shall I draw nigh, and how shall I vie with the ruler and potentate? I summoned counsels from afar, took up my weapons, came in, and went out; but I found nothing better than silence. I was humiliated, and put to shame, and despaired of an answer; I lost heart to come out to meet thee; I groped for the wall in the dark, and felt my way like the blind, and sought hiding-places, until I met taskmasters, who were urgent, persistent, and pressing; they came from the wonderful sage, the lord, the exalted nobleman, our master and teacher Halfon the Levite, who speaks in thy name, and endeavors to take hold of thee, O my lord and my pride, may he be exalted and lifted up, and may he be very high. He stands between us to join our hearts with the exchange of our writings and the purity of our love. He importuned me, pressed me, urged me, aroused me, and brought me out hastily from the dungeon of slothfulness. He coaxed me, without restraining himself, saying: ‘Come now, I will prove thee; finish thy work, and give the best thereof which is full of understanding; perform at thy old age the deeds of youth. Know before whom thou art about to render the account, near whom thou writest, and near whom thou signest.’ Thy enchanters hurried, and thy magicians did great things, until they annulled my vows, and made my bonds void. Then my bands dropped off, my youth was renewed, my songs thronged tumultuously, my lyres were sounded, and forgotten were my fears and the years of the life of my sojournings. I remembered not that the day declined toward evening, that the eternal lodging-place was near by, while there was yet abundant work. I mingled with the throng, aroused myself with youth, eagerly sought the dawn of life, and dissembled hoariness, as one dissembles a stolen thing, though my leanness testified against me. Then I took some of thy words, and with wrestlings did I wrestle with the lion, and prevailed; I rescued a piece of an ear, and made merry with myself, for I was likened to the scribes of the king and to them that have ability to stand in the king’s palace. My lord, in thy kindness pardon thy servant, and be not too exacting with me, and weigh not my words; judge me in the scale of merit, and bring me not into the judgment of thy wisdom. Behold, here is the fruit of my intellect, the choicest of my musing, and the best of my meditations, according to the ability of my hand and tongue, until I come unto my lord to watch at thy doors, to gather thy pearls, and to sing thy praises. Lo, these are but the outskirts of thy paths, and a little of the splendor of thy moons. He that makes peace in His high places shall increase thy peace, shall make thy friends perfect, shall fight against thine enemies, and establish thy plans, that thou mayest spend thy days in prosperity. I conclude with peace. Amen.
