Judah Halevi Quotes
Judah Halevi was a Spanish Jewish philosopher, poet, and physician who lived in the Christian and Muslim courts of medieval Iberia. His philosophical dialogue The Kuzari, conducted between a rabbi and the king of the Khazars, defends Judaism against the rival claims of Christianity, Islam, philosophy, and the surviving Karaite movement, arguing that revealed religion is rooted in historical experience rather than abstract speculation. The quotes below are attributed to Judah Halevi, organized by topic.
Browse Judah Halevi by topic
Judah Halevi on God
-
Attributed to Judah Halevi:
“Religion is rooted in history, not in speculation.”
-
Attributed to Judah Halevi:
“The God of Aristotle is not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
-
Attributed to Judah Halevi:
“Servants of God are free of the slavery to other men.”
-
“Thou must not deem it improbable that exalted divine traces should be visible in this material world, when this matter is prepared to receive them. Here are to be found the roots of faith as well as of unbelief”
Part One -
“Divine Providence only gives man as much as he is prepared to receive; if his receptive capacity be small, he obtains little, and much if it be great.”
Part Two -
“According to our view a servant of God is not one who detaches himself from the world, lest he be a burden to it, and it to him; or hates life, which is one of God's bounties granted to him.”
Part Three -
“As regards the Sādōcaeans and Boēthosians, they are the sectarians who are anathemised in our prayer. The followers of Jesus are "the Baptists" who adopted the doctrine of baptism, being baptized in the Jordan.”
(Part Three, "the Baptists" refers to the word meshumadim in the jewish prayer, followed by the words "will have no hope", the hebrew word can be explained in other ways) -
“(Part Three, "the Baptists" refers to the word meshumadim in the jewish prayer, followed by the words "will have no hope", the hebrew word can be explained in other ways)”
As regards the Sādōcaeans and Boēthosians, they are the sectarians who are anathemised in our prayer. The followers of Jesus are "the Baptists" who adopted the doctrine of baptism, being baptized in the Jordan.
Judah Halevi on Knowledge
-
Attributed to Judah Halevi:
“Wisdom without piety is a body without a soul.”
-
“This means that Jerusalem can only be rebuilt when Israel yearns for it to such an extent that they embrace her stones and dust.”
Part Five
Judah Halevi on Love
-
Attributed to Judah Halevi:
“My heart is in the East, and I am at the ends of the West.”
Judah Halevi on Mind
-
“Thy way of thinking is indeed pleasing to the Creator, but not thy way of acting”
Part One
Judah Halevi on Nature
-
“The pious man is nothing but a prince who is obeyed by his senses, and by his mental as well as his physical faculties”
Part Three