36
SONGS OF EXILE
ODE
TO ZION
Jehudah Halevi was born in Castile, in 1086 C. E. He was a physician and a philosopher, and the greatest Hebrew poet since Biblical times. Leopold Zunz says of him: "Er sang für alle Zeiten und Gelegenheiten, und wurde bald der Liebling seines Volkes." For the synagogue he wrote more than three hundred poems. Impelled by his longing for Zion he left Spain, and journeyed to Jerusalem, where he died in 1140. It is related that he was slain by the hand of an Arab assassin, when he had reached the Holy City, and was singing his great Ode to Zion.
Stanza 29, lines 2, 3, "purity and light," Thummim and Urim.
