by Bill Peter

In May 1985, Bill Peter of Los Alamos National Laboratory posted a short appreciation of medieval Hebrew poetry to net.religion.jewish — a forum that usually occupied itself with halacha, Dvar Torah, and theological debate. Peter's digression brought a different gift: a poem by the 11th-century poet-philosopher Yehuda HaLevy in both Hebrew and English translation, with a note on the play of the word shesh (שֵׁשׁ) through all four lines in three different senses.

The Golden Age of Hebrew letters (roughly 900–1200 CE) flourished in Muslim Spain under the Umayyad Caliphate, producing a body of poetry — about love, God, Zion, wine, and the sea — that rivaled classical Arabic verse in its formal precision and surpassed it, many have argued, in its emotional range. The poets Peter names here — Yehuda HaLevy, Shmuel haNagid, Shlomo ibn Gabirol, Moshe ben Ezra — are the central figures of that world. Most were also philosophers, physicians, or viziers; the poem and the treatise lived in the same hand.

Peter closes with the modern poet Hannah Senesh (1921–1944), whose brief poem "Eli, Eli" became one of the most beloved Hebrew prayers of the 20th century — written before she parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe and was captured and executed at twenty-three.

The following is from a Hebrew love poem by the eleventh century Jewish scholar Yehuda HaLevy. It is a classic example of the beauty and diversity of Jewish poetry:

Cheeks like a glowing fire upon a marble floor,
Around them perfumed hair like woven silk —
Close by me they cause a fire in my heart,
When she pities once, she betrays six times.

Lehi k'ritzpat esh b'ritzpat shesh,
Nirkam svivav k'rikmat shesh,
Yosef b'libi esh b'korvo li —
Ki yahmol paam v'yivgod shesh.

— Yehuda HaLevy

To fully appreciate this verse, it will be necessary to read the Hebrew. Note the incredible play on words with ritzpah and shesh. In addition, there are subtle references in this love poem to the Tanach. For instance, ritzpat shesh is in Esther, rikmat shesh is from Yehezkel (Ezekiel). In fact, the word shesh is used three different times in this poem in three different ways.

Reciting such a poem is sheer joy to the senses. Note that Hebrew poetry needs strict Sephardic pronunciation. More than that, the characteristic meter of the poetry has a fixed sequence of shva na and hataf vowels. A good example of this fixed meter is in the siddur prayer Adon Olam.

More recently, however, the fixed meter in Hebrew poetry now usually approximates the European iambus style. Consider the modern poem of Hannah Senesh:

Eli, Eli, she'lo y'gamer l'olam
HaChol v'haYam
Rishrush shel haMayim
Barak ha'shamayim
Tfilat ha'adam.

Which translates as:

May these never end, my God:
The sand and the sea,
The rush of the waves,
The thunder in the heavens,
The prayer of Man.

Many examples of Hebrew poetry and literature are abundant in the works of Jews who lived during the Golden Age in Spain. Poems about love for God, love for Zion, personal desolation, wine songs, and erotica abound in this living and rich literature.

Many other poets beside Yehuda HaLevy are excellent. Interested readers should read the works of people such as Shmuel haNagid, Shlomo ibn Gabirol, and Moshe ben Ezra. Even unknown poets such as Yitzhak ibn Khalfun are wonderful.

Colophon

Written by Bill Peter ([email protected]), Los Alamos National Laboratory. Posted to net.religion.jewish on Sunday, May 19, 1985. Message-ID: [email protected].

Yehuda HaLevy (c. 1075–1141, Toledo and later Palestine) was the greatest poet of the Andalusian Golden Age and the author of the Kuzari, a philosophical dialogue defending Judaism. The word shesh in his poem means, across its three uses: marble/alabaster, fine linen/silk, and six — a feat of homophonic virtuosity that cannot survive translation. Hannah Senesh (1921–1944) was a Hungarian-Jewish poet who immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1939, joined the Haganah, parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe in 1944, was captured, and was executed in Budapest. Her poem "Eli, Eli" (My God, My God) is sung in synagogues worldwide.

Preserved from the Usenet archive (UTZOO collection, batch b45) for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

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