Moses ibn Ezra
Moses ibn Ezra, (b. c. 1060, Granada,
Spain—d. c. 1139), Hebrew poet and
critic, one of the finest poets of the
golden age of Spanish Jewry (900–1200).
He was one of the first Jewish poets to
write secular verse; his surname,
“ha-Sallaḥ” (Hebrew: Writer of
Penitential Poems), however, was
bestowed because of his penitential
prayers (seliḥot).
Known in Arabic as Abū Hārūn Mūsā, he
belonged to a prominent Hispano-Hebrew
family (his three brothers were eminent
scholars) and was related to the poet
and biblical interpreter Abraham ibn
Ezra. He fell deeply in love with a
niece, the daughter of one of his older
brothers, and she requited his love. His
brother, however, refused his suit,
giving her hand to a younger brother.
This episode affected Ibn Ezra deeply,
not only estranging him from his
brothers and driving him from Granada
but also influencing his subsequent
poetry.
Both his sacred and his secular
poetry are generally considered to be
unsurpassed in mastery of the Hebrew
language and poetic structure and style.
Much of his secular poetry is found in
the cycle Tarshish. In it, he celebrates
love, the pleasures of wine, and the
beauty of birdsong and bemoans
faithlessness and the onset of old age.
His later works were mostly
penitential prayers of an introspective,
melancholy cast; many of them are
included in the liturgy of the Sefardim
(Jews of Spanish or Portuguese descent)
for the New Year and the Day of
Atonement. He also wrote a moving elegy
when his former love died in childbirth.
Ibn Ezra wrote, in Arabic, an
important treatise on the poetic art,
Kitāb al-muḥāḍarah wa al-mudhākarah
(“Conversations and Recollections”;
translated into Hebrew as Shirat
Yisraʾel, or “Song of Israel,” in 1924
by B. Halper). Dealing with Arabic,
Castilian, and Jewish poetry, the work
is an important Spanish literary
history.
Also in Arabic, Ibn Ezra wrote a
philosophical treatise, sections of
which were translated into Hebrew as ʿArugat
ha-bosem (“The Bed of Spices”). It deals
with such problems as the attributes of
God and the microcosmic nature of man
and is largely a compilation of the
thoughts of other philosophers.