Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Yehuda Alharizi, also Judah ben Solomon Harizi or al-Harizi

Rabbi, Translator and Poet in Spain

"The slave is a freeman if content with his lot, the freeman's a slave if he seeks more than that."

"When is a prayer heard? When the soul is subdued."

"The Fathers of Song, Solomon and Judah (Gabirol and Halevi) and Moses (ibn Ezra) besides all shone in the west; and rich men were rife then who purchased the pearls of their art. How sad is my lot, how times have changed! The rich men have gone and their glory has set! The Fathers found fountains - for me never a fountain will start"

"If heaven's clouds should weep as my poor eyes have done, Then were for man on earth no path that still were dry; But know, that e'en for me, as erst for Lamech's son, With all this deluge stood a rainbow in the sky!"

"They serve foreign tongues, and despise their own. [on turning Jews back to their own language]"