Before I was, your kindness came to me

Solomon ben Judah Ibn Gabirol was one of the greatest Hebrew poets of the so-called golden age of Andalusi Jewish life. Born in Córdoba in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), Ibn Gabirol fled with his family during the political upheavals of the early eleventh century. Solomon alludes to his own suffering from sickness, poverty, and other challenges. His first poems date to his teenage years in Saragossa, but he was driven out of that city, apparently for disagreements with leading Jews, including Jonah Ibn Janāḥ (b. before 980, d. after 1038). Ibn Gabirol also wrote treatises in Judeo-Arabic on ethics and Neoplatonic philosophy, the first of which was translated into Hebrew and the second into Latin, ensuring his long-standing popularity and influence. Many of his poems are part of the liturgy of Sephardic communities, and a very small number of his poems are recited in Ashkenazic communities, to this day.