The Kuzari: The Good Man

Judah ha-Levi’s Judeo-Arabic Kuzari is an imagined discussion between the king of the Khazars and a Jewish sage. The dialogue ranges through aspects of Jewish, Muslim, and pagan religions, and the sage eventually persuades the king to convert to Judaism along with nobles in his kingdom. Based on a purported historical event, The Kuzari enjoyed enormous popularity as a theological defense of Judaism, especially after its translation into Hebrew by Judah Ibn Tibbon. In this excerpt, the king and the sage discuss the concept of a good person, who, like the benevolent ruler of a city or community, governs his own body and its mental and physical faculties. Strikingly, in the sage’s presentation, prayer is the ultimate human experience, toward which all this self-mastery aims.