Judah Alkaletz
Descended from a line of scholars (his ancestor, also named Judah, was forced to leave Granada when Jews were exiled from the Iberian Peninsula), Judah (the third in his line) Alkaletz was born in Algiers. A teacher, preacher, commentator, and scholar—he is praised for his skills in all these capacities in a poem lamenting his death—Judah composed skilled and beautiful poetry. Many of his poems concern halakhic topics and testify to his great erudition and his poetic skill. One manuscript contains rhymed verses on the laws found in the tractates of Nashim and Nezikin, accompanied by a commentary. He also wrote poems on divorce laws, the laws of ritual slaughter, and other various nonlegal topics. The two extracts in this volume demonstrate the range of his poetry. One is of a halakhic nature, and the other depicts a woman searching for her beloved among the other nations of the world, mirroring Israel’s search for redemption.