Does God Prefer the Powerful? Reforming the King in Judah Halevi's Kuzari

The Kuzari is traditionally regarded as a work describing the process by which a pagan Khazar king faithfully converts to Judaism. This article offers a new interpretation, which views the King as a skeptical convert who represents an archetype of political leadership driven by the desire for power and not by knowledge or ethics. I contend that the argument put forward by the character of the Rabbi constitutes a kind of »four-step therapy« program, structured to educate the king about why he should be concerned with a just and ethical religion and not just a religion that wields power.