רִאשׁוֹן אַתָּה | Rishon Atah — yotsrot for Yom ha-Atsma’ut in a Cairo Geniza weekday yotsrot style by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

An original set of weekday yotsrot, in the style of those found in the Cairo Geniza (and compiled at Weekday Yotzrot, thanks to the work of Dr. Avi Shmidman), for Yom ha-Atsma’ut. The weekday yotsrot of the Cairo Geniza have a structure quite different from normative Ashkenazi festival yotsrot, and much closer to that of Ashkenazi maaravot. There are no yotser or ofan piyyutim — each blessing has a stanza of an extended, unified poem before its ḥatimah, and the only stanzas inserted into the guf ha-berakha are in the final blessing, surrounding the Mi Khamokha. They’re also generally much shorter and more user-friendly than the complex and intricate mysticism of Ashkenazi festival yotsrot. This cycle is written in an alphabetical acrostic, followed by the author tag “Yitzḥaq Harel son of Avraham the Kohen and Ya’el, be strong and courageous, amen.” Each stanza begins with a different word from Isaiah 47:4, and ends with a citation of a different relevant verse.

Categories:

🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, פיוטים piyyuṭim, יוצרות yotsrot

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

חֲנַנְיָה מִישָׁאֵל וַעֲזַרְיָה | Ḥanaiah, Mishael, and Azariah — a piyyuṭ for the Seder Meturgeman of Shavuot

This piyyut, “Ḥanaiah, Mishael, and Azariah,” was originally written to be recited as an introduction to the targum of the Second Commandment, the prohibition on worshiping other gods. It is a dispute-poem retelling the story of Ḥanaiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the three “holy children” of Daniel chapter 3 who would rather be thrown into an oven than worship an idol. It’s an intricate multi-part acrostic that I absolutely love. (I also am partially convinced it may be influenced by the apocryphal “Song of the Three Holy Children,” if not in context then in the idea of an extensive poem related to their story.) Since the original poem’s acrostic only goes halfway through the alphabet, the great Meir bar Isaac Nehorai of Orleans wrote a continuation that is also included here.

Categories:

Shavuot

Tags:

45th century A.M., 7th century C.E., acrostic, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aramaic, Decalogue, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Meir ben Isaac Nehorai of Orléans and Unknown