אַאֲמִיר אוֹתְךָ סֶֽלָה | Aamir Otekha Selah, an ofan piyyut for Sukkot by Elazar ben Qallir (rhymed translation by Alice Lucas 1894)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Alice Montefiore Lucas (translation) and Elazar ben Qallir

Shared on:

4 March 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Tags:

44th century A.M., 7th century C.E., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, English vernacular prayer, ofanim, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
אַאֲמִיר אוֹתְךָ סֶֽלָה בְּהוֹד וְהָדָר וּתְהִלָּה גּוֹאֵל הַצְמַח גְּאֻלָּה דְּרוֹשׁ אֲיֻמָּתְךָ לְשֵׁם וְלִתְהִלָּה׃	Thy praise, O Lord, will I proclaim In hymns unto Thy glorious name. O Thou Redeemer, Lord and King, Redemption to Thy faithful bring!
הַצָּגִים בְּשִׂמְחָה וּבְלוּלָבֵיהֶם אוֹתְךָ לְשַׂמְּחָה זוֹעֲקִים לְפָנֶֽיךָ שִׂיחָה חֲמֹל עֲלֵיהֶם הוֹשִֽׁיעָה וְהַצְלִֽיחָה׃	Before Thine altar they rejoice With branch of palm and myrtle-stem. To Thee they raise the prayerful voice— Have mercy, save, and prosper them.
טוֹב בְּרַחֲמֶֽיךָ הָרַבִּים יַקֵּר עֲדַת אֲהוּבִים כּוֹרְעִים וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים וּמוֹדִים בָּאֳהָבִים לְשַֽׁעַר בַּת רַבִּים׃	May’st Thou in mercy manifold, Dear unto Thee, Thy people hold, When at Thy gate, they bend the knee, And worship and acknowledge Thee.
מַחֲמַדָּם תֵּן לָהֶם נָא שְׂמַח עִמָּהֶם שָׂא נָא חַטֹּאתֵיהֶם עֲבֹור עַל פִּשְׁעֵיהֶם׃	Do Thou their hearts’ desire fulfill, Rejoice with them in love this day, Forgive their sins and thoughts of ill And their transgressions cast away.
פּוֹצְחִים הַלֵּל וְתוֹדוֹת צוּר הַיּוֹדֵֽעַ עֲתִידוֹת קוֹל לְהַשְׁמִֽיעַ אוֹתָם לַחֲדוֹת רַחֲמֵם בְּנָשְׂאָם אֲגֻדּוֹת׃	They overflow with prayer and praise To Him who knows the future days. Have mercy Thou, and hear the prayer Of those who palms and myrtle bear.
שׁוֹקְדִים וְאוֹתְךָ מַקְדִּישִׁים שִׁבְחֲךָ בְּפִיהֶם רוֹחֲשִׁים תּוֹקְפִים בָּרוּךְ וְלוֹחֲשִׁים תּוֹמְכִים כְּאֵילֵי תַרְשִׁישִׁים׃	The day and night they sanctify And in perpetual song adore, Like to the heavenly host they cry; “Blessed art Thou for evermore.”

This is the piyyut, “Aamir Otekha Selah” by Elazar ben Qallir for Sukkot, as translated into rhyming English verse by Alice Montefiore Lucas, first published as “Hymn for Tabernacles” in her anthology of versified translations Songs of Zion by Hebrew Singers of Mediæval Times (1894). (The translation was reprinted in her The Jewish Year (1898) under the title, “Palm and Myrtles.”) Her translation was later set opposite Qallir’s Hebrew text in Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Ḥag haSukkot (ed. Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler, 1908).

Source(s)

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Alice Montefiore Lucas (translation)

Alice Julia Lucas (née Montefiore) (2 August 1851 – 25 March 1935) was a British Jewish poet, translator, and communal worker. Alice Julia Montefiore was born in 1851, the elder daughter of Nathaniel M. Montefiore and Emma Goldsmid. Alongside her brother Claude Montefiore, she studied Judaism under Solomon Schechter at the Hochschule in Berlin. On 24 April 1873 she married barrister Henry Lucas, who later served as treasurer and vice-president of the United Synagogue. In 1900 she helped establish the Jewish Study Society, modelled after the Council of Jewish Women, of which she served as the first president. Lucas also sat on the women's committee of the Westminster Jews' Free School and its preparatory nursery, the Jews' Infant School.

Elazar ben Qallir

Elazar ben Qallir, also known as Eleazar Kalir, Killir, Qalir or El'azar HaKalir (c. 570 – c. 640) was a Hebrew poet whose classical liturgical verses, known as piyut, have continued to be sung through the centuries during significant religious services, including those on Tisha b'Av and on the sabbath after a wedding. He was one of Judaism's earliest and most prolific of the paytanim, Hebrew liturgical poets. He wrote piyutim for all the main Jewish festivals, for special Sabbaths, for weekdays of festive character, and for the fasts. Many of his hymns have found their way into festive prayers of the Ashkenazi Jews' nusaḥ. (via wikipedia).

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=66395

Associated Image:

Shaking the lulav in the Midtown Sukkah, Manhattan (credit: chabad lubavitch, license: CC BY)

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Alice Montefiore Lucas (translation) and Elazar ben Qallir.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=66395>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)