An original Hebrew translation of the blues-rock portion of the Agnus Dei movement from Leonard Bernstein’s MASS (note: always spelled with ALL CAPS), where the crowd of disaffected and disillusioned young parishioners interrupts the offertory to demand peace now, and hold God to account for not giving it to us. It’s unsurprising that for a composer as proudly and openly Jewish as Bernstein that even his setting of the Tridentine Mass has major “shaking your fist at God” energy. Not gonna lie, I was listening to this on a plane out of Jerusalem as the war was starting, and I started to tear up. I immediately started writing this translation and finished it up in the process of about an hour while stuck somewhere a few thousand feet above Greenland. It’s amazing and moving and tragic and enraging and a little full of itself in exactly the right way to hit me in the heart.

A plaudit of gratitude in Latin and Hebrew for Pope Benedict XIV’s interventions after the River Tiber overflowed its banks and flooded the Jewish Ghetto in Rome.

Johann Stephan Rittangel (1606-1652) was a Christian Hebraist and Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Königsberg (Prussia) from 1640 till his death. Born Jewish, he converted to Christianity (to Catholicism and afterward to Calvinism, and then Lutheranism). After making a translation of the Sefer Yetsirah into Latin in 1642, he made this translation of the Passover Haggadah. In the Haggadah, Rittangel included musical scores for two piyyutim popularly sung during the final course of the Passover seder: “Adir Hu” and “Ki Lo Na’eh.”

This prayer concludes the second volume of the late Renaissance medical tome Opera Omnia by Abraham Zacutus Lusitanus (Abraham Zacuto Ⅳ), published posthumously in 1644. While his Peroratio (Conclusion) is addressed to the critical reader, I think it is crucial to read it in the context of his life as a “New Christian,” i.e., a Portuguese-Jewish physician and converso, ever vulnerable to the attention of the Inquisition or from others who might profit or take petty pleasure in his downfall.

The text of the popular counting song “Who Knows One?” in its original Hebrew, with a translation in Latin.

A Latin translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya.

An original Hebrew translation of the popular medieval commercium song and graduation anthem “De Brevitate Vitæ,” more commonly known as “Gaudeamus Igitur.” First attested in 1287, this Latin poem is irrevocably associated with college life for academics all over the world. It has been translated into many languages, and this Hebrew edition can be added to the list.

The text of the popular piyyut “Adir Bimlukhah” (a/k/a “Ki lo na’eh”) in Hebrew, with a Latin translation.

A poem on how to play chess, one of the oldest historical descriptions of the game of Chess, by Avraham ibn Ezra (12th century)

This prayer for divine contemplatives, beginning with the incipit “Tefilat Lisgulat Ishim” (prayer for distinguished individuals), is attested in several manuscripts prefaced by the title, תפלת הרב רבינו משה זצ״ל (prayer of our teacher, Rabbi Mosheh, may their righteousness be remembered for a blessing). The assumption of earlier scholars was that the Rabbi Mosheh here refers to Rabbi Mosheh ben Maimon — Maimonides (1138-1204). While our reading of the prayer finds nothing outside the concepts articulated by Rambam in his Mishneh Torah (Yesodei haTorah) and Moreh Nevukhim, it seems more likely that the Rabbi Mosheh referred to here is the famous paytan Mosheh ben Yaaqov ibn Ezra (ca. 1055-after 1138), who is quoted sharing similar ideas as found in this prayer by Rabbi Abraham ben Azriel in Arugat ha-Bosem (ca. 1230). Transcribed from the manuscript Leiden Or. 4779, this is the first time this obscure and long overlooked prayer has been translated.

The piyyut, Omets G’vurotekha by Elazar ha-Qalir, in its Latin translation by Johann Stephan Rittangel.

The alphabetic acrostic piyyut, Adir Hu, in its Latin translation by Johann Stephan Rittangel as found in his translation of the Pesaḥ seder haggadah, Liber Rituum Paschalium (1644).

The piyyut, Dayenu, in its Latin translation by Johann Stephan Rittangel.

The piyyut, Omets G’vurotekha by Elazar ha-Qalir, in its Latin translation by Johann Stephan Rittangel.

The story of Yiftaḥ, or Jephthah, is read as the haftara for Parashat Ḥuqqat. However, in most practices the end of the story is not read. This is probably because it is horrific — because of Yiftaḥ’s foolish vow, he sacrifices his own daughter! Unlike the story of Isaac, there is no angel, no last-minute salvation. The knife falls, the girl dies. That would be bad enough, but the daughter of Yiftaḥ isn’t even named in the text! The text of Biblical Antiquities, traditionally albeit incorrectly attributed to Philo of Alexandria, is one of the more interesting and under-studied deuterocanonical works. Almost certainly written in Hebrew but preserved in its entirety only in Latin, it is an example of the genre of “rewritten Bible,” a proto-midrashic genre also found in texts such as Jubilees. It is the earliest source for a substantial number of legends that became part of the midrashic canon — from Abraham’s casting into the furnace to Dinah’s marriage to Job. And it has a unique tendency to elaborate on the stories of women in the Bible. In the case of Yiftaḥ’s daughter, Biblical Antiquities gives her three things she deserves: agency, a song, and a name. Agency, because she is a willing participant in the process of sacrifice, encouraging her father to go through with it and leaving the sages speechless. A song, because she laments the fact she will die a virgin. And a name — in the Latin text, Seila. In the Hebrew, Sheila, “asked for.”

The text of the prayer Nishmat Kol Ḥai in Hebrew with a Latin translation

The text of the short prayer ha-El b’Taatsumōt Uzekha in Hebrew with a Latin translation.

The text of the short prayer uv’Maqhalōt in Hebrew with a Latin translation.

The text of the short prayer Shokhen Ad in Hebrew with a Latin translation.

The text of the prayer Yishtabaḥ Shimkha, in Hebrew with a Latin translation