Bendigamos is a hymn sung after meals according to the custom of the Sepharadim, the Jews of the Iberian peninsula. It is similar in meaning to the Birkat Hamazon (blessing after meals). Bendigamos is said in addition to Birkat Hamazon, either immediately before or immediately after it. The text is in modern Spanish, not Ladino. The melody is one of the best known and loved Spanish and Portuguese melodies, used also for the Song of the Sea (in the Shabbat morning service) and sometimes in “Hallel” (on the first day of the Hebrew month and on festivals).

The song probably originated among the Spanish-speaking Jews of Bordeaux, a Hispanophone rather than Lusophone community. (David Lévi Alvarès’s version ‘Bénissons‘ is a free adaptation for Sukkot.)^[1] Thanks to Aron Sterk for clarifying this point.   From France the Bendigamos song was probably brought to the Dutch West-Indies (Curaçao) in the mid-nineteenth century and thence taken to New York and Amsterdam. Alternatively, the song may have originated with Sephardic Jews living in Spain, who then immigrated to Turkey, other locales in the Ottoman Empire, and the Netherlands. It may originally have been written as a secret way to say the Birkat HaMazon after practicing Judaism in Spain and Portugal was forbidden in the fifteenth century. (adapted from the wikipedia article, “Bendigamos”)

Translation from Spanish via Aharon Varady. (Shgiyot mi yavin, Ministarot Nakeni)

Vocal and Guitar: Rabbi Shuviel Ma’aravi
Mandola and back up vocals: Joshua Polak
Recorded by Ty Ford

Ma’aravi-Polak featuring (left to right) Joshua Polak, Esther Polak, and Rabbi Shuviel Ma’aravi. Mike Abramov in foreground.

Recording

“Bendigamos al Altísimo, a Spanish song for the Birkat haMazon” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

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.)

Joshua Polak

Josh Polak is the proprietor of Guitars of Pikesville; a small family operated shop in Pikesville, Maryland. He has been teaching guitar in the Pikesville area for many years while performing with his daughter Esther whose whistle playing can be heard on the Guitars of Pikesville's Youtube channel.

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Ma’aravi-Polak featuring (left to right) Joshua Polak, Esther Polak, and Rabbi Shuviel Ma’aravi. Mike Abramov in foreground.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "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

Works of related interest:

 

Bénissons, a French table song for the Birkat haMazon (ca. 18th c.)

Ya Komimos (We have eaten), a piyyut for the Birkat haMazon in Ladino

צוּר מִשֶּׁלּוֹ אָכַֽלְנוּ | Tsur Mishelo Akhalnu, a paraliturgical Birkat haMazon (rhymed translation by Alice Lucas, 1898)

צוּר מִשֶּׁלּוֹ אָכַֽלְנוּ | Tsur Mishelo Akhalnu, a paraliturgical Birkat haMazon (translation by Sara-Kinneret Lapidot)

צוּר מִשֶּׁלּוֹ אָכַֽלְנוּ | Tsur Mishelo Akhalnu, a paraliturgical Birkat haMazon (translation by Nina Salaman 1914)

Étkezés utáni ima | Gebet nach dem Speisen | Prayer after the meal, a paraliturgical Birkat haMazon by Rabbi Arnold Kiss (1897)

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