אַבְנֵי יְקָר | Avnei Y’qar — a Ḥanukkah piyyuṭ attributed to Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

Shared on:

19 December 2022 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Tags:

12th century C.E., 49th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation, Yemenite Jewry, זמירות zemirot

“Avnei Y’qar” is a succint piyyut for Ḥanukkah, traditionally attributed to R. Abraham ibn Ezra, and particularly beloved among Yemenite Jewry. Interestingly, it doesn’t mention the miracle of the oil whatsoever, focusing on the degradation of the land under Seleucid Greek occupation as well as the Hasmonean victory itself. Included is a poetic acrostic translation into English.

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
אַבְנֵי יְקָר עַל־הַר צְבִי הִתְפָּרְקוּ	As stones of fame, upon the fairest hill were breached
בָּאוּ יְמֵי שִׁלּוּם עֲדֵי הִתְחַזְּקוּ	Bad days came, we strengthened till requital was reached.
רָמָה יְמִינָם יוֹם יְוָנִים דָּלְקוּ	Riding high, the day the Greeks pursued,
הֵיכָל אֲזַי חָנְכוּ וְנֵרוֹת דָּלְקוּ,	And by the by, they kindled lamps, the Palace renewed.
מִצּוּף יְשׁוּעוֹת אֶל־לְבָבוֹת מָתְקוּ	Honeyed success brought sweetness to their mind,
עַל־זֹאת לְבָרֵךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹדוֹ חָשְׁקוּ	And so to bless the Moniker of Glory they assigned.

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)

From a family of musicians, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer believes that creative art is one of the most powerful ways to get in touch with the divine. He composes music and poetry in Hebrew and English. (He also translates and authors his own original works.) Isaac runs a Jewish music transcription service, which will transcribe and set any Jewish music in any language, recorded or written. Contact his service on Facebook or via his music blog.

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

From a family of musicians, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer believes that creative art is one of the most powerful ways to get in touch with the divine. He composes music and poetry in Hebrew and English. (He also authors his own original works and transcribes Hebrew and Aramaic text, adding niqqud and t'amim as needed.) Isaac runs a Jewish music transcription service, which will transcribe and set any Jewish music in any language, recorded or written. Contact his service on Facebook or via his music blog.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=47976

Associated Image:

Ibn Ezra reading stars. A scene of Ibn Ezra practicing Astrology with an Arabic manuscripts being held by the men that flank him to either side. Unknown Miniaturist, French (active circa 1235)

(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 Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation).
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=47976>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (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)

אַבְנֵי יְקָר | Avnei Y’qar — a Ḥanukkah piyyuṭ attributed to Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra

Read a comment / Leave a comment (moderated)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply