יוֹנָה נִכְאָבָה | Yonah Nikhavah — reshut №6 from the Old Sefaradi Tiqun for Shabbat Divrei, by Yehudah ha-Levi

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi

Shared on:

2 July 2026 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, Nusaḥ Sefaradi, פיוטים piyyuṭim, רשויות reshuyot, שבת דברי Shabbat Divrei, Three Weeks of Mourning

In older Sephardic practice, there are cycles of reshuyot (permission-poems) recited on the three sabbaths of rebuke. These reshuyot, inserted before important prayers, date back to medieval Andalusian poets. They are largely mournful in tone, and accordingly the Ḥida opposed their recitation as unbefitting the joy of sabbaths, but due to their antiquity and cherishedness some communities (for instance those of Morocco) preserved them, reciting them all prior to Maariv on the ninth of Av instead. In any case, they are very clearly designed for the Shabbatot to which they are assigned, and to serve as reshuyot for the prayers to which they are assigned.

This reshut, by Yehuda haLevi, is the sixth of six reshuyot for the first sabbath of rebuke, Shabbat Divrei, the first Sabbath of Rebuke after 17 Tammuz. It is recited before the Torah Service after the public repetition of the Shaḥarit Amidah.

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
יוֹנָה נִכְאָבָה נַפְשָׁהּ דָּאֲבָה הֵיכַל דָּר עֲרָבוֹת יוֹם יוֹם סוֹבְבָה׃	The dove^[1] Israel aches; her soul grieves away turning to the Cloud-Dweller’s palace day after day!
הוֹמִיָּה בְּקוֹלָהּ תִּתְחַנֵּן לְדוֹד נוֹדַע כִּי בְּכִסְלָהּ הִרְבָּה הַנְּדֹד לוּ הִתְעַגְּבָה עַל־דָּת דַּהֲבָא כְּאִישׁוֹן וּבָנוֹת צוּרַת הַשָּׁבָה׃ יוֹנָה נִכְאָבָה…	Murmuring with her voice, she petitions her Amour, Knowing that her folly made the tossed exile more. Would that she desire her golden faith in the way of a pupil or daughters, to return and stay! The dove aches…
הַבַּת הַיְקָרָה קוּמִי־נָא שְׁבִי יִפְעַת־לָךְ נְהוֹרָא לָךְ בַּת־הַצְּבִי עָבְרָה הָעֶבְרָה לֹא־תִּהְיֶה שְׁבִי כִּי כׇּל־מֵי שְׁבָא גַּם מֵימֵי סְבָא לֹ֤א יֽוּכְלוּ֙ לְכַבּ֣וֹת אֶת־הָֽאַהֲבָ֔ה׃ יוֹנָה נִכְאָבָה…	Cherished daughter, rise, please, stay here, don’t go! Brightness is yours, splendid daughter, you are aglow! Wrath has passed, no more of your captivity’s woe. For all the waters of Sheva and Seva’s^[2] Two associated nations, mentioned in Psalms 72:10. Likely somewhere around modern-day Yemen or Somalia, and thus associated with Islam. Yehuda haLevi famously took a lengthy ocean voyage to reach the land of Israel. oceans of spray Could not quench the fire of love away. The dove aches…

Notes

Notes
1	Israel
2	Two associated nations, mentioned in Psalms 72:10. Likely somewhere around modern-day Yemen or Somalia, and thus associated with Islam. Yehuda haLevi famously took a lengthy ocean voyage to reach the land of Israel.

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.

Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi

Yehudah haLevi (also Judah ha-Levi; Hebrew: יהודה הלוי and Judah ben Shmuel Halevi יהודה בן שמואל הלוי; Arabic: يهوذا اللاوي‎; c. 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in Spain, either in Toledo or Tudela, in 1075 or 1086, and died shortly after arriving in the Holy Land in 1141, at that point the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Yehudah haLevi is considered one of the greatest Hebrew poets, celebrated both for his religious and secular poems, many of which appear in present-day liturgy. His greatest philosophical work was The Kuzari.

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=68148

Associated Image:

Augsburger Wunderzeichenbuch — Folio 11? „Vision des Jeremia“ (ca. 1552) by Heinrich Vogtherr the Younger (or Hans Burgkmair der Jüngere)

(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), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi.
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=68148>.
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)