יָהּ רִבּוֹן | Yah Ribōn, a piyyut by Rabbi Yisrael Najara (16th c.) translated by Paltiel Birnbaum (1949)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Paltiel Birnbaum (translation) and Yisrael Najara

Shared on:

12 March 2021 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Se'udat Leil Shabbat, Se'udat Yom Shabbat

Tags:

פיוטים piyyutim, 16th century C.E., 54th century A.M., Acrostic signature, יה רבון Yah Ribon, זמירות zemirot, acrostic, Aramaic

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Source (Aramaic)	Translation (English)
יָהּ רִבּוֹן עָלַם וְעָלְמַיָּא אַנְתְּ הוּא מַלְכָּא מֶֽלֶךְ מַלְכַיָּא עוֹבַד גְּבוּרְתֵּךְ וְתִמְהַיָּא שְׁפַר קֳדָמָךְ לְהַחֲוָיָּא׃ (דניאל ג:לב חלק)	Yah, eternal Master of the worlds, you are the supreme King of kings. Your mighty acts and wondrous deeds, it is my pleasure to declare. (Daniel 3:32 part)
שְׁבָחִין אֲסַדֵּר צַפְרָא וְרַמְשָׁא לָךְ אֱלָהָא קַדִּישָׁא דִּי בְרָא כָּל נַפְשָׁא עִירִין קַדִּישִׁין וּבְנֵי אֱנָשָׁא חֵיוַת בָּרָא וְעוֹפֵי שְׁמַיָּא׃	Morning and evening I praise you, holy Elo’ah, who didst form all life: sacred spirits, human beings, beasts of the field, birds of the sky.
רַבְרְבִין עוֹבְדֵיךְ וְתַקִּיפִין מָכִיךְ רְמַיָּא וְזַקִּיף כְּפִיפִין לוּ יִחְיֶה גְבַר שְׁנִין אַלְפִין לָא יֵעוֹל גְּבוּרְתֵּךְ בְּחֻשְׁבְּנַיָּא׃	Great and mighty are thy deeds, humbling the proud, raising the meek; were man to live a thousand years, yet he could not recount thy might.
אֱלָהָא דִּי לֵהּ יְקַר וּרְבוּתָא פְּרוֹק יַת עָנָךְ מִפּוּם אַרְיְוָתָא וְאַפֵּיק יַת עַמֵּךְ מִגּוֹ גָלוּתָא עַמֵּךְ דִּי בְחַרְתְּ מִכָּל אֻמַּיָּא׃	O elo’ah of glory and greatness, save your flock from the lions’ jaws; free your people from captivity, your people chosen from all nations.
לְמִקְדָּשֵׁךְ תּוּב וּלְקֹֽדֶשׁ קֻדְשִׁין אֲתַר דִּי בֵהּ יֶחֱדוּן רוּחִין וְנַפְשִׁין וִיזַמְּרוּן לָךְ שִׁירִין וְרַחֲשִׁין בִּירוּשְׁלֵם קַרְתָּא דְשׁוּפְרַיָּא׃	Return to your most holy shrine, the place where all souls will rejoice and sing melodic hymns of praise – Jerusalem, city of beauty.

The piyyut “Yah Ribon” by Rabbi Israel Najara (1555-1625) is presented here translated in English by Paltiel Birnbaum as found in his HaSiddur HaShalem (1949) where he offers the following commentary:

יה רבון was written in Aramaic by Rabbi Israel Najara, one of the most prolific Hebrew writers of the sixteenth century. His signature is seen in the initials of the five stanzas of this beautiful poem. At the end of the sixteenth century, he published a second and enlarged edition of his Zemiroth Yisrael, comprising three hundred and forty-six poems, which soon became the most popular songbook among the Jewish communities in the Orient. He was familiar with several languages, and was inspired by the kabbalistic school of Rabbi Isaac Luria at Safed, Palestine. His song “Yah Ribōn,” which contains no allusion to the Sabbath, is chanted on Friday evenings all over the world. After describing the wonders of God’s creation, the poet concludes with a prayer that God may redeem Israel and restore Jerusalem, the city of beauty. The phrase שפר קדמי להחויה is borrowed from Daniel 3:32.

I have removed archaisms and re-Hebraized divine names. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

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“יָהּ רִבּוֹן | Yah Ribōn, a piyyut by Rabbi Yisrael Najara (16th c.) translated by Paltiel Birnbaum (1949)” 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.)

Paltiel Birnbaum (translation)

Paltiel Philip Birnbaum (1904–1988) was an American religious author and translator, best known for his translation and annotation of the prayerbook Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem ([Complete] Daily Prayer Book), first published in 1949, and widely used in Orthodox and Conservative synagogues until the late 1980s. Birnbaum was born in Kielce, Poland and emigrated to the United States in 1923. He attended Howard College and received his Ph.D. from Dropsie College. He served for several years as the principal of a Jewish day school in Wilmington, Delaware, and directed Jewish schools in Birmingham, Alabama, and Camden, New Jersey. He was a regular columnist and book reviewer for the Hebrew-language weekly, Hadoar. He also served on the board of directors of the Histadrut Ivrit b'America, an American association for the promotion of Hebrew language and culture.

Yisrael Najara

Yisrael ben Mosheh Najara (Hebrew: ישראל בן משה נאג'ארה; Arabic: إسرائيل بن موسى النجارة‎, Isra'il bin Musa al-Najara; c. 1555, Safed, Ottoman Empire – c. 1625, Gaza, Ottoman Empire) was a prolific Jewish liturgical poet, preacher, Biblical commentator, kabbalist, and rabbi of Gaza.

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Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem. Cross section. (Georg Dehio/Gustav von Bezold, 1887–1901) This image is taken from Georg Dehio/Gustav von Bezold: Kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes. Stuttgart: Verlag der Cotta’schen Buchhandlung 1887-1901, Plate No. 10. Due to its age, it is to be used with care. It may not reflect the latest knowledge or the current state of the depicted structure.

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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