אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם | Adōn Olam, interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

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19 January 2020 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Morning Baqashot, Arvit l'Shabbat, Bedtime Shema, Musaf l'Shabbat

Tags:

פיוטים piyyutim, Openers, cosmological, 11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., חתימות ḥatimot (concluding prayers), ABCB rhyming scheme, interpretive translation, אדון עולם Adon Olam

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Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר מָלַךְ בְּטֶֽרֶם כׇּל־יְצִיר נִבְרָא׃ לְעֵת נַֽעֲשָׂה כְּחֶפְצוֹ כֹּל אֲזַי מֶֽלֶךְ שְׁמוֹ נִקְרָא׃	You were cosmic Lord Adonai Malakh Before there even was a world Then Your will all things did make Adonai Melekh we call you now.
וְאַֽחֲרֵי כִּכְלּוֹת הַכֹּל לְבַדּוֹ יִמְלֹךְ נוֹרָא׃ וְהוּא הָיָה וְהוּא הֹוֶה וְהוּא יִֽהְיֶה בְּתִפְאֲרָה׃	Once when all things will cease to be Adonai Yimlokh still true will be You were, You are, eternally Resplendent to infinity.
וְהוּא אֶחָד וְאֵין שֵׁנִי לְהַמְשִׁיל לוֹ לְהַחְבִּירָה׃	You alone, there are not two To join as friends, as lovers do.
בְּלִי רֵאשִׁית בְּלִי תַּכְלִית וְלוֹ הָעֹז וְהַמִּשְׂרָה׃ בְּלִי עֵֽרֶךְ בְּלִי דִמְיוֹן בְּלִי שִׁנּוּי וְהַתְּמוּרָה׃ בְּלִי חִבּוּר בְּלִי פֵרוּד גְּדׇל־כֹּחַ וְהַגְּבוּרָה׃	Beginningless and without end You keep all one by plan and strength.
וְהוּא אֵלִי וְחַי גּֽוֹאֲלִי וְצוּר חֶבְלִי בְּיוֹם צָרָה׃ וְהוּא נִסִּי וּמָנוֹס לִי מְנָת כּוֹסִי בְּיוֹם אֶקְרָא׃	You are my G-d, Redeemer, Life Protecting me in war, in strife. My holy haven and my flag My cup of health for what I lack.
בְּיָדוֹ אַפְקִיד רוּחִי בְּעֵת אִישַׁן וְאָעִֽירָה׃ וְעִם רוּחִי גְּוִיָּתִי אֲדֹנָי לִי וְלֹא אִירָא׃	Into Your hand I trust my breath You breathe in me by night by day. My body is Your tool, Your gift. With You as mine I’m not afraid.

Adon Olam is a piyyut that became popular in the 15th century and is often attributed to Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021–1058) and less often to Sherira Gaon (900-1001), or his son, Hai ben Sherira Gaon (939-1038). The variation of the piyyut appearing here is the 12 line version familiar to Sepharadi congregations. (There are also fifteen and sixteen line variants found in Sepharadi siddurim. The Ashkenazi version has ten lines.)

This “praying translation” of the piyyut Adon Olam appears in Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s Sabbath Supplement to his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi ~ As I Can Say It (for Praying in the Vernacular) (2009). From his translation, we can see that Reb Zalman appears to have collapsed the lines together beginning ‘bli.’

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם | Adōn Olam, interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/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.)

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Rabbi Dr. Zalman Meshullam Schachter-Shalomi, affectionately known as "Reb Zalman" (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014) was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement. Born in Żółkiew, Poland (now Ukraine) and raised in Vienna, he was interned in detention camps under the Vichy Regime but managed to flee the Nazi advance, emigrating to the United States in 1941. He was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi in 1947 within the ḤaBaD Hasidic movement while under the leadership of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, and served ḤaBaD communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He subsequently earned an M.A. in psychology of religion at Boston University, and a doctorate from the Hebrew Union College. He was initially sent out to speak on college campuses by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but in the early 1960s, after experimenting with "the sacramental value of lysergic acid", the main ingredient in LSD, leadership within ḤaBaD circles cut ties with him. He continued teaching the Torah of Ḥassidut until the end of his life to creative, free and open-minded Jewish thinkers with humility and kindness and established warm ecumenical ties as well. In September 2009, he became the first contributor of a siddur to the Open Siddur Project database of Jewish liturgy and related work. Reb Zalman supported the Open Siddur Project telling its founder, "this is what I've been looking forward to!" and sharing among many additional works of liturgy, an interview he had with Havurah magazine in the early to mid-1980s detailing his vision of "Database Davenen." The Open Siddur Project is proud to be realizing one of Reb Zalman's long held dreams.

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Works of related interest:

"Observable Universe Logarithmic Illustration" by Pablo Carlos Budassi, a CC BY-SA licensed logarithmic scale conception of the observable universe with the Solar System at the center, inner and outer planets, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, Alpha Centauri, Perseus Arm, Milky Way galaxy, Andromeda galaxy, nearby galaxies, Cosmic Web, Cosmic microwave radiation and Big Bang's invisible plasma on the edge.

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam, rhyming translation by Rosa Emma Salaman (1855)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים)‏ | Adōn Olam, rhyming translation by Rabbi David de Sola Pool (1937)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adōn Olam (Rabbinical Assembly & United Synagogue of America, 1946)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adōn Olam, translated by Ben Zion Bokser (1957)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adōn Olam, translated by Alice Lucas (1894)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם | Adōn Olam, translated by Rabbi Marcus Jastrow after the abridged arrangement of Rabbi Benjamin Szold (1873)

אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (אשכנז)‏ | Adōn Olam, translated from Rabbi David Einhorn’s Olat Tamid (1858)

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“Observable Universe Logarithmic Illustration” by Pablo Carlos Budassi, a CC BY-SA licensed logarithmic scale conception of the observable universe with the Solar System at the center, inner and outer planets, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, Alpha Centauri, Perseus Arm, Milky Way galaxy, Andromeda galaxy, nearby galaxies, Cosmic Web, Cosmic microwave radiation and Big Bang’s invisible plasma on the edge.

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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