🆕 Judeo-Italian couplets for each of the Ten Plagues (Venice, 1609)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Unknown
A series of ten short couplets describing the ten plagues afflicting the Egyptians in Egypt, written in Judeo-Italian and first published in the famous 1609 Venice Haggadah of Isaac Gershon. The Italian used in the Venice Haggadah lacks a lot of the most divergent aspects of the Judeo-Italian languages, sticking to a more mainline Tuscan grammatical norm, but there are enough obsolete, poetic, or dialectal forms that several footnotes have been included to explain them. Also included is an original English-language rhyming translation! . . .
💬 הפטרת שבת חזון | Aftarát Shabbat Ḥazon, with verse-by-verse translation in Early Modern Spanish
Contributed by: Unknown (translation), Yeshayahu ben Amōts, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)
In the 18th century, the common practice among Western Sephardim was to read some or all of the aftarót recited in the three weeks before the fast of Aḇ with a verse-by-verse “Ladino” (in this case meaning standard Early Modern Spanish, not Judezmo) translation. According to Joseph Jesurun Pinto (ḥazzan of Shearith Israel in New York from 1759 to 1766), it was customary in Amsterdam for only the final of the three aftarót, the aftará of Shabbat Ḥazon, to be recited with this Spanish targum, while in London it was customary for all three to be recited. This practice fell out of common usage in the past few centuries, although the Western Sephardic community of Bayonne preserved it up until the Shoah. But to this day a unique cantillation system is used in most Western Sephardic communities for the three aftarót before the fast. Attached is a transcript of a Spanish verse-by-verse targum of the aftará for the Shabbat before 9 Aḇ, based on one found in a publication from Amsterdam in 1766. Each verse is included in Hebrew, as well as the original Spanish text, and a slightly modernized Spanish text underneath to clarify archaic forms or words that have fallen out of use. . . .
יום טוב של קהל קדוש קארפינטראס ל״ט בחדש ניסן | Poetic Additions for 9 Nisan, for when guards protected the Jews of Carpentras from an attempted pogrom — by Rabbi Mordecai Astruc (1682)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Unknown, Mordecai Astruc
The Seder ha-Tamid, a Provençal (Nusaḥ Comtat Venaissin) siddur published in Avignon in 1766, has liturgical additions for an amazing five different local festivals — one for Avignon, and two each for Carpentras and Cavaillon. Here’s a series of piyyutim for the ninth of Nisan in Carpentras. On 9 Nisan 5442 (17 April 1682), the gentile murderer of a Jew from Carpentras was drowned according to law. A mob began to form to attack the Jews for deigning to not be murdered. The rector of the comtat, Michele Antonio Vibò, decided to send guards to protect the Jews from the mob. This decision was celebrated by the Jews with multiple piyyuṭim and a full recitation of Hallel. Uniquely for the minor Purims analyzed in the Seder ha-Tamid so far, we know the author of one of these piyyutim, a sage and payṭan by the name of R. Mordecai Astruc! . . .
Judeo-Italian couplets for each course of the Passover Seder (Venice, 1609)
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
A series of fourteen short couplets describing the fourteen traditional stages of the Haggadah, written in Judeo-Italian and first published in the famous 1609 Venice Haggadah of Isaac Gershon. The Italian used in the Venice Haggadah lacks a lot of the most divergent aspects of the Judeo-Italian languages, sticking to a more mainline Tuscan grammatical norm, but there are enough obsolete, poetic, or dialectal forms that several footnotes have been included to explain them. Also included is an original English-language rhyming translation! . . .