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Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils

Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils (fl. middle of the 11th c.) was a French rabbi, Talmudist, Bible commentator, and payyeṭan. He is also known by the Hebrew name Tov Elem, a Hebrew translation from the French name "Bonfils." Of his life nothing is known but that he came from Narbonne, and was rabbi of Limoges in the province of Anjou. The ability and activity of Bonfils are best judged from his contributions to the poetry of the synagogue, no less than sixty-two of his piyyuṭim occupying prominent places in the French, German, and Polish liturgies. (Joseph Bonfils must not be confused, as he is by Azulai, with another scholar of the same name, who lived in 1200 and corresponded with Simḥah of Speyer (Responsa of Meïr ben Baruch of Rothenburg. ed. Cremona, No. 148).)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_ben_Samuel_Bonfils

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Maaravot for the first night of Shavuot, by Yosef ben Shmuel Bonfils

Contributed by: Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

The maaravot-cycle of piyyutim for the first night of Shavuot, by Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils. In normative maaravot fashion, it is one extended cycle with an overarching structure (the first words of each of the Ten Commandments) throughout the whole of the kriat shema, with additional piyyutim incorporated into the first blessing after the shema.


אֶזְכְּרָה מָצוֹק | Ezkerah Matsōk (“I remember the distress”), a seliḥah for the 10th of Tevet attributed to Yosef ben Shmuel Bonfils (11th c.)

Contributed by: David Asher (translation), Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

“Ezkera Matsok” (I remember the distress) is a seliḥah in alphabetic acrostic recited on the Fast of Tevet in the Ashkenazi nusaḥ minhag Polin.


קְדוּשְׁתָּאוֹת לְשַׁבָּת הַגָּדוֹל | Qedushtaot cycle and “seder” azhara for Shabbat haGadol, by Rabbi Yosef Bonfils (and Yannai)

Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils, Yanai haPayetan

The full qedushtaot and “seder” azhara for Shabbat haGadol, largely by the great eleventh-century paytan R. Yosef Bonfils (with one additional rahit by Yannai), including all the catenae of verses and repeated refrains often skipped in Ashkenazi practice. Alphabetical texts are translated with alphabetical acrostics.


אָז כְּאֵרַֽשְׂתָּ | Az kÉrasta, a zulat piyyut for Shabbat haGadol by Rabbi Yosef Bonfils

Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils

A zulat (piyyut inserted into the blessing after the Shema) used in the Minhag Polin (Eastern Ashkenaz) rite for Shabbat hGadol, by R. Joseph Bonfils. This poem is a narrative of a debate between Pharaoh and the sons of Amram on whether the people Israel are engaged to God or not.



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