Unknown Author(s) • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

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צָעֲקָה יוֹכֶבֶד | Tsa’aqah Yokheved, a piyyut attributed to Shmuel Shlomo (before 1050 CE)

Contributed on: 17 Mar 2016 by Unknown Author(s) | ❧

The 7th of Adar is the traditional date for the yahrzeit of Mosheh Rabbeinu and it is also remembered as the day of his birth 120 years earlier. This variation of of the piyyut, Tsa’aqah Yokheved, popularly sung on 7 Adar, is first attested in a 1712 Sepharadi mahzor published in Amsterdam, as transcribed above with some minor changes with the contemporary audio recording of the Iraqi nusaḥ made by משה חבושה (Moshe Ḥavusha). (The piyyut appear without niqqud.) An older version (perhaps the original version), attributed in the Maagarim database to Shmuel Shlomo and dated before 1050 CE, is attested in two manuscripts: “London, British Library 699” and “Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ham. 288”. Ibn Ezra (1089-1167) quotes a stanza from the version we have presented here (“וכבד אמי אחרי התנחמי”) indicating that this version may be at least as old. . . .

אֲזַלַת יוֹכֶֽבֶד | Azalat Yokheved, a lamentation on the death of Mosheh (SYAP 42a, ca. 7th c.)

Contributed on: 24 Sep 2024 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧

Azalat Yokheved is part of a whole genre of midrashic works suggesting Yokheved lived to see her son die — a concept even found in the Ethiopian literature. With repeated refrains, it emphasizes the desperate search of a mother trying to find her son, retracing all her steps and desperately asking everyone she can. But just as Moshe’s journey to the Promised Land ends without a conclusion, so too Yokheved never finds her Moshe. It’s been translated preserving monorhyme scheme. Taken from Sokoloff and Yahalom’s Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity (2018), it is presented here vocalized with an original translation. . . .

אֲזַלַת בְּכִיתָא | Azalat Bekhita, a lamentation on the death of Mosheh (SYAP 41, ca. 7th c.)

Contributed on: 24 Sep 2024 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧

Azalat Bekhita, is probably incomplete, extending only to ḥeth in known manuscripts. It features multiple people, places, and things important in Moshe’s life taking turns to eulogize him. It’s been translated preserving the acrostic and monorhyme scheme. Taken from Sokoloff and Yahalom’s Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity (2018), it is presented here vocalized with an original translation. . . .

אֲמַר קִירִיס לְמֹשֶׁה | Amar Kiris l-Mosheh, a lamentation on the death of Mosheh (SYAP 40, ca. 7th c.)

Contributed on: 24 Sep 2024 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧

Amar Kiris l-Moshe, is a midrashic narrative of Moshe going to Adam to ask why he cursed humanity with death. It’s been translated preserving the acrostic and monorhyme scheme. Taken from Sokoloff and Yahalom’s “Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity,” it is presented here vocalized with an original translation. . . .

יחץ (מנהג גרבא) | Liturgical Additions for Yaḥats, in the practice of the Jewish community of Djerba

Contributed on: 13 Apr 2024 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧

In many communities, the practice of Yaḥats, or breaking the matsah before maggid, is done with liturgical and ritual additions. The additions included here are one practice out of many variants as found in the practice of Djerba, the island off the coast of Tunisia. . . .

אֲשֶׁר בִּגְלַל אָבוֹת בָּנִים גִּדֵּל | Asher Biglal Avot Banim Gidel — an archaic piyyut on Mosheh’s Death for Simḥat Torah

Contributed on: 12 Oct 2023 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧

This piyyut of unknown authorship is certainly ancient, showing the lack of a rhyme scheme characteristic of the REALLY old piyyutim (see also Aleinu or El Adon). It is still found in some Ashkenazi and Teman maḥzorim, with many different mostly minor variants (which have been combined together somewhat eclectically into one text here). It is presented here along with an English translation attempting to preserve the Hebrew acrostic. Originally it was recited before the Ashrei leading into musaf, but perhaps for those who follow Ashkenazi customs a more appropriate location would be as an introduction to the Yizkor service on Shmini ‘Atzeret — which for those who don’t keep second-day yontef is the same day. It could also be adapted as part of the liturgy for the seventh of Adar, although the final verse (the old Western rite berakha for finishing a full Torah cycle) would have to be elided. . . .

💬 סֵפֶר פְּטִירָת מֹשֶׁה | ሞተ ፡ ሙሴ | Motä Musē (the Book of the Passing of Mosheh), in Ge’ez with Hebrew and English translation

Contributed on: 26 Nov 2019 by Jacques Faïtlovitch (translation) | Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧

The text of the Betä ʾƎsəraʾel legend of the death of Moses, translated to Hebrew by Jacques Faïtlovitch, and vocalized, cantillated, and translated into English by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. . . .

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