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Simḥat Torah

This is an archive of prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for the festival of Simḥat Torah, celebrated on the same day as Shemini Atseret in Erets Yisrael and on the second festival day of Shemini Atseret outside of Erets Yisrael.

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

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. . . .

Categories: Simḥat Torah, Shiv'ah b'Adar

Tags: phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, mid-first millennium CE, Mosheh Rabbenu, mourning, פיוטים piyyuṭim

Contributor(s): Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

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

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. . . .

Categories: Simḥat Torah, Shiv'ah b'Adar

Tags: 45th century A.M., 7th century C.E., acrostic, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aramaic, Mosheh Rabbenu, mourning, Nusaḥ Erets Yisrael, פיוטים piyyuṭim, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s): Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

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

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. . . .

Categories: Simḥat Torah, Shiv'ah b'Adar

Contributor(s): Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

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

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. . . .

Categories: Simḥat Torah, Shiv'ah b'Adar

Tags: 45th century A.M., 7th century C.E., Aramaic, Mosheh Rabbenu, mourning, Nusaḥ Erets Yisrael, פיוטים piyyuṭim, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s): Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

עַל־מֹשֶׁה אֶרְגָּז וְאָהִים | Al Mosheh Ergaz v-Ahim — a pizmon on Mosheh’s death for Simḥat Torah, by R. Shmuel ha-Dayan of Aram Ṣoba (ca. 12th c.)

This pizmon was written by R. Shmuel ben Moshe Ha-Dayan of Aram Ṣoba (ca. 1150-1200) an Aleppine payṭan whose works were almost completely lost before being rediscovered in the Maḥzor Aram Ṣoba. It emphasizes the uneasy juxtaposition of the joy of Simḥat Torah with the tragedy of Moshe’s death. Originally it was probably recited before musaf, but perhaps for those who follow Ashkenazi customs a more appropriate location would be as an introduction to the Yizkor service on Shemini ‘Atseret — which for those who don’t keep second-day yontef is the same day. . . .

Categories: Simḥat Torah, Shiv'ah b'Adar

Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., Maḥzor Aram Tsoba, Minhag Aleppo Musta'arabi, Mosheh Rabbenu, mourning, פיוטים piyyuṭim, פזמונים pizmonim

Contributor(s): Shmuel haDayan, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

אַדִּיר לֹא יָנוּם | Adir Lo Yanum — a Sefaradi piyyut for weddings and Torah-reading days

According to Joseph Judah Chorny’s On the Caucasian Jews, this acrostic piyyuṭ was customarily used as an epithalion before a wedding. He writes, “Before morning light, the bride is led to the groom’s house accompanied by many women and men, all carrying lit wax candles in their hands, and singing this song along the way.” Variants of this piyyut are found throughout the greater Sephardic world, generally in an abbreviated and slightly altered form. In Syria it is sung during the haqafot for Simḥat Torah, while in Livorno Sephardic practice (and subsequently in most Eastern Sephardic maḥzorim) it is a Shavu’ot piyyut. . . .

Categories: Shavuot, Engagements & Weddings, Simḥat Torah, Parashat Yitro

Tags: phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, anti-soporific, epithalamion, Kavkazi Jewry, פיוטים piyyuṭim, stimulant, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Unknown

אֵין אַדִּיר כַּיְיָ (מִפִּי אֵל)‏ | Ayn Adir kAdonai | לָא קָאדִּר סַוָא אַלְלָה (There is none like Allah), minhag Cairo variation with a Judeo-Arabic translation

This is a variation of Mipi El in Hebrew with a Judeo-Arabic translation found in the Seder al-Tawḥid for Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan, compiled by Mosheh Asher ibn Shmuel in 1887 in Alexandria. . . .

Categories: Rosh haShanah la-Melakhim, Seder al-Tawḥid, Shavuot, Simḥat Torah

Tags: 17th century C.E., 54th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, אין אדיר Ayn Adir, הקפה ד׳ fourth haḳafah, Judeo-Arabic, פיוטים piyyuṭim, via negativa, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Akiva Sanders (translation), Unknown (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

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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

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