This prayer appears on page 11-12 of Hayyim Obadya’s Seder Akhilat haSimanim for 5781. It is a variant of the prayer, “Eloheinu Shebashamayim,” a supplication read in the sephardic tradition during seliḥot. This version contains twenty-five lines as found in Sefer Selihot haShalem, Hazon Ovadia, p.48-51/. Other variations have fifty or more lines.

Categories:

Morning Seliḥot, Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation

Tags:

acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, אלהינו שבשמים Elohenu Shebashamayim, סליחות səliḥot

Contributor(s):

Ḥayyim Obadyah and Unknown

🆕 בֶּן אָדָם מַה־לְּךָ נִרְדָּם | ben Adam Mah L’kha Nirdam (rhyming Ladino translation by Rabbi Reuven Eliyahu Yisrael of Craiova, 1910)

“ben Adam Mah Lekha Nirdam,” of unclear origin, is the opening piyyuṭ of the Sephardic seliḥot service every morning. Drawing a parallel between the literal slumber from which the petitioner has just awoken and the metaphorical slumber of sin, it serves as a fitting introduction to the early morning liturgy. As with any piyyuṭ in such a prominent place, of course, has been translated into the colloquial for all the people to appreciate its language. The following is not only the complete Hebrew text of Ben Adam Ma Lekha Nirdam along with a new English translation, but also a rhyming Ladino translation composed by R. Reuven Eliyahu Yisrael, the spiritual leader of the Sephardic community of Craiova, Romania, and published in the aforementioned town in the year 1910 (in טראדוקסייון ליברי די לאס פואיזיאס איבראיקאאס). To demonstrate the techniques used by R. Yisrael in his translation, a literal translation of the Ladino, as well as a transcription into the Latin-script Aki Yerushalaim orthography, is also provided.

Categories:

Morning Seliḥot, Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation

Tags:

Ladino Translation, Nusaḥ Sefaradi, paraliturgical seliḥot, פיוטים piyyuṭim, סליחות səliḥot

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Reuven Eliyahu Yisrael (translation) and Unknown

סליחה מר׳ יצחק אבן גיאת | Seliḥah by Yitsḥaq ben Yehudah Ibn Ghayyat (ca. 11th century) translated by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

The following love poem is one of the Selihot recited between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Ibn Gayat (1038 – 1089) was not timid about using the most intimate symbols in asking God to become reconciled with us.

Categories:

Morning Seliḥot, Yom Kippur, Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation

Tags:

11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., devotional interpretation, eros, Granadan Jewry, interpretive translation, Kingdom of Granada, פיוטים piyyuṭim, סליחות səliḥot, Song of Songs, The Lovers

Contributor(s):

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation) and Yitsḥak ben Yehudah Ibn Ghayyāth HaLevi

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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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