49th century A.M.

סליחה מר׳ יצחק אבן גיאת | Seliḥah by Yitsḥak ben Yehudah Ibn Ghayyat (ca. 11th century) translated by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l

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Categories: Days of Awe (Yamim Nora'im) | Tags:   , , , , , , , , , ,  

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. . . .

אודך כי אנפת בי | Odekha Ki Anafta Bi, a Yotser (Hymn) for Ḥanukkah by Yosef bar Shlomo of Carcassone (ca. 11th cent.)

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“Odecha ki anafta bi (I give thanks to you although you were angry with me) was composed by Joseph ben Solomon of Carcassonne, who is dated to the first half of the eleventh century. This elegant and abstruse poem tells an epic tale of the Jews’ resistance to the decrees of Antiochus IV and includes accounts of both the Hasmonean bride and Judith. It bears a considerable resemblance to texts 4 and 12 of the Hanukkah midrashim[ref]See Grintz, Sefer Yehudit, pp. 205, 207–08[/ref] and this is evidence for the circulation of the joint Hasmonean daughter-Judith tales in the eleventh century, even if the surviving manuscripts of these stories are from a later date.” (Deborah Levine Gera, “The Jewish Textual Traditions” in The Sword of Judith: Judith Studies Across the Disciplines (2010).) . . .


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