Sandalphon, a poem concerning the angel by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1858)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=7047

Date: 2013-06-05

Last Updated: 2024-12-17

Categories: Qedushah

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Angelic Nature, Angels, Coronation, Crown, English poetry, English Romanticism, Hekhalot, Keter, romanticism, Wheel, Wreath, סנדלפון Sandalfon, קדושה Qedushah

Excerpt: The poem, "Sandalphon," as composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882) and completed January 18, 1858, first published in Birds of Passage (1858), section "Flight the First," page 62. . . .

Content:

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Sandalphon
	Have you read in the Talmud of old,[1] Hagiga 13b    In the Legends the Rabbins have told     Of the limitless realms of the air,– Have you read it,–the marvellous story Of Sandalphon, the Angel of Glory,     Sandalphon, the Angel of Prayer?
	How, erect, at the outermost gates Of the City Celestial he waits,     With his feet on the ladder of light, That, crowded with angels unnumbered, By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered     Alone in the desert at night?
	The Angels of Wind and of Fire Chant only one hymn, and expire     With the song’s irresistible stress; Expire in their rapture and wonder, As harp-strings are broken asunder     By music they throb to express.
	But serene in the rapturous throng, Unmoved by the rush of the song,     With eyes unimpassioned and slow, Among the dead angels, the deathless Sandalphon stands listening breathless     To sounds that ascend from below;–
	From the spirits on earth that adore, From the souls that entreat and implore     In the fervor and passion of prayer; From the hearts that are broken with losses, And weary with dragging the crosses     Too heavy for mortals to bear.
	And he gathers the prayers as he stands, And they change into flowers in his hands,     Into garlands of purple and red; And beneath the great arch of the portal, Through the streets of the City Immortal     Is wafted the fragrance they shed.
	It is but a legend, I know,– A fable, a phantom, a show,     Of the ancient Rabbinical lore; Yet the old mediaeval tradition, The beautiful, strange superstition,     But haunts me and holds me the more.
	When I look from my window at night, And the welkin above is all white,     All throbbing and panting with stars, Among them majestic is standing Sandalphon the angel, expanding     His pinions in nebulous bars.
	And the legend, I feel, is a part Of the hunger and thirst of the heart,     The frenzy and fire of the brain, That grasps at the fruitage forbidden, The golden pomegranates of Eden,     To quiet its fever and pain.

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“Sandalphon” was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882) and completed January 18, 1858, and first published in Birds of Passage (1858), section “Flight the First,” page 62. As an introduction, Longfellow writes:

November 2, 1857. In the evening, Scherb^[2] Emmanuel Vitalis Scherb, a German-speaking poet and critic from Basel, Switzerland, befriended by Longfellow.   read to me some curious Talmudic legends from Corrodi’s Chiliasmus,^[3] This would be Kritische Geschichte des Chiliasmus (1781, p. 336) by Heinrich Corrodi (1752-1793), professor of ethics at the Gymnasium in Zurich. (Many thanks to Mississippi Fred Macdowell for helping me to locate the exact page in the Chiliasmus with the source.) Max Cavitch in “Emma Lazarus and the Golem of Liberty” in The Traffic in Poems: Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Transatlantic Exchange, (ed. Meredith L. McGill, 2008), provides some fascinating context concerning Longfellow and his understanding of Jewish myth, history, and peoplehood.   — of the great angel Sandalphon…. January 18, 1858. Finished the poem Sandalphon.

תלמוד בבלי חגיגה יג, ב	From Talmud Bavli, Tractate Hagigah 13b:[4] amended translation and notes by Rabbi Dr. Harry Mordechai Freedman (1901-1982) (from the Soncino Talmud)
וארא החיות והנה אופן אחד בארץ אצל החיות (יחזקאל א:טו)	Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel on the earth besides the living creatures.[5] Ezekiel 1:15
אמר ר’ אלעזר מלאך אחד שהוא עומד בארץ וראשו מגיע אצל החיות במתניתא תנא סנדלפון שמו הגבוה מחברו מהלך חמש מאות שנה ועומד אחורי המרכבה וקושר כתרים לקונו.‏	Rebbi Eleazar said: [It means] a certain angel, who stands on the earth and his head reaches unto the living creatures. In a Baraitha it is taught: His name is Sandalphon;[6] Perhaps from Grk. ** == cobrother. Sandalphon is described as brother of Metatron; v. J.E. vol. XI, pp. 39-40.   he is higher than his fellows by a [distance of] five hundred years’ journey, and he stands behind the Chariot and wreathes crowns[7] I.e., offers up the prayers of the righteous.   for his Maker.
איני והכתיב “ברוך כבוד ה’ ממקומו” (יחזקאל ג:יב) מכלל דמקומו ליכא דידע ליה דאמר שם אתגא ואזל ויתיב ברישיה	But is it so? Behold it is written: “Blessed be the resplendence of haShem from His place,”[8] Ezekiel 3:12.   accordingly, no one knows His place![9] I.e., the vagueness of the expression ‘from His place’ indicates that God’s place is unknown even to His angels.   — [Sandalphon] pronounces a divine name over the crown, and it goes and rests on His head.[10] More on Sandalphon can be learned from Arthur Green’s Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism (1997).

Source

Notes

Notes

1	Hagiga 13b
2	Emmanuel Vitalis Scherb, a German-speaking poet and critic from Basel, Switzerland, befriended by Longfellow.
3	This would be Kritische Geschichte des Chiliasmus (1781, p. 336) by Heinrich Corrodi (1752-1793), professor of ethics at the Gymnasium in Zurich. (Many thanks to Mississippi Fred Macdowell for helping me to locate the exact page in the Chiliasmus with the source.) Max Cavitch in “Emma Lazarus and the Golem of Liberty” in The Traffic in Poems: Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Transatlantic Exchange, (ed. Meredith L. McGill, 2008), provides some fascinating context concerning Longfellow and his understanding of Jewish myth, history, and peoplehood.
4	amended translation and notes by Rabbi Dr. Harry Mordechai Freedman (1901-1982) (from the Soncino Talmud)
5	Ezekiel 1:15
6	Perhaps from Grk. ** == cobrother. Sandalphon is described as brother of Metatron; v. J.E. vol. XI, pp. 39-40.
7	I.e., offers up the prayers of the righteous.
8	Ezekiel 3:12.
9	I.e., the vagueness of the expression ‘from His place’ indicates that God’s place is unknown even to His angels.
10	More on Sandalphon can be learned from Arthur Green’s Keter: The Crown of God in Early Jewish Mysticism (1997).

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow
  Bio: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. Longfellow wrote predominantly lyric poems, known for their musicality and often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas. Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, which was then a part of Massachusetts. He studied at Bowdoin College. After spending time in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). Longfellow retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, living the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a former headquarters of George Washington. His first wife Mary Potter died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife Frances Appleton died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry for a time and focused on his translation. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. He died in 1882.
  Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/henry-wadsworth-longfellow
• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
  Bio: Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)
  Website: https://aharon.varady.net
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription

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