יְדִיד נֶפֶשׁ | Yedid Nefesh, a piyyut transmitted by Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (ca. 16th c.) translation by Nina Salaman (1897)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=39069

Date: 2021-09-18

Last Updated: 2021-10-16

Categories: Ḳabbalat Shabbat, Morning Baqashot

Tags: 16th century C.E., 54th century A.M., acrostic, Divine name acrostic, Openers, rhyming translation, בקשות Baqashot, ידיד נפש Yedid Nefesh, פיוטים piyyutim

Excerpt: The piyyut, Yedid Nefesh, in Hebrew with an English translation. . . .

Content:

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
יְדִיד נֶֽפֶשׁ אָב הָרַחֲמָן, מְשׁוֹךְ עַבְדְּךָ אֶל־רְצוֹנֶֽךָ, יָרוּץ עַבְדְּךָ כְּמוֹ אַיָּל, יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה אֶל מוּל הֲדָרֶֽךָ, יֶעֱרַב לוֹ יְדִידוֹתֶֽיךָ, מִנּוֹפֶת צוּף וְכׇל־טָֽעַם׃	Loved of my soul! Father of grace!   Lead on Thy servant to Thy favouring sight; He, fleetly as the hart, shall speed his pace To bow him low before thy glorious might. Sweet is Thy love to him beyond compare, Sweeter than honey, fairer than things fair.
הָדוּר נָאֶה זִיו הָעוֹלָם, נַפְשִׁי חוֹלַת אַהֲבָתֶֽךָ, אָנָּא אֵל נָא רְפָא נָא לָהּ, בְּהַרְאוֹת לָהּ נוֹֽעַם זִיוֶֽךָ, אָז תִּתְחַזֵּק וְתִתְרַפֵּא, וְהָיְתָה לָּהּ שִׂמְחַת עוֹלָם׃	Splendour of worlds! honoured, adored!   My soul is sick with pining love of Thee; My God! I pray Thee, heal her: be implored; And o’er her let Thy holy sweetness be A soothing strength to stay her yearning sore; And joy shall be for her for evermore.
וָתִיק יֶהֱמוּ נָא רַחֲמֶֽיךָ, וְחוּסָה נָא עַל בֵּן אֲהוּבֶֽךָ, כִּי־זֶה כַּמָּה נִכְסוֹף נִכְסַפְתִּי, לִרְאוֹת בְּתִפְאֶֽרֶת עֻזֶּֽךָ, אָנָּא אֵלִי חֶמְדָּת לִבִּי, חוּסָה נָא וְאַל תִּתְעַלָּם׃	Source of all good! pity Thou me!   And be Thou moved for thy beloved son, For lo, how oft my soul hath longed to see The beauty of Thy strength, Thou Mighty One! Ah, Thou my God, my heart’s desire, I pray Grant me Thy mercy; turn Thee not away.
הִגָּלֶה נָא וּפְרוֹס חָבִיבִי עָלַי אֶת סֻכַּת שְׁלוֹמָךְ תָּאִיר אֶֽרֶץ מִכְּבוֹדֶֽךָ, נָגִֽילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בָּךְ, מַהֵר אָהוּב כִּי בָא מוֹעֵד, וְחָנֵּֽנוּ כִּימֵי עוֹלָם׃	Be Thou revealed, Dearest of mine!   And spread o’er me Thy canopy of peace; Soon with Thy glory all the earth shall shine; And we shall know a joy that shall not cease. Hasten, Beloved, for the time is nigh, And have compassion as in days gone by.

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“Yedid Nefesh” is a piyyut first published in the Sefer Haḥaredim (1588) of Rabbi Elazar Moshe Azikri (1533-1600). The authorship of the piyyut is not completely certain. A version of the piyyut “with noteworthy text, spelling and pointing” may be found on folio 146 (verso) of Samuel b. David b. Solomon’s Commentary On the Book of Numbers (ca. 1437 CE).^[1] Find Stefan C. Reif’s The Hebrew Manuscripts at Cambridge University Libraries: A Description and Introduction Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 93. Reif attributes Yedid Nefesh to Azkiri. Presumably, the text must have been added to the 15th century manuscript sometime after the publication of Sefer Haḥaredim. It would be very nice to see a digitized image of this manuscript page from the CUL collection!  Yedid Nefesh also appears in Moscow – Russian State Library, Ms. Guenzburg 320 as the last of “a polyglot of at least 24 different items written in different stages” (find Dr. Ezra Chwat, גילוי מילתא בעלמא Giluy Milta B’alma). Yedid Nefesh appears there under the following headline: ד’ בתים של שם בן ד’ ב”ה ששמענו מפי קדוש מכבוד החכם השלם מהר”ר גדליה בן לגאון המושלם המקובל [הא]לקי כמהר”ר משה קורדוברו זצק”ל”. Ezra Chwat: “This doesn’t necessarily qualify that Gedalia Cordovero (1562–1625, son of Moshe Cordovero, ReMaK), is the author. To be precise, it attributes to him the oral transmission.” Meir Benayahu in Yosef Behiri, 1991, p.544, “asserts that this witness must have heard the poem from Gedalia Cordevero after his descent [from Safed] to Italy in 1583. This would be a full five years before Ḥaredim was written (and 17 years before [it was] published). Having been transmitted orally for some time might explain some of the variants. In any case Gedalia Cordevero and Elazar Azkari are likely to have been well acquainted.” The piyyut has appeared with a number of variations in various siddurim.

At the time that Nina Salaman made her translation in the Jewish Quarterly Review (1897, o.s. IX, p.290), the attribution of Yedid Nefesh was far less certain. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

 

 

Yedid Nefesh (JTSA MS3541, fol.5v)

Yedid Nefesh (Moscow – Russian State Library, Ms. Guenzburg 320, page spread 283)

yedid nefesh – sefer haḥaredim 43a (Venice 1597)

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Notes[+]

Notes

1

Find Stefan C. Reif’s The Hebrew Manuscripts at Cambridge University Libraries: A Description and Introduction Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 93. Reif attributes Yedid Nefesh to Azkiri. Presumably, the text must have been added to the 15th century manuscript sometime after the publication of Sefer Haḥaredim. It would be very nice to see a digitized image of this manuscript page from the CUL collection!

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (editing/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
• 
  Name: Nina Davis Salaman (translation)
  Bio: Paulina Ruth "Nina" Salaman (née Davis) (פָּאוּלִינָה רוּת ”נִינָה” דֵעוִיס שָׂלָמָן‏; 1877 – ‎1925) was a British Jewish poet, translator, and social activist. She is best known for her English translations of medieval Hebrew poetry, especially of the poems of Judah Halevi. Paulina Ruth Davis was born on 15 July 1877 at Friarfield House, Derby, the second of two children of Louisa (née Jonas) and Arthur Davis. Her father's family were secular Jewish precision instrument makers, who had immigrated to England from Bavaria in the early nineteenth century. A civil engineer by trade, Arthur Davis became religiously observant and mastered the Hebrew language, becoming an accomplished Hebraist noted for his study of cantillation marks in the Tanakh. The family moved to Kilburn, London when Nina was six weeks old, later settling in Bayswater. There, Davis gave his daughters an intensive scholarly education in Hebrew and Jewish studies, teaching them himself each morning before breakfast from the age of four, and taking them regularly to the synagogue. The Davises moved in learned Jewish circles, and friends of Nina's parents included the families of Nathan Adler, Simeon Singer, Claude Montefiore, Solomon Schechter, Herbert Bentwich, and Elkan Adler. Arthur Davis was one of the "Kilburn Wanderers"—a group of Anglo-Jewish intellectuals that formed around Solomon Schechter in the 1880s—members of which took an interest in Nina's work and helped her find publication for her writings.
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Salaman
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/nina-salaman
• 
  Name: Elazar ben Moshe Azikri
  Bio: Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (אלעזר בן משה אזכרי‎‎‎, also Elazar Azkari) (1533–1600) was a Jewish kabbalist, poet and writer, born in Safed to a Sephardic family who had settled in the Land of Israel after the expulsion from Spain. Rabbi Elazar studied Torah under Rabbi Yosef Sagis and Rabbi Jacob Berab, and is counted with the greatest Rabbis and intellectuals of his time: Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, Yosef Karo, Moshe Cordovero, Isaac Luria, Israel Najara, etc. In 1588 Rabbi Elazar founded the "Sukat Shalom" movement who acted to arouse in Jews the devotion to religion. Rabbi Elazar died in 1600 and was buried in Safed. Rabbi Elazar's Book, the Sefer Ḥaredim (ספר חרדים), printed after his death in 1600, is considered as one of the main books of Jewish deontology. The famous piyyut (liturgical poem) Yedid Nefesh (ידיד נפש) was first published by Rabbi Elazar in Sefer Ḥaredim. He also wrote a commentary on Tractate Bezah and Berachot of the Jerusalem Talmud. (via wikipedia)
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elazar_ben_Moshe_Azikri
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/elazar-ben-moshe-azikri

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