Download ELJC Newsletter Learning Zone –August 2015 Adon Olam and

ELJC Newsletter Learning Zone –August 2015
Adon Olam and other concluding songs
We usually conclude our Shabbat morning services with Adon Olam. This can be sung to many
different tunes. There are solemn tunes and jolly tunes. I have even sung it to “Jingle Bells” at a
service on 25th December! As it comes immediately after the Kaddish, I often choose, when I am
leading a service, to do it to a solemn tune. Adon Olam can be found on page 525 of Siddur Lev
Chadash (SLC). It is appropriate after the Kaddish especially because of the last verse in which we
commend our soul and our body to God and promise that we will not fear even when we go into
that final sleep.
According to the editors of SLC, Adon Olam is about the “great paradox of Jewish theology” which is
that God is both transcendent (that is, above humankind) and immanent (that is, close to
humankind.) Rabbi Pete Tobias says, “Here we find the basis of the personal relationship that
Judaism believes can exist between individuals and God; a relationship experienced by Abraham and
Jacob and available to all their descendants.”
It is thought to have been written in Christian Spain in the 13th or 14th century CE. This can be seen
from the emphasis on God being one, and not a trinity as in Christian theology. Had it not been
written in a Christian environment, there would have been no need to state this. The translation in
SLC is by the late Rabbi John Rayner who was so influential in British post-Second World War Liberal
Judaism.
Yigdal is a very different song from Adon Olam, both in content and purpose. In SLC it can be found
on page 526 in the concluding songs and we sometimes use it as an alternative to Adon Olam at the
end of the service. It is a great proclamation of the Thirteen Principles of Faith of Maimonides,
summarised in verse. Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides, also known as Rambam) was born in
Spain in 1135 and died in Egypt in 1204. He expounded his Thirteen Principles at length in his
Mishnah commentary (Sanhedrin 10:1). They set out ideas such as God being limitless, unique,
without bodily form, universal and pre-existing. They continue with the prophets, the primacy of
Moses, teaching and justice coming from God and asserting that God knows all our thoughts and
deeds. In the end we are promised eternal life through God.
The translation in SLC is, as expected, slightly adapted from the traditional orthodox version. The
12th verse in the traditional version says that God will send the messiah at the end of days. The SLC
version says that God’s spirit will redeem all humanity which is based on a verse from the book of
Joel (3:1). The first half of the last verse has also been adapted. The traditional version says that
God “will quicken the dead” which means bodily resurrection. The modern SLC version says we have
“hope of immortal life” which does not imply any physical resurrection.
Finally we come to Eyn Keloheynu, which was originally a piyyut, or liturgical poem from the Gaonic
Age. (The Ge’onim – which means “eminences” – were the heads of rabbinic academies, especially
in Babylonia, between the 6th and 11th centuries CE.) It is much older than the other two songs in
origin. It is found in the Seder Rav Amram (or Amram ben Sheshna) who lived in Babylonia around
860 CE. The order of the first two stanzas was later reversed. It is found in the Machzor Vitry which
was written in France around 1100 CE.
Piyyutim developed in Palestine under Byzantine rule between the 2nd and 6th centuries CE. They
were composed for liturgical purposes and followed highly formalised poetic cycles for Sabbaths and
holidays. They followed rigid structures (as Eyn Keloheynu does) and many were set out as an
acrostic of the 22 Hebrew letters. Characteristic of the piyyut were a strictly-observed structure and
rhythm based on a fixed number of words in each line and obligatory rhyme. The form of the piyyut
was carried through Italy to the whole of medieval central and eastern Europe where it continued to
dominate the form of liturgical poetry in the Ashkenazi tradition. Carmi says that it is also thought,
via the Christian Syriac church, to have transferred the principle of rhyme to European poetry.
Eyn Keloheynu appears to be a simple, repetitive song sung to a fairly simple tune that changes from
verse to verse along with the changes in the first word or two of each verse. It can be found on
page528 of SLC. There are far greater depths in these three familiar songs than at first appears. RS