El Nora Alila–– lessons of joy and longing
I wanted to give them a taste of the power and the delight
of the Hebrew Poets of Spain
I had a class and a half and I needed to be able to also
give them the historical background and simultaneously “enter” the poems and
also use them as a window onto the larger society and cultural moment. Brevity
and sensitivity to the clock are not my strongest qualities and so this was to
be a tall order. We discussed how the Cordoba Caliphate soon dissolved and
local rulers carved up AL-Andalus into a series of city-states, each with their
own royal court. Within these multiple circles of power and cultural production
Jews had greater opportunities to connect with the powerful and prove
themselves “useful”. Their success at court allowed them to create their own
demimonde of Jewish intellectual life- these Jewish courtiers could patronize
poets, talmudic scholars and philosophers. The cultured class would gather at
night in the gardens of the rich to drink wine, recite poetry accompanied by
the lyre and flute.
We turned to the exceptional figure of Shmuel HaNagid who –as
legend tells it-- rose from being a spice merchant and occasional letter writer
for the illiterate to becoming the chief secretary and then Vizier of the king
of Granada, even leading armies into battle.
We read his meditation on the finitude of all things, גדוד
הלינותי – “I quartered the troops for the night”
What is Jewish about this striking poem? We discussed the
power of language, the fact that this poem, so far from the liturgical poetry
Jews produced for hundreds of years, was written in a revived Hebrew, newly
equipped to engage with the totality of human existence. A student noted how
the poet could have easily ended with a reference to the vanity of this world
vs. the Glory of the Creator –ala Ecclisiastes, or some other counter-punctual
piety, and yet he did not.
I then wanted to move into the liturgical poetry, for them
to see the uniqueness of the Hispano-Hebrew approach to being before the
Divine. We looked at Ibn Gabirol’s “Shacharticha”/ “I searched for You” שחרתיך
. The poem begins by evoking the mood, the emotions and settings of the erotic
literature of the time—the poignant hour of day break when the lovers would
need to part, or that sad hour when the night was turning to day and the young
girl begins to cry realizing that her lover will not be visiting her window,
also the sense of searching, or yearning, of our emotions and strength giving
out in our desire; for the majority of the poem there is no mention of God,
only by the end of the poem we can see that these emotions are directed towards
God, but first we are drawn in by our emotions, by the sensual, and then we can
enter the Divine.
And then, just for fun I played a video recording of the
Israel-Andalusian Orchestra with Hayyim Lok, performing “El-nora alila”, the
classic Sephardic “neila” piyut written by Moshe Ibn Ezra.
My students at Yeshiva College are mostly of Ashkenazic
background and they were shocked at the up-tempo melody. They assumed that this
was a modern, pop version of the song. How could you sing such a happy tune at
ne’ila – the closing hour of the Day of Atonement. They asked, “Why would you assume
that God has forgiven you?”
Disclaimer: I
refuse to reduce large, complex cultures and societies to stereo-types however
I am also interested in and celebrate the differences between groups and so I
will hazard the following comment:
This student’s reaction once again revealed to me a stark
theological and emotional difference reflected in the selichot/ penitential
prayers that Ashkenazic and the Sephardi-Mizrahi Jews have chosen to include in
their liturgy. The Sephardic tradition gives pride of place to poems which
emphasize the sinner’s distance from God, his desire to come close, to be
reunited with his Lover, to become whole once again.
God knows that we are dust, but we also blessed with a soul,
we are also His People, his beloved and so we will find our way back to the
Palace.
“Awesome God of Wonders
Find for us Pardon at the Time of the Gate’s Closing”
We have done our work. Beginning in Elul and moving forward
with greater intensity and attentiveness to refine ourselves, and to
consistently become better, more whole, more loving more honest and to
transform ourselves. We make it to Ne’ila and we want God to find us a place of
pardon
Is there room under your wings?
If we ask we will find it.
Perhaps, we know that if we ask we have already found it
A link for the performance of “El nora alila” can be found
on my previous post- “Drunk with Words”
Here is the Wikipedia page for El Nora Alila
Here is Peter Cole's translation of the Shmuel Hanagid Poem
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/167/4#!/20604664
Ibn Gabirol's poem is translated by Israel Zangwill
http://sacred-texts.com/jud/sig/sig16.htm
