Tuesday, October 7, 2014

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