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In Memory of Yemenite Cantor Y’shaya M. Grama, A”H,
Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Bridgeport, Connecticut 10 August 2015
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Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Bridgeport, Connecticut
The past three issues of Sephardi Ideas Monthly introduced our readers to the world of piyyut, Jewish liturgical poetry and (soul) music, by visiting different aspects of Israel’s contemporary piyyut revival. One of the distinctive aspects of that revival is the prominent role played by Andalusian piyyut for both Israeli artists and the country’s listening public. Again and again contemporary Israeli musicians such as Barry Sakharov and Etti Ankri have revisited musical-poetic traditions whose roots go back to Muslim and Christian Spain via North Africa, while Israel’s two Andalusian orchestras (!) play North African variants of the classic Andalusian sound.
Starting this month, Sephardi Ideas Monthly is accordingly going back in time and exploring the time and place that gave birth to Andalusian piyyut, the world of Spanish Jewry during the 10th–14th centuries. We begin our exploration with a 2007 essay, “The Lost Jewish Culture,” written by Harold Bloom, the great Yale university scholar of literature.
 Watch the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra perform Yehuda HaLevi’s piyyut, “Ya Sh’ma Ev’yonecha” (“God, Hear Your Poor Ones”), featuring the young Israeli vocalist, Ofir ben Shitrit. Many Sephardi communities sing this piyyut amongst the slichot (penitential poems) preformed in the forty-day period before Yom Kippur. |
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“The Lost Jewish Culture”
The jumping-off point of Bloom’s essay─and a reference point to which Bloom consistently returns─is Peter Cole’s magisterial English-language translations of Hebrew poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, The Dream of the Poem. In investigating Cole’s anthology, Bloom composes both an overview of Andalusian poetry and a fascinating introduction to the strongest Andalusian poets, each with his highly personal sensibility and capacity for balancing the sacred and the profane:
Where did these personalities come from? How did they create the miracle of Andalusian poetry? In Andalusia, writes Bloom, “Jewish religious tradition fused miraculously with Greco-Arabic modes of thought, feeling, and expression,” as well as “the Romance element in Spanish and Provençal literature.” |
Watch the Israeli Andalusian Orchestra perform Yehuda HaLevi’s piyyut, “Ya Sh’ma Ev’yonecha” (“God, Hear Your Poor Ones”), featuring the young Israeli vocalist, Ofir ben Shitrit. Many Sephardi communities sing this piyyut amongst the slichot (penitential poems) preformed in the forty-day period before Yom Kippur.
The jumping-off point of Bloom’s essay─and a reference point to which Bloom consistently returns─is Peter Cole’s magisterial English-language translations of Hebrew poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, The Dream of the Poem. In investigating Cole’s anthology, Bloom composes both an overview of Andalusian poetry and a fascinating introduction to the strongest Andalusian poets, each with his highly personal sensibility and capacity for balancing the sacred and the profane:
- the warrior-poet, Shmu’el HaNagid;
- the turbulent genius, Shelomo Ibn Gabirol;
- the melancholy exile, Moshe Ibn Ezra;
- the lover of Zion, Yehuda HaLevi;
- the materially impoverished but spiritually inflamed Avraham Ibn Ezra;
- the rough-and-tumble traveler and wicked satirist, Yehuda Alharazi; and
- the sensuous, lively, and resilient troubadour, Todros Abulafia.
Where did these personalities come from? How did they create the miracle of Andalusian poetry? In Andalusia, writes Bloom, “Jewish religious tradition fused miraculously with Greco-Arabic modes of thought, feeling, and expression,” as well as “the Romance element in Spanish and Provençal literature.”
| This Mediterranean fusion produced, among other things, a “perpetually astonishing” poetry that, “at the very best, could rival the magnificences of Scripture, such as ‘Song of the Red Sea’ (Exodus 15:1b–18), the ‘War Song of Deborah and Barak’ (Judges 5:1–31), and ‘David’s Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan’ (2 Samuel 1:19–27).” |
| But Andalusian poetry not only rivals “the magnificences of Scripture,” it is still sung and performed today in synagogues, around Shabbat tables, in Israel’s concert halls and on her radio waves. Sephardi Ideas Monthly is delighted to begin our tour of Andalusian Spain and the Andalusian Jewish poets with Harold Bloom’s provocative essay, “The Lost Jewish Culture.” |
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Copyright © 2015 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved. Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error. The American Sephardi Federation is a proud partner of the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, NY., 10011). American Sephardi Federation | http://www.Sephardi.House | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 548-4486
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Copyright © 2015 American Sephardi Federation, All rights reserved.
Thank you for opting (on our websites, at an event, or by email) to receive American Sephardi Federation Programming Updates and Publications. We apologize if this message was sent in error.
The American Sephardi Federation is a proud partner of the Center for Jewish History (15 West 16th St., New York, NY., 10011).
American Sephardi Federation | http://www.Sephardi.House | info@Sephardi.House | (212) 548-4486
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