Shabbat and Chanukkah met and fought before me.
This one said, “I am Adonai’s,” and this cried into my ear.
What shall I do for these today across from my cogniscenti?
The wealthy and the poor have met; Adonai makes them all.
Shabbat said to Chanukkah:
Mine is the legal status of the firstborn,
So who are you, and who is your nascent family?
For, within me, the great and awesome God ceased
From all of God’s craft that God created.
Chanukkah said to Shabbat:
Why would you fall on me and roll again?
Indeed, for eight days we recite Hallel on me,
But you are one day without it, and is there anything you utter?
“Guardian, what is of night? Guardian, what is of nighttime?”
Shabbat said to Chanukkah:
My Musaf adjudicates for me an elevated status.
The whole-burnt offering of Shabbat on each Shabbat supplements the whole-burnt offering of the daily offering.
And should you be praised above me because of a “Halelujah”—
When you are flagrantly denuded of Musaf!?
Chanukkah said to Shabbat:
They light the glow of my candles first and your candles after them,
And my mention is in the blessing of the earth, and your mention is in the blessing of “Have mercy.”
And aren’t all of your ideas and your words
Last to trail their emblems?
Shabbat said to Chanukkah:
Behold, I am consistent, like a young innocent woman,
Torn [in mourning] for seven days like the inner honor of the daughter of a king,
And you are like a concubine during nights during fright
On some occasion between days-upon-days.
Chanukkah said to Shabbat:
They look at your candle and objectify,
And I am like a lady above men and women.
And your song is for singers, but my songs are for those who inherit
The Temple that will be, with the Holy of Holies.
Shabbat said to Chanukkah:
I am the praised and exalted man,
And you are like a woman who has hardened her face and looted loot!
But, indeed, the wise in aesthetic and principle said:
We do not objectify a woman ever.
I responded:
Recuse yourselves from this fight,
For today you are entwined in an embrace.
Please go back. Do not become a defect, but return; my righteousness is still there.
I have made an oath with you: Do not be a quarrel! What will you incite? And what will you arouse? Love!
Shabbat, the premier of holy gatherings will exterminate your charges.
You have grown more beautiful than humanity. Grace has been poured into your lips.
And you are a redeemer; therre is no redeeming without you.
You have spread your wings over your maidservant.
The golden array sitting at that threshold—
Behold, there is coming towards you a righteous angel; he and his strength have been saved.
The king has desired your beauty, so incline your ear towards his voice,
For he is your lord, and you shall prostrate before him.
God, appear from the foundation of Your seat,
And return us, and shine Your face, and we shall be saved!
When You quiet, who will do evil?
And, without You, we do not have a helping and saving redeemer.
Transcribed by Rabbi Jonah Rank based on the text as appearing as the 115th piyyut in Leon J. Weinberger, Rabbanite and Karaite Liturgical Poetry in South-Eastern Europe: Critical Edition with Introduction and Commentary (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Hebrew Union College Press and University of Alabama Press, 1991), pp. 238-240; see ibid. for extended commentary.
TEXTUAL NOTE: Weinberg found this text in the printed Machzor Romanyah (Constantinople 1574); the manuscript Machzor Korfu (“Corfu”) (Oxford 1082) (accessible at https://digitalcollections.jtsa.edu/islandora/object/jts:232527 ? ); manuscript Machzor Korfu (London, JTS, Montefiore, 196/195); and the printed 19th century collection of https://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=9441&st=&pgnum=2 . Note that in both Corfu manscripts the piyyut ends with “לְֿמוֹעֲדָהּ מִיָּמִים יְֿמִֽימָה.” (“On some occasion between days-upon-days.”).
Rabbi Jonah Rank is a musician, writer, and teacher. At JonahRankLiturgy, Rabbi Jonah Rank posts recordings of traditional tunes for educational purposes as well as original tunes for lesser-sung texts--and then the occasional something else.
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