Diálogo dos montes (The Controversy of the Mountains)

Reuel Jessurun

1624

Zetim:

How blessed and how happy must that man

A thousand times be called who acknowledges

One God alone, a single entity.

Gerizim:

How happy and how blessed must he be

Who in God’s holy Law meditates

Both night and day.

Nebo:

How blessed those who sit

Within thy house, O Lord of Holiness,

Praising thy holy name continually.

Hor Hahar:

Blessed many times and fortunate

The people are whom alone it’s given

To be called the people of the blessed Lord.

Carmel:

Blessed and holy must the people be

Whose God the Lord of Hosts by name is called.

Zetim:

Shalom alekhem, Nebo, Carmel, Hor.

Carmel:

Alekhem shalom, Zetim and Gerizim.

Nebo:

O may our stay in this Kahal Kadosh

Be for the good and peace of everyone.

Sinai:

This without doubt must be the sacred place

Chosen by mother Earth for us to meet,

The seven sons whom she would reconcile.

Many are here already; I’m not first.

Adonay imakhem, my brothers.

Gerizim:

Yevarekhekha Adonay, Sinai divine.

Sinai:

There’s still one missing of the seven sons.

Carmel:

Yes, Mount Zion has not yet arrived.

Hor Hahar:

May a redeemer come as soon to Zion

As Zion comes to us.

Zion:

I must be late,

Since the six brothers are already here.

Gerizim:

Zion, at last you’ve come, and your arrival

Makes between us all the perfect number.

Zion:

O brothers dear, dearly beloved friends,

Upon whom God Almighty has bestowed

A thousand benefits, a thousand gifts,

Since our early origin and birth.

On the third day of the newborn world,

He lifted off our heads the humid veil

Of the deep waters which then covered us,

Which, though of crystal, had not let us show

Our lofty foreheads to the shining sun;

Later, as time went by, at various times

He chose our exalted peaks to demonstrate

His greatness, whence we gained eternal fame,

Renown eternal throughout all the world;

So from your highest peaks sing songs of praise,

You mountains, to the Creator of the world,

Who, the more to honor you, is called

The One who dwells on high.

Carmel:

O what sweet discourse, what appealing words!

How they inspire our hearts to feel delight,

To memories of all His benefits!

With reason does the holy Prophet King

Call us to shout, to celebrate in song

Our happy lot, our glorious destiny:

Break forth in song, ye mountains, were his words,

And in another place: Mountains and hills,

Praise ye the Lord.

Hor Hahar:

Truly this sacred place wherein we stand

Inspires us too with pleasant melody

To magnify the God of Israel,

The Strength of Jacob, for it is the way

Of this Kahal Kadosh continually

Him to exalt with psalms and songs of praise

Evening, morn, and noon.

Zetim:

The harmony and singing which is due

To such a Lord and for such favors given,

If not in tune is inappropriate.

For no musician plays an instrument

Before it has been tempered and well tuned;

If each string in its right place in the scale

Is well in tune (and with the treble, all),

Then sweet will be the music that it plays.

Therefore, beloved friends, our hearts must be

Attuned, united, and in harmony

Before we practise this angelic art,

So it may be accepted.

Nebo:

This harmony we cannot well enjoy

As long as our ancient difference persists,

Argued about so many times before

But never yet decided or adjudged.

For each of us considers and believes,

With eyes alone for his own excellence,

Of others’ virtues taking no account,

That he alone should have the crown and palm

Of honor and preeminence.

Sinai:

Neither as honorable nor true can we

Consider glory and preeminence,

If all together do not give assent

Or if another claims it for his own.

Two kings cannot sit on a single throne

Nor can one crown alone two empires serve.

Royal majesty is given to one alone

And one king over the holy people ruled

When they in peace possessed the Holy Land.

A single priest presided as the head

Of Aaron’s family in the sacred Temple.

In the sanhedrin of the seventy

One of the elders was the president.

Let us not be the only headless one,

And since we are the head of all the world

Let us accept a head among ourselves,

Yielding the place which cannot be for all

To him who most deserves it.

Translated by

Marvin

Meital

Credits

Reuel Jessurun, from Dialogo Dos Montes, ed. and trans. Philip Polack, in Philip Polack, “Dialogo Dos Montes: The Controversy of the Mountains, A Dramatic Action Composed into the Portuguese Tongue by Rehuel Jessurun,” The American Sephardi: Journal of The Sephardic Studies Program of Yeshiva University, vol. IV (1970), pp. 57–59. Used with permission of the Sephardic Studies Program of Yeshiva University.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Reuel Jessurun

1575–1635

Born in Lisbon as Paulo de Pina to a family of Portuguese New Christians, after a short stay in Italy, Reuel Jessurun arrived in Amsterdam and adopted Judaism. He was very active in the Sephardic community. Later he moved to Hamburg, where he died. His work in Portuguese, Diálogo dos montes (The Controversy of the Mountains), describes a conversation among seven mountains mentioned in the Bible: Sinai, Zion, Hor Hahar, Nevo, Gerizim, Carmel, and the Mount of Olives (Zetim). They argue about who deserves precedence, and King Jehoshaphat, who serves as the judge, declares Sinai the winner at the end of the discussion. Although the work was first published in 1767, it was known during the author’s lifetime.

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