Two Poetic Praises of the Creator of the Luminaries

These two early poems dealing with God’s creation of the heavenly lights are today interpolated into the first morning benediction before the recitation of the Shema‘, which describes God as the creator of light. The first poem is recited on weekdays; the second, more elaborate poem is recited on the Sabbath.

In Hebrew, these are alphabetical acrostics in which each word begins with the successive letter of the alphabet.