I shall gird myself with might
About This Entry
This piyyut is an ‘avodah poem, an account of the rites that the high priest would perform on Yom Kippur to be recited during the musaf service. Al-Sanjari composed this text in twenty-two alphabetic sections. Like many ‘avodah poems, “I shall gird myself with might” reviews the history of the world from its creation, through the patriarchs, the Exodus, and the selection of the priests from among the children of Israel. The second half of the poem focuses exclusively on Yom Kippur. These excerpts treat some of the seven days of creation. Each stanza closes with a scriptural verse.
[The First Day]
[ALEF]
I shall gird myself with might
In front of the one who is girded with might [=God]
Girded with the glory
Of the flames of fire [=angels]
Terrible and dreadful [=God]
And upon everything shall be the fear
“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power” (l Chronicles 29:11) [ . . . ]
For the first time, when the time has come
To set the world in place
He swiftly consulted the knowledge [=torah]
Counsel and knowledge [=torah]
She [=torah] gave advice with knowledge
To the one who favors man with knowledge [=God]
“A rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge” (Isaiah 33:6)
He heard words of recommendation from her [=torah]
And rejoiced with joy
Fire and water evenly
He mixed, and spread out the heavens
He seized a piece of snow
And founded a clod of the earth
“He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’ ” (Job 37:6)
Darkness was destroyed
And so was tohu
Light rose, and He rejoiced
By one saying
The earth and the heavens like one
Stood together
“And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5)
[The Second Day]
[BET]
When He set the heavens in place
Out of fire and water
On the second day, “bear the waters [sa mayim]”
He hinted to the heavens [shamayim]
In the midst of the waters
He made a firmament of the heavens
“And let it divide water from water” (Genesis 1:6) [ . . . ]
In the host of His light [=the firmament]
He brightened His saying
He built its fence
And the lattices of its chamber
He created, in order to glorify Himself,
The angels of His glory
“Mighty ones who perform His bidding” (Psalms 103:20)
Each day and day
From the second day of creation
In the light of the day
They [=the angels] would renew themselves
On the same day
He created for those who would desecrate the Sabbath
“A fire that burns all the day [=hell]” (Isaiah 65:5) [ . . . ]
[The Third Day]
[GIMEL]
[ . . . ] In order for the strong waves of the sea
To be oppressed in strength
And in order for their pride in willingness
Not to cover the earth
He repaired for them the broken wall
And measured the waters of the earth
“And held the dust of the earth in a basket” (Isaiah 40:12)
He ordained that, in perpetuity,
They should not cross their boundary
To drown the boastful ones [=the Egyptians]
He made a stipulation with their depth [=the sea]
While those who were traveling their path [=the Israelites]
Would be guided by the sea’s vault
“And the waters were a wall to them on their right and on their left” (Exodus 14:22; 29)
He narrated with intelligence
From the beginning to the end
He filled the ravine [=earth] with corn
Before the creation of those who sow food [=human beings]
He rewards and feeds
And favors and supports
“Seed for the sower and bread for the eater” (Isaiah 55:10)
In order to let the earth sprout
He caused it to produce plant and vegetation
He grew the fruit of the oblivion [=the earth]
To my heart’s content
He completed on the third day
The third work
“And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day” (Genesis 1:13)
[The Fourth Day]
[DALET]
He ignited among the upper ones [=angels in the heavens]
Lights for the sake of the lower ones [=human beings upon the earth]
They [=the lights] were running throughout their houses in the heavens
As arrows [=signs] for those who have license [=sanhedrin] on the earth
They shall teach laws
And shall not change them
“As signs to mark seasons and days and years” (Genesis 1:1 4)
To fly by their desire
He made them [=the lights] equal as one
They were preeminent in praising God
And were equal in their glory
He taught them about their course
And ordained them to praise God
“Their line is gone out through all the earth” (Psalms 19:5)
The small heaven [=the moon] was darkened
Because it requested the glory
It was arranged in order for generations
For the sake of intercalation
Its camp was glorified
With the glorious host [=the stars]
“Because of the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power, not one is missing” (Isaiah 40:26) [ . . . ]
[The Fifth Day]
[HE]
He multiplied moving creatures to walk
And created proud beasts to move
The bird of prey to fly
And the moving creature to move
He crystallized the pool
Out of the water which He beautified
“Creatures that have life, and let birds fly” (Genesis 1:20)
Food to give to the fish
He sought out from there
He waved from the fair skies
And held the dust in a basket
It was set up according to the number
And was not counted
“There are creeping things innumerable” (Psalms 104:25)
He prepared for the free one [=Israel]
The one whose body is like polished ivory [=God]
That [=Leviathan] which would be pulled in on the day of redemption
With a strong fishhook
He would catch it in a net
Because it would be required immediately
“Arrows do not make him flee” ( Job 4 1:2 0)
The fin for the pure one [=God]
And all the scales of the stream
He invited them to hurry to the feast
The swift ones to pay dowry [=Israel]
The permission to explain
And the prohibition to purify
“You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean” (Leviticus 11:47)
To encourage me to study
In the Pentateuch
The one who turns my evening into light [=God]
And causes my sun to rise [=God]
The fifth day was brightened,
In which to free me
“And there was evening, and there was morning, the fifth day” (Genesis 1:23)
[The Sixth Day]
[ VAV ]
[ . . . ] And his advice [=torah] initiated
To let man stand
He kneaded him as a gift
And cast him in a heap
He breathed the breath
And likened him in the image
“Man from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7)
And he [=Adam] enjoyed himself with a helper [=Eve]
And was shown [or: taught] a commandment
But he repudiated the instruction
And met hardship
And throughout one hundred and thirty years
He has been cast out of the Garden of Eden
“Dragged away and thrown outside” ( Jerem ia h 22:19)
And from the canopy of silk
My Holy One [=God] expelled him
And the ten decrees, He revealed to me
In the twilight
And He completed on the sixth day
His work to make me rest
“And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31)
Translated by Naoya Katsumata.
Notes
Words in brackets appear in the original translation. Biblical verses come from NRSV.
Credits
Solomon Suleiman al-Sanjari, “I shall gird myself with might,” from Seder Avodah for the Day of Atonement by Shelomoh Suleiman Al-Sinjari, ed. and trans. Naoya Katsumata (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009), 8–18. © 2009 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohrsiebeck.com. Used with permission of the publisher. Verses from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.
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