I uttered a vow to God

Nathan ben Yeḥiel

1101

Illustration of a bearded, crying man in a robe and turban, his head surrounded by a gold halo, crouching beside a shrouded figure, also haloed, lying on a wooden bed.

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This Hebrew poem, which Nathan ben Yeḥiel of Rome placed at the end of his talmudic dictionary, the ‘Arukh, recounts the repeated tragedies that befell him and his family. It replaces a traditional colophon and, like some earlier poetic models from the Italian poet Shabbetai Donnolo, was written in a monorhyme without a quantitative meter. The acrostic in the first half of the poem spells out Nathan’s name. Nathan begins by alluding to a vow to write a Torah scroll, which he seems to have fulfilled by commissioning it from a scribe named Samuel, with its cover made by a woman named Rachel. Nathan then writes about the death of four of his five sons. Finally, he closes with his promise to build a mikveh (ritual bath).

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I uttered a vow to God

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I uttered a vow to God

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