May He give great strength

Levi Ibn al-Tābban

Late 11th Century

May He give great strength—
the Lord of lords,
to those who stand on their watch in prayer and supplication.
May He draw them out of the depths of vicious waters.
He gives might to the weary, to those without ability.
May He give great strength
to the beaten, wandering nation,
which is silent, deprived of peace, and sated with shame,
emaciated and limping between the young lions.
When will you bring the prophet’s news to be near?
The Lord God will wipe of the tear from every face (Isaiah 25:8).
May He give great strength
and might to the captives,
whose lives are dangling day and night.
They are winnowed with a winnower, to the edges of the earth.
They pant like wild asses standing on heights,
and they are smitten with terrible illnesses.
May He give great strength,
may He break the yoke of the oppressed,
of the people in exile, trapped in traps and brambles.
They used to be supple and lush,
but for so long their lives have been so sated
with contempt from the comfortable, scorn from the haughty.
May He give great strength—
the living One, who remembers the covenant.
May He cleanse the stains of our sins as if with lye.
May there be hope and future from the wretched exile.
May He cut the cords and tethers of our evil inclination [that caused our exile],
which performs horror and sows discord.

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

Engage with this Source

This penitential selihah is built around Isaiah 40:29; the first part of the verse, “May He give great strength,” opens every stanza, and the last part closes the first stanza. The other stanzas end with phrases from Isaiah as well. Ibn al-Tabban asks God to strengthen the Jewish people who are suffering in their exile. He draws many of his images from the book of Jeremiah. This poem made its way into medieval versions of the Seder Rav ‘Amram Ga’on, an early prayer book that was continuously updated to match contemporary Jewish practice.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Liturgical Poetry (Piyyut)

7th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Levi Ibn al-Tābban

11th Century

Levi Ibn al-Tābban was a grammarian and poet active in Saragossa, Spain, at the time a leading cultural and political center. Many later figures praised his poetry, including Moses Ibn Ezra (ca. 1055–ca. 1138) and Judah ha-Levi (ca. 1075–1141), but most of his poems were lost until the twentieth century. Only small pieces of his grammatical writings survive.

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