O helper of the poor and indigent

Nissi al-Nahrawānī

Late 9th or Early 10th Century

In honor of a scholar.

O helper of the poor and the indigent,
serve the Lord of Lords, for your merit.
O good provider, keeper of faith,
in heaven and on earth they march to greet you.
To learn from your acumen in [scholarly] matters,
sages and scholars rush to your door.
You melt the two academies1 with your thoughts,
Talmud and commentaries, in ninety-eight ways.
May the scion of Jesse, with . . .
come in your lifetime to [Jerusalem], the mother of children.
For the sheep dispersed to the four corners
may he whistle, to gather them with utmost joyous song,
and bring freedom to the captives and awaken the sleepers.
May you rejoice when those compared to lilies flourish in your lifetime,
and in your lifetime may priests and Levites stand on their platforms.
Your crown will shine over all of them, O our master, with your court.
Amen, may your life be fruitful, and your days be many . . .
Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[I.e., the talmudic academies of Sura and Pumbedita, located at this time in Baghdad.—Ed.]

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

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This fragmentary excerpt is from a Hebrew panegyric in honor of a scholar, praising his kindness and erudition and wishing him a long and productive life. The second half looks forward to the coming of the messiah and imagines the glories that await the scholar and the Jewish people (who are compared to scattered sheep, captives, and sleepers) with the rebuilding of the Temple. Ellipses indicate lacunae in the manuscript.

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Creator Bio

Nissi al-Nahrawānī

Late 9th or Early 10th Century

Nissi ben Berekhiah al-Nahrawānī was a poet whose family may have come originally from a town called Nahrawān in Persia, or possibly in Iraq. He held the position of resh kallah (head of the academy) in the Sura academy (then located in Baghdad), one of the centers of talmudic scholarship during the geonic period (ca. 700 to ca. 1000). According to the Chronicle of Baghdad of Nathan ha-Bavli, Nissi played a role in the appointment of Se‘adya Ga’on as head of Sura. Many of Nissi’s poems survive in the Cairo Geniza.

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