O perfect Torah

Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi)

Late 11th Century

O perfect Torah, ancient by two millennia [before the creation of the universe],

please beseech God, on behalf of the perfect dove.¹

Diligently supplicate the One who dwells in heaven,

for Him to have compassion for those who study you every moment and hour.

The generation of knowledge sang “we will do” before “we will hear,”²

with yearning and desire to take delight in your words.

The father-in-law and son-in-law [i.e., the non-Jews] were disgusted to accept the gift of the wilderness.

So [God] permitted all prohibitions to them, making them like beasts.

He saw the descendants of the saintly, all gathered around the beloved mountain,

and He gave it [the Torah] to them, amid thunder and lightning.

Face to face, He spoke from the heavens,

to the two faithful guides and guardians [Moses and Aaron].

For forty days, he [Moses] studied you in the heavens—

the meekest of all creatures, the good and sweet man.

He set up a study house and elucidated all obscurities.

He taught every word in a well-explained manner. [ . . . ]

The people sitting in their academies, in the painful exile,

clarify your secrets, in all the cities and towns.

Your sages and scholars toil to acquire your words.

Your merchandise is better to them than silver or gold.

They get together in academies, young and old,

to make the Torah great and wonderful; they do not leave the tent.

Their children, at their teachers’ houses, repeat your words,

in hunger and thirst, lacking very much.

They expend much wealth, counting it out and bringing it to the wicked,

in exchange for taking joy and honor in your words.

If Jeshurun [i.e., the Jewish people] were not singing your songs,

you would be silenced from every mouth and throat.

Who would suck on your breasts, who would take pleasure in your delights,

if the throats of those who study you are choked and strangled?

Approach the ancient helper [God] in supplication,

and dress yourself in black, like a widow. [ . . . ]

May they explain your beautiful utterances in the Holy Land.

May the ignominious haughty ones be expelled with anger and rage.

May the descendants of the saintly, the scholars and disciples,

establish there a place to spread learning.

May those who have been deprived of festivals see the city of festivals [i.e., Jerusalem],

and may He console His mourners, for the time has come.

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Notes

[The Jewish people, based on Song of Songs 5:2.—Trans.]

[According to Exodus 24:7, when the Torah was offered to the Israelite people, they said, “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will hear.” Rabbinic tradition greatly praises the people for being willing to “do” even before “hearing.”—Trans.]

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