Creator Bio
Qalonymos ben Judah
12th Century
Qalonymos ben Judah, sometimes known as “the younger,” was a scion of the Qalonymos family, perhaps the most prominent German Jewish family of his day. He was a paytan (liturgical poet) active in Mainz, Germany, in the middle and latter parts of the twelfth century.
Content by Qalonymos ben Judah
Primary Source
The beautiful one who dwells within
[ . . . ] The beautiful one who dwells within,
the maiden daughter of Judah,
stretched her neck and honed and sharpened her knife;
An eye saw and testified.
Tormented was the mother and her spirit…
Primary Source
If only my whole head could be water
Lamentation on the massacres of Rhineland Jewish communities
If only my whole head could be water, and my eyes a flowing fountain,
I would bewail, all my days and nights,
the corpses of my little…