O, with the might of Your great hand

Unknown

12th Century

O, with the might of Your great right hand, release the captive one. Accept Your people’s prayer. Lift us up, purify us, fearsome One. O mighty One, protect those who promote Your unity like the pupil of Your eye. Bless them, purify them, have mercy on them, grant them Your righteousness ever.1 Mighty, Holy One, in Your great kindness lead Your community. Proud, unique One, turn to Your people, who speak of Your holiness. Accept our prayer and hear our cry, O You Who know the mysteries.

Blessed is the name of His glorious majesty forever and ever.

Translated by Raymond P. Scheindlin.

Notes

[This phrase is based on what appears to be a late eighteenth-century emendation. The original text seems to be: “Forever grant them your righteous mercy.”—Ed.]

Credits

Unknown, “O, with the might of Your great hand,” from Kabbalat Shabbat: The Grand Unification, ed. Debra Band and Raymond P. Scheindlin, trans. Raymond P. Scheindlin (Potomac, Md.: Honeybee in the Garden, LLC, 2016), 178. Used with permission of the publisher.

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

Engage with this Source

This Hebrew prayer is comprised of a forty-two-letter acrostic of an ancient name of God (see b. Kiddushin 71a). It is written as six lines of six words each, in rhymed couplets, plus a single line that is the traditional response to hearing God’s name pronounced in the Temple, according to m. Yoma 3:8. This work, possibly composed by the Hasidei Ashkenaz (German Pietists), is traditionally ascribed to the first-century sage Nehunya ben ha-Kanah and was popular in mystical circles. In contemporary practice, it is recited as part of the Friday evening service, and some prayer books include it in daily prayers as well. The poem is formatted as a prose paragraph.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Liturgical Poetry (Piyyut)

7th to 12th Century

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