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This week, I've got a request. No... I'm making a request.
No, Eli. You're taking a request.
♪ (intro) ♪
Welcome to Jewish Music Toronto.
I am Eli.
Remember, all of our lesson and sing-along videos are closed captioned, so if you want
to follow along, all you have to do is click the CC button at the bottom of the YouTube player.
A few months ago, I received a request to do a very specific piyyut, and, finally,
this week is the best opportunity for that, because the holiday of Shavuot (The Festival of Weeks
or The Feast of Weeks in English) is next week.
Shavuot, from the Hebrew word "weeks", is the holiday where Jews celebrate the day we
recevied the Torah at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai), and it's one of the three major pilgrimage
festivals on our calendar, along with Pesach and Succot,
where we would go to visit and bring offerings at the temple in Jerusalem.
Shavuot falls exactly 7 WEEKS, hence the name, after the start of Pesach, and the lead-up
to the holiday is actually marked by a Sefirah, or counting, of each night
between the second night of Pesach and the night before Shavuot begins.
In the Orthodox world, it's quite important. Even LL Cool J will tell you that...
Thank you to girlactionfigure on Tumblr for sharing that one.
Now, because Shavuot falls on a Sunday and Monday this year, it's unlikely that I'll
be posting a regular lesson video on Monday or even Monday night next week.
But I do hope to have something for you next week, regardless.
And if you're already subscribed to JMT and regularly watch our videos, you should get
immediately notified when whatever it is goes online.
And if you aren't subscribed yet, good news!
If you're on a desktop, it's super easy. All you need to do is click here and follow the instructions.
And, if you're watching elsewhere, you'll need to follow the link in the video's description.
Back to the holiday!
Along with Pesach, Shavuot is one of my favourite holidays, and that's due,
in large part, to the food factor.
Many families that observe Shavuot will specifically eat only dairy products during the holiday,
or specifically have a dairy meal on the evening of the holiday, because, it's said, that before
they received the Torah, the Jews did not know the laws of kashrut, ritual slaughter, etc.
So they decided to err on the side of caution, and stick to dairy.
There are also a number of other potential reasons
you'll see in the resource links I've included below.
No matter the reason, it works out swimmingly for me, because I love dairy!
Some of the dishes we've had over the years include quiche, blintzes, creamy rice and broccoli,
and, one of my absolute personal favourite dairy desserts, cheesecake!
Observance for the holiday includes your typical extended evening, morning and afternoon
prayer services, the reading of Megillat Root (that's The Book of Ruth),
and an all-night Torah study session that typically runs from a couple of hours after dinner
until just before the morning prayer services.
One story told for why we stay up all night boils down to one simple problem.
On the morning we were supposed to receive the Torah, we overslept and Moshe had to go around
waking up the entire camp, making us late to receive it!
Whether that was because we were partying too hard the night before, or because we were
so zealous in our preparations for the day ahead that we were just completely gone is
up for debate, but that's one story.
Of course, you can find other interpretations for why we do these various things
via the links in the description below.
This week, we're doing an Aramaic piyyut (or poem) that, for us folks outside of Israel,
falls on the second day of Shavuot.
It's called Yetziv Pitgam (Certain, or Steadfast, is our Praise), and it, along with the Akdamut,
which is also read on Shavuot, praises God and God's power and omnipitence.
Or, as Dr. Lawrence Schiffman of Yeshiva University wrote in his 2011 essay,
Yatziv Pitgam, One of Our Last Aramaic Piyyutim,
"Yatziv Pitgam describes the majesty of the revelation that took place at Har Sinai
and closes with a prayer for the protection of those who keep the Torah."
It is yet another one of those JMT favourites; an acrostic.
The beginning of each verse spells out the name Yaakov Ben Meir Levi.
Dr. Schiffman, possibly pulling from research by renowned liturgical scholar Ismar Elbogen,
believes this to be a reference to Rabbeinu Tam, the grandson of Rashi.
Further reading by Toronto native Cantor Michael Krausman, who now calls Omaha, Nabraska home,
suggests that there may actually be some controversy as to whether or not that is actually the
CORRECT Yaakov Ben Meir Levi.
As you may know from some of our previous episodes, it's not like this is the
first time that's happened with acrostic authorship.
Krausman's own article on Yetziv Pitgam also leads to some information about its melody.
However, beyond the arrangement, which, don't get me wrong, is amazing to have available,
we can't find much about who actually wrote it. As Krausman puts it, it's ancient.
Since the piyyut is a bit longer and more difficult, I'm just going to do the first couple of
lines here, and go through the complete melody.
And I'm going to do my best to do the entire piyyit for the sing-along.
But I'm not making any promises!
The lyrics are:
Y'Tiz Pit-gam, L'At Ood-gam,
Certain, or steadfast, is our praise (of Hashem), Who is the sign and mark
B'Ree-bo Riv'v'van Ee - Reen
(Who stands out among) the myriads of angels - Reen
Ah-nay Ah-nah, B'Min-yah-na,
I call out (this praise), in the presence of a minyan
(that's the gathering of at least ten men necessary for a prayer service)
Also, that's a very literal translation. Artscroll, for instance, translates it very differently.
Aramaic is hard!
D'Fah-s'leen Ar-bah Tu - Reen
That are inscribed or, possibly, written, in the four rows... or mountains.
Did I mention Aramaic is hard?
And what's up with that Reen?
Did you notice that each of the lines ends in Reen, yet the translation is different?
That's because it's not actually included IN the translation.
So what is it?
After all the searching I've done, trying to find out, all I've found
is that it's just a syllable.
My best guess is that it's like saying Amen, but don't hold me to that. It's just a guess.
If you've seen information on that, I would love to know!
Now for the complete melody itself. Remember it alternates back and forth, after each two lines.
It goes:
♪ Y'Tiz Pit-gam, L'At Ood-gam ♪ ♪ B'Ree-bo Riv'v'van Ee - Reen ♪
♪ Ah-nay Ah-nah, B'Min-yah-na ♪ ♪ D'Fah-s'leen Ar-bah Tu - Reen ♪
I'll repeat that again, to help you pick it up.
♪ Y'Tiz Pit-gam, L'At Ood-gam ♪ ♪ B'Ree-bo Riv'v'van Ee - Reen ♪
♪ Ah-nay Ah-nah, B'Min-yah-na ♪ ♪ D'Fah-s'leen Ar-bah Tu - Reen ♪
That's it for this week's lesson.
Be sure to come back on Wednesday for our sing-along to Yitziv Pitgam.
I'm going to do my best to have the whole thing down for you!
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Thanks for watching, and bye for now!
♪♪♪