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Akdamut

First page of Akdamut from the Mahzor of Worms, a 13th-century illuminated manuscript

Akdamut, or Akdamus or Akdamut Milin, or Akdomus Milin (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַקְדָמוּת מִלִּין ʾaqdāmûṯ millîn "In Introduction to the Words," i.e. to the Ten Commandments), is a prominent piyyut ("liturgical poem") written in Aramaic recited annually on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot by Ashkenazi Jews. It was penned by Rabbi Meir bar Yitzchak (the Nehorai) of Orléans, who was a cantor (prayer leader) in Worms, Germany, (died ca. 1095). Akdamut consists of praise for God, His Torah, and His people.

Akdamut is read in almost all Ashkenazi synagogues on the first day of Shavuot during the Torah reading. The original practice was for it to be recited after the reading of the first verse (Exodus 19:1), but in the past few centuries, the practice has developed in many congregations (mainly Eastern European ones) that the poem is read after the kohen has been called to the Torah reading, but before he recites the blessing.

The reason for the original practice was that, from Biblical times to well into medieval times, each verse of the Torah reading in Hebrew would be followed by its interpretation into Aramaic, and therefore it would be appropriate, after the first Hebrew verse was read, for another reader to provide an Aramaic gloss including this "introduction". However, when the simultaneous Aramaic interpretation fell into disuse, the recitation of Akdamut remained between the first and second Hebrew verses, where it no longer seemed an appropriate interruption, so it was relocated to before the commencement of the Torah reading.[1]

In most synagogues it is read responsively: the baal keriah (Torah reader) singing two verses, and the congregation responding with the next two verses. Although it is considered "Judaism's best-known and most beloved piyyut",[2] there are some synagogues where it is not recited.[3]

Its adoption into the regular liturgy took some time; it is not mentioned as part of the Shavuot liturgy until the first decade of the 15th century and the earliest prayerbook to contain it was published in 1557.[4] Some say that it replaced an earlier piyyut, Arkin Moshe, which was a folkloric poem describing the excitement among the angels when God brought Moses up to Heaven to receive the Ten Commandments,[5] but both piyyutim appear alongside each other in many manuscripts and printed machzorim.[6] The adoption of Akdamut into the liturgy may have been assisted by a folktale that connected its composition with a miraculous event involving the defeat of an evil sorcerer monk who was using magic to kill countless Jews.[7]

  1. ^ Nulman, Macy, Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer (1993, NJ, Jason Aronson) page 14; Salamon, Avrohom Yaakov, Akdamus Millin, with a new translation and commentary anthologized from the traditional Rabbinic literature (1978, Brooklyn, Mesorah Pub'ns) intro., pages xv–xvi.
  2. ^ Scherman, Nosson, The Complete ArtScroll Machzor: Shavuos (Ashkenaz ed. 1995, Brooklyn, Mesorah Pub'ns) page 266; Salamon, Avrohom Yaakov, Akdamus Millin, with a new translation and commentary anthologized from the traditional Rabbinic literature (1978, Brooklyn, Mesorah Pub'ns) intro., page xiii.
  3. ^ Nathan Marcus Adler, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire (from 1845 to his death 1890), opined that it was expendable from the liturgy. cf. Stern, Martin, Akdamut, Mail-Jewish, June 13, 2007[permanent dead link]. For this reason, apparently, it has not appeared in the "official" British siddur, the Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations, from the Singer edition (1890) down to the Jonathan Sacks edition (2007) – yet it does appear in the Hebrew-English siddur edited by the same Jonathan Sacks, The Koren Sacks Siddur, published by Koren of Jerusalem, 2009, page 792, as well as in American Orthodox and Conservative prayerbooks. Elbogen, Ismar, Jewish Liturgy: A comprehensive history (orig. 1913, English transl. 1993, Philadelphia, Jewish Publ'n Society) page 154, "These poems were never intelligible, but now, with the elimination of the [Aramaic] translation that they were intended to introduce, they have completely lost their significance and their right to exist." It was also omitted, as were most piyutim, from Reform liturgy. Petuchowski, Jakob J., Prayerbook Reform in Europe (1968, NY, World Union for Progressive Judaism) page 117. It also does not appear in the Reconstructionist 1958 Festival Prayer Book.But it appears in the Conservative 1946 Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book (with a lyric translation).
  4. ^ Hoffman, Jeffrey, "Akdamut: History, Folklore, and Meaning", Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 99, nr. 2 (spring 2009) page 170.
  5. ^ Marx, Dalia, "Liturgy Composed on the Brink of Catastrophe: Examination of Akdamut Millin by R. Meir of Worms and R. Leo Baeck's Hirtenbrief for Kol Nidre Service of 1935", in Homolka, Walter, ed., Leo Baeck – Philosophical and Rabbinical Approaches (2007, Berlin, Frank & Timme) footnote 24 pages 93–94. That poem is still printed in many modern machzorim, but it is unclear if there are any communities that still recite it. Nulman, Macy, Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer (1993, NJ, Jason Aronson) page 36; Munk, Elie, The World of Prayer (orig. 1935, English transl. 1961, NY, Feldheim) page 165. It is present in the first volume of the so-called Worms Mahzor, JNUL 4° 781/1 (Wurzburg, 1272), fol. 147v.[1] Archived 2013-12-25 at the Wayback Machine It appears without an English translation in The Complete ArtScroll Machzor: Shavuos (Ashkenaz ed. 1995, Brooklyn, Mesorah Pub'ns) page 658.
  6. ^ See Yona Fraenkel, Shavuot Machzor, page 28 of the introduction
  7. ^ Hoffman, Jeffrey, "Akdamut: History, Folklore, and Meaning", Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 99, nr. 2 (spring 2009) pages 162–164; Munk, Elie, The World of Prayer (orig. 1935, Engl. transl. 1961, NY, Feldheim) page 165.
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