בַּר-יוחַאי, נִמְשַׁחְתָּ - אַשְׁרֶיךָ!
שֶׁמֶן שָׂשׂון מֵחֲבֵרֶיךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, שֶׁמֶן מִשְׁחַת קדֶשׁ
נִמְשַׁחְתָּ מִמִּדַּת הַקּדֶשׁ,
נָשָׂאתָ צִיץ נֵזֶר הַקּדֶשׁ,
חָבוּשׁ עַל ראשְׁךָ פְּאֵרֶךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, מושַׁב טוב יָשַׁבְתָּ,
יום נַסְתָּ, יום אֲשֶׁר בָּרַחְתָּ,
בִּמְעָרַת צוּרִים שֶׁעָמַדְתָּ,
שָׁם קָנִיתָ הודְךָ וַהֲדָרֶךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, עֲצֵי שִׁטִּים עומְדִים,
לִמּוּדֵי ד' הֵם לומְדִים,
אור מֻפְלָא, אור הַיְקוד הֵם יוקְדִים,
הֲלא הֵמָּה יורוּךָ מורֶךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, וְלִשְׂדֵה תַּפּוּחִים
עָלִיתָ לִלְקט בּו מֶרְקָחִים,
סוד תּורָה בְּצִיצִים וּפְרָחִים,
"נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם" נֶאֱמַר בַּעֲבוּרֶךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, נֶאֱזַרְתָּ בִּגְבוּרָה,
וּבְמִלְחֶמֶת אֵשׁ דָּת הַשַּׁעְרָה,
וְחֶרֶב הוצֵאתָ מִתַּעְרָהּ
שָׁלַפְתָּ נֶגֶד צורְרֶיךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, לִמְקום אַבְנֵי שַׁיִשׁ
הִגַּעְתָּ וּפְנֵי אַרְיֵה לַיִשׁ,
גַּם גֻּלַּת כּותֶרֶת עַל עַיִשׁ,
תָּשׁוּר וּמִי יְשׁוּרֶךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, בְּקדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים.
קַו יָרק מְחַדֵּשׁ חֳדָשִׁים,
שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתות סוד חֲמִשִּׁים
קָשַׁרְתָּ קִשְׁרֵי שִׁי"ן קְשָׁרֶיךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, יוּ"ד חָכְמָה קְדוּמָה
הִשְׁקַפְתָּ לִכְבוּדָה פְּנִימָה,
לֶ"ב נְתִיבות רֵאשִׁית תְּרוּמָה
אֵת כְּרוּב מִמְשַׁח זִיו דּורֶךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, אור מֻפְלָא רם מַעְלָה
יָרֵאתָ מִלְּהַבִּיט כִּי רַב לָהּ,
תַּעֲלוּמָה וְאַיִן קרָא לָהּ,
נַמְתָּ: עַיִן לא תְשׁוּרֶךָ.
בַּר-יוחַאי, אַשְׁרֵי יולַדְתֶּךָ,
אַשְׁרֵי הָעָם לומְדֶיךָ,
וְאַשְׁרֵי הָעומְדִים עַל סודֶךָ,
לובְשֵׁי חשֶׁן תֻּמֶּיךָ וְאוּרֶיךָ
Bar Yochai! You are anointed - you are praised -
with joyful oil, over your fellows.
Bar Yochai, sacred anointing oil,
You were anointed from the holy type,
You carry the priestly frontlet, the holy diadem,
Your crown is set upon your head.
Bar Yochai, you picked a good place
On the day that you fled, the day you ran away;
In the rocky cave you went to,
There, you acquired your glory and majesty.
Bar Yochai, acacia trees stand,
Taught of God, the students.
Wondrous light, they blaze with light,
Are they not the students you were taught of!
Bar Yochai, and to the apple orchard
You went, to glean fragrances,
The secret teaching in blossoms and almonds.
"Let us make Man," They said for you.
Bar Yochai, you dressed in strength,
Toward the gate in the war of the fiery Law,
You drew a sword, sharpened it,
You drew it against your enemies.
Bar Yochai, to the place of marble stones,
You came against the lion,
And earned your laurels against the bear,
When you come, who can ambush you?
Bar Yochai, in the Holy of Holies.
The green line renews the months,
seven weeks, the secret fifty,
You bound, the knots of
Shin are your knots.
While the Jews of North Africa sang the hymn every Friday night before eating the Shabbat evening meal, the Jews of Eastern Europe did not adopt this practice. [2] To this day, most Ashkenazi Jews do not sing the hymn at all of their Shabbat evening meals. [9] The Artscroll Siddur indicates that many sing it Friday nights during Sfira.
Both Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews sing the hymn on Lag BaOmer, the Yom Hillula (anniversary of death) of bar Yochai. [2] Among Persian Jews, the hymn was sung on Friday nights in Hebrew and on Lag BaOmer in Persian. [2]
Different customs were adopted by Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Hasidic communities in Israel pertaining to the singing of the hymn during Friday-night synagogue services and/or at the Shabbat evening meal, but all groups sing the hymn on Lag BaOmer. [2] In the northern Israeli town of Meron, site of the tomb of bar Yochai, the hymn is "heard around the clock" at the massive celebrations that take place there on Lag BaOmer. [7]
The Ashkenazi tune for the hymn differs slightly from the Sephardi tune; according to an account from Rabbi Yeshayahu Margolin, the latter is the same as that sung by Lavi himself. [2]
The Zohar is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology. The Zohar contains discussions of the nature of God, the origin and structure of the universe, the nature of souls, redemption, the relationship of ego to darkness and "true self" to "the light of God".
Isaac ben Solomon Luria Ashkenazi, commonly known in Jewish religious circles as Ha'ari, Ha'ari Hakadosh or Arizal, was a leading rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Syria, now Israel. He is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah, his teachings being referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah.
Sephardic law and customs are the law and customs of Judaism which are practiced by Sephardim or Sephardic Jews ; the descendants of the historic Jewish community of the Iberian Peninsula, what is now Spain and Portugal. Many definitions of "Sephardic" also include Mizrahi Jews, most of whom follow the same traditions of worship as those which are followed by Sephardic Jews. The Sephardi Rite is not a denomination nor is it a movement like Orthodox Judaism, Reform Judaism, and other Ashkenazi Rite worship traditions. Thus, Sephardim comprise a community with distinct cultural, juridical and philosophical traditions.
Shimon bar Yochai or Shimon ben Yochai, also known by the acronym Rashbi, was a 2nd-century tanna or sage of the period of Roman Judaea and early Syria Palaestina. He was one of the most eminent disciples of Rabbi Akiva. The Zohar, a 13th-century foundational work of Kabbalah, is ascribed to him by Kabbalistic tradition, but this claim is universally rejected by modern scholars.
Counting of the Omer is a ritual in Judaism. It consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. The period of 49 days is known as the "omer period" or simply as "the omer" or "sefirah".
Lag BaOmer, also Lag B'Omer or Lag LaOmer, is a Jewish religious holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer, which occurs on the 18th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar.
Zemirot or Z'miros are Jewish hymns, usually sung in the Hebrew or Aramaic languages, but sometimes also in Yiddish or Ladino during Shabbat and to some extent the Jewish holidays. As a result of centuries of custom, albeit with some communal variations, each of the zemirot has become associated with one of the three obligatory meals of Shabbat: the Friday evening meal, the Saturday day meal, and the third Sabbath meal that typically starts just before sundown on Saturday afternoon. In some editions of the Jewish prayerbook (siddur), the words to these hymns are printed after the (kiddush) for each meal.
Upsherin, Upsheren, Opsherin or Upsherinish is a first haircut ceremony observed by a wide cross-section of Jews and is particularly popular in Haredi Judaism. It is typically held when a boy turns three years old.
Meron is a moshav in northern Israel. Located on the slopes of Mount Meron in the Upper Galilee near Safed, it falls under the jurisdiction of Merom HaGalil Regional Council.
Seudah shlishit or shaleshudes is the third meal customarily eaten by Sabbath-observing Jews on each Shabbat. Both names refer to the third of the three meals a Jew is obligated to eat on Shabbat according to the Talmud.
The Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai is midrash halakha on the Book of Exodus from the school of Rabbi Akiva attributed to Shimon bar Yochai. No midrash of this name is mentioned in Talmudic literature, but Nachmanides (d.1270) refers to one which he calls either Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, Mekhilta Achǝrita de-Rabbi Shimon, or simply Mekhilta Acheret. Todros ben Joseph Abulafia (d.1285) also refers to Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai.
This article describes the principal types of religious Jewish music from the days of the Temple to modern times.
A Yom Hillula is another word for yahrzeit or "death anniversary". However, it differs from a regular yahrzeit in two respects. It refers specifically to the yahrzeit of a great tzaddik "saint", and unlike a regular yahrzeit, which is marked with sadness or even fasting, a Yom Hillula is commemorated specifically through simcha "joy" and festive celebration.
Nachum Dov Brayer is the Rebbe of the Boyan Hasidic dynasty. He is the grandson of the former Boyaner Rebbe of New York, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Friedman. On Hanukkah 1984, at the age of 25, he was crowned Boyaner Rebbe. He lives in Jerusalem.
Boaz Huss is a professor of Kabbalah at the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is a leading scholar in contemporary Kabbalah.
Shimon Lavi was a Sephardi Hakham, kabbalist, physician, astronomer, and poet. He is credited with the founding of religious institutions and the revival of Torah study in Tripoli, Libya, in the mid-sixteenth century, where he served as spiritual leader and dayan for more than three decades. He authored a commentary on the Zohar titled Ketem Paz and the piyyut, "Bar Yochai", a kabbalistic hymn which became widely popular in the Jewish world. Libyan Jews consider him their greatest scholar.
Yehuda Liebes is an Israeli academic and scholar. He is the Gershom Scholem Professor Emeritus of Kabbalah at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Considered a leading scholar of Kabbalah, his research interests also include Jewish myth, Sabbateanism, and the links between Judaism and ancient Greek religion, Christianity, and Islam. He is the recipient of the 1997 Bialik Prize, the 1999 Gershom Scholem Prize for Kabbalah Research, the 2006 EMET Prize for Art, Science and Culture, and the 2017 Israel Prize in Jewish thought.
Shimon Akiva Baer ben Yosef of Vienna was a 17th-century Viennese Talmudist and kabbalistic writer.
Every year on Lag BaOmer, some 200,000 people flock to the 'Yom Hillula' at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Israel. The highlight of the event is the traditional bonfire lit after nightfall on the roof of the tomb, after which celebration with music and dancing begins. From the 13th century onwards, the site became the most popular Jewish pilgrimage site in all of Israel, the celebration first being mentioned by an Italian traveller in 1322. Today it forms the largest mass annual event in Israel.
The tomb of Shimon bar Yochai, or Kever Rashbi, on Mount Meron is the traditional burial place of the 2nd-century Mishnaic rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. A place of pilgrimage since the late 15th century, it is today the second-most-visited Jewish site in the world after the Western Wall with as many as two million annual visitors.