Israel ben Moses Najara
Encyclopedia
Israel ben Moses Najara (Heb.
ישראל בן משה נאג'ארה Yisrael ben Moshe Najarah) was a Jewish liturgical
poet, preacher, Biblical commentator, kabbalist, and rabbi
of Gaza.
, Spanish
, and modern Greek
songs, it is evident that he knew well several foreign languages. He travelled extensively in the Near East
, had lived in Safed
, where he came under the extensive influence of Lurianic Kabbalah
and served as a rabbi at the Jewish community of Gaza.
As may be seen from his works, he was a versatile scholar, and he corresponded with many contemporary rabbis, among others with Bezaleel Ashkenazi, Yom-Ṭob Ẓahalon, Moses Hamon
, and Menahem Ḥefeẓ. His poetic effusions were exceptionally numerous, and many of them were translated into Persian
. While still young he composed many religious hymns, to Arabic
and Turkish
tunes, with the intention, as he says in the preface to his Zemirot Yisrael, of turning the Jewish youth from profane songs. He wrote piyyuṭim, pizmonim
, seliḥot, widduyim, and dirges for all the week-days and for Sabbaths
, holy days, and occasional ceremonies, these piyyuṭim being collected in his Zemirot Yisrael. Many of the piyyuṭim are in Aramaic
.
For his hymns on the marriage of God and Israel, Najara was severely blamed by Menahem Lonzano
(Shete Yadot, p. 142) when the latter was at Damascus. The Shibḥe Ḥayyim Wiṭal (p. 7b) contains a violent attack by Ḥayyim Vital upon a poet whose name is not mentioned, but who some take to be Israel Najara. Nevertheless, Isaac Luria
, Vital's teacher, declared that Najara's hymns were listened to with delight in heaven. His piyyuṭim were praised also by Leon of Modena
, who composed a song in his honor, which was printed at the beginning of the Olat Shabbat, the second part of the Zemirot Yisrael.
He is buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Gaza. His son, Moses Najara was also a poet, who succeeded his father as the chief rabbi of Gaza.
His unpublished works are
(1587) and contained 108 piyyuṭim and hymns. Many additional songs were printed in the second edition (Venice, 1599). This edition contains also the Meme Yisrael and the Mesaḥeḳet ha-Tebel, and is divided into three parts:
Many of Najara's piyyuṭim and hymns have been taken into the rituals and maḥzorim in use among the Jews in different countries, especially in Italy and Palestine. Benjamin II (Mas'e Yisra'el, p. 15) states that the Jews of Aleppo
sing on Sabbath
eve many beautiful hymns and recite many prayers, most of which are by Najara. The best known of his Aramaic hymns is the one beginning Yah Ribbon 'Olam, recited on Sabbath by the Jews of all countries and printed in all the rituals. The She'erit Yisra'el contains sixty poems and is, according to its heading, the second part of the Zemirot Yisrael; it is found in the bet ha-midrash of the German community in Amsterdam
. From it Dukes published one poem in Orient, Lit. (iv. 526; comp. 540). M. Sachs attempted to render some of Najara's piyyuṭim into German (Busch, Jahrbücher, 1847, pp. 236–238). After the ruins of the house
inhabited by R. Judah he-Ḥasid
at Jerusalem were cleared away in 1836, some writings of Israel Najara of the year 1579 were found; these writings are now (as of 1906) preserved in the archives of the synagogue of Jerusalem.
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
ישראל בן משה נאג'ארה Yisrael ben Moshe Najarah) was a Jewish liturgical
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
poet, preacher, Biblical commentator, kabbalist, and rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
of Gaza.
Biography
According to Franco (Histoire des Israélites de l'Empire Ottoman, p. 79, Paris, 1897), there is another account which declares that Najara was born about 1530 and that he lived for some years at Adrianople. From his secular poems, which he wrote in the meters of various TurkishTurkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and modern Greek
Modern Greek
Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...
songs, it is evident that he knew well several foreign languages. He travelled extensively in the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
, had lived in Safed
Safed
Safed , is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel. Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters...
, where he came under the extensive influence of Lurianic Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
and served as a rabbi at the Jewish community of Gaza.
As may be seen from his works, he was a versatile scholar, and he corresponded with many contemporary rabbis, among others with Bezaleel Ashkenazi, Yom-Ṭob Ẓahalon, Moses Hamon
Moses Hamon
Moses Hamon was the son of Joseph Hamon, born in Spain. Going with his father to Constantinople, he became physician to Sultan Sulaiman I...
, and Menahem Ḥefeẓ. His poetic effusions were exceptionally numerous, and many of them were translated into Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
. While still young he composed many religious hymns, to Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
tunes, with the intention, as he says in the preface to his Zemirot Yisrael, of turning the Jewish youth from profane songs. He wrote piyyuṭim, pizmonim
Pizmonim
Pizmonim are traditional Jewish songs and melodies with the intentions of praising God as well as learning certain aspects of traditional religious teachings. They are sung throughout religious rituals and festivities such as prayers, circumcisions, bar mitzvahs, weddings and other ceremonies...
, seliḥot, widduyim, and dirges for all the week-days and for Sabbaths
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
, holy days, and occasional ceremonies, these piyyuṭim being collected in his Zemirot Yisrael. Many of the piyyuṭim are in Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
.
For his hymns on the marriage of God and Israel, Najara was severely blamed by Menahem Lonzano
Menahem Lonzano
Menahem ben Judah ben Menahem de Lonzano was a rabbi, Masoretic scholar, lexicographer, and poet. He died after 1608 in Jerusalem. His nativity is unknown, but it has been supposed that he was born in Italy. According to Jellinek, who identified Lonzano with Longano, a seaport of Messenia, his home...
(Shete Yadot, p. 142) when the latter was at Damascus. The Shibḥe Ḥayyim Wiṭal (p. 7b) contains a violent attack by Ḥayyim Vital upon a poet whose name is not mentioned, but who some take to be Israel Najara. Nevertheless, Isaac Luria
Isaac Luria
Isaac Luria , also called Yitzhak Ben Shlomo Ashkenazi acronym "The Ari" "Ari-Hakadosh", or "Arizal", meaning "The Lion", was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed in the Galilee region of Ottoman Palestine...
, Vital's teacher, declared that Najara's hymns were listened to with delight in heaven. His piyyuṭim were praised also by Leon of Modena
Leon of Modena
Leon Modena or Yehudah Aryeh Mi-modena was a Jewish scholar born in Venice of a notable French family that had migrated to Italy after an expulsion of Jews from France.-Life:...
, who composed a song in his honor, which was printed at the beginning of the Olat Shabbat, the second part of the Zemirot Yisrael.
He is buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Gaza. His son, Moses Najara was also a poet, who succeeded his father as the chief rabbi of Gaza.
Works
Najara's letters, secular poems, epigrams, and rimed prose form the work entitled Meme Yisrael (published at the end of the second edition of the Zemirot Yisrael). Najara's other works are as follows:- Mesaḥeḳet ha-Tebel (Safed, 1587), an ethical poem on the nothingness of the world
- Shoḥaṭe ha-Yeladim (printed with Moses VenturaMoses VenturaMoses ben Joseph Ventura was rabbi of Silistria, Bulgaria, in the latter half of the 16th century. He was educated at Jerusalem, but later settled in Silistria...
's Yemin Mosheh, Amsterdam, 1718), Hebrew verse on the laws of slaughtering and porging, composed at the request of his son Moses - Ketubbat Yisrael (with Joseph Jaabez's Ma'amar ha-Aḥdut, n.p., 1794), a hymn which, in the kabalistic fashion, represents the relationship between God and Israel as one between man and wife (it was composed for the Feast of Pentecost)
- A collection of hymns published by M. H. Friedländer (Vienna, 1858) under the title Pizmonim.
His unpublished works are
- She'eret Yisrael, poems (see below)
- Ma'arkot Yisrael, a commentary on the Pentateuch
- Miḳweh Yisrael, sermons
- Piẓ'e Oheb, a commentary on JobBook of JobThe Book of Job , commonly referred to simply as Job, is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The book is a...
.
Zemirot Yisrael
The Zemirot Yisrael, originally entitled Zemirot Yisrael Najara, was first published at SafedSafed
Safed , is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and of Israel. Due to its high elevation, Safed experiences warm summers and cold, often snowy, winters...
(1587) and contained 108 piyyuṭim and hymns. Many additional songs were printed in the second edition (Venice, 1599). This edition contains also the Meme Yisrael and the Mesaḥeḳet ha-Tebel, and is divided into three parts:
- Olot Tamid, containing 225 piyyuṭim for the week-days
- Olot Shabbat, containing 54 piyyuṭim for the Sabbaths of the whole year
- Olot Ḥodesh, containing 160 piyyuṭim and dirges for the high holy daysHigh Holy DaysThe High Holidays or High Holy Days, in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim , may mean:#strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur ;...
, PurimPurimPurim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther .Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th...
, the Ninth of Ab, and occasional ceremonies. It was published a third time at Belgrade (1837), but with the omission of many songs and of the two works just mentioned. Extracts from the Zemirot Yisrael were published under the title of Tefillot Nora'ot (Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1712).
Many of Najara's piyyuṭim and hymns have been taken into the rituals and maḥzorim in use among the Jews in different countries, especially in Italy and Palestine. Benjamin II (Mas'e Yisra'el, p. 15) states that the Jews of Aleppo
Aleppo
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and the capital of Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. With an official population of 2,301,570 , expanding to over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area, it is also one of the largest cities in the Levant...
sing on Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
eve many beautiful hymns and recite many prayers, most of which are by Najara. The best known of his Aramaic hymns is the one beginning Yah Ribbon 'Olam, recited on Sabbath by the Jews of all countries and printed in all the rituals. The She'erit Yisra'el contains sixty poems and is, according to its heading, the second part of the Zemirot Yisrael; it is found in the bet ha-midrash of the German community in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. From it Dukes published one poem in Orient, Lit. (iv. 526; comp. 540). M. Sachs attempted to render some of Najara's piyyuṭim into German (Busch, Jahrbücher, 1847, pp. 236–238). After the ruins of the house
Hurva Synagogue
The Hurva Synagogue, , also known as Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid , is a historic synagogue located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem....
inhabited by R. Judah he-Ḥasid
Judah he-Hasid (Jerusalem)
Judah he-Hasid Segal ha-Levi was a Jewish preacher who led the largest organized group of Jewish immigrants to the Land of Israel in the 17th and 18th centuries.-Departure from Europe:...
at Jerusalem were cleared away in 1836, some writings of Israel Najara of the year 1579 were found; these writings are now (as of 1906) preserved in the archives of the synagogue of Jerusalem.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
- Chaim AzulaiChaim Joseph David AzulaiChaim Joseph David Azulai ben Isaac Zerachia , commonly known as the Chida , was a Jerusalem born rabbinical scholar, a noted bibliophile, and a pioneer in the publication of Jewish religious writings.- Biography :Azulai was born in Jerusalem, where he received his education...
, Shem ha-Gedolim, ii, s.v. Zemirot Yisrael; - Simon Bernfeld, in Ha-Asif, iv, section 4, pp. 18 et seq.;
- David ConforteDavid ConforteDavid Conforte was a Hebrew literary historian born in Salonica, author of the literary chronicle known by the title Ḳore ha-Dorot.-Biography:...
, Ḳore ha-Dorot, pp. 37a, 41a, 49b; - Dukes, Zur Kenntniss, pp. 9, 138, No. 8;
- Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 699;
- Julius FürstJulius FürstJulius Fürst , was a Jewish German orientalist.Fürst was a distinguished scholar of Semitic languages and literature...
, Bibl. Jud. iii.12; - Heinrich Grätz, Gesch., 3rd ed., ix.395;
- Landshuth, 'Ammude ha-'Abodah, pp. 135 et seq.;
- Orient. Lit. iv.649 et seq.;
- Moritz SteinschneiderMoritz SteinschneiderMoritz Steinschneider was a Bohemian bibliographer and Orientalist. He received his early instruction in Hebrew from his father, Jacob Steinschneider , who was not only an expert Talmudist, but was also well versed in secular science...
, Cat. Bodl. cols. 1170-1171; - idem, Jewish Literature, pp. 155, 243;
- ZunzZunzZunz, Zuntz is a Yiddish surname: , Belgian pharmacologist* Leopold Zunz , German Reform rabbi* Gerhard Jack Zunz , British civil engineer- Zuntz :* Nathan Zuntz , German physiologist...
, Literaturgesch. p. 419.