Judaism DIR
Note: Much of the historical info here on the origins of the piece was related to me by a Jewish liturgy researcher I met yesterday at a shiva call.
One of the most iconic pieces of liturgy by Ashkenazi communities is the U'netaneh Tokef prayer, often thought to have been composed by Rabbi Amnon of Magentza (Mainz, Germany) during the last moments of his life, after his limbs had been sliced off as punishment by one of the local Christian clergymen (listen to one retelling of the legend here).
In truth, everything about the composition screams Amoraic composition, and certainly nothing European: It has no rhyming scheme and its theme of discussing what goes on in the Heavenly Court falls in line with 5th-7th century liturgy from the Land of Israel. Moreover, the Hebrew itself is nothing of the sort used during the later medieval period that was the time of Rabbi Amnon. And of course, a copy of the poem dated to the 8th century was discovered in the Cairo Genizah...
A particularly interesting thing that I learned yesterday is about the phrase כבני מרון - K'vnei Maron, typically thought to be a reference to flocks of sheep being counted by Hashem (as He decides what to do with each one). However, the most accurate mishna MS we have, the Kaufman MS, features a different reading: כבנו מרון - Kivino Meron. Over a century ago it occurred to scholars that the true meaning of this word was "legion of soldiers", coming from the Greek Νούμερον. Per this understanding, the letter Bet is an additional letter not inherently part of the word, just like the Kaf (together they seem to mean "as in a"; as in a numeron). Incidently, this reading also appears in the Yerushalmi.
Here are the relevant words from the Kaufman MS (Rosh Hashanah 1:3):
This is another bit of evidence that U'ntaneh Tokef has origins in late Antiquity, given that that was the period when Jews in the Roman Empire spoke Greek, and even in the Land of Israel, Greek was sprinkled into the day-to-day Aramaic and Hebrew. By the time of Rabbi Amnon, who knew a word of Greek (see some discussion of this here)?
By the way, this understanding of the term lines up with an explanation for the misspelled version of the phrase brought in Bavli Rosh Hashanah 18a:
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In Israel, U'netaneh Tokef was made more popular because of a tune composed by Yair Rosenblum in 1990, in memory of the kibbutz members of Beit Ha'Sheeta (קיבוץ בית השיטה) who had been killed during the Yom Kippur War.
Some argue that the tune doesn't really fit the words, but on the other hand - if K'vnei Maron should actually be Kivino Meron, a legion of soldiers, I think a tune composed in memory of fallen soldiers is more fitting.
Here's a popular cover of Rosenblum's tune by the IDF Chief Cantor:
Note: The man walking in the cemetery is Avigdor Kahalani, famous hero of the battles at the northern front during the war.
Note: Much of the historical info here on the origins of the piece was related to me by a Jewish liturgy researcher I met yesterday at a shiva call.
One of the most iconic pieces of liturgy by Ashkenazi communities is the U'netaneh Tokef prayer, often thought to have been composed by Rabbi Amnon of Magentza (Mainz, Germany) during the last moments of his life, after his limbs had been sliced off as punishment by one of the local Christian clergymen (listen to one retelling of the legend here).
In truth, everything about the composition screams Amoraic composition, and certainly nothing European: It has no rhyming scheme and its theme of discussing what goes on in the Heavenly Court falls in line with 5th-7th century liturgy from the Land of Israel. Moreover, the Hebrew itself is nothing of the sort used during the later medieval period that was the time of Rabbi Amnon. And of course, a copy of the poem dated to the 8th century was discovered in the Cairo Genizah...
A particularly interesting thing that I learned yesterday is about the phrase כבני מרון - K'vnei Maron, typically thought to be a reference to flocks of sheep being counted by Hashem (as He decides what to do with each one). However, the most accurate mishna MS we have, the Kaufman MS, features a different reading: כבנו מרון - Kivino Meron. Over a century ago it occurred to scholars that the true meaning of this word was "legion of soldiers", coming from the Greek Νούμερον. Per this understanding, the letter Bet is an additional letter not inherently part of the word, just like the Kaf (together they seem to mean "as in a"; as in a numeron). Incidently, this reading also appears in the Yerushalmi.
Here are the relevant words from the Kaufman MS (Rosh Hashanah 1:3):
This is another bit of evidence that U'ntaneh Tokef has origins in late Antiquity, given that that was the period when Jews in the Roman Empire spoke Greek, and even in the Land of Israel, Greek was sprinkled into the day-to-day Aramaic and Hebrew. By the time of Rabbi Amnon, who knew a word of Greek (see some discussion of this here)?
By the way, this understanding of the term lines up with an explanation for the misspelled version of the phrase brought in Bavli Rosh Hashanah 18a:
"The mishna teaches: On Rosh HaShana all creatures pass before Him like benei maron. The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of the phrase benei maron? [...] Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said another opinion: Like the soldiers of the house of King David."
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In Israel, U'netaneh Tokef was made more popular because of a tune composed by Yair Rosenblum in 1990, in memory of the kibbutz members of Beit Ha'Sheeta (קיבוץ בית השיטה) who had been killed during the Yom Kippur War.
Some argue that the tune doesn't really fit the words, but on the other hand - if K'vnei Maron should actually be Kivino Meron, a legion of soldiers, I think a tune composed in memory of fallen soldiers is more fitting.
Here's a popular cover of Rosenblum's tune by the IDF Chief Cantor:
Note: The man walking in the cemetery is Avigdor Kahalani, famous hero of the battles at the northern front during the war.