Surprised by the siddur
I've been saying these words in the siddur (prayer book) for years, but I never noticed until this past Shabbat.
"Wow," said I to my husband, "the line after the end of Shirat Yam Suf* is the Aramaic interpretation of the last line of Shirat Yam Suf!"
Hebrew: HaShem yimloch l'olam vaed--HaShem will reign forever and ever.
Aramaic: HaShem malchutei kaem l'alam u-l'almei almaya--HaShem, His kingdom endures forever and ever and ever.
Well, good morning, Shira. :)
*Shirat Yam Suf=The Song of the Reed Sea, which, according to the biblical account, was sung by the Israelites after they crossed the Reed Sea to safety and Pharaoh's pursuing army drowned therein. Here it is (verses 1-18).
"Wow," said I to my husband, "the line after the end of Shirat Yam Suf* is the Aramaic interpretation of the last line of Shirat Yam Suf!"
Hebrew: HaShem yimloch l'olam vaed--HaShem will reign forever and ever.
Aramaic: HaShem malchutei kaem l'alam u-l'almei almaya--HaShem, His kingdom endures forever and ever and ever.
Well, good morning, Shira. :)
*Shirat Yam Suf=The Song of the Reed Sea, which, according to the biblical account, was sung by the Israelites after they crossed the Reed Sea to safety and Pharaoh's pursuing army drowned therein. Here it is (verses 1-18).
posted by Shira Salamone at 12:09 PM
4 Comments:
Shira, I'm very curious what Conservative siddur you use, because my Orthodox Artscroll Siddur does not end there but continues for several lines beginning with:
"Ki vah sus Paroah..."
It ends with"
V'hayah HASHEM l'melech al khal aretz; b'yom hahu yiyeh HASHEM echad u'shmo echad."
Then in parenthesis indicating that most congregations omit this is line:
"Uv'torasecha kasuv l'mor: HASHEM echad, u'shmo echad."
My understanding is that this last parenthetical line is said only by congregations that follow the German order of prayer, rather than the eastern European.
I believe also, that in Spanish-Portogues siddurim, they end where you said.
I was davvening from my ArtScroll Ashkenaz Orthodox siddur at the time. You're right that the text continues, but I was speaking of Shirat Yam Suf itself, not the text that comes after it. The last line of the Song of the Reed Sea itself is "HaShem will live forever and ever."
I'm not sure where the text that you mentioned originates. It's either from another place in the Torah/Bible, or it was written by the rabbinical editors of the siddur. I'll have to check when I get home. My "baby Birnbaum" is the only siddur I have at the office, and it doesn't include that entire text. I guess Birnbaum wasn't big on the drowning of Pharaoh and his army, 'cause his siddur picks up, immediately after the end of the Song, at "Ki laShem ha-m'lucha (to HaShem is the kingdom) . . ." His notes indicate that he's quoting Psalm 22:29; Ovadiah 1:21; and Zachariah 14:9.
Sorry, too literal a translation.
"Ki laShem ha-m'lucha," somewhat more comprehensibly translated, means "For HaShem's is the kingdom . . ."
Here I am at home, with my ArtScroll and Koren Sacks siddurim open in front of me.
Ah, I'm wrong--since there's no separate citation in the ArtScroll or Koren Sacks for the sentence "Ki va sus Par'oh (For the horses of Pharaoh . . .), I checked in my trusty Chumash, and that turns out to be verse 19, rather than being "from another place in the Torah/Bible." Oy, how embarrassing, that I had to check a Chumash to realize that.
So the rabbis actually stuck that Aramaic verse in between two consecutive verses from the Torah.
Thanks for the information about the versions said by Jews of various national origins. I find those variations quite interesting.
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