Adon Olam
Encyclopedia
Jewish liturgy
Jewish liturgy refers specifically to following the Torah in all of its rites and ceremonies, whether in the home or in the Synagogue. The main purposes of following the carefully laid out observances is to maintain uniformity, and to avoid improper and unacceptable practices at variance with those...
. It has been a regular part of the daily and Sabbath liturgy since the 15th century.
According to the custom of the Sephardim
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
and in British synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
s generally, it is congregationally sung at the close of the 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...
and festival morning services, and among the Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
also it often takes the place of the hymn Yigdal
Yigdal
Yigdal is a Jewish hymn which in various rituals shares with Adon 'Olam the place of honor at the opening of the morning and the close of the evening service. It is based on the 13 Articles of Faith formulated by Moses ben Maimon, and was written by Daniel ben Judah Dayan , who spent eight years...
at the close of the evening service
Jewish services
Jewish prayer are the prayer recitations that form part of the observance of Judaism. These prayers, often with instructions and commentary, are found in the siddur, the traditional Jewish prayer book....
on these occasions, while both hymns are almost universally chanted on the Eve of Atonement (Kol Nidre
Kol Nidre
Kol Nidre is an Aramaic declaration recited in the synagogue before the beginning of the evening service on every Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement...
). Because of this solemn association, and on account of its opening and closing sentiments, the hymn has also been selected for (tuneless) reading in the chamber of the dying, and in some congregations it is recited (subdued and tuneless) in the synagogue as a means of reporting a death in the community. It is likewise recited or chanted at the commencement of the daily early morning prayer, that its utterance may help to attune the mind of the worshiper to reverential awe. When it is sung at the end of the service, the congregation sits while singing it, as a demonstration that they are not eager to leave the house of prayer but were willing to stay and continue praying (by starting again at the beginning of the day's prayers).
There are varying texts in the Sephardic version; in some traditions the hymn comprises six stanzas of two verses each, but the fourth (which is but an amplification of the third) is omitted by the Ashkenazim, in others it has 15 lines, in yet others it has 16 lines. For so widespread and beloved a hymn, the traditional tunes are singularly few. Only four or five of them deserve to be called traditional. Of these the oldest appears to be a short melody of Spanish origin.
Of similar construction is a melody of northern origin associated by English Jews with the penitential season.
Its authorship and origin are uncertain. It is often attributed, as least tentatively, to Solomon ibn Gabirol
Solomon ibn Gabirol
Solomon ibn Gabirol, also Solomon ben Judah , was an Andalucian Hebrew poet and Jewish philosopher with a Neoplatonic bent. He was born in Málaga about 1021; died about 1058 in Valencia.-Biography:...
(1021-1058), who is known for his Hebrew poetry, but there is no solid evidence apart from the quality of this hymn and the language appears to be older. It has also been attributed to Rav Hai Gaon (939-1038) and even to the Talmudic sage Yohanan ben Zakkai. Although its diction indicates antiquity, it did not become part of the morning liturgy until the 15th century.
This melody is often sung antiphon
Antiphon
An antiphon in Christian music and ritual, is a "responsory" by a choir or congregation, usually in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or other text in a religious service or musical work....
ally, between precentor
Precentor
A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is "præcentor", from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" ....
and congregation, although it was obviously intended for congregational rendering only, like the Spanish tune given above it. The best known of the other traditional antiphonal settings exists in two or three forms, the oldest of which appears to be the one given below (C).
Every one of the synagogal composers of the 19th century has written several settings for "Adon Olam". Most of them—following the earlier practise of the continental synagogues during the modern period (see Choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
) — have attempted more or less elaborately polyphonic compositions. But the absurdity of treating an essentially congregational hymn so as to render congregational singing of it impossible is latterly becoming recognized, and many tunes in true hymn form have been more recently composed. Special mention should be made of the setting written by Simon W. Waley
Simon Waley Waley
Simon Waley Waley was one of the leading members of Anglo-Jewry in the 19th century.He was a leading broker on the London Stock Exchange and a prominent amateur musician...
(1827–1876) for the West London Synagogue
West London Synagogue
The West London Synagogue of British Jews was established on 15 April 1840. It is one of the oldest synagogues in the United Kingdom and the oldest Reform synagogue in the UK.-History:...
, which has become a classic among the British Jews, having been long ago adopted from the "reform" into the "orthodox" congregations, of England and her colonies.
The Adon Olam is one of the most familiar hymns in the whole range of the Jewish liturgy, employed in the various rituals all over the world, though not always at the same period of the service or on the same occasions; thus in the Roman Maḥzor
Mahzor
The mahzor is the prayer book used by Jews on the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Many Jews also make use of specialized mahzorim on the three "pilgrimage festivals" of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot...
it is placed at the end of the Sabbath service and sung together with Yigdal (Leopold Zunz
Leopold Zunz
Leopold Zunz was a German Reform rabbi and writer, the founder of what has been termed "Jewish Studies" or "Judaic Studies" , the critical investigation of Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual...
, "Ritus", p. 80). In the Sephardic liturgy it has 12 strophe
Strophe
A strophe forms the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for the music," as John Milton wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes, with the strophe...
s; in the German
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
, only 10. Baer, in his commentary on the "Prayer-book
Siddur
A siddur is a Jewish prayer book, containing a set order of daily prayers. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as it is known today has developed...
" (Rödelheim, 1868), says that the hymn seems to have been intended to be recited before retiring, as it closes with the words: "Into His hand I commit my spirit when I fall asleep, and I shall awake". Thus a tradition of reciting it every night at bedtime, and also at a deathbed. It may be, however, that the beauty and grandeur of the hymn recommended its use in the liturgy, and that it was chanted indiscriminately at the beginning or the close of the service. The date and the name of the author are unknown. The most common tune is attributed to the Russian cantor, Eliezar Mordecai Gerovitsch.
This song is sung to many different tunes, and can be sung to virtually any. Many synagogues like to use "seasonal" tunes, for instance, the Shabbat before Hanukkah
Hanukkah
Hanukkah , also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE...
, they might do it to Maoz Tzur.
In Hebrew schools (as at Associated Hebrew Schools), the Adon Olam hymn is sometimes set, for fun, to secular tunes like "Yankee Doodle
Yankee Doodle
"Yankee Doodle" is a well-known Anglo-American song, the origin of which dates back to the Seven Years' War. It is often sung patriotically in the United States today and is the state anthem of Connecticut...
". In 1976, Uzi Hitman
Uzi Hitman
Uzi Hitman was an Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and television personality.-Early life:...
created a more upbeat tune for the 8th Annual Hasidic Song Festival. This version has become a favorite worldwide sung outside traditional liturgical settings.
Hebrew texts
Recordings
- Text, translation, transliteration, recordings from The Zemirot Database.
- some midis of various versions
Other
- "Adon Olom: Past-Present-Future" a song about the prayer and its significance.
- Aaron Minsky plays his published cello variations on Adon Olam
- Traditional Sphardic Singing of Adon Olam
- Uzi Hitmal Memorial Page - Adom Olam soundtrack (modern)
- Standard Book of Jewish Verse (NY 1917, now public domain) several English translations of Adon Olam, pages 390-396.; also, "English Versions of Adon Olam" by Cecil Roth, in his Essay and Portraits in Anglo-Jewish Hsitory (1962, Philadelphia, Jewish Publ'n Society) pages 295-302 and originally in the Jewish Monthly, May 1948.