{"id":35874,"date":"2014-02-26T23:28:06","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T23:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?p=35874"},"modified":"2016-09-20T11:23:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T11:23:26","slug":"bar-yochai-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/bar-yochai-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Bar Yochai Song for Lag BaOmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the Kabbalistically inclined, the following enchanting Shabbat “zemer,” festive song, is shown below. It was composed by Shimon ibn Lavi, who had fled as a child from the Spanish Inquisition, and arrived in Fez, Morocco, where he remained until 1549. He later set out for Eretz Yisrael, but on his way there, as fate would have it, he stopped in Tunis, where he remained as the community’s teacher till his death in 1588.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is written in honor of the “G-dly Tanna,” Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar. It is sung mainly in\u00a0Sephardic\u00a0Jewish communities on Shabbat, but on Lag BaOmer, it is sung by most Jewish communities.<\/em><\/p>\n

(The following translation is found in “Zemirot L’Shabbat,” “Sabbath Songs,” A New Translation with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic Sources; from the ArtScroll Mesorah Series).<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed
\n– you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! With oil of sacred anointment
\nwere you anointed from the holy measure
\nYou bore the headplate, a crown of holiness,
\nbound upon your head is your glory.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! In a goodly dwelling did you settle
\non the day you ran, the day you fled,
\nIn rocky caves where you stopped –
\nthere you acquired your glory and your strength.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! Like standing shittim beams,
\nthe teachings of God they study
\nAn extraordinary light is the light of the fire
\nthat they kindle – they, your teachers, will teach you.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You came to a Field of Apples
\nand entered it to pick confections:
\nThe mystery of Torah with blossoms and flowers –
\n‘Let us create man’ was said because of You.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from Your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were girded with strength,
\nand in the war of the fiery Torah up to the gate
\nYou pulled a sword from its scabbard,
\nyou drew it against your enemies.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! To a place of marble stones,
\nyou arrived, and before a huge lion.
\nEven a rounded crown upon a constellation’s star
\nyou perceived – but none can perceive you.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! In the Holy of Holies,
\na green line creates new manifestations
\nSeven weeks are the secret of the fifty,
\nyou bound the bonds of Shin as your bonds.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! The Yud of earliest wisdom,
\nyou gazed into its innermost honor,
\nThe thirty-two paths of the very first tithe,
\nyou are like a cherub anointed with the glow
\nof your illumination.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! At a wondrous light in lofty heights
\nyou feared to stare for it is great.
\nSuch hiddenness that one calls her, ‘Naught’.
\nYou declared that no eye could glimpse You.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! Fortunate is she who bore you,
\nfortunate is the people that learns from you,
\nAnd fortunate are those who can plumb your mystery,
\ngarbed in the priestly breastplate
\nand Your Ineffable Name,<\/p>\n

Bar Yochai! You were anointed – you are fortunate –
\nWith oil of joy from your fellows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the Kabbalistically inclined, the following enchanting Shabbat “zemer,” festive song, is shown below. It was composed by Shimon ibn Lavi, who had fled as a child from the Spanish Inquisition, and arrived in Fez, Morocco, where he remained until 1549. He later set out for Eretz Yisrael, but on his way there, as fate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":730,"featured_media":39080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[355],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lag-baomer"],"yoast_head":"\nBar Yochai Song for Lag BaOmer - Jewish Holidays<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The zemer (song) bar Yochai was written in honor of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, author of the Zohar. 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