“Sreyfe-lid” (The Song about the Burning)

Elye Bokher (Elijah ben Asher Levita) was a Hebrew grammarian as well as a scholar and poet. He was born in Neustadt, Germany, and after Jews were expelled from his hometown, he moved to northern Italy, first living in Padua, then in Venice and Rome. He later returned to Germany before finally returning to Venice, where he died. During his years in Rome, Levita lived under the roof of the Renaissance humanist and cardinal Egidio da Viterbo, who was his patron. Levita wrote extensively in Hebrew and in Yiddish in various genres: poetry, prose, and treatises on grammar, dictionaries, and more.