Rejoice, be glad, confraternity Talmud Torah

Joseph Shalom Gallego

Early 17th Century

Rejoice, be glad, confraternity Talmud Torah,
You crown of beauty, tiara of splendor.
O Holy One of Israel     enthroned on Israel’s praises,
With musical voices     we praise Your name.
With melodious song,     with harp and lyre.

We bow down to the ground.

Despite all this,     our scattered state,
We were granted     from the Lord,
Illumination     in His holy courts,

Through the Torah, bright and perfect.

Exalt the Rider     on the highest heavens!
Rejoice before     God, the king of glory
Who gave His sons     Torah and laws

From His right hand, a law of fire—our possession.

Splendid in eternity,     fearsome in His high abodes,
He bade His children,     the seed of His intimates,
To be compassionate,     and follow in His ways.

The path of the Lord is charity.

Bear in mind, do not forget     what the High One said:
“Open, surely open     your hand to the poor,”
For by virtue of justice     will Zion be redeemed,

through charity, restored.

That you may enjoy     this world and the next,
Honor the students,     clothe the naked.
as the Rock of all the Worlds     has mercy on the children

who breathe the words of Torah as they study.

They will rejoice in you,     O enlightening Torah,
For in you, pauper     pupils find their refuge:
Shirts and linen trousers,     waistbands, leggings,

Hats and shoes, covering in cold.

May the highest king     Who sits upon the mercy throne
Increase your numbers     a thousand thousandfold,
And the donors     and the teachers

Gleam like the fearsome ice of heaven.

Rejoice, be glad, confraternity Talmud Torah.

Translated by
Raymond P.
Scheindlin
.

Credits

Joseph Shalom Gallego, “Rejoice, be glad, confraternity Talmud Torah” (song, Amsterdam, early 17th century). Published in: Edwin Seroussi, “R. Yossef Shalom Gallego Author of Imrei No'am: A Cantor from Saloniki in Early 17th-Century Amsterdam, with Annotations on the Poets, the Poems by Joseph Shalom Gallego and an Analytical Index by Tova Beeri,” Asufot: Annual for Jewish Studies 6 (1992): 87–150 (125–126).

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Joseph Shalom Gallego

–1624

Born in Salonika, Joseph Shalom Gallego was a cantor in Amsterdam for fourteen years. He later settled in the land of Israel. His work Imre no‘am (Pleasant Words), published in Amsterdam in 1628, is a collection of devotional poems that he composed for festivals, weddings, circumcisions, and fast days. The poems were set to the tunes of Spanish songs. Other poems by Shalom Gallego can be found in a manuscript compiled by David Franco Mendes, Kol tefila ve-kol zimrah (Sound of Prayer and Sound of Song). Shalom Gallego also translated Jonah Gerondi’s thirteenth-century ethical writings into Spanish.

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