Shire tiferet (Songs of Glory)

Naphtali Herts Wessely

1789–1802

How could the wise of heart envisage the final outcome of the matter,
Seeing that, when he was just a quarter of a year old, they placed him in the bulrushes?
None has arisen like him amongst the thousands of Your seers!
Even if You become wroth, You do not bear a grudge forever.
For those suffering Your terrors have raised their foreheads,
The nation that labored with bricks has witnessed Your might!
When Your eyes perceived the distress of Jacob,
You formed in the womb the redeemer of Your children
From the hands of strangers, who devoured them like bread.
O God! Teach me, I pray you, to tell of Your glory—the great things You have wrought with Your servant,
From the very day of his birth, from the moment he emerged from the womb.
When the heart of Jacob had melted, and no spirit stirred in anyone,
They did not approach a woman, even the graceful does were despised,
The spirit came upon a man, the Almighty’s aid was with a man of valor,
He was Amram the Levite, light shone forth for him in the darkness,
He spoke comfortingly unto his wife, and by means of wisdom he captured her soul.
“Lady of grace, strengthen yourself, daughter of Levi, give ear!
Do not continue to turn your eye away from me,
Return unto me and have no fear of destruction, I pray you,
I am not a cruel man in that I would raise up offspring for nought,
To watch the delights of my eyes being brought forth to be slain:
My heart is overflowing with a goodly matter, I am not one who invents vain things,
You are to be a mother of Jacob, you shall turn darkness into light.”
Yokheved was enthused with joy, for she knew the righteousness of her husband,
That his wisdom was great, and how pleasant were his ways,
For the spirit of God spoke through him—his eye would tolerate no falsehood:
So she took the words of his mouth on board, she returned to him and conceived.
Merry of heart was she throughout her pregnancy,
And at the appointed time, she gave birth to a son of goodly appearance—
While still naked inside her belly, she perceived special signs within the child,
That he was a gift from God and the one chosen by the Almighty from the womb,
After about three months together with her, she hid him.

Translated by
David E.
Cohen
.

Credits

Naphtali Herts Wessely, “Words of Peace and Truth,” trans. Stephen L. Weinstein and Saul Fischer, from The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, 2nd ed., ed. Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 71. Used with permission of the translators.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 6.

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Creator Bio

Naphtali Herts Wessely

1725–1805

Born in Hamburg and raised in Copenhagen, Naphtali Herts Wessely was a pioneering Haskalah figure and a contemporary of Moses Mendelssohn. He studied religious subjects under Jonathan Eybeschütz, but also studied modern languages and eventually became a poet and linguist, exploring biblical Hebrew and writing biblical commentaries. Wessely urged a complete change of attitude toward non-Jews. He was a practicing Jew whose significance lay in his call to reimagine Ashkenazi Jewish society and culture from the top down. His epistle was a gauntlet thrown down to traditional rabbinic authority and was widely seen as the text that crystallized the aims of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) movement. As a representative of the Feitel Bank, Wessely moved to Berlin, where he met Mendelssohn. He strongly advocated for the social and educational reforms laid out in Joseph II of Austria’s Edict of Toleration, writing Divre shalom ve-emet (1782) to advocate for Jews in German-speaking lands to accept these reforms.

Related Guide

Poetry, 1750–1880

Jewish poets throughout Europe and the Americas created in the languages of their native tongues. From folk-song lyrics to wedding riddles and synagogue hymns, poetry, even in translation, allows us access to voices and moments, particular and collective, that we would otherwise not hear. 

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