Come, faithful community, let us sing

Joseph Shalom Gallego

Early 17th Century

Come, faithful community,  
To Him who dwells on high,    
Come, let us sing.

O garden dweller,    
Young and old,    
Come, let us sing.

We will exalt His name,    
We are His people,    
Come, let us sing.
 
His essence is hidden on high,    
He chose Zion    
Come, let us sing.
 
Burst with song and praise    
Hidden, but revealed    
Come, let us sing.
 
He who dwells on high    
Shone upon the ancestors,    
Come, let us sing.
 
Eloquent praises    
For His promises of good    
Come let us sing.
 
My our eyes behold    
In Zion, God’s city,    
Come let us sing.
 
He, above human thought,     ,
For He decided to dwell    
Come let us sing.
 
Be strong, House of Jacob,    
For God will bless    
Come let us sing.
let us sing
your creator, O Jacob.


raise song and hymns:
all together, Jacob’s house.


He, unique in His world.
His servant Jacob’s seed.


elevated above elevation.
and the House of Jacob.


to Him of fearsome deeds,
to the eyes of all Israel.


and examines all hearts.
and still shines upon Israel.


suit Him well,
to the House of Israel.


our people gathered
the dwelling of peace.


devised good for His folk
in my abode of peace.


Remnant Israel,
His people with peace.
 

Translated by

Raymond P. 
Scheindlin

.

Credits

Joseph Shalom Gallego, “Come, Faithful Community, Let Us Sing” (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 (131).

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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