A nighttime song of praise
Isaac Samuel Modeano
End of the 17th Century
A nighttime song of praise I have
To sing before my Lord,
And in the day His help is at my side.
All my life, my soul has longed
To see the courts
Of God, to read the Torah.
And so I come betimes
With songs and hymns and praise
To Him Who made the mouth with which I praise Him.
My God, who acted wondrously with me,
Did not deliver me to death,
Made me in His splendid image:
Act on Your own behalf. Soon
Build the Temple with Your own
Hands, that all may walk by its light.
May we, Israel, dwell securely
And alone at Jacob’s fount,
And let Him not again sell us.
Let David’s sprout, the people’s best,
Be their eternal king,
A golden crown upon his head.
May they have life and length of days,
Well fed and satisfied,
In His city’s midst.
May all those left in Zion,
In the holy city be called “Holy.”
May that be their reward.
Translated by .
Raymond P.
Scheindlin
Credits
Isaac Samuel Modeano, “A nighttime song of praise (Hebrew)” (Prayer, Salonika, End of the 17th Century). Published in: Yosef Tobi, “The Messianic Poems of R. Samuel Isaac Modigliano,” Sefunot: Studies and Sources on the History of the Jewish Communities in the East vol 16 (1980): 205–34: 232–233.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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