Alenu

Alejnu leschabe'ach […] ( Hebrew "עָלֵינוּ לְשַׁבֵּחַ"; German "[it is] up to us ...") is part of the three Jewish daily prayers.

description

The main motif of the prayer is the thought of a kingdom of God on earth and the hope of unification of all people in worship of the one God, for which a slightly modified form of the expression Tikkun olam is used in the text itself . It has been a part of daily prayers since around 1300.

It is recited at the end of each prayer, so that it is also referred to as the closing prayer in prayer books with a German translation . It is at the end of the morning prayer ( Shacharit ), the midday prayer ( Mincha ) and the evening prayer ( Maariv ). It is also spoken after the blessing for the new moon and after a circumcision . Only the kaddish is prayed more often.

A popular tradition attributes this prayer to the biblical Joshua at the time of his conquest of Jericho . Another assignment is that to the Sanhedrin during the Second Temple period.

Around 1400 a baptized Jew came up with the accusation that the prayer part "They pray to the vain and vain, they plead to him who does not help" insulted Jesus Christ and the Christian faith. Since then, the text has been censored in German prayer books, so that the sentence in question is only passed down in non-German prayer books.

The oldest notated melody for Alejnu leschabe'ach in the Ashkenazi region comes from Cantor Aaron Beer .

Text excerpt and translation

עָלֵינוּ לְשַׁבֵּחַ לַאֲדוֹן הַכֹּל, לָתֵת גְּדֻלָּה לְיוֹצֵר בְּרֵאשִׁית, שֶׁלֹּא עָשָׂנוּ כְּגוֹיֵי הָאֲרָצוֹת, וְלֹא שָׂמָנוּ כְּמִשְׁפְּחוֹת הָאֲדָמָלֹן ו וֹת הָאֲדָמָה ול ְגוו שָׂם ֶֹםול לווול וַאֲנַחְנוּ כּוֹרְעִים וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים וּמוֹדִים לִפְנֵי מֶלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְּלָכִים הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, שֶׁהוּא נוֹטֶה שָׁמַיִם מִמַּעַוְיֹסֵד אָרוֶץ, וּמוֹשַׁב יבַּשָּׁמַור יֹו יומְר יֹוֹשַׁב יבַּשָּׁמַו ּשְׁכִר יֹוֹשַׁב יבַּשָּׁמַו ֹר יוֹשַׁב יבַּשָּׁמַו י ֹמִוּשְׁכִ יבַּשָּׁמַו ְקָר וֹשַׁב יבַּשָּׁמַו יום יוםי הוּא אֱלֹהֵינוּ וְאֵין עוֹד. אֱמֶת מַלְכֵּנוּ וְאֶפֶס זוּלָתוֹ. כַּכָּתוּב בַּתּוֹרָה: וְיָדַעְתָּ הַיּוֹם וַהֲשֵׁבֹתָ אֶל לְבָבֶךָ, כִּי יְהֹוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל וְעַל הָאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת. אֵין עוֹד:

"

- Siddûr tefillôt Yiśrāʾēl

“It is up to us to praise the Lord of all, to him who is still developing the work of the beginning, to pay tribute to greatness, who did not create us like the people of the countries and did not give us a position like the families of the earth by giving us our share not to be equal to theirs and our lot not to that of their whole multitude. Rather, we kneel and throw ourselves down and confess before the King of kings of all kings, the Holy One, blessed be he that he inclines the heavens and founds the earth, and the seat of his glory in heaven above, and the presence of his irresistible power in all He is our God, nothing else. In truth our King, nothing is except him, as is written in his teaching: So know it today and bring it to your heart repeatedly that God alone is God, in the Heaven above and on earth below, nothing else. "

Web links

• Aleinu sung by Cantor Brian Shamash (* 1975 in New York) onYouTube, South Huntington Jewish Center, Melville, New York.
• S. Copeland: Liturgy: Daily Prayers: Aleynu , ICCJ 2013.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Siddur shma kolenu. German transl. Raw Joseph Scheuer, arr. Albert Richter / Edouard Selig, ed. Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich, Verlag Morascha, Basel 1996 / 9th edition 2011, p. 87: Alenu .
2. ↑ Siddur shma kolenu. German transl. Raw Joseph Scheuer, arr. Albert Richter / Edouard Selig, ed. Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich, Verlag Morascha, Basel 1996 / 9th edition 2011, p. 87: Alenu
3. ^ Barry Freundel: Why We Pray What We Pray: The Remarkable History of Jewish Prayer. Urim Publ'ns, New York 2010, p. 204.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Macy Nulman: Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer. Jason Aronson, New York 1993, p. 24.
5. ^ Barry Freundel: Why We Pray What We Pray: The Remarkable History of Jewish Prayer. Urim Publ'ns, New York 2010, pp. 205-206. Among the authorities supporting the attribution to Joshua was Rav Hai Gaon (died 1038), Eleazar of Worms (died 1230), Rabbi Nathan ben Rabbi Yehuda (13th century), and Kol Bo (publ. 16th century).
6. ^ Barry Freundel: Why We Pray What We Pray: The Remarkable History of Jewish Prayer. Urim Publ'ns, New York 2010, p. 207. (Manasseh ben Israel; d. 1657).
7. ↑ Ismar Elbogen: The Jewish service in its historical development , J. Kauffmann Verlag, Frankfurt a. M., 1931, pp. 80 and 81
8. ↑ Abraham Zebi Idelsohn: Jewish Music: Its Historical Development. Courier Corporation, 1992, ISBN 9780486271477 , p. 157
9. ↑ Samson Raphael Hirsch : סדור תפלות ישראל (Siddûr tefillôt Yiśrāʾēl). Israel's prayers. I. Kauffmann, Frankfurt a. M. 1895, OCLC 18389019 , pp. 208-209. ( online ).