Tanakh, rabbinical commentaries, and the Zohar, the hymn displays its author's own mastery of Torah and kabbalah. According to Isaac Ratzabi, the song's use of "bar Yochai" (rather than "ben Yochai," the patronymic used by Talmudic texts) is the probable reason for "bar Yochai"'s modern ubiquity.[1]
Sephardi Hakham, kabbalist, physician, astronomer, and poet.[2] Born in Spain, Lavi and his family were forced out of the country by the Spanish Expulsion of 1492 and relocated to Fez, Morocco, where Lavi studied both Torah and kabbalah.[2] In 1549 Lavi set out to immigrate to Israel, but was kidnapped and held for ransom by "Arab bandits".[3] He was redeemed and came to Tripoli, where he found the community lacking spiritual guidance and decided to settle there instead.[2] He is credited with the founding of the community's religious institutions and the revival of Torah study and takkanot (Jewish community regulations) there.[4] He authored the kabbalistic commentary Ketem Paz on the Zohar and a number of other piyyutim which were published together with this work.[2]
Popularity
"Bar Yochai" is a prominent and popular kabbalistic piyyut, being sung by Jewish communities around the world.
Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, and Persian by the various Jewish communities of the diaspora.[5]
Song
The hymn consists of ten stanzas, with each stanza beginning with the words Bar Yochai.
Ten Sephirot, the stanzas describe how Simeon bar Yochai mastered each sephirah until he ascended to the "supreme mystery".[7][8] The initial letters of the first nine stanzas (after the words Bar Yochai) spell out the Hebrew name of the poet, Shimon Lavi.[7]
After each stanza is a one-line refrain:
Bar Yochai, nimshachta ashrekha, shemen sasson mechaverekha
Bar Yochai – fortunate are you, anointed with joyous oil over and above your companions[7]
The hymn incorporates expressions from
Tanakh, rabbinical teachings and ideas, and expressions from the Zohar, displaying Lavi's own mastery of scriptural and kabbalistic sources.[2]
Some versions add an eleventh stanza referencing the Messiah.
Bar Yochai! You are anointed - you are praised -
with joyful oil, over your fellows.
Bar Yochai, sacred anointing oil,
You were anointed from the holy type,
You carry the priestly frontlet, the holy diadem,
Your crown is set upon your head.
Bar Yochai, you picked a good place
On the day that you fled, the day you ran away;
In the rocky cave you went to,
There, you acquired your glory and majesty.
Bar Yochai, acacia trees stand,
Taught of God, the students.
Wondrous light, they blaze with light,
Are they not the students you were taught of!
Bar Yochai, and to the apple orchard
You went, to glean fragrances,
The secret teaching in blossoms and almonds.
"Let us make Man," They said for you.
Bar Yochai, you dressed in strength,
Toward the gate in the war of the fiery Law,
You drew a sword, sharpened it,
You drew it against your enemies.
Bar Yochai, to the place of marble stones,
You came against the lion,
And earned your laurels against the bear,
When you come, who can ambush you?
Bar Yochai, in the Holy of Holies.
The green line renews the months,
seven weeks, the secret fifty,
You bound, the knots of
Shin are your knots.
While the Jews of North Africa sang the hymn every Friday night before eating the Shabbat evening meal, the Jews of Eastern Europe did not adopt this practice.
indicates that many sing it Friday nights during Sfira.
Both Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews sing the hymn on Lag BaOmer, the Yom Hillula (anniversary of death) of bar Yochai.[2] Among Persian Jews, the hymn was sung on Friday nights in Hebrew and on Lag BaOmer in Persian.[2]
Different customs were adopted by Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Hasidic communities in Israel pertaining to the singing of the hymn during Friday-night synagogue services and/or at the Shabbat evening meal, but all groups sing the hymn on Lag BaOmer.[2] In the northern Israeli town of Meron, site of the tomb of bar Yochai, the hymn is "heard around the clock" at the massive celebrations that take place there on Lag BaOmer.[7]
The Ashkenazi tune for the hymn differs slightly from the Sephardi tune; according to an account from Rabbi Yeshayahu Margolin, the latter is the same as that sung by Lavi himself.[2]
