Sephardic Influences on the American Jewish Liturgy

Abstract

12 SHOFAR Fall 1992 Vol. 11, No. 1 SEPHARDIC INFLUENCES ON THE AMERICAN JEWISH LITURGY Eric 1. Friedland As of the fall of 1992 Dr. Friedland will have served for twenty-five years as the Sanders Professor ofJudaic Studies under a unique consortial arrangement in the Dayton area involving the United Theological Seminary (United Methodist), the University ofDayton (Roman Catholic), and Wright State University (state). There has hardly ever been a time when the Sephardic influence was not felt within the Ashkenazic orbit. One has only to think of the Lurianic rite used by the Hasidim which heavily interfuses Sephardic elements in an Ashkenazic nusa!J. Judah Halevi's "Yom le-yabashah nehepkhu me~lim" is found in many Ashkenazic prayerbooks in the geullab section for the· Seventh Day of Passover. Lateiy the Sephardic influence has manifested itself in the zesty folksong, "Eyn Adir k-Adonay," which came to us by way of Israel and has happily caught on in many a synagogue in this country. Probably less noticed are the Sephardic "Hashkivenu" in one ofthe Friday night services from the Reform Gates of Prayer and a version of the Sabbath and Festival Ashkenazic "Hashkivenu" shortened according to Sephardic specifications in the new Reconstructionist Kol Hanesbamab (1989). Since the 1940s the Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform rites have all carried Solomon ibn Gabirol's "Sha~ar avaqqeshkha" ("Early will I seek Thee, my Rock and Refuge strong") to introduce Sabbath morning worship. All of them too take up Moses ibn Ezra's "El nora 'alilah"! for the Concluding Service on Yom Kippur. The Conservative lIn a letter to author, Bernard H. Mehlman, rabbi of Temple Israel in Boston, who initiated the singing of"El nora 'alilah" at his Reform temple during Ne'ilah, mentioned the fuct that during his assistantship at Temple Sha'aray Tefila in New York City his senior, Rabbi Bernard Bamberger, was wont to chant this engaging piyyut during the last service for the Day of Atonement. It is hardly a coincidence that Bamberger's predecessor, Frederick De Sepbardic Influences on tbe AmericanJewisb Liturgy 13 Movement's MaPzor (1972) for the selfsame service even embraces the petition for the opening of the gates of blessing in an alphabetic acrostic. According to Lawrence Hoffman, the Reform Gates of Repentance .borrowed this entreaty straight from the Conservative Ma};Jzor, which in turn appropriated and extracted it from the Sephardic Kaddish Titqabbel, "Te'anu ve-te'ateru,,,2 for the High Holy Days. What' is not generally known is that a goodly proponion of the piyyutim for the Day of Atonement in the Reform prayerbook, such as they are, is of Sephardic provenance, and has been thus since the second volume of The Union Prayer Book first came out in 1894. One might easily grasp how Sephardic pieces make their way into the non-Onhodox American Siddur, panicularly if they are seen as Israeli and are catchy, singable, and shon. But what of the more sophisticated "Sha- ~ar avaqqeshkha," "EI nora 'alilah," and "Te'anu ve-te'ateru"? How did they filter into the American prayerbooks? How did the Reform Gates of Repentance, as a case in point, wind up with at least a half-dozen Sephardic liturgical poems only slightly outnumbered by its Ashkenazic selections? Seldom does anything quite happen overnight, appearances notwithstanding . The rule applies no less in the sphere of liturgical change. In concrete terms, the Sepharadizing tendence began in earnest little under two centuries ago,' while on the other hand scholarly literary and esthetic appreciation for the creative outpourings of Spanish Jewry came significantly into its own a couple of decades later. As for substantial replacement ofthe standard Ashkenazic piyyutirn with Sephardic ones, this did not really occur in bold fashion and on a full-scale basis until a large segment of Central European, German-speaking Jewry emigrated to the New World. The first official non-Onhodox prayerbook to be issued, in 1819, was the famed Hamburg Gebetbucb, its Hebrew title Seder ba-'Avodab. In pan because of a Sephardic component in the German synagogue'membership rolls and in pan because of a growing aversion to what were perceived as Sola Mendes-who pastored Sha'aray Tefila...