A Public Service

A Public Service

The Jewish New Year season actually begins one month before the New Year itself, during the Hebrew month of Elul. This is the time that we begin to prepare for judgment, search our souls and seek out God and each other to make amends for any offense we may have caused during the year.

It is also the time when Jews all over the world recite special penitential prayers called selihot. (Selihot are also recited during specific times of the Jewish year and on fast days.) Sephardim begin to recite selihot at the beginning of Elul, while Ashkenazim begin them the week before Rosh ha-Shanah. Selihot also form part of the prayer service on Yom Kippur Eve and of Ne’ilah, the closing service of Yom Kippur.

(A personal aside: when I lived as a house-sitter in an apartment directly opposite the Western Wall some years ago, Elul was a particularly challenging month for me. Yes, it was wonderful to live opposite Judaism’s holiest accessible site, but sometimes it was a bit hard to get any sleep. You see, in many communities the recitation of selihot includes the blowing of the shofar, and selihot are generally recited after midnight, and starting a month before Rosh ha-Shanah ... you get the picture.)

The backbone of the selihot service is the recitation of the Thirteen Divine Attributes. According to Jewish tradition, the recitation of these Divine attributes arouses Divine mercy during times of trouble and during the penitential season.

The minyan I attend on the High Holy Days, the Leader Minyan, draws on a fascinating variety of traditions. The tunes we use come from various Jewish communities throughout the world, modern Israeli rock songs, folk songs and even a bit of Disney. It was there that I first heard a particular prayer from the selihot service called “Be-dil va-ya’avor.” This Aramaic prayer, which alludes to the tradition of reciting the Thirteen Divine Attributes that I described above, asks God to remember the good deeds of our ancestors and be merciful to us in the merit of this recitation.

In our minyan, we sing “Be-dil va-ya’avor” as a simple chant, and over the years I have come to look forward to it as a high point of the approaching end of Yom Kippur. But when I searched for the text on the Internet, the only place I found it was in this section of Daat, a large, comprehensive, Hebrew-language Jewish studies site that, in one section, contains the texts of all prayers recited by the Mizrahi community throughout the year.

So as a public service, I have decided to make the text of “Be-dil va-ya’avor” available to English-speaking readers right here on Elms in the Yard. I will include a translation as soon as I can, and if any readers are interested, I will post or send an MP3 file of the tune—not the whole song, mind you, but enough to grasp the basic idea. In the meantime, here is the text, complete with vowelization:

רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן קְיָמֵיהּ דְּאַבְרָהָם רְחִימָא, בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן קְיָמֵיהּ דְּיִצְחָק עֲקֵידָא בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן קְיָמֵיהּ דְּיַעֲקֹב שְׁלֵימָא בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן קְיָמֵיהּ דְּמשֶׁה נְבִיאָה בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן קְיָמֵיהּ דְּאַהֲרׂן כַּהֲנָא בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן זכותיהּ דְּיוׂסֵף צַדִּיקָא בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן קְיָמֵיהּ דְּדָוִד מַלְכָּא מְשִׁיחָא בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן קְיָמֵיהּ דְּפִינְחָס קַנָּאָה בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אִדְכַּר לָן צְלוׂתֵהּ דִּשְׁלמה מַלְכָּא בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, אָרֵים יְמִינָךְ וְאַצְמַח פֻּרְקָנָךְ בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, בְּכִסּוּפֵי אַפִּין אָתֵינָא לְמִקְרֵי קַמָּךְ רַחֵם עֲלָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, גַּלֵּי גְבֻרְתָּךְ וּפְרק לָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, דִּינָן אַפֵּיק לִנְהורָא בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, דִּינָא דְחַיֵּי טָבֵי גְּזר עֲלָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, הַדְרָךְ שַׁוִּי עֲלָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, וְלָא תִתְפְּרַע כְּעובָדָנָא בִּישִׁין מִנָּן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, זִיוָךְ אַשְׁרֵי עֲלָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר
רַחֲמָנָא, חֲשׁוב עֲלָן טַבְוָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, טַבְוָן סַגִּיאָן אַיְיתֵי עֲלָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, יִתְגַּלְגְּלוּן רַחֲמָךְ עֲלָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, כַּתְבִינָן (חַתְמִינָּן) בְּסִפְרָא דְחַיֵּי בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, כַּתְבִינָן (חַתְמִינָּן) בְּסִפְרָא דְרַחֲמֵי בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, כַּתְבִינָן (חַתְמִינָּן) בְּסִפְרָא דְצַדִּיקֵי וַחֲסִידֵי בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, כַּתְבִינָן (חַתְמִינָּן) בְּסִפְרָא דִישָׁרֵי וּתְמִימֵי בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, כַּתְבִינָן (חַתְמִינָּן) בְּסִפְרָא דְפַרְנָסָתָא טַבְתָּא וּמְזונֵי טָבֵי בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, כְּבשׁ חֶמְתָּא וְרֻגְזָא מִנָּן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, לָא תַעְבֵּיד גְּמִירָא לָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, מְחׂל וּשְׁבׂק לְחוׂבִין וְלַעֲוָיָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, נְהוׂר טוּבָךְ אַנְהַר עֲלָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, סְעִיד וּסְמִיךְ הֱוֵי לָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, עֲבֵיד עִמָּנָא אָתָא לְטַב בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, פְּתַח שְׁמַיָּא לִצְלוׂתִין בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, צְלוׂתָנָא קַבֵּל בְּרַעֲוָא בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, קַבֵּל צְלוׂתִין וּבָעוּתִין בְּעִדָּן עַקְתִּין בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, רַחֵם עַל נִשְׁמָתִין בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, שַׁתָּא טַבְתָּא אַיְיתֵי עֲלָן בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, תּוּב מֵרֻגְזָךְ בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:
רַחֲמָנָא, וְלָא נֶהְדָּר רֵיקָם מִן קַמָּךְ בְּדִיל וַיַּעֲבֹר:

Gemar hatima tova.