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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
337
or "It is our duty." It is one of the most sublinuprayers of the entire liluriry, and lias a reniurkalile iiistory, almost typieal of the race from which it emaiiiiled. It Ijceame the cause of slanderous accusation ami perseculinn, as a result of which it was in part mutilated thn)U>:h fear of the ollicial censors. But Imvins; l)e<'ii thus niutilated, it isdilliOriginal cult to present it in its orijriiial form. Form of the To restore il and render it at least intelligible, recourse must In- had to old Prayer.
The
books and documents.
fnllowiiif;
a literal translation from the original so far as can be restored is
it
" It Is Incumtient upnn us to plvo pnilse to the Lonl of tlip t'nlvt'fse. to plorify Hlni wtio fonncii creiition. for Hi- tiatli rn>t Diudf us to be llkf tile nations of tlif liintis, nor liatli lit- iimtlf us like tlif fuiiiilies of tlic cartli He tiatti not sft our jMirtiou with tlicire, nor our lot with tlielriniililtiiili'; fi>r tlii-y prosInitv themselves iK-fore vanity an<l folly, and pray to a ko<1 who Uut we l>eiul the kneeauilpriuUniteoui'selves <'an not help. anil tHiw down before the Kliivr of the Klniis of Kinirs, the Holy one, blessed lie He For 11 is He who strelehed forth the heavens and laid the foundations <if the earth, ami the seat of Mis glory is In the heavens almve. and His inl^rhtv dwellinjfplaee isheklnahl Is In the loftii-st heiv-hts. 'He is our liod. and there Is none other.' In tntth. He Is our KInfr. there Is none besides Hlni, as it Is written In His Tondi 'And thou shall know this day ami lav It to thine heatt that the Lord Is (iod In heaven alwve and upon the earth l>eneath and thei'e is
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none
other.'
" Therefore do we wait for Thee, O Ia^hI our GikI. soon t4) liehold Thy nilehty glory, when Thou wilt n-inove the alunilna-
and idols shall Ik* e.xternilnated ; when the ht' rvpenerated Ity the kinirdoin of the Alinlghly, the ehildrea of Ik-sh Invoke Thy name: when all the wtckeil of the earth shall he turned unto Thee. Then shall all the Inhabitants of the world pereeive and confess that nnu> Thee llons from the earth,
world shall
and
all
i'very krie*' must l>end. and eveiy tiinjrue be sworn. Before Thee, (J Loni oiir God. shall they kneel and fall down, and unto Thy So will lliey ac<*ept the yoke of Thy Iflorlou.s name jflve lionor.
kingdom, and Thou slialt tie King over them siH*e<liiy forever and aye. For Thine Is the kingilom, and to all eternity Thou wilt ri'Ign in glory, a.s It Ls written in Thy Tomh "The Lord shall reign forever and ave.' And It isal.snsald: 'And the I.ord shall »' King over all theeaitli on that day the Lord shall lie one and His name be One.'"
Evidently this prayer was oritrinally
recite<I
with
the ]ir<jstration of the whole assenihleii congreu'ation lii'fore their ileparture from the house of (iod. or after the benediction jriveii by the priests. In such solemn language (drawn frnm.Ier. .. (i-lU; Isa. .... 7, xv. '2:}, li. i:i; Dent. iv. Hit) the congregatiim gives expression to its faith in the One liiiversal Knicr of the AVorld. and to its hope for His universal kingdom when all the idolatrous nations around Israel shall have been converted to His Irtitli. The omission of a personal Jlessiah from the cxjircssion of the .Messianic hope |ioints to a iirc-Christian era; and the very title. " Kiiiir of the Kings of Kings" found in Dan. ii. liT^shows that the formula used at the prostration goes hack to Persian limes when kings bore the title <if King of Kings. The '.Menu prayer had already been in use when there wereattached to it tlw three portions of the lit urgy of the New-year: (l)thc Malkiyot Additions lllie Glori Meat ions of God as Kingi: {'i) the Zikronol (llie Divine Heniiinhrnnto
'Alenu.
CCS); and(:i)the Sliofarot(tlic' Trumpet blasts): these weri> probably originally
WatikimK recited on public fast days (scm' Taanil, ii. I!, anil 1{. II. iv. (i). Ziin/ and his followers w ho ascribe tin' prayer to Hub, simply because in his school the .lewish liturgy reicived its permanent form disregarded thi'fact thai it stands in no organic connection with the ri'sl of the New year's prayer. .
old tradition, referred to by
Simon ben /eiiiali Dnraii in his rcsponsn on I'niyir 2.'>;t: by Klea/ar of Worms, in his "I{ol>eah"; and prayers of the Ilasidim
(
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afterward in .aroii ben .lacob lia Kolien of l.tinel's "l>rlii)l Hayyini." in "Kol llo." i. IT. claims that il was wrilten by.loshiia upon his entmiice into Cauiuin. I.
-ii
Aleksandria
Alenu
Maniissi'h b. Israel, in his " Vindicise .ludicorum." iv. 'i. ascribes the 'Alenu to the men of the Great Synagogue. Mo.ses Mendels.sohn also, in his memorandum (see below), declares the 'Alenu to be one of the oldest jirayers of the nation, adducing as pn-iof of its ancient and preC'hristian character the fad that no mention is made in it of the restoration of the .Jewish Temple and state, which would scarcely have been omitted had it been comi)osed after their destruction. It was obviously w ritlen. he sjiys, at the time w heu the .Jew s still lived in their own land. The fact that neither Maimonides nor Abudarham mentions its separate recital at the close of the daily prayers, as does the Mal.izor Vitry. merely jiroves tliatit was not generally recited as "part of the service. On the other hand, it is indisputable that during the Middle .ges it was invested with especial solemnity
and awe.
The following is related by .Joseph ha-Kohen in his"'Emek lia IJaka " (ed. Wiener, p. 31). based upon contemporarj- records: During Its
Use by
the persecution of the .Jews of Blois.
Martyrs.
France, in 1171, when many masters of the Law died as martyrs at the stake, an eye-witness wrote to I{. .Jacob <if Orleans that the death of the saints was accomi)anied by a weird song resounding through the stillness of "the night, causing the Christians who heard it from afar to wonder at the melodious strains, the like of which they had never heard before. It was ascertidned afterward that the martyred saints had inaile use of the 'Alenu as their dying song. It is (juile probable, then, that it became the custom in those tragic days for the martyrs to chant the '.Menu song in order to moderate the agonies of their death. IJut this very fact seems to have given a welcome pretext to maiigning persecutors, who claimed that the 'Alenu was a malicious attack upon Calumnies the Church, whose Savior was charDirected acterized therein as "a god who can Against It. not help" and as "vanity and folly." An apostate. Pesach Pi'ter. in 1399 went so far as to assert that in the word p'"il ("and folly"), (IC") .Jesus was alluded to. because tlii' Hebrew letters of both words are ei|Ual in numerical value, amounting to 310. Antonius Margarita, in I,')3(), was the next to repeat this charge, in n book entitled "The Helief of the .Jews." Seventy years later Samuel Kriedrich IJrenz, a converted jew, repeated it in a book to which he gave the characteristic title ".Iidischer Abgestreifler .Shlangeiibalg" (The. lewish Serpint Slouirh). In vain did the leading rabbis. .Solomon Zebi I'lTeiihausen in his "Therial>" and Lippman Ml'ihlhausen in his "Niz/.ahon." protest against such misinterpretation of llieir ancient prayer, composed long before .lesiis was born, and having solely idolaters in view. Kvcn llic learned liiixtorf in his " Hibliolheca liabbinica " repealed the charge but he was successfully refuted by Mainisseh b. Israel, who devotes a whole clnipter of his " Viiiand relates among ilicia' .IuiIm orum " to Ihc '.Menu other things that .'sultan Sclim.on reading the 'Alenu ill the Turkish translation of the .Jew ish liturgy prcseiiled to him by his ]ihvsician Moses .mon, said: "Truly, his prayer is sultlcii'iit forallpurpos<-s: there Hut the acme of misrepis no need of any other." resentation was reached by Kisi-nmenger (" Entdeck H4). who poinli'd out that the tes .ludetilhuin." i. words, "they bow ton god wiiodiK'S nut help," were accompanieil by spitting as a sign of utter contempt, and he as.serled that refeniice was thereby intended lo.Ie.sus. In consetnience of this charge, the indi-corous practise of spilling while reciting Ihc pniyer was deuounced by Isaiah Ilorwilz and otherrabbis. Hut
t
