Adon Olam


Adon Olam is hymn in the Jewish liturgy. It has been a regular part of the daily and Shabbat liturgy since the 15th century.

Origin

Its authorship and origin are uncertain. It is often attributed, as least tentatively, to Solomon ibn Gabirol, who is known for his Hebrew poetry, but there is no solid evidence apart from the quality of this hymn, and the language appears to be older. It has also been attributed to Hai Gaon and even to the Talmudic sage Yohanan ben Zakkai. Although its diction indicates antiquity, it did not become part of the morning liturgy until the 15th century.

Text

The text of Adon Olam used in Ashkenazic liturgy contains 5 stanzas in 10 lines, as follows:
English translationTransliterationHebrew
Eternal master, who reigned supreme,
Before all of creation was drawn		Adon 'olam, 'asher malakh,
b'terem kol yetzir niv'ra
When it was finished according to his will,
Then "King" his name was proclaimed to be		L'et na'asa v'ḥeftso kol,
Azai melekh sh'mo nikra
When this our world shall be no more,
In majesty he still shall reign,		V'aḥarey kikh'lot hakol
L'vado y'imlokh nora
And he was, and he is,
And he will be in glory.		V'hu hayah v'hu hoveh
V'hu yih'yeh b'tif'arah
Alone is he, there is no second,
Without division or ally;		V'hu 'eḥad v'eyn sheyni
L'ham'shil lo l'haḥbirah
Without beginning, without end,
To him is the power and sovereignty		B'li reyshiyt b'li taḥ'liyt
V'lo ha'oz v'hamis'rah
He is my God, my living redeemer
Rock of my affliction in time of trouble		V'hu 'Eli v'ḥay go'ali
v'tsur ḥevli b'eit tsarah
He is my banner and refuge
Filling my cup the day I call		V'hu nisi 'umanos li
m'nat kosi b'yom 'ekra
Into his hand I commit my spirit
When I sleep, and I awake		B'yado af'kid ruḥi
b'et 'ishan v'a'ira
And with my spirit, my body
The Lord is with me, I will not fear		v'im ruḥi g'viyati
Adonai li v'lo 'ira


There are varying texts in the Sephardic version. In some traditions the hymn comprises 6 stanzas, but the fourth stanza is omitted by the Ashkenazim. In others it has 15 lines; in yet others it has 16 lines. It is strictly metrical, written in lines of eight syllables; more precisely, each line is composed of two segments of one yated and 2 tenu'ot, which indeed makes 8 syllables.

Practice

Adon Olam is one of the most familiar hymns in the whole range of the Jewish liturgy, employed in the various rituals all over the world, though not always at the same period of the service or on the same occasions. In the Roman Machzor it is placed at the end of Sabbath service and sung together with Yigdal.
According to Seligman Baer, the hymn seems to have been intended to be recited before going to sleep, as it closes with the words: "Into His hand I commit my spirit when I fall asleep, and I shall awake." There is a tradition of reciting it each night at bedtime, and also on the deathbed. It may be, however, that the beauty and grandeur of the hymn recommended its use in the liturgy, and that it was chanted indiscriminately at the beginning or the close of the service.
According to the custom of the Sephardim and in British synagogues generally, it is congregationally sung at the close of Sabbath and festival morning services, and among the Ashkenazi Jews also it sometimes takes the place of the hymn Yigdal at the close of the maariv service on these occasions, while both hymns are sometimes chanted on the Eve of Yom Kippur.
It is often sung to a special tune on the morning of both Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur by Ashkenazi Jews at the beginning of services, but not at their conclusion.
Because of this solemn association, and on account of its opening and closing sentiments, the hymn has also been selected for reading in the chamber of the dying, and in some congregations it is recited in the synagogue as a means of reporting a death in the community. It is likewise recited or chanted at the commencement of the daily early morning prayer, that its utterance may help to attune the mind of the worshiper to reverential awe. When it is sung at the end of the service, the congregation sits while singing it, as a demonstration that they are not eager to leave the house of prayer but were willing to stay and continue praying.

Tunes

For so widespread and beloved a hymn, the traditional tunes are unusually few. Only four or five of them deserve to be called traditional. Of these the oldest appears to be a short melody of Spanish origin.
The most common tune is attributed to the Russian cantor, Eliezar Mordecai Gerovitsch.
Of similar construction is a melody of northern origin associated by English Jews with the penitential season.
This melody is often sung antiphonally, between precentor and congregation, although it was obviously intended for congregational rendering only, like the Spanish tune given above it. The best known of the other traditional antiphonal settings exists in two or three forms, the oldest of which appears to be the one given below.
The most common tune is attributed to the Russian cantor, Eliezar Mordecai Gerovitsch. Every one of the synagogal composers of the 19th century has written several settings for "Adon Olam". Most of them—following the earlier practise of the continental synagogues during the modern period —have attempted more or less elaborately polyphonic compositions. But the absurdity of treating an essentially congregational hymn so as to render congregational singing of it impossible is latterly becoming recognized, and many tunes in true hymn form have been more recently composed. Special mention should be made of the setting written by Simon W. Waley for the West London Synagogue, which has become a classic among the British Jews, having been long ago adopted from the "reform" into the "orthodox" congregations, of England and its colonies.
This song is sung to many different tunes, and can be sung to virtually any due to its meter. Many synagogues like to use "seasonal" tunes, for instance, Shabbat before Hanukkah, they might do it to Ma'oz Tzur. In Hebrew schools and Jewish summer camps, the Adon Olam hymn is sometimes set, for fun, to secular tunes like "Yankee Doodle" or "Jamaica Farewell". In 1976, Uzi Hitman created a more upbeat tune for the 8th Annual Hasidic Song Festival. This version has become a favorite worldwide sung outside traditional liturgical settings.

Translations

Throughout the years there have been several English translations which preserve the original Hebrew meter and rhyming pattern, allowing the hymn to be sung to the same tunes as the original. A rhythmic English version in the book Prayers, Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Jewish Children of 1905 only loosely follows the Hebrew text.
A rhythmic English version which adheres much more closely to the Hebrew text is attributed to Frederick de Sola Mendes; it appears in the entry in The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 and in the Union Hymnal of 1914.
Two 21st-century rhythmic translations appear to take inspiration from the above works: the rhythmic translation in the Koren Sacks Siddur of 2009 quotes heavily from the initial stanzas of the version in Prayers, Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Jewish Children; the unsigned rhythmic translation in the machzor Mishkan HaNefesh of 2015 has a few verses which echo the version of de Sola Mendes.

Hebrew texts

; Other
Cantor Ari Schwartz of Park Avenue Synagogue, to the tune of "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton