22-23. El estudio de la Ley

These are two versions of a very well-known rhyme stressing the importance of learning. The text develops as a dialogue between an unidentified person and the child going to study at the hevrá (Jewish school) taking with him bread and cheese and carrying his book. Someone asks, “Where are you going?” The child responds, “To read God’s Law.” The person then recites blessings for him, for his mother and father, and for the midwife that attended his birth. The second version opens by mentioning the name of the child for whom it was sung.