Yedid nefesh (Friend of the soul)

The section of the Baqqashot that begins with this piyyut and concludes with the Qaddish is performed in the maqam of the Sabbath following the Thursday on which the Baqqashot are sung in the Har Tzyion synagogue. In this series of recordings it is sung in maqam Ajam. In the course of the performance of the piyyut Yedid nefesh a number of lehanim are sung: 1. Yedid nefesh- the lahan of the Hebrew song Nitzanei shalom written by the Turkish Jewish poet and singer Yitzhak Eliyahu Navon (1859-1952) and set by him to a folk tune known in the Balkans and Turkey; 2. Ana  el na, the lahan of the piyyut La-el  asher shavat, 3. Vatiq yehemu continues the previous lahan; 4. Ana eli, sung to Ahun 'alaik, a lahan by Muhammad Abdel Wahab (1928); 5. Ta'ir, lahan of the piyyut Ashir la-el by the twentieth­ century Sephardi composer  Mordecai  Halfon.