6. Waṣoru Tāvotomu

This prayer opens the Səgd liturgy, in the morning. It is performed as the Orit (Torah) is taken out of the prayer house to the high location where the holiday will take place. The text recounts how the Children of Israel carried the Ark and how the archangel Michael guided them. It then refers to the forty years of wandering through the desert with the cloud leading the Children of Israel during the day and a pillar of fire leading them at night. Zion becomes the central motif in the second part of the prayer. The exiled from Zion are mentioned and the glory and gold with which Jerusalem will be dressed upon their return. Several Biblical quotations appear in this second part: Isaiah 51:9; Isaiah 46:16, Isaiah 60:4; Zechariah 2:14.

This piece in the hemiola pattern is measured. The soloist systematically overlaps with the choir at the end of the choir’s part, with overlaps sometimes extending over three beats.