4. Las Tablas de la Ley (The Tablets of the Law)

This is a song or copla belonging to the cycle of Moses, catalogued by Elena Romero under the title of Las tablas de la Ley (‘The Tablets of the Law’; BAECS 28a) and exhaustively studied by Seroussi (2021), who defines this text as “a piyyut in Spanish”. Known in Judeo-Spanish literature for its most common opening line ‘Nuestro Señor Elohenu’ (‘Our Lord, Our God’), this old poem is known in several different versions, in Judeo-Spanish or Hebrew, throughout the Sephardic diaspora. The rich Hebrew substratum of the Judeo-Spanish versions suggests that, in effect, it is a translation of the Hebrew poem whose incipit is ‘Adonay Hu Eloheinu’. Due to its content (the delivery of the Tablets of the Law) and its hero (Moses), this poem is also sung, in addition to Simhat Torah, on the holidays of Passover and Shavuoth. Note that the fourth and final line of all the stanzas is a quotation from a biblical verse that ends with the word Anojí (“I”, the first word of the Ten Commandments).

The first two recorded versions belong to the repertoire of the Sephardim of Northern Morocco, a tradition that has preserved in oral memory one of the most complete versions of this text. Its Moroccan melody has been widely documented and also appears in the Italian Sephardic traditions of Livorno and Florence, so we can assume (based on its transnational diffusion) that it is a fairly old tune among the Sephardim of the western Mediterranean. (Another recording of the song in this tune is by James Levy, see here)

Version 4c from Turkey is a clear example of the vicissitudes of Sephardic oral memory. The music of ‘The Tablets of the Law’ has been preserved among the Ottoman Sephardim only in its aforementioned Hebrew version, ‘Adonay Hu Eloheinu’, with a melody in the Turkish makam Şehnaz, as part of the repertoire of the choral association called Maftirim. Mrs. Jamila Ventura, whose prodigious memory is a true repository of many rare Sephardic items, kept alive a unique Eastern Mediterranean testimony of some verses of ‘The Tablets of the Law’ in Judeo-Spanish. She combines them with verses from another copla from the Moses cycle, The revered Law (BAECS 129b) and as a refrain, it adds the traditional blessing of the beginning of the year which, as we have seen above, is taken from the song ‘The Little Sister’ (no. 3), ‘S'ateme el año con sus maldiciones, mos venga el año con sus bendidas,’ replacing the characteristic refrains of ‘The Tablets of the Law’ that end with ‘Anojí’. Ms. Ventura's version is, in short, a 'salad' of fragmentary textual memories sung in this case to a peculiar variant of the Turkish melody for the piyyut ‘The Little Sister.’

Text

4a. Rev. Abraham Benhamu (Tetuán)

Nuestro Señor Elokenu
mandó por Mose rabenu
para darnos Toratenu
que se empieza con Anojí.

Mose subió a los shamayim
sin ajilá y sin mayim;
nos trajo lujot shenayim
que se empieza con Anojí.

En har Sinai hizo alumbrar
con fuegos y voz de shofar,
a todo Israel hizo temblar
cuando Dios dijo: Anojí.

Nos dio ‘aseret diberot
con sus shirim y sus sodot,
allí estaban las neshamot
cuando Dios dijo: Anojí.

Muestra Ley es estimada,
de las umot apartada,
de Israel es querida
y del que dijo: Anojí.

Hicimos un grande yerro,
más fuerte era que el hierro,
servimos a un mal becerro,
contra el que dijo: Anojí.

Ana Adoshem, hosi’a na,
nuestros pecados selaj na,
Eliyahu mevaser na
con el que dijo: Anojí.

Razón es que le sirvamos
y sus misvot hagamos,
porque la cuenta daremos
a el que dijo: Anojí.

Beit Hamiqdash fraguaremos
la menorá encenderemos
los qorbanot acercaremos
ante quien dijo Anojí.

El misbeaj fraguaremos
ketoret sahumearemos
el cohen gadol tendremos
y al que dijo: Anojí.

Mevaser tov esperamos
a Ben David envíanos
a Yerushalayim subiremos
cerca del que dijo: Anojí.

El ma’aser apartaremos
el Cohen Gadol tendremos
los bikurim subiremos
a el que dijo: Anojí

Los muertos resucitarán
todos alegres estarán
todo el mundo creerán
en el que dijo: Anojí.

Nuestro premio tendremos
penei mashiaj veremos
de la Gloria gozaremos
con el que dijo: Anojí.

Ahora vamos a acostar,
por la mañana, a madrugar,
para servir, para loar
a el que dijo: Anojí.

Glossary

Elohenu= Our God; Toratenu= our Torah (Law); Anojí= I (first Word of the Ten Commandments); shamayim= skyes; ajilá= food; mayim= water; lujot shenaim= two tablets (of the Law); har Sinai= Mount Sinai; aseret diberot = Ten Commandments; shirim= songs; sodot= secrets; neshamot= souls; umot= nations; Ana Adoshem, hoshí’a na= Please Lord, deliver us; selaj na= forgive us; Eliyahu mevaser na= Elijah, please, bring (good tidings); misvot= precepts; Beit Hamiqdash= Jerusalem’s Temple; menorá= candelabrum; qorbanot= sacrifices; misbeaj= altar; ketoret= incense; Cohen Gadol= High Priest; mevaser tov= who brings good tidings; Ben David= son of David (the Messiah); ma’aser= tithe; bicurim= first offering; penei mashiaj= the Messiah’s face (figuratively).

Bibliography

BAECS = Romero, Elena con la colaboración de Iacob M. Hassán y Leonor Carracedo. 1992. Bibliografía analítica de ediciones de coplas sefardíes. Madrid: CSIC.

Seroussi, Edwin. 2021. Nuestro Señor Elohenu/Adonay hu Elohenu: memoria viva y muerta de una canción sefardí del ciclo de Moisés. In Ovras son onores: Estudios sefardíes en honor a Paloma Díaz-Mas, ed. Željko Jovanović and Maria Sánchez-Pérez. Madrid: CSIC, pp. 301-321.