ישראל נג'ארה

Rav Yisrael ben Moshe Najara (c. 5315/1555–c. 5388/1628) was among the greatest paytanim of all the generations — the singer of Kah Ribon Olam — and the rav of the kehillah of Gaza. His family carried the name of the town of Nájera in Spain; his father, Rav Moshe Najara, born in Salonika, was of the circle of the Arizal’s mekubalim in Tzfat, and he learned under his father and under his grandfather Rav Yisrael di Curiel, of the chachamim of Tzfat and among the first four to receive the renewed semichah. Born in Damascus, he served there in his youth as shaliach tzibur of the Sephardic kehillah, and later as sofer and rav in Jobar outside the city. His life knew wandering and grief — his first wife and his young daughter passed away, and he remarried in Damascus — and in his last years he was rav and posek in Gaza, where he was niftar and buried; his son Rav Moshe Najara filled his place as rav of the city.

His crown is the Zemirot Yisrael, first printed in Tzfat in 5347/1587 with 108 piyutim and greatly enlarged in the Venice printing of 5359/1599, in three parts — Olat Tamid, Olat Shabbat, and Olat Chodesh — piyutim for the days of the week, for every Shabbat of the year, and for the Yamim Noraim and the moadim. He set his holy songs to melodies the people already knew, writing in his hakdamah that his intent was to turn the young from songs of chol to words of kedushah, and he marked each piyut with its makam — perhaps the first Hebrew poet to do so. Steeped in the kabbalah of Tzfat and in the meters of Spanish song, he wrote many of his piyutim in Aramaic as well; the Arizal said of his zemirot that they are heard with delight in Heaven.

His piyutim spread through the kehillot of the Balkans, the lands of the East, and as far as India: Kah Ribon Olam is sung at Shabbat tables the world over; Yoducha Rayonai and Yaarat Devash live in the bakashot of Syria, Turkey, and Morocco; the Jews of India sing his Yonati Ziv Yifatech under the chuppah; and his Ketubat Yisrael, a ketubah between Hashem and Klal Yisrael at matan Torah, is read in Sephardic kehillot on Shavuot. Beside the piyutim he left Maarchot Yisrael, a commentary on the Torah; Mikveh Yisrael, derashot; Pitzei Ohev, on Iyov; and Shochatei HaYeladim, the halachot of shechitah set in verse for his son Moshe.