Akdamus - Shavuot - 5785

Akdamus - Shavuot - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

  Akdamus milin v'sharayos shusa - first verse of Akdamus

Piyutim are "liturgical poems". We see them appear spread throughout the various holiday machzorim, usually in grey, and usually with an annotation saying that those congregations who do not recite them should turn to page such-and-such. Most congregations do just that, skipping each piyut. There are usually only one or two exceptions, and both are contained in the service for Shavuot. Nearly all Ashkenazim and Chassidim say Akdamus on the first day, although few Chabad congregations and very few Sephardim do so. Outside of the land of Israel where we have two days for Shavuot, many also say Yetziv Pisgam on the second day. The Mishneh Berurah (494[1][2]) notes these customs as the legitimate practices. (Note that since this is basically an Ashkenazic tradition I have retained the S sound of the final sof in the word, but have used the T sound in Shavuot.)

What is Akdamus? Why is it so commonly added to the Shavuot davening?

Akdamus Millin, "introduction to the words" is an introduction to the Ten Statements, the Ten Commandments. During the reading on this day, we will recite that section of the Torah. One might wonder why Akdamus is not recited immediately before that section rather than at the beginning of the reading as we do. It seems that at one time there were many piyutim recited during Torah readings, including some immediately before the Ten Commandments, so this one was placed somewhere else, and when the others were eventually dropped, this one remained more or less in its place.

One might wonder why poems were allowed to be read as interruptions to any Torah reading. At the time they were written, the common practice was for the reader to read one verse, then have a translator translate it from Hebrew to Aramaic, the language most people spoke. The translator did not limit himself to a word-by-word rendering, but occasionally added a few explanatory remarks. This was not considered an interruption, rather an explanation, and the reader would then continue. Akdamus is written in Aramaic and explains something about the Torah reading, so it fit the bill. However, once the practice of translation was dropped, Akdamus was seen as an interruption, so it is recited before the actual reading begins, right after the Kohen is called up but before he says the blessing over the Torah, rather than after the first verse was read, as had been done before.

The structure of the piyut says much. It is a double-acrostic, meaning that for each letter in the Aleph-Bet, there are two consecutive verses. There are 90 stanzas, so the first 44 have that letter pattern. The remaining 46 have first letters that spell the name of the author: "Meir, son of Rabbi Yitzchak, may he grow in Torah and good deeds, amen, be strong and courageous". At the end of each stanza, the last two letters of the word are tof-aleph (pronounced in Ashkenazi as "sa"), which are the last and first letters of the aleph-bet and an allusion to the concept that whenever we finish reading the Torah we begin again immediately. Each stanza, with a few exceptions that may have developed since it was written (11th century), has ten syllables, alluding to the Ten Statements. Each pair together contain a single thought.

The piyut can be viewed as having five sections: introduction (verses 1-4), description of the greatness of God (verses 5-9), description of the greatness of the Jewish people (verses 10-62), description of the reward for the righteous (verses 63-84), and a conclusion (verses 85-90). It covers two major themes and three subordinate themes: 1) the greatness of God, 2) the greatness of the Jewish people, and the subordinates 3) a description of the angels praising God, 4) the greatness of the Torah, and 5) a description of the reward for the righteous. Although the sections more or less line up with these themes, it is not completely clear where one begins and another ends, as all of the themes are relevant to the entire piyut.

After his introduction, R'Meir states that any attempt to describe the greatness of God is necessarily inadequate, but then he goes ahead and offers his attempt to do so. He tells us to look at Creation itself, which should completely convince us, then describes some of how the angels glorify God. He continues by showing how Israel is greater in God's eyes than those angels becuase they give praises of their free will and actively work to defeat the negative impacts of the other nations He then notes some of the reward for Israel in the World to Come for having been His chosen people, including a brief look at what will be in those days. He concludes with blessings for Israel and for the upcoming Torah reading.

Just before the Torah reading on Shavuot morning, as the Akdamus is recited, look for these themes in context of how they introduce the Ten Commandments.