Composition and audio © Alexander Massey 10 Feb 2015
Download the free sheet music (lead sheet, voice & guitar)
Eternal One, who reigned supreme, / Before creating anything,
When, by Your will, all was made, / Then all Creation called You King.
When all shall end, God’s reign shall still / Extend in endless story;
God was, God is, / And God will be in glory.
And God is One, alone, unique, / For all of Life the only Root.
Without beginning, without end, / God’s power and rule are absolute.
And God is my redeeming God, / My Rock when in my grief I fall,
My miracle, my refuge, / Who answers me when I call.
To God I give my soul in trust / When day and night appear,
And when my soul must leave this earth, / God will be with me: I’ll not fear.
Translation-interpretation by Alexander Massey
Adon Olam is a (10th-11th century) poem steeped in core Jewish theology. The first verse sets the tone of the whole text, addressing the All-Powerful Creator. Verses 2 and 3 affirm God’s eternal nature, God as One, and God as Creator and Ruler of all. Verses 4 and 5 also work as a pair, and emphasise a more personal, intimate relationship with God as source of redemption, nourishment and safety, God to whom we can surrender ourselves – body and spirit. The words of the poem manage to reconcile several pairs of opposites: transcendence and immanence, God as Ruler and Redeemer, God’s will and human will, before / outside time and the end of personal time, God as source of life and God as destination of life.
The Hebrew text is also encoded with mystical ideas. It has five verses, ten lines in all, matching the ten sefirot (aspects of God, represented by points on the Tree of Life). The first 6 lines represent God who is awesome, transcendent, beyond beyond (l’eila l’eila), while the last 4 lines represent the God who is immanent, who is available for a unique, intimate relationship with each of us personally. The words Adon Olam (‘Master of the physical world’), when calculated with gematria (the mystical numerological system that assigns a number to every letter), add up to 61 and 146 respectively; these correspond exactly to two other words, Ein Sof, meaning ‘the Infinite’. The immanent and transcendent God are the same and One.
The tough-loving and tender-loving sides of God are also found here. The first three lines of the Hebrew end with the letter aleph, representing Elokim, the name of God as the All-Powerful One (and transcendent); this is the gevurah G-d of strictness, restraint and judgement. The next three lines end with the letter heh; this is understood to be the shortened form of YHVH, the name of God as the Compassionate One (and immanent), the chesed God of loving-kindness, mercy and forgiveness. The ends of the final four lines alternate heh-aleph-heh-aleph, binding together two sides of God, and giving us, in coded metaphor, the totality of God.
To make this piyut (liturgical poem) as accessible as possible, I have created a translation-lyric that fits the traditional tunes exactly, so that this piece can also be sung in English. Metric translations don’t always capture either the poetry or the layers of meaning. This English lyric observes the same rhyme scheme as the Hebrew original, as well as even the position of words in the lines (where possible). In the few places where I have taken a little licence with the literal meaning of the Hebrew, I have aimed to express what I believe to be the intent behind the words.
Adon Olam begins the weekday morning service, and it ends the Shabbat morning service. As a prelude to prayer, perhaps it is to help put us in mind of who we are praying to – Da lifeni mi atah omeid ‘Know before whom you stand’ (Talmud, Berachot 28b). As a final song on Shabbat morning, it can help us remember where we should hold our focus – Sh’viti Adonai l’negdi tamid ‘I will set God before me always’ (Ps 16:8). Adon Olam is also sometimes said in the room where a person is dying; it is a beautiful meditation on life and death, and our relationship with God in both.
Both Adon Olam No.1 (a different, choral setting of the same text) and No.2 are part of my collection of songs for Shabbat Shacharit, here.