Page 255 - גנזי קדם יא

52* SUMMARIES

Terem ʽAdlo Notsaru Doq va-‘Adama:
An Unkown “Hashem Qanai”
Pentecost Sequence

Joseph Yahalom

Department of Hebrew Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The “Hashem Qanai” (Prov. 8:22) sequences are among the most
conspicuous poems for Pentecost. They are usually comprised of 22
alphabetical long sections where God, as the father, and the Torah, as his
daughter, are arguing about a suitable bridegroom for her. She objects even
to the great forefathers proposed to her by God before finally agreeing to the
proposition to be given to Moses.

We have in our possession about ten such parallel compositions by
Palestinian, Ashkenazi and French poets. In the following article a critical
edition of an unknown Palestinian composition from this genre is published
for the first time. The text is based on an old MS dispersed in three distant
Genizah fragments. Questions of context and contexture are dealt with,
and a comparable connection with the mystical Shiʼur Qomah treatise is
proposed.