''Eli Tsiyon ve-Areha'' () is an acrostic Zionide of anonymous authorship, lamenting the

destruction of Jerusalem The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Jud ...

and the Temple. It closes the series of ''

kinnot Kinnot ( he, קינות; also kinnos, kinoth, qinot, qinoth; singular kinah, qinah or kinnah) are Hebrew dirges (sad poems) or elegies. The term is used to refer both to dirges in the Hebrew Bible, and also to later poems which are traditionally re ...

'' chanted on the morning of

Tisha B'Av Tisha B'Av ( he, תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב ''Tīšʿā Bəʾāv''; , ) is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian E ...

Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

communities. The poem appears in manuscripts as early as the fourteenth century. Structural similarities to ' suggest that it was composed by

Judah Halevi Judah Halevi (also Yehuda Halevi or ha-Levi; he, יהודה הלוי and Judah ben Shmuel Halevi ; ar, يهوذا اللاوي ''Yahuḏa al-Lāwī''; 1075 – 1141) was a Spanish Jewish physician, poet and philosopher. He was born in Spain, ...

or one of his imitators. ''Eli Tsiyon ve-Areha'' is known for its distinctive melody, which likely originated in

Southern Germany Southern Germany () is a region of Germany which has no exact boundary, but is generally taken to include the areas in which Upper German dialects are spoken, historically the stem duchies of Bavaria and Swabia or, in a modern context, Bavaria ...

. It has been compared to medieval tunes for the ''

Souterliedekens The ''Souterliedekens'' (literal: Psalter-songs) is a Dutch metrical psalter, published in 1540 in Antwerp, and which remained very popular throughout the century. The metrical rhyming psalms were, probably, arranged by a Utrecht nobleman: Willem ...

'' and the folk song "Die Frau zur Weissenburg". The melody has become symbolic of Tisha B'Av and the three weeks preceding it, and as such is traditionally also used during this period for the refrain to ''

Lekha Dodi Lekha Dodi ( he, לכה דודי) is a Hebrew-language Jewish liturgical song recited Friday at dusk, usually at sundown, in synagogue to welcome the Sabbath prior to the evening services. It is part of Kabbalat Shabbat. The refrain of ''Lekh ...

''.

Text

The poem comprises twelve stanzas, each divided into four rhyming lines beginning alternately with ''ʿalei'' (for) and ''veʿal'' (and for). In the text below, the first Hebrew letter of each line is made bold as to indicate the alphabetical nature of the poem. The ''kinna''s refrain is derived from a verse in the

Book of Joel The Book of Joel is collected as one of the twelve minor prophets of the Nevi'im ("Prophets") in the Hebrew Bible, and as a book in its own right in the Christian Old Testament. Content After a superscription ascribing the prophecy to Joel (s ...

: "Lament like a maiden wrapped in sack-cloth for the husband of her youth."

Legacy

Many poems based on ''Eli Tsiyon ve-Areha'' have been composed, including an elegy on the death of

Princess Charlotte Princess Charlotte may refer to: People * Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1694–1715), wife of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia and mother of Tsar Peter II, Emperor of Russia * Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans (1700–1761), wife of ...

by Hyman Hurwitz (translated into English by

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

), an elegy on the death of

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern p ...

by , a ''kinnah'' for the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

by , and various polemic and comedic poems. Various musical arrangements of the melody were also produced in the 20th century. These include a paraphrase for piano and cello by

Leo Zeitlin Lev Mordukhovich Tseitlin (russian: Лев Цейтлин, yi, לייב צייטלין "Leyb Tseytlin", born 1884, in Pinsk – July 8, 1930, in New York City), known as Leo Zeitlin, was a Russian-Jewish composer. In 1923, he emigrated to the ...

and its adaptation for piano and violin by

Joseph Achron Joseph Yulyevich Achron, also seen as Akhron (Russian: Иосиф Юльевич Ахрон, Hebrew: יוסף אחרון) (May 1, 1886April 29, 1943) was a Russian-born Jewish composer and violinist, who settled in the United States. His preoccu ...

, both members of the New Jewish School, which aimed to create a national

Jewish art music The Jewish art music movement began at the end of the 19th century in Russia, with a group of Russian Jewish classical composers dedicated to preserving Jewish folk music and creating a new, characteristically Jewish genre of classical music. The ...

External links

Recordings of the hymn
at the

National Library of Israel The National Library of Israel (NLI; he, הספרייה הלאומית, translit=HaSifria HaLeumit; ar, المكتبة الوطنية في إسرائيل), formerly Jewish National and University Library (JNUL; he, בית הספרים הלא� ...

Arrangement of ''Eli Tsiyon''
by

Salomon Sulzer Salomon Sulzer ( he, סלומון זולצר, March 30, 1804, Hohenems, Vorarlberg – January 17, 1890, Vienna) was an Austrian '' hazzan'' (cantor) and composer. Biography His family, which prior to 1813 bore the name of ''Levi'', removed to ...

(1838)

References

{{Authority control Jewish liturgical poems Tisha B'Av