17 January 2020

‘Bless me with peace,
O messengers of peace’ …
two Sabbath Eve hymns

Welcoming the Sabbath Queen … an exhibition in the Museum of Jewish Culture in Bratislava (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

There is a Jewish legend or story in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 119b) that that two angels accompany the Jew from the home to the synagogue on Sabbath Eve.

If the home has been made festive in honour of the Sabbath, with a lamp burning and a table set, the good angel says the good angel says, ‘So may it be also next Sabbath.’ And the evil angel answers, against his will, ‘Amen.’

And if the person’s home is not prepared for Shabbat in that manner, the evil angel says: ‘May it be your will that it shall be so for another Shabbat.’ And the good angel answers, against his will: ‘Amen.’

A hymn dating from the 17th century and based on this legend is traditionally sung on returning home after the Sabbath Eve Service, but has recently become popular also as a synagogue hymn.

There is a version of this hymn in Service of the Heart, the prayer book published in London by the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues in 1967, and which I use regularly in my daily prayers. In this version, recommended for use at the kindling of the Sabbath lights, the reference to ministering angels’ has been changed to ‘messengers of peace’:

Peace be to you, O messengers of peace,
messengers of the Most High,
of the supreme King of kings,
the Holy One, praised be he.

Enter in peace, O messengers of peace,
messengers of the Most High,
of the supreme King of kings,
the Holy One, praised be he.

Bless me with peace, O messengers of peace,
messengers of the Most High,
of the supreme King of kings,
the Holy One, praised be he.

Depart in peace, O messengers of peace,
messengers of the Most High,
of the supreme King of kings,
the Holy One, praised be he.

A Sabbath Eve story of two angels is told in the ‘Babylonian Talmud’ (‘Shabbat’ 119b)

L’Cho Dodi (לכה דודי‎) is a Hebrew-language Jewish liturgical song recited Friday at dusk, usually at sundown, in synagogue to welcome Shabbat before the evening services, and is part of the Kabbalat Shabbat or ‘welcoming of Sabbath.’

The Sabbath gently steals in with the very beginning of dusk on Friday evening. Traditionally, it is compared with a queen coming to visit her subjects, bestowing peace and serenity.

Earlier this afternoon I was listening to a version of L’Cho Dodi recorded by the Jewish story-teller and folk musician. L’Cho Dodi means ‘come my beloved,’ and is a request of a mysterious ‘beloved’ that could mean either God or one’s friends to join in welcoming Queen Shabbat.’

While the last verse is being sung, the entire congregation rises and turns to the west towards the setting sun – or toward the entrance to the synagogue) – to greet Queen Shabbat as she arrives.

If you think there are Greek echoes in this song, then perhaps it is because it was composed in the 16th century by Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, who was born in Thessaloniki and later became a Safed Kabbalist.

As was common at the time, the song is also an acrostic, with the first letter of the first eight stanzas spelling the author’s name. The author draws from the rabbinic interpretation of Song of Songs in which the maiden is seen as a metaphor for the Jews and the lover is a metaphor for God, and from Nevi’im, which uses the same metaphor.

The song shows Israel asking God to bring upon that great Shabbat of Messianic deliverance. It is one of the latest of the Hebrew poems regularly accepted into the liturgy, both in the southern use, which the author followed, and in the more distant northern rite.

Inside the Monasterioton Synagogue, the only surviving, pre-war working synagogue in Thessaloniki … ‘L’Cho Dodi’ was composed by Shlomo Halevi Alkabetz, who was born in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The Sabbath – L’Cho Dodi (‘Come my beloved’)

Chorus:

Let’s go, my beloved, to meet the bride,
and let us welcome the presence of Shabbat
.

‘Safeguard’ and ‘Remember’ in a single utterance,
We were made to hear by the unified God,
God is one and God’s Name is one,
In fame and splendour and praiseful song.

To greet Shabbat let’s go, let’s travel,
For she is the wellspring of blessing,
From the start, from ancient times she was chosen,
Last made, but first planned.

Sanctuary of the king, royal city,
Arise! Leave from the midst of the turmoil;
Long enough have you sat in the valley of tears
And He will take great pity upon you compassionately.

Shake yourself free, rise from the dust,
Dress in your garments of splendour, my people,
By the hand of Jesse’s son of Bethlehem,
Redemption draws near to my soul.

Rouse yourselves! Rouse yourselves!
Your light is coming, rise up and shine.
Awaken! Awaken! utter a song,
The glory of the Lord is revealed upon you.

Do not be embarrassed! Do not be ashamed!
Why be downcast? Why groan?
All my afflicted people will find refuge within you
And the city shall be rebuilt on her hill.

Your despoilers will become your spoil,
Far away shall be any who would devour you,
Your God will rejoice concerning you,
As a groom rejoices over a bride.

To your right and your left you will burst forth,
And the Lord will you revere
By the hand of a child of Peretz,
We will rejoice and sing happily.

Come in peace, crown of her husband,
Both in happiness and in jubilation
Amidst the faithful of the treasured nation
Come O Bride! Come O Bride!



When Brexiteers join ranks
with buccaneers, mutineers,
profiteers and racketeers

It may be ‘Brexit’ … but should it be ‘Brexiteer’ or ‘Brexiter’?

Patrick Comerford

As I wrote last night about right-wing calls for church bells to ring or toll to mark Britain’s formal departure from the European Union at the end of the month, I wrestled with whether I should use the term ‘Brexiter’ or ‘Brexiteer.’

I guess we have all got used to the term ‘Brexit’ without it conveying a hint air of being either triumphalist or pejorative. Indeed, it is a pity that were no obvious alternatives for the ‘Remain’ position. ‘Bremain’ was never going to be as snappy or as chic – or chique.

And, as I think about it, I presume those who favoured Brexit are more inclined to say chic, while those who voted to remain might give the edge to chique.

As someone who worked as journalist for over 30 years as a journalist, I can imagine how many lengthy discussions took place in newsrooms and across sub-editors’ desks.

The dictionaries seem to come down in favour of Brexiteer rather than Brexiter as a term for ‘Someone who supports Brexit, the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.’

Wiktionary favours ‘Brexiteer’ but gives ‘Brexiter’ as an alternative form. The Macmillan Dictionary favours ‘Brexiter’ while the Collins Dictionary favour ‘Brexiteer.’

As both forms are correct, I debated with myself which word I should use in my blog posting and with my captions last night.

So I turned to Dictionary.com, to see how it defines the suffix ‘-eer’.

It sees ‘-eer’ is a noun-forming suffix occurring originally in loanwords from French, such as buccaneer, mutineer and pioneer, and productive in the formation of English nouns denoting persons who produce, handle, or are otherwise significantly associated with the referent of the base word, as in auctioneer, engineer, mountaineer or pamphleteer.

But it adds that the choice of this suffix is ‘now frequently pejorative,’ and cites words such as ‘profiteer’ and ‘racketeer.’

Perhaps that note pointing out that words with ‘-eer’ are ‘now frequently pejorative’ was influencing me as I made my choice.

Would using ‘-eer’ rather than ‘-er’ be seen as an attempt my part to convey a negative judgment about that the people I was referring to?

Would my use of the word ‘Brexiteer’ not impartially describe ‘one who supports Brexits’ but also convey the idea that these Brexit politicians are in the same category as ‘buccaneers, ‘mutineers’ ‘profiteers’ and ‘racketeers’?

Would ‘Brexiter’ be more neutral, be less value-laden, as with words like voter, mover, shaker, or even remainer?

Perhaps it is still too soon to tell which of the two, Brexiter or Brexiteer, will become standard, or whether they may even reflect the divide between British-English and American-English usage.

At an early stage, it appeared that Brexiteer might be American English and Brexiter British English. Brexiteer appeared in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, while the Guardian was using Brexiter.

At one stage, the editorial staff on the Financial Times were told by the style guru, ‘The out campaigners should be Brexiters, not Brexiteers.’ It seems editors has a lengthy discussion about whether the word ‘Brexiteer’ had connotations of swashbuckling adventure.

But now the Guardian, as well as the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Spectator, prefer Brexiteer. The Irish Times prefers Brexiteer, the Economist appears to use Brexiteer but has also used Brexiter.

The Cambridge Dictionary prefers Brexiteer, only offering Brexiter as a second option. It defines a Brexiteer as ‘someone who is in favour of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.’ It gives examples: ‘The prominent Brexiteer appealed to national pride, as he often did while campaigning for the “Leave” side ahead of the UK referendum’ and ‘Hardline Brexiters are unlikely to accept this new deal with the European Union.’

Similarly, the Oxford Dictionaries prefers Brexiteer with Brexiter as an alternative, for ‘a person who supports Brexit.’ Here too, two examples of usage are offered: ‘Brexiteers believe the UK can forge a new relationship with the EU’ and ‘The prominent Brexiter was heckled outside campaign headquarters.’

‘Brexiteer brings to mind buccaneer, pioneer, musketeer,’ Michael Gove once admitted. ‘It lends a sense of panache and romance to the argument.’ For his fellow Leave campaigner Daniel Hannan it had connotations of ‘dashing condottieri.’ It was far more dashing than ‘Eurosceptic,’ a word laden with negative connotations of prejudice, isolation and even xenophobia.

Indeed, the word Brexit can only be traced back to May 2012, when a pro-EU campaigner Peter Wilding reflected on the potential repercussions of the Greek crisis in his blog: ‘Unless a clear view is pushed that Britain must lead in Europe … then the portmanteau for Greek euro exit might be followed by another sad word, Brexit.’

At first, Dominic Cummings did not like the phrase ‘Brexit,’ believing it was the kind of newspaper word no ordinary person would ever use. But then he is truly not the person to listen to ordinary people, despite his claims.

By early 2016, the words Brexit, Brexiter and Brexiteer were appearing regularly in newspaper headlines, and soon the three arch-Brexiteers were Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox.

The Remain strategist Lord Cooper feared the word Brexit crystallised a feeling about the Out campaign. ‘It helped draw it out. It was exciting, invigorating, boundary-pushing, taking on the world … a positive frame that was taking on our negative frame.’

By contrast, the Remain campaign could find no collective noun to embrace. Their opponents took delight in goading them as Bremainers, Remoaners and Remainians. But the word Remainer reeked of timidity, defending the status quo, even of the cold leftovers from last night’s dinner.

No-one has offered a referendum to choose between Brexiteer and Brexiter; the people have not spoken.

But when it came to deciding last night which word to choose – Brexiteer or Brexiter – the Cambridge Dictionary won the day. I might be accused of prejudice, preferring a word with pejorative connotations that invoke ‘buccaneers, ‘mutineers’ ‘profiteer’ and ‘racketeers,’ and so I opted for the Cambridge Dictionary, ignoring its reference to invocations of ‘national pride’ and its examples of the ‘Hardline.’

Flying the flag with the EU and EU member states … or flying the flag alone? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)