(א) שִׁבַּח אֶת אַקְדָּמוּת (פיוט לשבועות) מְאֹד מְאֹד.
(ב) וְאָמַר: שֶׁיִּשְׂרָאֵל מֵחֲמַת שֶׁהֵם מְשֻׁקָּעִים וּרְגִילִים כָּל כָּךְ בְּטוֹב, עַל כֵּן אֵין מַרְגִּישִׁין כָּל כָּךְ אֶת שֶׁבַח מַעֲלַת גְּדֻלַּת הַשֶּׁבַח הַקָּדוֹשׁ הַזֶּה שֶׁל אַקְדָּמוּת שֶׁאוֹמְרִים בְּשָׁבוּעוֹת. וְאָמַר: מִי שֶׁיּוֹדֵעַ מַעֲלַת הַשִּׁיר שֶׁל אַקְדָּמוּת עִם הַנִּגּוּן שֶׁלּוֹ כְּמוֹ שֶׁרְגִילִין הָעוֹלָם לְזַמֵּר אוֹתוֹ בְּנִגּוּן הַיָּדוּעַ, הוּא דָּבָר נִפְלָא וְחִדּוּשׁ גָּדוֹל מְאֹד.
(ג) וְהִתְחִיל לוֹמַר קְצָת אֵיזֶה תֵּבוֹת מֵאַקְדָּמוּת עִםהַנִּגּוּן.
(ד) וְאָמַר שֶׁאַקְדָּמוּת הוּא שִׁיר שֶׁל חֵשֶׁק (עַיֵּן בְּהַמַּעֲשֶּׂה שֶׁל הַבֶּערְגֶיר שָׁם מְדַבֵּר מִשִּׁיר שֶׁל חֵשֶׁק).
(ה) כָּל זֶה סִפֵּר בְּשָׁבוּעוֹת אַחַר תְּפִלַּת שַׁחֲרִית בַּבֹּקֶר הַשְׁכֵּם כַּנָּהוּג בְּשָׁבוּעוֹת, וְהָיָה יוֹשֵׁב אֵצֶל הַסְּעֻדָּה שֶׁל מַאַכְלֵי חָלָב. וּכְבָר הִתְפַּלְּלוּ בְּבֵית הַכְּנֶסֶת פַּעַם שֵׁנִי, וְזִמֵּר הַחַזָּן אַקְדָּמוּת, וְאָז דִּבֵּר עִמָּנוּ מִמַּעֲלַת הַשִּׁיר הַקָּדוֹשׁ הַזֶּה וְהִפְלִיג בְּמַעֲלָתוֹ מְאֹד.
(1) The Rebbe highly praised the piyut of Akdamut, which is chanted before the Torah reading on Shavuot.
(2) He said, “People are so accustomed and steeped in good things that they do not realize the greatness of the praise of God in the Akdamut. If you were to know the high level of the Akdamut together with its customary melody, then you would know how wondrously unique it is.”
(3) The Rebbe then chanted a few lines of the Akdamut.
(4) He then said, “Akdamut is a song of cheshek – of love and devotion.”
(5) The Rebbe spoke of this on Shavuot during the dairy meal. He had prayed early with his group, as was his custom, and had begun his meal while the second service was in progress. When he heard the chazan chant the Akdamut, the Rebbe spoke of the high level of this holy song.
ביום חמשים לספירת העומר הוא חג שבועות וסדר התפלה כמו ביום טוב של פסח אלא שאומרים את יום חג השבועות הזה זמן מתן תורתינו וגומרים ההלל ומוציאין שני ספרים וקורין בראשון חמשה מבחודש השלישי עד סוף הסדר ומפטיר קורא בשני וביום הבכורים ומפטיר במרכבה דיחזקאל ומסיים בפסוק ותשאני רוח:
(א) וקורין בראשון מן בחדש השלישי. על מה שנוהגים במדינות אלו לקרות פסוק הראשון ואח"כ מתחילין אקדמות מילין כו'. יש לתמוה הרב' היאך רשאים להפסיק בקריאה דהא אפי' לספר בד"ת אסור כמ"ש בסי' קמ"ו וכל ההיתרי' הנזכרים שם אינם כאן כ"ש בשבח הזה שהוא אינו מענין הקריאה כלל למה יש לנו להפסיק. ושמעתי מקרוב שהנהיגו רבנים מובהקים לשורר אקדמות קודם שיתחיל הכהן הברכה של קריאת התורה וכן ראוי לנהוג בכל הקהילות וגם ביציב פתגם שאומרים ביום שני אחר פסוק ראשון של הפטרה ראוי לנהוג כן אלא שאין ההפטרה חמירא כ"כ כמו קריאת התורה:
And we read on the first day of Shavuot from "Bachodesh Hashlishi..."
And there is a custom in certain lands to read the first verse of the Torah reading and then to recite Akdamut. And one may be astonished how is it permissible to interrupt [the reading], for even to discuss Torah topics is forbidden! And none of the exceptions to this rule apply here, especially not for this prayer that has nothing to do with the topic of the reading; so why should be interrupt? And I heard from a relative that scrupulous Rabbis recite Akdamut prior to the Kohen making the blessing on the reading, and this is proper and and should be done everywhere - and it should also be done this way with yetziv pitgam which is recited on the secind day after the first verse of the Haftarah, but we are not as stringent about the Haftarah as we are with the Torah reading.
בימי חכמי הגמרא היו נוהגים לתרגם כדי שיבינו העם אין הקורא רשאי לקרות לתורגמן יות' מפסוק אחד ואין המתרגם רשאי לתרגם עד שיכל' הפסוק מפי הקורא ואין הקורא רשאי לקרות פסוק אח' עד שיכלה התרגום מפי המתרגם ואין הקורא רשאי להגביה קולו יות' מהמתרגם ולא המתרגם יות' מהקורא ואין הקורא רשאי לסייע למתרגם שלא יאמרו תרגום כתוב בתורה:
In the days of the Sages of the Talmud, their practice was to translate [the reading to Aramaic] in order that the people would understand. The Torah reader is not permitted to read for the translator more than one verse, and the translator is not permitted to translate until the verse is finished by the Torah reader. The Torah reader is not permitted to read the next verse until the translator has finished the translation. The Torah reader is not permitted to raise their voice louder than the translator, nor the translator louder than the Torah reader. And the Torah reader is not permitted to assist the translator, so the people shouldn’t think that the translation is written in the Torah.
[ה] [לבוש] אחר פסוק ראשון וכו'. בט"ז הקשה בזה ודעתו לומר אקדמות קודם שיתחיל לברכת התורה, וכבר תירץ הכל בתשובת שער אפרים סימן יו"ד ומקיים המנהג גם נמצא נדפס בלשון אשכנז ישן נושן מעשה באריכות דעל מה תיקנו אקדמות וסיים שכיון המעשה היה במדבר לכן תיקנו לומר אחר במדבר סיני זכר לנס.
After the first verse, [Akdamut is recited]:
The Ta"Z is troubled by this, and his opinion is to recite Akdamut prior to the blessings on the reading, but this has all been explained in the Shaar Ephraim, and the basis for this monhag is also found in the Yiddish work Lashin Noshan, where it is explained at length how Akdamut was established. and it concludes that just as the story involved the desert, so to we recite it after the verse referring the desert, to commemorate the miracle.
(Hoffman, Jeffrey: Akdamut, History, Folklore and Meaning, The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 99, No. 2 (Spring 2009) 161–183)
In the year 5121 (1361), at the time of King Martin de Lance, adherents of magic and sorcery increased in the world. Some of these practitioners of the occult passed themselves off as monks with long cassocks. These monk-sorcerers built castles and lived in these strongholds. They grew very powerful and were able to bring to themselves the most beautiful women. The leader and teacher of them all was a master of black magic who was a cruel enemy of the Jews. Whenever he came upon a Jew, he would place him under a spell simply by touching him. When the Jew returned to his home, he would fall down and die. This ‘‘monk’’ murdered over thirty thousand Jews through his black magic. The Jews of Worms sent a delegation to the king to request protection.
Since the monk and his followers presented a threat to the power of the king him- self, the king then summoned the monk. The monk declared that he would desist from attacking the Jews for one year on the condition that at the end of the year the Jews present a member of their own community for a contest in sorcery. If the Jews succeeded in this contest, the monk promised that he would never again bother the Jews. If they failed, he would kill them all. The Jews felt that they had no choice but to agree.
They immediately turned to tradition: they fasted and engaged in deeds of teshuvah, tefilah, and tsedakah, (repentance, prayer, and charity). They also dispatched letters throughout the Diaspora asking for help, but no one came forward who was willing to challenge the monk.
At this time of desperation, as the months of the allotted year were rolling by, a certain scholar in the community fell asleep while studying and in his dream saw that the rescuer would not come from the Diaspora or the Land of Israel, but rather from beyond the river Sambatyon, where the ten lost tribes of Israel dwelled. It was necessary to contact the Jews of the ten lost tribes for help. Everyone agreed to send R. Meir, who was a great scholar, known for his piety, and a leader of the Jews of Worms. They sent him with a letter explaining their situation signed by the rabbinic leadership of the community, supplies for the journey, and three accompanying rabbis. After many difficulties and much time, the party arrived at the banks of the river Sambatyon on a Tuesday, exactly eight days before the year’s time would run out.
Now, the Sambatyon River is impossible to traverse during the six days of the week, for it is too turbulent for any boat and the waters constantly fling dangerous rocks into the air. Only on the Sabbath do the waters calm enough for a boat to sail across, but, of course, embarking on a boat journey on the Sabbath is forbidden. Nevertheless, the group knew that the river would have to be crossed on the Sabbath for the sake of saving lives. When the Sabbath arrived, R. Meir instructed the accompanying rabbis to remain and that only he would take upon himself the burden of violating the Sabbath, crossing the river by boat. As soon as R. Meir arrived on the other side of the river, he was placed in prison and told that he would be stoned to death for violating the Sabbath. However, once the Jews of the ten lost tribes read the community’s letter explaining the dire circumstances, R. Meir was released from prison. On that same Sabbath, the Jews of the ten lost tribes cast lots to see who would face the monk in order to save R. Meir’s imperiled community. The lot fell on a short, lame elder named Dan, who was pious, upright, and God-fearing. R. Meir was told to stay on this side of the river, for he had accomplished his mission and could not justify violating the Sabbath day a second time by crossing back over the Sambatyon. Rather, Dan sailed back alone. When R. Meir’s escorts encountered Dan on the far side of the river they lost heart, for how could their rescuer be such a little old man who walked with a limp? Nevertheless, they set out to return. Dan had the secret, mystical knowledge of how to use the recital of God’s names to effect miracles. Using such knowledge, the group of four traveled to Worms through a kefitsat ha-derekh (a miraculous short cut; lit., ‘‘a jumping of the way’’) in just two days and arrived on the last day of the year-long reprieve that the monk had granted. It also happened to be two days before the holiday of Shavuot. When the Jewish community in Worms beheld the little old man walking with a limp who was to be their redeemer, they were struck with terror, for how could he stand up to the fearsome monk who was a master of black magic? In the presence of the king and great crowds of Jews and gentiles in the town square, the contest took place. The monk used incantations to harm Dan, and Dan used recitations of mystical names of God to counteract the monk’s magic and to fight back. The monk recited some magic words and created two large millstones which hovered in the air. Then the monk was able to draw them down into his hands and grind them up as if they were merely made of sand. Dan then took the remains of these millstones and made a huge mountain of them. Then he kneaded the earth of the mountain like a woman kneads dough and made from it two millstones larger than the original ones, caused them to hover in the air, and challenged the monk to bring them down. But the monk could not.
After a number of other stages of the fight, with the monk losing each round, Dan finally attached the monk to the top of an aged, towering tree, brought the gigantic millstones down, and made them grind the monk into powder.
Dan then told the Jews that on the previous Sabbath, when R. Meir accompanied him to the boat, R. Meir had composed and recited to Dan the poem Akdamut Milin. R. Meir requested, through Dan, that the com- munity recite the poem each Shavuot during their worship services ‘‘for the sake of his name,’’ for his name is signed in the acrostic.
Apparently, Akdamut had been recited in Worms until, perhaps, the sixteenth century. From then on, it has not been recited there. An early explanation contends that the recitation of Akdamut in Worms ceased because one year, in the middle of its recitation, the precentor who was chanting it had been ‘‘taken by God.’’
טוּרְנוֹסְרוּפּוּס הָרָשָׁע שָׁאַל אֶת רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא, אָמַר מַה יּוֹם מִיּוֹמַיִם... מַאי שְׁנָא יוֹמָא דְשַׁבַּתָּא מִכָּל יוֹמָא... אֲמַר לֵיהּ אַף זוֹ שֶׁרָצָה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְכַבְּדָהּ. אֲמַר לֵיהּ מְנָאן אַתְּ מוֹדַע לִי, אֲמַר לֵיהּ הֲרֵי נְהַר סַמְבַּטְיוֹן יוֹכִיחַ, שֶׁמּוֹשֵׁךְ אֲבָנִים כָּל יְמוֹת הַשַּׁבָּת, וּבְשַׁבָּת הוּא נָח.
Turnusrufus the Wicked [emperor] asked R' Akiva... why is Shabbat different from all other days?
He replied, because Hashem wishes to honor it. He said, how can you prove this? He replied, the Sambatyon River proves this, for it flings forth stones all the days of the week, and rests on Shabbat.
In Iudea rivus sabbatis omnibus siccatur. [In Judea there is a river which dries up every Sabbath Day.]