24. Blessing for the Bridegroom

Sarah Cohen, Ruby S. Hallegua. Recorded by Barbara Johnson, Kochi, January 2, 1977; II-9.

Taṃbirān muyiṃbu tŏņayāyirikkěņaṃ
Abṟaṃ ābīnūḍaruḷappāḍuņḍāyi
Valiya gŏlamākki ninně ñān věppeně
Vāsti vaḷaṟtti ñān ninḍě pěrimayuṃ

1. O Lord Tambiran, be our foremost help.      
To Abraham Abinu, a promise You proclaimed:
“A very great People from you I shall create.       
I shall bless you and make your name great.
Whoever blesses you, those also I shall bless.”      
Like dew from heaven, may the Lord Tambiran    
Give food and drink from the fat of the land,  
Food and drink from the fat of the land, 

Śadhāyi sātakan ninněyŏ vāstumě
Gulaṅṅaḷḍa kūṭṭattil pěruttavan nī ākuṃ
Abṟāminḍa vāḻvu ninakku tarunnavan
Kuḍiyirippu rājyaṃ ninakkŏḍaměyākuṃ

2. From Sinai Mountain, the Torah was given.
On a diamond tablet, the Torah was received.
It was shown to all who were living there,
But the noble People took it in their hands.
With dancing and singing, they took the Torah,
With joy in their hearts, and also with pride.
A treasure you will gain by the Torah of Moshe.
O God, You are the Sovereign, O foremost God!

3. In the precious paḷḷi it arrived without delay.
The treasured Sefer Torah, with ornaments adorned.
Fifty-four sections were given unto us.
In the ark with four legs, the Torah was installed.
Blessings, always blessings—may the paḷḷi be blessed.
Tamburan Who rules on high! May the One be blessed! 

Sung by women from Kochi, Parur, and Chendamangalam, this song for the donation and dedication of a new Torah scroll praises both the Torah that was given to Moses on Mount Sinai and the new scroll that was to be installed in the ark of the synagogue. 

The painstaking preparation and writing of a new scroll was always done by a trained Jewish sofer (scribe), and often it was commissioned and paid for by a family within the community, who then presented it as a gift to the synagogue. The custom was to hold an all-night vigil in the presence of the new scroll, which was kept in the home of its donor family. There it was housed in a temporary, canopied structure called a manāra, comparable to two other manara structures. One was the more elaborate temporary ark constructed in each synagogue to house all its Torah scrolls for the holiday of Simḥat Torah. The other was the temporary canopied bed (also called manara) for the bride and groom, constructed in the home of the bride or bridegroom’s family as a center for community festivities during the week following a wedding. The “ark with four legs” in stanza 3 must be a reference to the manara in the home.

After a night of prayer and singing in the home of the sefer Torah donor, the new scroll would be carried to the synagogue for its dedication, in a joyous street procession of the entire community, also including guests from other Jewish communities. 

The second stanza of the song refers to two stories from midrash. One tells how the Torah was inscribed on a diamond tablet (Ginzberg 1968, 3:119, 141, 170; 4:59).^[1] The other is a popular legend that the Torah was offered to many other peoples, but only the Jews accepted it (Ginzberg 1968, 3:80–81). The final stanza mentions the fifty-four sections into which the Torah is divided for reading throughout the year, and also the gold and silver crowns and hanging chains that ornament the elaborate wooden or metal sefer Torah cases.

Kadavumbhagam-Kochi women told Shirley Isenberg that they remembered singing this song on Simḥat Torah afternoon during their hakafah^[2] processions around the outside of the synagogue, as they followed the men of the community who carried all the Torah scrolls in their elaborate cases (Isenberg letter, Nov. 23, 1981). They sang it to the melody appropriately shared with a popular Simḥat Torah piyyut, “Kumu beRinah” (’Areshet 1980, 178). The Malayalam song was also recorded in the late 1990s by Sarah Cohen from the Paradesi community in Kochi, who began the first stanza with the same melody, and then switched for the second stanza to the tune of “Zeh ’Eli,” another piyyut sung on Simḥat Torah (’Areshet 1980, 155).^[3] Venus Lane recalls that this second melody was also used for teaching the Hebrew alphabet to children.

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^[1] See also the commentary below on song 52, “The Song of ’Anokhi.”
^[2] The Hebrew term hakafah (circling around) refers to the custom of carrying the Torah scrolls in a procession around the synagogue during celebrations of the Simḥat Torah holiday. In Kochi the custom was to process around the outside as well as the inside of the building.
^[3] According to Naphtali Koder, this piyyut was composed by Ovadiya ben Cohen ben Uziel.