A Judaeo-Arabic Candle-Lighting Prayer

The Jewish Quarterly Review, XCII, Nos. 1-2 (July-October, 2001) 133-135 A JUDAEO-ARABIC CANDLE-LIGHTING PRAYER Y. Tzvi Langermann, Bar Ilan University MS St. Petersburg, Russian National Library, Hebrew-Arabic II 2499, part of the rich assortment of Jewish manuscripts formerly known as the Firkowitch Collection, contains the unique but unfortunately incomplete copy of a work of ethical and religious exhortation. Broadly speaking, it bears some resemblance to Bahya ibn Paquda's Duties ofthe Heart. Like the latter, it is written in Judaeo-Arabic, exhibits clear Sufi influence, and was written in the western extremities (Spain or Morocco) of the Islamic world. The manuscript is written in a Sephardic hand of the 14th century; in my estimation, however, the treatise was written in the 13th. Some fourteen folios (28 pages) make up the fragment. Many of these are only partially legible, and there are many lacunae as well. Neither the author's name nor that of the treatise are displayed. However , the author does refer to two other writings of his. One of these, Subul al-Khayrät (The Paths of Boons), is mentioned on f. 2a. Its subject is the order of study of the sciences; according to the author, it follows upon similar discussions of the subject in Maimonides' Guide and Yosef Ibn cAqnin's Tibb al-Nufiis (Therapy for the Souls). No trace of this work exists. The title of this work may have been inspired by the phrase subul al-khayr used by Bahya in the introduction to Duties ofthe Heart.1 However, the second writing mentioned by our author survives, and even enjoyed a certain currency in North Africa. It is a short didactic poem, based on Maimonides' Thirteen Principles, beginning vnö ?ppp?? imx>sD I«. The author refers to it as verses that "I have compiled" (jamactuhd), and cites them along with his own commentary, only part of which survives in the fragment (f. 12a-b).2 The manuscript in its entirety deserves close study. However, the many lacunae between the surviving pages, as well as the poor state of many of 1 Toral Hovot ha-Levavot, Maqor ve-Targum, ed. and trans. Rabbi Yosef Kafih (Jerusalem, 1973), p. 34. 2 See I. Davidson, Thesaurus of Medieval Hebrew Poetry (New York, 1930), 3:169, no. 2155, and the relatively long list of references given there. We can now reject the identification of Hayyim Ibn Musa as the author, proposed by David Kaufmann (Beth Talmud [1882], 1 12). In the source cited by Kaufmann, Ibn Musa cites the poem and offers a brief commentary, but—unlike the author of our treatise—he does not claim to have written it. 134THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW . the pages, are such that even a cursory summary of its contents would require a relatively lengthy study, which I cannot undertake at this time. In the interest of scholarship, I feel that it is important to publish one item in the manuscript that is of singular interest: a private prayer to be recited by the woman of the house before lighting the Sabbath candles. The author calls this supplication a ducä3, the Arabic term for private supplication; in Hebrew such a prayer would usually be called a tehinnah. The text is in Judaeo-Arabic and appears to have been composed by the author of the treatise. Following are the text, translation, and some brief comments. jt\h ? oni>y:iNi ?t> ?? onnsi muí -[Tn)HO1J hnìjini p?? »'* otùjh N3TOt>lN 1331 ONiniW H1TY>1 )V TV3N1 nDnVOÏW ipriiWI ^OV^Nl O1JV1JH o>3iu D>\yyrji>i minü Lord, enlighten my fortune and my children towards Your obedience; Illuminate them in Your presence; Place them among the people of learning, practice, fear of God, and knowledge; Keep forbidden things far away from our home; Make our children grow to Torah and good deeds. Commentary: Enlighten: The imperative as it appears in our text is dayyi; it may have been pronounced da?i. The classical form would be dawwiy. The form dayyi is unattested elsewhere. F. Corriente has noted that some "peculiar" solutions for doubly weak verbs are found in Andalusian Arabic, and he cites some...