Yigdal Elohim chai v’yishtabbach

including
The God of Abrah’m praise
Praise to the living God

with
LEONI

I. Early Foundations in Maimonides

The Hebrew text beginning “Yigdal Elohim ḥai v’yishtabbaḥ” (יִגְדַּל אֱלֹהִים חַי וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח), known simply as the Yigdal, has its roots in the 13 Articles of Faith by Maimonides (1135–1204; Moses ben Maimon, a.k.a. Rambam, משה בירבי מימון הספרדי). Maimonides is a revered rabbinical scholar, “The most illustrious figure in Judaism in the post-talmudic era, and one of the greatest of all time.”[1] The 13 Articles of Faith were part of his commentary on the Mishnah (Kitāb al-sirāj), a portion known as the Tractate Sanhedrin, especially Chapter 10 (or perek ḥeleḳ) of that work, originally written in Arabic. One scholarly edition described the genesis of the work as follows:

The Commentary on the Mishnah, Maimonides’ first work of importance, written in Arabic, was begun at the age of twenty-three (1158), in Spain, and was completed at the age of thirty-three (1168), after he had taken up his residence in Egypt. In this Talmudic work of his early manhood, Maimonides scarcely had a predecessor. Though one of his earliest works, and in spite of the difficulties in writing it during years of wandering and seeking a secure home, with no books accessible, the Commentary is a marvel of lucidity, masterful knowledge, and comprehensiveness.[2]

Regarding the 13 Articles of Maimonides, Jewish scholar Fred Rosner explained:

The first five of these deal with the belief in God: that He is one, that He is the Creator, that He is Incorporeal and Eternal, that He alone is worthy of man’s praise and worship. Principles six through nine are concerned with prophesy and revelation. Principles ten and eleven are the beliefs in reward and punishment for observance or transgression of God’s commandments. The final two principles deal with the belief in Redemption and Resurrection of the Dead.

According to Maimonides, if one rejects any of these doctrines, he has excluded himself from the community of Israelites, he is a heretic and unbeliever who has no share in the World to Come. This systematic formulation of a specific number of basic principles of belief generated a long, sometimes acrimonious debate concerning dogma in Judaism and provided the impetus for the creation of an extensive literature on the subject. Some of his critics asserted that it was temerity on Maimonides’ part to select only thirteen of the many tenets of Judaism. Others objected that some of the articles are not specific to Judaism at all or are not indispensable foundations of the Jewish faith. The most prominent of Maimonides’ critics in this regard were the philosophers Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo. The critics notwithstanding, Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles have gained wide acceptance by the Jewish people and they have even become incorporated in the daily liturgy.[3]

The 13 Articles are too lengthy to transcribe here, but the first is given below from the translation by Rosner:

The first fundamental principle is the existence of the Creator, praised be He; that is to say there is an existent Being which is perfect in all aspects if existence. He is the cause of the existence of all existent things. In Him is their continued existence, and from Him emanates their continued existence. If we could support the disappearance of His existence, then the existence of all existing things would cease immediately and there would not remain anything that could exist independently. But if we could suppose disappearance of all existent things other than Him, then His existence would not cease nor would it be diminished, because His existence is not dependent on anything but Himself. And all that are outside of Him among the intelligences, that is to say the angels and the bodies of the spheres and what is below them, are dependent upon Him for their existence. This first fundamental principle is alluded to in the scriptural statement: I am the Lord, thy God.[4]

The earliest printed edition of Maimonides’ 13 Articles was included in a copy of the Mishnah published in Naples in 1492 by Joshua Solomon Soncino. Rosner has enumerated the subsequent publication history of the Tractate Sanhedrin since that time.

II. Hebrew Versification—the Yidgal

At the beginning of the 14th century, the 13 Articles of Faith were adapted into a lengthy poem by the Jewish-Italian poet Immanuel ben Solomon (or Manoello Giudeo, ca. 1261–ca. 1335), in his Maḥberot Immanuel. In short, “Maḥberot contains poems on love, wine, and friendship, riddles, epigrams, epistles, but also poetry of a serious nature, such as elegies and religious poems.”[5] This work was first published in Brescia in 1491, while the most recent scholarly edition was published in Jerusalem in 1984. The fourth part of this collection contains his poetic interpretation of the 13 Articles, which extends to 72 lines. A translation into English could not be located for review.

The Yigdal as it is known today, beginning “Yigdal Elohim ḥai v’yishtabbaḥ” (יִגְדַּל אֱלֹהִים חַי וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח), is most often credited to Daniel ben Judah (fl. 14th cen.) of Rome, based on the research of Samuel David Luzzatto in Mavo le-mahzor ke-minhag Bene Roma (1856). The Yigdal is constructed in thirteen rhyming couplets, all the rhymes being the same. Some scholars, especially Hartwig Hirshfeld (1920), see the Yigdal as a condensed adaptation of Immanuel ben Solomon’s poem, or perhaps is by Immanuel himself. Hirshfeld argued, “Both have the same meter, the same rhyme, and many similar expressions and clauses, and several half-lines are identical.”[6] For more on the ascription to Daniel ben Judah, see Clark Kimberling (CDH), and see the back-and-forth between Hirshfeld and Alexander Marx, all listed in the bibliography below.

The Hebrew text and a prose English translation of the Yigdal are given below, as in the Hebrew Hymnal for School and Home (1910), along with two traditional melodies, harmonized in four parts.

Fig. 2. Hebrew Hymnal for School and Home (NY: Bloch Publishing, 1910).

Several traditional melodies have been in circulation. In the Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 12 (1905), Francis L. Cohen identified seven common tunes and gave some explanation as to when and how they were used. The tunes there labeled B and C correspond to those found in the Hebrew Hymnal above, but notice how the C tune in the Hebrew Hymnal was labeled “Festival,” whereas in the Jewish Encyclopedia it was called “Penitential.”

Fig. 3. The Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Isidore Singer, vol. 12 (NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1905), vol. 12, pp. 606–610.

These seven tunes were also included in Cohen’s work The Voice of Prayer and Praise (1899, rev. 1914). In this volume, all of the tunes were harmonized in four parts. The collection was developed by the Council of the United Synagogue of London and therefore reflects the usage of the Yigdal within that community.

Fig. 4. The Voice of Prayer and Praise (London: J. Curwen & Sons, 1899, rev. 1914).

Around this time, a transliterated version of the Yigdal using a different melody than those identified by Francis Cohen appeared in the Union Hymnal for Jewish Worship (1897), set in four parts. In the index, this was credited to L. Lewandowski.

The publication histories of each of these tunes, prior to the 20th century and after these examples, are not well documented in present hymnological literature and are deserving of additional research. For more on the LEONI tune as it appears in Protestant hymnody, see section IV below.

III. Text by Olivers

In 1770, a Jewish cantor (hazzan, or meshorrer) named Meyer Lyon (1751–1797) of the Great Synagogue in London had drawn the interest of local Methodists. He was also an opera singer, commonly known by his stage name, Michael Leoni. John Wesley recorded a visit to the synagogue in his journal, 23 February 1770:

I was desired to hear Mr. Leoni sing at the Jewish synagogue. I never before saw a Jewish congregation behave so decently. Indeed, the place itself is so solemn that it might strike an awe upon those who have any thought of God.[7]

Around this time, possibly even at the same time, Lyon was visited by Thomas Olivers (1725–1799), a Methodist preacher who was converted under George Whitefield and apprenticed under John Wesley. Olivers was so enamored with the Yigdal, he made arrangements for the text and tune to be transcribed and translated, then as tradition holds, he composed a Christianized version of the text at the home of John Bakewell in Westminster, thus called “A Hymn to the God of Abraham” and beginning “The God of Abrah’m praise.” One anecdote in circulation was captured by S.W. Christophers in 1867 and has been repeated in other sources:

In the course of conversation a few years ago, the son of an old minister said, “I remember my father telling me that he was once standing in the aisle of City-road Chapel, during a conference in Wesley’s time, and Thomas Olivers, one of the preachers, came down to him, and unfolding a manuscript, said, ‘Look at this, I have rendered it from the Hebrew, giving it as far as I could a Christian character, and I have called on Leoni, the Jew, who has given me a synagogue melody to suit it, here is the tune, and it is to be called Leoni.’”[8]

This was first published as a leaflet in 1770 by S. Creswell in Nottingham and was reprinted many times, in at least twelve editions through 1782. In the 19th century, a copy was reissued by British hymnologist Daniel Sedgwick. The original title page included the note, “To a celebrated air, sung by the Priest, Signior Leoni, &c. at the Jew’s Synagogue in London.”

Fig. 6. A Hymn to the God of Abraham, 2nd ed. (ca. 1771).

In the original publications, Olivers’ text was structured in three parts across twelve stanzas (4+4+4), and nearly every line was marked with citations to various supporting Scripture passages. Whereas the Hebrew text is 6.4.6.4 D, Olivers’ version is 6.6.8.4 D, but it still works with some of the Hebrew tunes, especially the tune he learned from Meyer Lyon (see section IV).

The first part, containing four stanzas, begins in reference to the Yigdal, offering praise and recognizing God’s eternal nature, then follows its own path without regard to the original Hebrew. In the third stanza, Olivers injected a reference to grace and salvation through Jesus. The second part opens with an anticipatory view toward Heaven, which is ruled by the heavenly King, “The Lord our Righteousness,” who cares for his people and clothes his bride. The third part continues the heavenly vision, especially evoking the imagery of Revelation. Whereas the Yigdal refers to God as One, here Olivers refers to “The great Three-One,” whose three persons are named in the final stanza. The last four lines form a bookend of sorts, invoking the God of Abraham and offering praise.

The complete hymn was included in an appendix to The Collection of Hymns Sung in the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapels (Bath: W. Gye, ca. 1773–74). The first four stanzas of Olivers’ text were included in George Whitefield’s Collection of Hymns for Social Worship, 17th ed. (1772) and in a music insert for the April 1775 issue of the Gospel Magazine, set to the LEONI tune (see Fig. 7). Its first appearance in a Wesleyan collection was in Sacred Harmony (1780), in all twelve stanzas, with the LEONI tune (Fig. 8). John Rippon included nine stanzas in A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors (1787).

Commentary

Fellow scribe James Montgomery was a fan of Olivers’ text:

That noble ode . . . “The God of Abraham praise” &c., though the essay of an unlettered man, claims especial honour. There is not in our language a lyric of more majestic style, more elevated thought, or more glorious imagery; its structure, indeed, is unattractive; and on account of the short lines, occasionally uncouth; but like a stately pile of architecture, severe and simple in design, it strikes less on first view than after deliberate examination, when its proportions become more graceful, its dimensions expand, and the mind itself grows greater in contemplating it.[9]

Anglican pastor-hymnist John Ellerton was much less enthused, stating, “. . . the author’s knowledge of Hebrew is not likely to have been great, for he was an imperfectly educated man. Doubtless all that Olivers did was to write to a Jewish air words which took an Old Testament colouring from their associations.”[10] Albert Edward Bailey was also not keen on Olivers’ version, preferring the “superiority” of the translation by Mann (section V below), writing, “This paraphrase does not compare in dignity and depth with the original: ‘I’ was never mentioned; God was all. And, of course, all of Olivers’ Christian theology and his allusions to the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan are pure additions.”[11]

Literary scholar Leland Ryken took a more neutral, analytical view:

If we take a global view of this hymnic poem, we can identify its genre first as a doxology, defined as a formal command to praise God. Once this element of command to praise God has been established in the first two stanzas, the bulk of the poem enacts the praise that has been commanded, so the primary genre is the psalm of praise as found in the Old Testament book of Psalms. In turn, the main content of a praise psalm is a catalog or list of God’s praiseworthy attributes or acts.[12]

IV. LEONI

The first four stanzas of Olivers’ text were included in a music insert for the April 1775 issue of the Gospel Magazine, set to the LEONI tune, with no attributions to author or composer (Fig. 7). This marks the first published appearance of the tune in Christianity. The history of the tune in Judaism is less clear.

Just as Olivers’ text was included in the Countess of Huntingdon’s Collection of Hymns (ca. 1773–74), the tune was included in the corresponding tune book, Musica Sacra, Being a Choice Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, and Chants . . . as they are used in . . . the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapels, in Bath, Bristol, &c. (ca. 1778). It appeared there called YELDING for unknown reasons, arranged in three parts, melody in the middle voice. Notice the cross reference to the Appendix of the text collection.

The tune seems to have been first printed with the LEONI name in Aaron Williams’ Psalmody in Miniature, in III Books, New ed. [2nd ed.] (1778), melody and figured bass.

The tune was also included in the Wesleys’ Sacred Harmony (1780), but there it was called THE GOD OF ABRAHAM and set in two parts, melody and bass.

Fig. 10. Sacred Harmony, or a Choice Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1780).

Nicholas Temperley’s Hymn Tune Index lists two possible German chorale precursors, listed in Johannes Zahn, Die Melodien der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenlieder, vol.3 (1890), Nos. 5076 and 5116. The first of those, 5076, is a tune from a Strasburg songbook of 1695, but the resemblance is only in the first phrase (the first six notes). The second, 5116, labeled “Handschriften Reinhardt 1754,” also carries a resemblance in the first phrase, plus the descending scale in the last, but otherwise is very different. The connection between these tunes and LEONI should be considered doubtful or coincidental.

Some hymnals use an arrangement of LEONI made for Hymns Ancient & Modern with supplement (1889), no. 601. The harmonization of LEONI printed in the Presbyterian Glory to God hymnal (2013) is from Hermon: A New Collection of Sacred Music (1873), edited by R.M. McIntosh.

Commentary on LEONI

The editors of the Presbyterian Handbook to The Hymnal (1935) noted the tune’s strengths:

“Yigdal” is a tune of great breadth and power. Although it is in a minor key, it strikes a note of praise. The strength and dignity of the music are very fitting for the noble words in honor of the Eternal One. Because of the clear duple rhythm and the vigorous movement of the tune, it is useful as a processional or recessional hymn. It should, however, by no means be confined to the beginning or the end of the service.[13]

V. Text by Mann & Gannett

One other English paraphrase of the Yigdal in circulation, included in both Jewish and Christian hymnals, is “Praise to the living God” by Newton Mann (1836–1926) and William Channing Gannett (1840–1923). When Max Landsberg (1845–1927), rabbi of the B’rith Kodesh Congregation in Rochester, New York, was assembling his Ritual of Jewish Worship (1885), he approached his friend Newton Mann, pastor of the Unity Church (Unitarian) in Rochester, about creating a version of the Yigdal in English rhyme. This appeared in the book, beginning “Extollèd be the living God and praisèd be his name,” in 9 rhyming couplets, effectively 8.6.8.6 (Common Meter). This text, unfortunately, did not have the same meter as the Hebrew and could not be used with existing Hebrew tunes. In his preface, Landsberg acknowledged Mann:

I cannot find adequate terms to express my obligations to my dear friend Rev. N.M. Mann, Pastor of Unity Church, for the kind interest he has taken in the preparation of Part First of this Ritual, and the valuable services he has rendered in making the English more idiomatic and perfect.

Mann left Rochester in 1889 to become pastor of the First Unitarian Church in Omaha, Nebraska. His successor was William Channing Gannett. Gannett was co-editor of Unity Hymns and Chorals (1911), which included “Praise to the living God” in five stanzas of eight lines (6.6.8.4 D), credited as “Jewish Ritual: tr. Newton Mann, Adapted.” Notably, the meter follows Olivers’ text rather than the original Hebrew meter. The tune, printed on a separate leaf, was credited “Jewish Melody Arr. by Meyer Lyon.”

Fig. 12. Unity Hymns and Chorals (Chicago: Unity Publishing Co., 1911).

Gannett’s adaptation is far more faithful to the Hebrew than Olivers’. He roughly followed one creedal article per half-stanza, although he omitted any mention of Moses, effectively combining the sixth and seventh articles. The eighth and ninth, both dealing with the law, were also combined. The last two articles were combined into the first part of stanza 5, leaving the final half-stanza to act as a bookend.

Gannett’s text was adopted into Judaism via the Union Hymnal for Jewish Worship, 2nd ed. (1914), set to the LEONI tune.

With Olivers’ and Gannett’s texts sharing the same meter, they can be interchanged. The first hymnal to offer a composite text is credited as the Presbyterian Hymnal (1933). Carl Daw explained a possible drawback in combining the two texts:

Although the two translations . . . have the same 6.6.8.4 D meter, they do not have the same rhyme scheme. The 18th-century text rhymes ababcdcd, while the 19th-century one has the looser pattern of abcbdefe—a distinction that is blurred by a nonrhyming word at the end of 3.1. Such discrepancies somewhat diminish the unity of the text.[14]

For additional versifications of the Yigdal in English, see the Open Siddur Project.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
8 March 2023

Footnotes:

1. Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, “Moses Maimonides,” Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (NY: Thomson Gale, 2007), vol. 13, p. 381.

2. Joseph I. Gorfinkle, The Eight Chapters of Maimonides on Ethics (NY: Columbia University, 1912), pp. 3–4: Archive.org

3. Fred Rosner, Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah: Tractate Sanhedrin (NY: Sepher-Hermon Press, Inc., 1981), p. x.

4. Fred Rosner, Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah: Tractate Sanhedrin (NY: Sepher-Hermon Press, Inc., 1981), p. 151.

5. Umberto Cassuto & Angel Sáenz-Badillos, “Immanuel (ben Solomon) of Rome,” Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (NY: Thomson Gale, 2007), vol. 9, p. 740.

6. Hartwig Hirshfeld, “The author of the Yigdal hymn,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 11, no. 1 (July 1920), pp. 87: JSTOR

7. An Extract of the Rev. Mr. John Wesley’s Journal, from May 14th, 1768, to Sept. 1st, 1770 (London: R. Hawes, 1774).

8. S.W. Christophers, Hymn-Writers and Their Hymns (London: S.W. Partridge, 1867), p. 32: HathiTrust

9. James Montgomery, The Christian Psalmist (1825), xxviii.

10. John Ellerton, “The God of Abraham Praise,” Church Hymns with Tunes with Notes and Illustrations (1881), p. lxxxii: HathiTrust

11. Albert Edward Bailey, The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Scribner’s Sons, 1950), p. 117.

12. Leland Ryken, “The God of Abraham Praise,” 40 Favorite Hymns of the Christian Faith (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2022), pp. 67–70: Amazon

13. William Chalmers Covert & Calvin Weiss Laufer, “Yigdal (Leoni),” Handbook to The Hymnal (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board, 1935), p. 12.

14. Carl P. Daw Jr., “The God of Abraham Praise,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 52.

Related Resources:

Maimonides

Collection of Various Works by Maimonides (14th cen. MS), Library of Congress: LOC

MS at Columbia (15th cen.): Archive.org

A. Neubauer, “Maimonides' Arabic Commentary on the Mishnah” [review], The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 7, no. 2 (Jan. 1895), pp. 346–348: JSTOR

L. Bleichrode, Maimonides’ Commentar zum Tractat Sanhedrin (Berlin, 1904): OCLC

Florence Gordon, Translation of Maimonides’ Mishnah commentary of Tractate Sanhedrin (NY: Hunter College, 1955): OCLC

Fred Rosner, Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah: Tractate Sanhedrin (NY: Sepher-Hermon Press, Inc., 1981): OCLC

Louis Isaac Rabinowitz, “Moses Maimonides,” Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (NY: Thomson Gale, 2007), vol. 13, pp. 381–397.

Immanuel ben Solomon

Umberto Cassuto & Angel Sáenz-Badillos, “Immanuel (ben Solomon) of Rome,” Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (NY: Thomson Gale, 2007), vol. 9, pp. 740–741.

Immānûʾēl Ben-Šelomo, Sēfer ham-Maḥbārôt ([Brescia] : Geršom Ben-Mōše Soncino, 5252 [=1491]): Images

Yigdal

Samuel David Luzzatto, Mavo le-mahzor ke-minhag Bene Roma (Livorno, Italy, 1856).

Francis L. Cohen, “Yigdal,” Jewish Encyclopedia, ed. Isidore Singer (NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1905), vol. 12, pp. 606–610: HathiTrust

Hartwig Hirshfeld, “Immanuel of Rome and other poets on the Jewish Creed,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 5, no. 4 (Apr. 1915), pp. 529–542: JSTOR

Alexander Marx, “A list of poems on the Articles of the Creed,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 9, no. 3/4 (Jan.–Apr. 1919), pp. 305–336: JSTOR

Hartwig Hirshfeld, “The author of the Yigdal hymn,” The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 11, no. 1 (July 1920), pp. 86–88: JSTOR

Clark Kimberling, “Daniel ben Judah,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: CDH

“יגדל yigdal,” Open Siddur Project: https://opensiddur.org/tagged/yigdal/

Thomas Olivers

John Julian, “The God of Abraham Praise,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London: J. Murray, 1892): HathiTrust

LEONI

Edward L. Doemland, “The hymn tune LEONI and its texts,” The Hymn, vol. 63, no. 1 (Winter 2012), pp. 31–35: HaithTrust

Hymn Tune Index: https://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/