← Western Sephardic Liturgical Classics
יָהּ רִבּוֹן
Yah Ribon
“God, Sovereign of all worlds” — an Aramaic table-hymn
Text & translation
יָהּ רִבּוֹן עָלַם וְעָלְמַיָּא, אַנְתְּ הוּא מַלְכָּא מֶלֶךְ מַלְכַיָּא.
Yah ribbon alam v’al’mayya, ant hu malka melekh malkhayya.
God, Sovereign of this world and all worlds — You are the Ruler, the Ruler over rulers. (refrain)
עוֹבָדֵי גְבוּרְתָּךְ וְתִמְהַיָּא, שְׁפַר קֳדָמָךְ לְהַחֲוַיָּא.
Ovadei g’vurtakh v’timhayya, sh’far kodamakh l’haḥavayya.
The works of Your might and Your wonders — it is fitting to declare them before You.
An Aramaic piyyut; the refrain returns after each of its five stanzas.
About this piece
An Aramaic table-hymn by Israel Najara (Safed and Damascus, sixteenth century), beloved across the Sephardi world and sung at the Sabbath table; its five stanzas spell the poet’s name.
It praises God’s creation without once mentioning the Sabbath — a poem of pure wonder.
Recordings — Daniel Halfon
Amsterdam
In the living tradition
This music is the prayer of a living rite. It is sung today at Kehillah Kedoshah Zikhron Zvi, the egalitarian Western Sephardi congregation of the Hudson Valley — the community at the endpoint of the Program’s Sephardi Liturgy project.