[HANASHIR:10925] Re: History of Adon Olam

[I. Oppenheim <i.oppenheim...>]

On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Jennifer Stevens wrote:

> I could be wrong, but I seem to remember that Adon Olam originated in
> the High Holiday liturgy.

You're probably confusing the Aleinu prayer with Adon Olam.
Aleinu was originally only said as part of the Mussaf
service of Rosh Hashanah, later on added to the Mussaf
service of Yom Kippur, and even later on added to the
daily prayers.

> When it was added to the daily and Shabbat liturgy, it had a position in
> the early part of the service.  It was later moved to the end - maybe as
> a way to bring us full circle or to end the service on a more upbeat
> note.

Adon Olam has been frequently attributed to Shlomo Ibn Gabirol
(11th century), but this has never been proven. In fact,
some scholars think that Adon Olam might be from the times
of the Ge'onim, which would make it much older.

At any rate, since the 14th century Adon Olam appears in the
liturgy of German Jewry, from where it spread to all other
communities around the world.

Since the penultimate verse of the piyut reads:
"Into His hand I shall entrust my spirit
     When I go to sleep---and I shall awaken!"

Adon Olam was probably originally introduced as the final
hymn of the bedtime Shema service (Yiddish: Nacht Layenen).
Later on Adon Olam began to serve as opening hymn of the morning
service as well, precisely, as you put it, "to form
a circle."

Relatively recently, some communities decided to use Adon Olam
as the final piyut of their shabbat services, "to end the service
on a more upbeat note."

  Irwin Oppenheim
  www.xs4all.nl/~danio/irwin/music/     "Chazzanut Online"

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