Meknes rabbi and the most beloved paytan of Moroccan Jewry. His poems, collected in Tehilla LeDavid, are still sung in Moroccan synagogues and at the Shabbat-night bakashot.
Who was Rabbi David Ben Hassine?
Rabbi David ben Aharon Ben Hassine was the great paytan, the liturgical poet, of Moroccan Jewry. He lived in Meknes in the eighteenth century, and his many poems, collected in Tehilla LeDavid, spread from Morocco across the Sephardic world. More than two centuries later, his piyyutim are still sung in Moroccan synagogues, at celebrations and at the Shabbat-night bakashot.
Early life in Meknes
David Ben Hassine was born in Meknes around 1727, when the city was one of the great centers of Torah learning in Morocco. He studied with Rabbi Mordechai Berdugo, one of the city’s leading sages, and later married his daughter, joining one of the most distinguished rabbinic families of Meknes.
The poet of Moroccan Jewry
Ben Hassine wrote poetry for every part of Jewish life: piyyutim for Shabbat and the holidays, songs of praise for the sages, poems for weddings and for friends, and elegies for times of sorrow. He often wove his name into his poems as an acrostic. Writing in the tradition of the great Hebrew poets of Spain, he gave Moroccan Jews a poetry of their own, set to the melodies of the Andalusian music they loved.
He travelled to Jewish communities across Morocco and as far as Gibraltar, where his poems were warmly received.
He also put learning into verse. In Mekoman Shel Zevahim he set out the laws of the Temple offerings as a poem, so they could be learned and remembered more easily.
Tehilla LeDavid
His poems were gathered into a collection called Tehilla LeDavid, “A Song of David.” After his death, the manuscript was sent abroad to be printed, and the book was published in Amsterdam in 1807, with an introduction by Rabbi Raphael Berdugo of Meknes. An enlarged edition appeared in Casablanca in 1931, and a scholarly edition of his poetry was published in 1999.
Death
Rabbi David Ben Hassine died in Meknes in 1792.
Ben Hassine’s legacy for Sephardim
Few Moroccan Jews know Ben Hassine’s name as well as they know his songs. His piyyutim became part of the bakashot sung through the winter Shabbat nights, of the hilulot of the sages and of family celebrations, and they travelled with Moroccan Jews to Israel, France and the Americas. Through his poetry, the faith, the language and the music of Moroccan Jewry are still heard today.
Sources
- André E. Elbaz and Ephraim Hazan, eds., Tehillah le-David: The Poems of Rabbi David Ben Hassine, the Poet of Moroccan Jewry (1999)
- Haïm Zafrani, Deux mille ans de vie juive au Maroc (Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 1998)
