Samantha Goldman

Sha’ar Asher Nisgar

This is a version of a Hebrew love song from 1000 CE called Sha’ar Asher Nisgar. I recorded and produced this rendition of it at home, sang the lyrics in Hebrew, and played and composed the piano and cello parts. The drawings of it are 3D renderings of my digital drawings that I used to laser cut my sculptures for Gradex. The song, composed in 1000 CE in Morocco by Ibn Gabriol, was inspired by Song of Songs, earlier composed around 10,000 to 200 BCE. I take pride in contributing my own rendition of it to the long standing canon of Jewish musicians, poets, and philosophers who have engaged with it.

““Solomon Ibn Gabirol was born (c. 1022) in Galaga and died in Valencia (c.1055, possibly as late as 1070), living most of his life in Saragossa. Both poet and philosoper, he began publishing while still in his teens. He is considered the first Hebrew poet to introduce Spanish-Arabic styles of the Golden Age into synagogue poetry. Several of his pieces are sung as piyutim in a number of different Jewish traditions. One of those is “Shaar Asher Nisgar” or “The Gate Long Shut.”This Piyut is sung in the Moroccan Jewish community as part of the Bakkashot tradition--singing Piyutim at dawn on Shabbat morning--for the Torah portions, Va’yera, Chayei Sarah, and Va’yetze. It is sung with a different melody on each of these Shabbatot, in accordance with the corresponding Torah portion. In the Iraqi Jewish community, this Piyut is traditionally recited on the eve of Hoshana Rabbah.The poem is a love song that expresses deep longing between two lovers, using language that echoes the of Song of Songs.””