JANUARY 15/TEVET 15

ׁׂׂׂ4817 (1056):

Yahrzeit of Shmuel HaNagid (Rabbi Shmuel ibn Naghrillah), leader of Spanish Jewry, scholar, soldier, merchant, statesman and poet who lived in Iberia during the Golden Age of Jewish Culture. Best known for posterity as the first Hebrew poet of the Middle Ages to compose secular poetry, during his lifetime he was perhaps the most politically influential Jew in Moorish Spain, serving as the vizier and top general (commanding a Muslim army!) of the Granadan king.

"Shake off, Shake off [the dust], and receive the day of salvation!

Your days of mourning are over, your pain is past, your balm has been found. Arise, o drunk and storm-tossed one, intoxicate those who intoxicate you, Now, he who has been seen but [has] not [risen until] now, will rise up like a lion.

Zion which became a withered tree will bear fruit,

Those who disgraced you will be disgraced, and no longer will you be called a rebellious people."