El Nora Alila (), also transliterated as ,Nulman, Macy; Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer (1993, NJ, Jason Aronson), s.v. Ayl Nora Alilah, page 67. is a piyyut (liturgical poem) that begins the Ne'ilah service at the conclusion of Yom Kippur in Judaism. The piyyut is recited as part of the Sephardic and Mizrahi rites,E.g., The Orot Sephardic Yom Kippur Mahazor (1997, NJ) page 986; Nulman, Macy, Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer (1993, NJ, Jason Aronson), s.v. Ayl Nora Alilah, page 67; Bahat, Avner, EL NORA ALILA (God of Might, God of Awe) -From Spain to the Four Corners of the Earth, Inter-American Music Review, vol. 17, issues 1-2 (Summer 2007) Pages 77-90. and has been adopted by some religious Ashkenazi Jewish communities.
The English translation below is a lyric rendering, reproducing a rhyme similar to the Hebrew one. A more literal translation renders the title and recurring line as "God of awesome deeds". It consists of eight stanzas, each stanza consisting of four lines of five syllables to the line. Each line (in Hebrew) has three words, and the fourth line is always two words, "as Thy gates are closed at night".Nulman, Macy, Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer (1993, NJ, Jason Aronson), s.v. Ayl Nora Alilah, page 67. This is Nulman's English rendering, but see the comments attached to the verses, below. The closed gates are likely the gates of Heaven, where prayers of repentance are received, possibly also referencing the gates of the Temple in Jerusalem as described in Ezekiel 46:2. The hymn serves as a final, heartfelt plea for divine forgiveness during the last moments of the Day of Atonement. The initial letters of the eight stanzas of the piyyut spell out (, 'Moses, may he be perfectly strong') in reference to the piyyut's author, Moses ibn Ezra () of Granada.
Text
Melodies
El Nora Alila has been described as "that powerful and all-engulfing hymn of the Sephardim ... ascendant and aggressive in the highest degree."Reider, Joseph, Secular Currents in the Synagogal Chant in America, The Jewish Forum. vol. 1, no. 10 (Dec. 1918) page 585. There are at least eighty versions of the melody sung across four continents.Bahat, Avner, EL NORA ALILA (God of Might, God of Awe) - From Spain to the Four Corners of the Earth, Inter-American Music Review, vol. 17, issues 1-2 (Summer 2007) Page 82. The melody for El Nora Alila is generally sprightly,Idelsohn, Abraham Zvi, Hebraisch-Orientalishcher Melodienschatz (Thesaurus of Hebrew-Oriental Melodies)(1923, Berlin) volume 4 ("Sefardim") page 224. has three examples of melodies for El Nora Alila (nos. 308–310), two of which are allegro and one of which is identified as "Salonic style" in the uncommon time. as is much of the Ne'ilah service, deliberately, coming at the end of a 25-hour fast, when the congregants are probably feeling fatigue and weakness.Nulman, Macy, Concise Encyclopedia of Jewish Music (1975, NY: McGraw-Hill) s.v. Ne'ilah, page 184.
See also Yom Kippur Ne'ilah
References
External links
El Nora Alila at the Jewish Encyclopedia video of three melodies - Turkish, Moroccan, and Spanish-Portuguese - to El Nora Alila page with multiple videos of different renditions