(Attributed to). Ben Adama Yizkor Be’moladetoh [“The Ages of Man” - liturgical poem]. Geniza Fragment

(IBN EZRA, ABRAHAM)

Egypt (?)

12th-13th Century

Hebrew semi-cursive Sephardic script. Brown ink on paper. * With: Modern Hebrew and English Translations by Nina Davis Salaman in separate double-sided frame

Spanish-born poet, grammarian, biblical commentator, philosopher, astronomer and physician, Abraham ibn Ezra was versatile both as a secular and religious poet. Much of his sacred poetry is liturgical and many of his poems of penitence and supplication have been included in the festival liturgy. “The Ages of Man” denotes a person at each stage of life: the five-year-old who clings to his mother’ lap and rides on his father’s shoulders; the ten-year-old who can hardly be controlled; the twenty-year-old who thinks mostly of love; the thirty-year-old, burdened by family cares; the forty-year-old who is resigned to his lot; the fifty-year-old who lives in fear of death; the sixty-year-old whose strength is gone; the seventy-year-old who is nothing but a burden to his friends and his staff; and the eighty-year-old who has lost his faculties. The opening lines, which serve as the refrain, read: “Let but the son of earth/Remember from his birth/That in the end/He shall return;/As at his birth he was,/So he shall be.” The poem concludes with the observation that only the person who bears in mind the brevity of life and the need to prepare for the Life to Come can find happiness in this world. This poem is recited in Sephardic liturgy as a spur to repentance. Ibn Ezra’s religious poetry gives expression to a deep religious soul. As such, ibn Ezra formed the last link in the chain of great Spanish poets beginning with R. Joseph ibn Abitur