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The baqashot (or bakashot, ) are a collection of supplications, songs, and prayers that have been sung by the Sephardi Jews Syrian, Moroccan, and Turkish communities for centuries each week on Shabbat mornings from the early hours of the morning until dawn. They are usually recited during the weeks of winter, from the Jewish festival of Sukkot through Purim, when the nights are much longer. The baqashot services can last for three to four hours. The Ades Synagogue in Jerusalem is the center of the Syrian practice today, and communities in Ashdod and Montreal are the center of the Moroccan practice.
In communities such as those of Aleppo, Turkey and Morocco, the singing of baqashot expanded to vast proportions. In those countries special books were compiled naming the tunes and Arabic maqam together with the text of the hymns, in order to facilitate the singing of baqashot by the congregation. In these communities it was customary to rise from bed in the night on Shabbat in the winter months, when the nights are longer, and assemble in synagogue to sing baqashot for four hours until the time for the morning service.
Each country had its own collection of baqashot, and there is often little or no overlap between the collections of different countries.At least four baqashot are shared between the Moroccan and Syrian repertoires, namely יודוך רעיוני, אליו מי הקשה
ארץ ורום, שחר אבקשך
The Moroccan collection is known as "Shir Yedidot" (Marrakesh 1921): unlike in the Aleppo tradition, where the ''baqashot'' service is the same every shabbat, the Moroccan tradition has a different set of ''baqashot'' for each week. The Amsterdam collection is set out in the first part of Joseph Gallego's ''Imre No'am'': the contents of this were probably derived from the Salonica tradition.
The scholar Abraham Danon attested to the Edirne (Adrianople) maftirim tradition in this source from the late 1920s:
In both Edirne and Salonica, the maftirim would sing a fasıl for each Shabbat in a different Turkish makam. The maftirim would begin with a prayer in Aramaic Beresh ormanuta, followed by vocal improvisations of Biblical verses. Finally, the service would end with Mizmor shir leyom hashabbat and Qaddish.
The definitive edition of baqashot and Piyyut in the Ottoman-Turkish tradition was published in 1926 by Eliyahu Navon with the help of the Hazzan Avraham Behor Papo. This tome, Shire Israel be-Eres ha-Kedem (שירי ישראל בארץ הקדם), contained close to 500 piyyutim organized according to 39 Turkish makam (including obscure and compound makamlar). Some of the makamlar (in Modern Turkish spelling) include Rast, Dügâh, Segâh, Hüseyni, Acem, Acemasîran, Mâhur, Muhayyer, Nihâvent, Nevâ, Sabâ, Hicaz, Hüzzam, and Ussak.
A handful of compositions are from the period of the Golden Age of Spain, including works by Solomon ibn Gabirol, Abraham ibn Ezra, Moses ibn Ezra, and Yehuda Halevi. 26 of the close to 520 piyyutim and baqashot in the authoritative collection Shir Yedidot are composed by Israel Najara (c. 1555-1625). Later composers from the 18th century include Rabbi Yaaqob ibn Sur [1] (1673-1753) and R' David Ben Hassin (1727-1795), one of the most prolific Jewish Moroccan poets.
Although the baqashot are organized by the weekly Torah portions, the themes of the piyyutim range from Shabbat and Jewish holidays such as Purim, to Zion and Kabbalah. Some of the piyyutim are in Judeo-Arabic. As a whole, the Moroccan baqashot represent close to 8 centuries of Sephardic poetry and music.
One of the first printed collections of Andalusian baqashot was arranged by Rabbi Abraham Elmaliah from Mogador in 1856 under the name Soba' Semahot (שובע שמחות). This was a collection of all the "old" (לקדים) manuscripts of baqashot and piyyutim, as well as original compositions. Another collection Roni VeSimhi (רני ושמחי) was published in 1890 by Rabbi David Yefalah, also from Mogador, with many additional piyyutim assembled from manuscripts.
In 1921, a group of prominent Moroccan hazzanim standardized the structure of the baqashot into its modern form. These included Rabbi David Yefalah, R' David Elqayim, and R' David Afriat, all from Essaouira, and R' Hayyim Atar from Marrakesh. The first volume containing older piyyutim was called Shir Yedidot, while the second volume containing newer compositions was called Keter Kehuna. Many editions of Shir Yedidot were subsequently published in 1931, 1979, and more recently in 1999.
The Syrian tradition was introduced to Jerusalem by Raphael Altaras, who came to that city from Aleppo in 1845 and founded a baqashot circle at the Kehal Tsiyon synagogue. In this way the custom of Baqashot became part of the mainstream Jerusalem Sephardic tradition. Another important influence was Jacob Ades (1857–1925), who immigrated to Jerusalem in 1895 and introduced the tradition to the Persian and Bukharan communities. The main centre of the tradition today is the Ades Synagogue in Nachlaot, where the leading spirit was rabbi Chaim Shaul Abud.
The Aleppian baqashot did not only reach Jerusalem. The Jews of Aleppo took this custom with them wherever they went: to Turkey, Cairo, Mexico, Argentina and Brooklyn, New York. Each of these communities preserved this custom in the original Halabi style without all the changes and embellishments that have been added to the baqashot by Jerusalem cantors over the years. Although these communities do not perform the baqashot on a weekly basis, nevertheless, they use the melodies of the baqashot throughout Saturday morning prayers.
The songs principally consist of the praise of God, songs for Shabbat, songs of longing for the Holy Land and so on, and include some Piyut taken from the main body of the prayer book. These songs are considered more ancient and sacred than other pizmonim. Many of the songs contain acrostics identifying the author of that specific composition.
Baqashot are full of mystical allusions and traditions. Some of the songs contain references to some of the most sacred Jewish traditions. The following are examples of thematic songs:
The baqashot are interrupted after Song 34 to sing Psalms, the Psalm of the Sabbath, one verse at a time, using a different Arabic maqam for each verse. There are many other verses of the Psalms scattered throughout the different songs, called "petihot", to serve as markers. Unlike the baqashot themselves, these are rendered by the hazzan or by the elder people as a mawwal (non-rhythmical solo cadenza).
The baqashot service concludes with Adon Olam (Song 66) followed by the ancient Kaddish prayer sung in the melody of the maqam for that specific Sabbath.
More recent composers of baqashot from the Aleppo community are Refael Antebi Tabbush (1830According to the biography in www.piyut.il and the preface to Shirah Ḥadashah ("the Blue Book"). La-qedoshim asher ba-are"tz gives the date as 1856/7.-1919), the leading pizmonim composer, his pupil and foster son Moshe Ashear (Ashqar) and Ashear's pupil Chaim Shaul Abud.
Song 46, "Yah Melech Ram", alludes to the names of the baqashot composers.
Living classical composer Yitzhak Yedid is known for his combining of baqashot with contemporary classical writing.
According to Sephardic tradition, the baqashot are unique in that many of the melodies were composed for pre-existing texts, unlike many more recent pizmonim where the words were composed to fit an existing, often non-Jewish, melody. It is also believed that many melodies of the baqashot, unlike those of many pizmonim, are not borrowed from foreign sources.
In communities throughout the world not so committed to the idea of waking up before dawn, the baqashot melodies, or sometimes the actual songs, are still sung either in the course of the prayers or casually on certain occasions. But there are places there still practicing this tradition like Shaare Sion synagogue in Argentina.
In some settings, the honor of singing the Kaddish goes to the highest bidder.
Refreshments, such as tea or arrak, are often served during the services.
The Turkish maftirim tradition persists and is practised to this day in Istanbul.
The Moroccan baqashot in Israel are sung regularly in cities such as Ashdod and Ashkelon with large populations of Moroccan Jews. They are also sung occasionally in Moroccan diasporic centers such as Montreal, Canada and Paris, France.
"Ottoman Hebrew Sacred Songs" contains a handful of maftirim recordings of Samuel Benaroya in his old age. This rare recording of one of the last surviving singers of the maftirim choir of Edirne, Turkey.
A more comprehensive set recordings of the Turkish maftirim was released in 2010 under the title "Maftirim: Turkish-Sephardic Synagogue Hymns." David Behar, Hazan Isak Maçoro, and Hazan David Sevi were recorded in the 1980s but the recordings were lost until the mid-2000s. This 4-CD set was published in Turkey with an extensive accompanying booklet in Turkish, English, Hebrew and Ladino. The project was coordinated by Karen Gerson Şarhon.
Tape recordings of the Syrian baqashot were made in the 1980s in order to facilitate preservation. The recordings were made vocally; that is, without music instrumentation. They were recorded by three prominent community cantors: Isaac Cabasso, Mickey Kairey and Hyman Kairey. The project was organized by the Sephardic Archives, in association with the Sephardic Community Center in Brooklyn, New York.
David Betesh, coordinator of the Sephardic Pizmonim Project, more recently released the baqashot from these recordings onto the project's website (link below) for the general Internet public. Dr. Morris Shamah, Joseph Mosseri, and Morris Arking are responsible for putting the recordings together.
There are also DVD and CD recordings, with instrumental accompaniment, produced by the Ades Synagogue in Jerusalem.
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