Akdamut is a poem, which was composed during the First Crusade which began in 1096 as an effort by Christian Europe to recapture the "Holy Land" from the Moslems who had seized it. On their way to the Middle East, the Christian knights would, in general, visit terror if not outright destruction upon the Jewish communities which happened to be on their route.

Christians, who for 2000 years have always promoted their religion as one of peace, tried to force their religion upon their Jewish neighbors, often at the threat of death. Sometimes, mock "debates" were held, in which Jewish rabbis were forced to participate, knowing that the juries, consisting of church officials, were rigged against them, and that nothing they said would have any effect on their listeners, or upon their own fate. The author of Akdamut, Rabbi Meir son of Rabbi Yitzchak, who was the Hazzan of the City of Vermaiza in Germany was the unwilling participant in such a "debate."

The poem describes the words of the author as he "debated" the truths of Judaism to a hostile audience. But they are disguised for posterity in the Aramaic language, which was not understood by the Christian world or its censors. The author, who died shortly after the "debate," left behind a priceless inheritance for the Jewish People, the piyut, religious poem, of Akdamut. The practice began to chant Akdamut on Shavuot, with its characteristic melody, at the beginning of the Torah reading which includes the "Aseret HaDibrot," the Ten Commandments.

Akdamut has 90 lines; the first 44 begin with a double Aleph-Bet; Aleph, Aleph, Bet, Bet, and so on. The first letters of the next 46 lines make up an acrostic in which the author expresses the prayer that the L-rd will bless him with the ability and opportunity, even in the extremely hostile environment in which he found himself, to grow in knowledge of Torah and in the performance of good deeds.

Each line of the poem, written in Aramaic, as mentioned above, ended in the letters "Tav," the last letter of the Aleph Bet, and "Aleph," the first letter of the Aleph-Bet, to show that when one reaches the last letter, the "end" of the Torah, so to speak, one immediately turns and restarts the Torah from its "beginning."

Please join us this Shavuot, as we celebrate the receiving of the Torah, the acceptance of the Mitzvot and show with your participation that we are still strongly committed to our Jewish faith and heritage, regardless of the many and continual attempts to have us reject our special relationship with God.