D'ror Yikra is a piyyut, of the kind known as zemer, traditionally sung during Sabbath meals, particularly the first meal on Friday evening.
History
Dror Yikra was written in 960 CE in Córdoba by the poet, linguist, and musician Dunash ben Labrat, who is said to have been born in Fez but moved to Spain after a period of study in Baghdad under the rabbinic scholarSaadia Gaon. According to the ArtScroll Siddur, "Dror Yikra" is "a plea to God to protect Israel, destroy its oppressors, and bring it peace and redemption." The poem consists of six four-line stanzas with the rhyme-scheme a a a a, b b b b, c c c c, etc. The first stanza is as follows: The first letters of each line in this stanza, and also in stanzas 2, 3, and 6, are an acrostic that form the poet's name- "DUNASH".
Biblical references
The poem is full of Biblical references and quotations, sometimes adapted to suit the demands of the metre. For example, the opening words are based on Leviticus 25:10: "You shall proclaim release throughout the land" and Jeremiah 34:15: "Proclaim a release for them". "He will keep you as the apple of His eye" is based on Deuteronomy : "He engirded him, watched over him, guarded him as the pupil of His eye". "Pleasant is Your name" is based on Psalm 35:3: "Sing hymns to His name, for it is pleasant"; and "Repose, rest" comes from Numbers 22:19.
Interpretation
The poem has been commented on by such commentators as Rashi, Yosef Karo, Ya'akov Yosef HaKohen, and Yehuda Ayash. Yehoshua Grant of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has proposed that "Dror Yikra," on account of its incorporation of a new poetic tradition emerging out of Andalusia at the time, may be indicative of "the most important turning point...of medieval Hebrew poetry." Grant identifies three structural properties that suggest a synthesis of traditional and novel forms: the rhyme ending repeating four times in each stanza recalls a pattern commonly found in early Hebrew liturgical poetry; the acrostic manifestation of the author's name is similarly characteristic of an ancient tradition; the carefully measured meter, however, was unprecedented in the annals of Hebrew poetry.
Metre
The poem was unusual for the time since unlike previous piyyutim, its language is entirely Biblical, rather than a mixture of Biblical and later Hebrew. Secondly, Dunash was apparently the first Jewish poet to write Hebrew using Arabic quantitative metres. Dunash's two innovations caused a revolution in Jewish poetry and influenced all later poets. The metre itself is the Arabic-Persian hazaj metre, which is based on a repeated rhythm of short-long-long-long, a rhythm which it shares with the well-known Adon Olam. These days it is sung to two or three different tunes, not all of which, however, follow the rhythm of the metre.
