La Mujer de Terah 4, Cuando Moshe Rabeinu

From Merendjenas, Orit Perlman, 2023

These are two Koplas that share a melody, from Bulgaria. Both retell biblical content, the first describes the miraculous birth of Abraham, whose mother, wife of Terah, experienced pain in her pregnancy that she didn’t understand. She wandered in the field until she decided to go give birth in a cave. Abraham, when he was born, immediately knew how to read and write as if in a “yeshiva”, a school of Jewish learning. The song is traditionally sung in a circumcision ceremony – the last verse congratulating the congregation and the father of the newborn son, who has now entered into the covenant of Abraham.

The second Kopla is a reference to the heroic ascent of Moses to the heavens to receive the Torah as the earth and sky trembled. The chorus refers to the God of our ancestors, Lord of the universe, sitting on his lofty chair (as seen by Moses), and to the rejoicing of the Jews.

Text:
La mujer de Terah prenyada 'stava
ni eya no savia el mal ke tenia
Salia por los kampos komo pedrida.

Dolores tenia parir keria 
Ande lo pariera? en la meara
meldando i skriviendo en la yeshiva.

Buen zehut tuvites senyor parido
buen zehut tuvites senyor parido
ke afirmates la firma d'Avram avinu.

Elohenu i avotenu
el Senyor del mundo entero
Lo veamos en la siya
ke se alegre la djuderia.

Kuando Moshe rabenu kijo erreinar
los sielos i la tierra ampeso a temblar
Ke grande senyor era Moshe Rabenu
ke abasho i asuvia los siete sielos.

Translation:
The wife of Terah was pregnant, 
but she herself did not know the burden she bore, 
she wandered through the fields like a lost woman. 

She was in pain, ready to give birth, 
where did she give birth? In a cave, 
(where later she found her son) studying and writing in the yeshiva. 

You had great merit, father of the newborn 
for you have confirmed the signature of our father Abraham.

When Moses our teacher wished to reign,
the heavens and the earth began to tremble.
How great a lord was Moses our teacher,
who ascended and descended the seven heavens.