As recorded and sung by Yehuda Rafii
As heard by Hamid Rafii and Jacqueline Rafii
Arranged by Jacqueline Rafii
Text: Psalm 113

Halleluyah, halelu avdei Adonai, halelu et shem Adonai.
Yehi shem Adonai mevorach, meiata v’ad olam.
Mi mizrach shemesh ad mevo’o mehulal shem Adonai.
Ram al kol goyim Adonai al hashamayim kevodo.
Mi k’Adonai Eloheinu, hamagbihi lashavet,
Hasmashpili lirot bashamayim uva’aretz.
Mikimi meiafar dal, meiashpot yarim evyon,
Lehoshivi im n’divim, im nedivei amo,
Moshivi akeret habayit, eim habanim semeicha. Halleluyah!

Halleluyah, praise God, O servants of Adonai, praise the name of God.
May the name of Adonai be blessed, now and forever.
From the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, may the name of Adonai be blessed.
High above every nation is Adonai, above the heavens is God’s glory.
Who is like Adonai our God, enthroned on high,
Stooping down to look upon the sky and the earth.
Raising the poor from the dust, the impoverished from the dungheap,
Seating them with nobles, the nobility of God’s people,
Installing the barren woman of the house as a joyful mother of children. Halleluyah!

Notes:
A few years ago, my father shared a cassette tape with me that had a precious memory preserved within it: the voice of my late paternal grandfather, Yehuda Rafii, chanting parts of the Passover seder in Tehran, Iran from 1971. I never met my paternal or maternal grandfather, both of whom died long before I was born, and I lost both of my grandmothers at a relatively early age. This discovery seemed to me like a precious capsule of time, history, and the treasures I had never before realized I was seeking so deeply. As I listened to my grandfather’s voice, tears streaming down my face, I felt a new connection to my Persian familial and musical heritage, and a simultaneous call to explore it, bring it to light, preserve it, and share it. That call directly animated my thesis project, and led me to collect and notate many of the Persian-Jewish melodies that are heard in my Kol Haneshama Recital.

This is the melody that I heard on that cassette tape.

I am grateful to my dear dad, Hamid Rafii, who played a big role in the preservation of this precious melody. Hamid made a deliberate effort to pack and transport this cassette tape with him out of Iran in 1980. He has spent countless hours listening to the tape with me, phrase by phrase, helping me learn the melody as it was originally sung (there are distortions in the tape due to its age). He and his siblings have also shared many beautiful memories about their father singing this song at each Passover seder since their youth.