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Addir Hu

ADDIR HU (Heb. אַדִּיר הוּא; "Mighty is He"), a hymn in the form of an alphabetic acrostic enumerating the qualities of God (mighty, blessed, great), and imploring Him to rebuild the Temple, a prayer which is repeated in the refrain:

"Speedily, speedily/In our days, and soon to come;/ Build, O God! Build, O God/ Build Thy house speedily."

Addir Hu is one of several hymns added to the Passover Haggadah in the Middle Ages to be chanted after the conclusion of the formal part of the seder service according to the Ashkenazi rite. Since the 16th century Addir Hu appears in printed texts. A Judeo-German version recited by Ashkenazi Jews was first printed in Gershom b. Solomon ha-Kohen's Haggadah (Prague, 1527). Because of the refrain in that version (Bau dein Tempel shire) the Jews of southern and western Germany called the seder night "Baunacht" and the celebrating of the seder "bauen," i.e., to build. In the Avignon Maḥzor (1775) it is recited on all festivals.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

E.D. Goldschmidt, Haggadah shel Pesaḥ (1960), 75; Davidson, Oẓar, 1 (1924), 52, no. 1086; E. Pauer, Traditional Hebrew Melodies (1896); Selig, in: Der Jude, 3 (1769), 385–7 (see facsimile). MUSIC: Idelsohn, Melodien, 6, pt. 1 (1932), 63, no. 155; 68–69, nos. 164, 165, 167; 72, no. 171; 83, no. 199; 184, no. 200; ldelsohn, Music, index (18th-cent. works); F.J. Fétis, Histoire générale de la Musique, 1 (1869), 467 (earliest Oriental version).


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.