[S. 6342 Lekhah dodi = לכה דודי]
Call Number: Offenbach S.6342
Attribution: Offenbach, Isaac.
Place: Germany
Date: 1800
Physical Description: 13 leaves; 1 score; 14.5 x 22.5 cm ; autograph manuscript
Subject: Shabbat, Instrumental Music
Description:
Full title from title page: לכה דודי Violino primo, Possessor Isaac Juda Eberst von Offenbach a/M an jego [? jetzig?] Sopranist in Cronberg, d[en] 13ten May 1800.
This manuscript is a collection of twenty-four different compositions of Lekhah dodi, the song for welcoming the Sabbath. The seventeenth item is attributed to “Abram of Mannheim,” possibly Aberle Mannheimer. Due to the “Violino primo” designation on the title page, scholars such as A.W. Binder and Israel Adler have considered this collection of instrumental pieces. These pieces would have been used in a “concert” for welcoming the Sabbath in the synagogue, before the formal service. This custom is known to have existed in Prague and other Central European communities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Concerts such as these took place in Berlin synagogues in 1837, with guest performances by the Eastern European hazzan Hirsch Weintraub. However, this custom is not known to have been extant in West German synagogues.