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Elokim Ba'u Goyim B'Nachalatecha

By Shabbatai HaKohen, The Sha"ch

א God, heathens have entered your heritage. They have defiled your sanctuary. They will pile up lime on the sheep of your flock. They have placed their hands on your peace and defiled your covenant.

ב Do not make a seam in your covenant with us, oh Lord. Do not subdue our abuse. From the hand of our enemy save us. You, Lord, are our Father, our Redeamer.

ג Our Redeamer, the Lord of Hosts is his name. The Ukrainians have gnashed their teeth against me. And the Tartars' strength is their salvation. They tore and were not silent.

ד He was quiet and the blood of our children Were poured out like water around us. From the mud of the Ukraine return and raise us up. God, Lord of Hosts, restore us!

ה Restore us to You, oh Lord, that we may be restored. For all the city is abandoned. Holy congregations were destroyed, a dry and desert land.

ו And dry from the fury of God against us. He brought Ukrainians and Tartars to swallow us. And they did great killing of our brothers, the sons of our covenant, against our sons and daughters, our children and our elderly.

ז Our elders and all the inhabitants of the land, a large nation. Holders of the great and burning Torah. They fled to the holy congregation of Ne'emrav. And on the fourth day, before night, the nation of God fell by the sword.

ח The evil ones opened with a sword to slaughter those who followed our path. The empty ones fell with sword on our women and children.

ט Our children were spoils in all the holy congregation of Sadeh Lavan [Bila Tserkov]. For they fell at the hands of workers of evil. On the 20th day of the month of Sivan, the hand of Ukraine overwhelmed me.

י The mire of the abyss drown our souls. The enemy's hand reached out over all our precious ones. They tore to pieces our Torah scrolls, and they stole our silver.

כ Our silver they threw outside and our gold to the streets. And they buried alive whole men and pure children who were good and healthy. And they slaughtered and tore boys in front of their mothers and fathers. And they killed hundreds, thousands and ten-thousands.

ל To tens of thousands our slain increased. Inherit your holy nation, our Rock! They made the base of your temple, the house of our glory, to the first height of our holy place.

מ Our small temple [synagogue] they destroyed and its place was unknown. Our opression increased with the remainder of Israel that were killed in the holy congregation of Homia. And there was a great scream and lamentation wailed forth.

נ They said let us plunder and divide amongst us. How will it be possible to restore our fields. Our heritage has been overturned by strangers. And your nation is a reproach to all those around us.

ס Around us have fallen hailstones. To destroy in fury the holy congregation of Pavnilvitch and the congregation of Pogrebishche. Those more precious than pearls and antelopes and crystal. Eggs of adder were squeezed [a superstitious practice - Shabbat 67b] and they wove spider webs.

ע The spider webs of our comforter will cover our houses and will not stand up until they baptise us. They cut off the hand of our teacher, The Rav, Rebbe Yechiel Gaon, our strength. More depressing than our sins is the desecration from our sins.

פ Our crimes against You and our sins were answered when several hundred virgin girls were taken captive in fear and horror. Tranquil women, wise women with understanding, into the other nations that you commanded us not to bring into our congregation.

צ You commanded to our hallowed ones, and also did you call before you our brave ones. Our pride and joy, our vessels of war. You coverered them with a cloud, from before our prayers, and you did not hear our voices.

ק our voices, the voice of scremaing from wrath for the Ukrainians have gathered against me. A brazen nation. And they killed many and many Gaonim and Rabbis

ר Rabbis and young men, our desirable ones. And young children were our burnt offerings. A breach and a scream went out from our streets, and our cries did not ascend to the sky.

ש Hear our cries and be not deaf to my tears. And do not avert your ears from my relief and from my shouts. Remove to behind and rebuke those who wish me harm. Attend to me aid, oh God of my salvation.

ת Do not delay my salvation and make quick our redemption. Remember the oath you swore to our fathers, that you would not reject and be loathesome to destory us. Return, Lord, our captives.

ש Return our captives and give to Zion a redemption. Be jealous for your burnt and torn Torah. They made shoes from the parchment. Ascend, oh Lord, with a trumpet blast.

ב With the trumpet blast on the day of war our palace was mourned. See, God, and see our disgrace. Why should the other nations ask, "where is our helper?" Our bones have been dried up and our hope has been lost.

ת Do not cut off our hope to their end. The nation's donations engraved on their supports. Today they have brought their sin offerings and their burnt offerings. Here is God, their salvation.

י Their salvation they vested in God, their king. They said that for you they were killed all the day, our Lord. They shouted "Hear oh Israel, the Lord is our God." Do not leave us as our strength is expiring.

כ Our strength was satisfied by the strangers. They corpses they threw to the forests, while dogs and pigs ate them in the fields of the city. The mountains decayed from all the blood.

ה Mountains were set ablaze by our enemies, and on the watershores they killed several hundred of our nation, until our rivers turned to blood. The wicked water covered our souls.

נ Our souls were aflicted and the Lord of hosts wasn't told. Like so all the holy congregations were razed, to tens and hundreds. And we are unable to tell all the hardships. Oh Lord, our God, do with us a sign for good. So that our enemies will see and be embarassed before us. Avenge the blood that was spilled before us. And repay sevenfold the to the lap of our answer. Renew our days like once before.

Translation done by Joshua Skarf. Slichot are notoriously difficult to translate so comments and suggestions on the translation are welcome.

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Copyright © 2007 Joshua Skarf