This video presents a short, simple, chanted, English version of Akdamut, the lengthy Aramaic poem recited during the Torah reading in synagogue on the morning of Shavuot. It is not a direct translation of the text, but rather a short rhyming poem based on the Aramaic liturgical poem, which is recited responsively in almost all Ashkenazi synagogues prior to the reading of the Ten Commandments. The original words, written in the 11th century by Rabbi Meir bar Yitzchak (Nehorai), a cantor in Worms, Germany, express praise for God, the Jewish people, and the Torah.Â