The Complete Bakashot Course by the Hibba Center and the Zalman Shazar Center

A Digital Course for Documenting and Learning the Bakashot Tradition of Aleppian Jewry

The Hibba Center and the Zalman Shazar Center are proud to present a new digital course dedicated to teaching, documenting, and preserving the Bakashot tradition of Aleppian Jewry. Traditionally sung in synagogues before dawn on winter Shabbatot, the Aleppian Bakashot repertoire is one of the most intricate musical and poetic traditions of Eastern Jewry. It is based on an established cycle of maqamat that changes each week and combines piyyutim from Spain’s Golden Age with later works by Aleppian sages and paytanim of the East. The project makes this rich repertoire systematically and accurately accessible to scholars, lovers of piyyut, and beginning paytanim.

The course consists of twelve episodes filmed and recorded in high-quality audio and video. Each lesson is 25–40 minutes long. The central emphasis is pedagogical and musical precision: the performances were recorded cleanly, with almost no mawwal-style flourishes or vocal improvisation, so the original melodies and instrumental openings can be heard in their precise form. In long piyyutim with repeating melodic structures, selected stanzas were recorded to help learners focus on the melody. The singing is supported by clean accompaniment from rotating musicians: David Shanavi, Yaron Menashe, Moti Nuri, and Dror Yehezkel.

Each episode opens with a short introduction to the world of Bakashot. Throughout the episode, the host provides background on the poet, the estimated date of composition, the maqam, and the meaning of the words, together with historical notes. Performers and hosts include Roni Ish-Ran, Rabbi Shlomo Nehemias, Rabbi Elad Levi and his sons, Rabbi Eliyahu Gatigno, Yaakov Gatigno, and Uziel Sabato. The interface supports comfortable learning and navigation between episodes. The course also includes a bonus podcast conversation about the emergence and development of the Bakashot tradition.