Ana BeKoach
Jewish prayer composed by Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ana BeKoach (Hebrew: אנא בכח, We beg you! With your strength)[note 1] is a piyyut (liturgical poem) recited by Jewish communities[which?] at the end of Parshat HaKorbanot read during Shacharit, as part of Kabbalat Shabbat (the Kabbalah inspired introductory prayers before Shabbat Maariv), and on each day from the second day of Pesach to the day before Shavuot during the 49-day counting of the Omer. It takes its name from the first two words of the first verse.
The piyyut's structure is informed by Kabbalah principles. It has the following structure and associations:
- It consists of seven verses with six words per verse, so 42 words in total.
- The seven verses are each linked to the one of the seven lower Sefirot (attributes/emanations) of HaShem, one of the seven days of creation, and one of the days of the week.
- Each verse has two acronyms attached to it made up from the initial letters of the words in that verse. All the acronyms taken together form the 42-letter name of HaShem[note 2].
- The 42 words (7 verses × 6 words each), with each verse's two acronyms counted as one "word" (so 7 additional "words") gives a total of 49 words, each of which is associated with a day of the counting of the Omer.