Yedid Nefesh

This poem is commonly attributed to the sixteenth century Sephardic kabbalist, Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (1533–1600), who first published it in Sefer Charedim (published in Venice 1601), but Azikri did not claim authorship of it and there have been other suggested authors (e.g. Judah Halevi, or Israel Najara).

Azikri's philosophy centred around the intense love one must feel for God, a theme that is evident in this piyyut (see references).

In 1985, the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Momement included a version of the hymn in Siddur Sim Shalom based on the author’s autograph manuscript, found in the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

The Hebrew and English text used in the Koren Sacks Siddur (2009) followed this manuscript—although the Authorised Daily Prayer Book (4th ed.

[5] Azikri's handwritten manuscript of this poem was discovered by Meir Benayahu [he] in the library of Jewish Theological Seminary of America in the mid-20th century.

by Rabbi Shlomo Tal, 1977) p. 189, the Koren-Sacks, and the Conservative movement's Siddur Sim Shalom, used the same Hebrew text as handwritten original.

Tal also noted that a few earlier prayerbooks (Livorno 1910 and Jerusalem 1953) also printed versions that restored "maidservant" from the 1601 edition.