Ilu Finu – Song Like the Sea

This is a text we encounter in the synagogue at least weekly, since it is in the traditional liturgy, as part of Shabbat and festival morning prayers. My main motivation for doing a papercut with this text is that there are a few settings of this text to songs that I particularly enjoy.

Hebrew:
?????? ?????? ????? ??????? ???????
????????????? ?????? ????????? ????????
???? ????????? ???????????? ????????? ????

Translation:
Even if our mouths
Were filled with song like the sea
And our tongues with exultation
Like the roaring of its waves
We would never sufficiently
Thank You

January 2026