Another interesting thing I came across in the sefer הישיבה הרמה בפיורדא has to do with the meaning of שומרים לבקר. The words come from Tehillim 130:6 and mean those who await the morning. I know that there are/have been Shuls with the name Shomrim laboker. But what exactly does it mean? Just a group of early risers? Insomniacs?
In volume I, p.486 in a footnote, it is explained that there was an order of selichos that were said year-round on weekdays in those early hours, first printed in Lublin in 5307, and there were שומרים לבקר groups who recited them together.
I hope to find out more about it, but now I have a better understanding of this matter, a practice which seems to have basically disappeared (?), at least in that form. Of course, we have early risers in Shul today too, but they seem to be doing various other things, such as learning, davening vosikin, preparing for a later minyan…
Tags: Shomrim Laboker
TREASURES OF ASHKENAZ 
March 25, 2011 at 10:20 am |
The origin of Shomrim Laboker chevras are much older than 5307, and is Italian. As an example, the Yom Kippur Kattan piyut יום זה יהי משקל was written in 1614 by R. Yehuda Aryeh Modena for the Shomrim Laboker in Venice.