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My Weekday Amidah

Image: Grey-winged Trumpeter (Psophia crepitans napensis) by Dallas Krentzel (License: CC-BY 2.0)

This is Effron Esseiva’s morning Amidah (standing prayer) for weekdays. Effron writes, “It’s called Shmonei Esrei (18) because it used to have eighteen brakhot (blessings). However, it has an additional brakha to bring it to nineteen. This is my interpretation of the Teissa Esrei (19) with abridged kavvanot (intentions).” . . . → Read More: My Weekday Amidah

סידור שפת ישראל | Siddur Sefas Yisroel, a nusaḥ Ashkenaz siddur dedicated to the memory of the Bad Homburg Jewish community

In Memory Of The Bad Homburg Kehilloh

It started as a project to compile a siddur that I could daven from. Living in Chicago, most of the siddurim which are available are Artscroll, Birnbaum, etc. Just to try and find a Rodelheim, or Baer’s Avodat Yisroel is nearly impossible. That was about twelve years ago. . . . → Read More: סידור שפת ישראל | Siddur Sefas Yisroel, a nusaḥ Ashkenaz siddur dedicated to the memory of the Bad Homburg Jewish community

תפלת מנחה לשבת | Shabbat Minḥah Prayers (Jakob J. Petuchowski, 1966)

Dr. Jakob J. Petuchowski

This prayer-leaflet was primarily intended for a group of Hebrew Union College students who met every sabbath afternoon for extra-curricular (noncredit) Torah study with Dr. Rabbi Jakob Petuchowki in the mid-1960s. Their service was conducted entirely in Hebrew and in the traditional nusaḥ with some minor but interesting Liberal innovations. Petuchowki writes, “We have omitted only the various repetitions as well as the prayer for the restoration of the sacrificial service. (But we have retained the place of Zion as the symbol of the messianic hope.) In the ‘Alenu prayer, we have preferred a positive formulation of the “Election of Israel” to the traditional negative one.” . . . → Read More: תפלת מנחה לשבת | Shabbat Minḥah Prayers (Jakob J. Petuchowski, 1966)

סידור תורה אור | Siddur Torah Ohr: the Nusaḥ Ha-Ari according to Rav Schneur Zalman of Lyadi

Rav Schneur Zalman of Liadi

When Rav Yiztḥak Luria, zt”l, also known as the Holy Ari, davvened in Eretz Yisroel he brought about a series of liturgical innovations witnessed in later siddurim. His particular nusaḥ bridged minhag Ashkenaz and minhag Sefarad (the customs of the Rheinland Jews and the customs of the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula) with the teachings of his school of Kabbalists. When two centuries later, the Ḥassidic movement blossomed in Eastern Europe, it found purchase in Lithuania among a mystical school centered around Rav Schneur Zalman of Lyady, the Alter Rebbe and founder of the ḤaBaD movement within Ḥassidism. The Alter Rebbe compiled his own siddur, the Siddur Torah Ohr, “according to the tradition of the Ari.” . . . → Read More: סידור תורה אור | Siddur Torah Ohr: the Nusaḥ Ha-Ari according to Rav Schneur Zalman of Lyadi

The Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire (trans. Rabbi Simeon Singer, 1890)

Simeon-Singer

Before the Koren-Sacks Siddur (2009), there was the Authorised Daily Prayer Book first published in 1890 and used by Jews throughout the British Empire, while there was a British Empire. It was originally published under the authorization of Great Britain’s first Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Nathan Marcus Adler with a Hebrew liturgy based on Isaac Seligman Baer’s Seder Avodat Yisroel (1868). The translation by Rabbi Simeon Singer (1846-1906) was the most extensive English translation of the Siddur ever published, and for this reason most editions are simply referred colloquially as The Singer Siddur. The Standard Prayer Book, published by Bloch in 1915, was an American reprint of The Authorized Daily Prayer Book. . . . → Read More: The Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire (trans. Rabbi Simeon Singer, 1890)

On Standing Before God-Who-Sees-Me

The Amidah’s choreography is designed to call to mind an appearance before a sovereign so as to invoke the proper “stance.” Consider, though, the variety of God-communications depicted just in the book of Genesis: God talks to Adam and Eve, to Cain, Noah, and Abimelech. God even talks to the serpent. God heeds Ishmael “where . . . → Read More: On Standing Before God-Who-Sees-Me

Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi

Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

The Open Siddur is pleased to announce the first contribution of a contemporary translation of the siddur. Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi contributed his Weekday Siddur and Sabbath Supplement: Siddur Tehillat HaShem Yidaber Pi. The siddur presents Reb Zalman’s creative translation in English of Psalms, blessings, the Amidah, liturgical poetry, meditations, and other prayers read daily and . . . → Read More: Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi

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