Shared by Aharon Varady on י״ט בניסן ה׳תשע״ג (March 30, 2013) 
According to Rabbinic tradition, the 21st of Nissan is the day in the Jewish calendar on which Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the Sea of Reeds, and the redeemed children of Yisrael sang the Song of the Sea, the (Shirat Hayam, Exodus 15:1-19). The song, as included in the the morning prayers, comprises one of the most ancient text in Jewish liturgy. The 21st of Nissan corresponds to the 7th day of Passover, and the recitation of the Shirat HaYam is part of the daily Torah Reading. Rabbi Hillel Ḥayim Yisraeli-Lavery shares a performance of a melody he learned for the Shirat Hayam from צוף דבש Tzuf Devash, a Moroccan synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. If there is something about this tune that strikes one as particularly celebratory, it might be because the relationship between G!d and the Jewish people is traditionally described as a marriage consummated with the Covenant at Mt. Sinai. The passage of Bnei Yisrael through the Sea of Reeds towards Mt. Sinai thus begins a bridal march commencing in the theophany at Mt. Sinai, 42 days later. . . . → Read More: שירת הים | The Song of the Sea, sung with a Moroccan Nusaḥ by R’ Hillel Ḥayim Yisraeli-Lavery
Shared by Aharon Varady on ל׳ בשבט ה׳תשע״ג (February 10, 2013) 
Last year around this time, I was sitting with Ya’qub ibn Yusuf in his bookstore, Olam Qatan (54 Emek Refaim in South Jerusalem), asking if he might share some useful practice that I might share through the Open Siddur Project. He offered this thought which he had heard from someone else:
I have difficulty with the idea of thanking G!d for “returning my soul to me” sheheḥezarta bi nishmati while I’m still endeavoring to remain in touch with my dreams. So I much prefer what someone else suggested, that instead of saying nishmati (my soul), to say instead han’shamati (the embodiment of my soul). I thank G!d for returning me to my body — my soul was never missing.
. . . → Read More: Returning the body to the soul: an adaptation of Moshe ibn Makhir’s Modeh Ani
Shared by Andrew Shaw on כ״ט בכסלו ה׳תשע״ג (December 13, 2012) 
A booklet for the Birkhot haShachar liturgy, with adaptations to the Hebrew text (including a new brachot formulation), English translations, and original poetry. . . . → Read More: ברכות השחר | The Morning Blessings, a new formulation
Shared by Abe Katz on ח׳ בתשרי ה׳תשע״ג (September 24, 2012) 
In Avignon, France, in 1767, Eliyahu Karmi (Elijah Crémieux) compiled a siddur preserving the nusaḥ of the Comtat Venaissin titled the סדר התמיד (Seder HaTamid). Just after the section for תפלת שחרית (the morning prayers), Karmi provides the following advice for how to organize one’s workday: . . . → Read More: After Shaḥarit: Abiding Advice for Daily Living by Eliyahu Carmi (1767) translated by Abe Katz
Shared by Effron Esseiva on י״א בסיון ה׳תשע״ב (June 1, 2012) 
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
Shared by Andrew Shaw on י״ח בכסלו ה׳תשע״ב (December 14, 2011) 
An original liturgical poem inspired by the Modah|Modeh Ani prayer. . . . → Read More: A Kavanah for Waking Up by Andrew Shaw
Shared by Andrew Shaw on י״ח בכסלו ה׳תשע״ב (December 14, 2011)
Thankful am I in your Presence, Spirit who lives and endures, for You’ve returned to me my soul with compassion. Abundant is your faith! . . . → Read More: מודה אני | Modah/Modeh Ani (translation by Andrew Shaw)
Shared by Arthur Waskow on י״ב באב ה׳תשע״א (August 12, 2011) We are grateful to Rabbi Arthur Waskow for contributing his expansion of and meditation on the Shema, originally composed the 6th of Tishrei, 5764 (October 2nd, 2003).
Sh’ma: An Interpretation for the 21st Century
Sh’sh’sh’ma Yisra’el — Listen, You Godwrestlers! Pause from your wrestling and hush’sh’sh To hear — YHWH/ Yahh
Hear in the stillness . . . → Read More: Shema by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Shared by Avraham Hyman Ḥarlap on ו׳ באב ה׳תשע״א (August 6, 2011) אָֽנָא, הָאֵל יְיָ, בּוֺרֵא הַשָּׁמַֽיִם וְנוֺטֵיהֶם, רֹֽקַע הָאָֽרֶץ וְצֶאֱצָאֶֽיהָ, נֹתֵן נְשָׁמָה לָעָם עָלֶֽיהָ, וְרֽוּחַ לַהֹלְכִים בָּהּ׃
Please, God Adonai, Who creates the skies and drapes them over the earth, Who spreads out the earth and its descendants, Who grants life to its nations, and vigor to those . . . → Read More: A Civic Minded Prayer for the Government (translated by Alan Scott Belsky)
Shared by shamirpower on י״ב בסיון ה׳תשע״א (June 14, 2011) 
We are grateful to the Adamah Fellowship at Isabella Freedman for sharing the morning prayers for their Avodat Lev (Heart Work). The arrangement of prayers is organized on a one page songsheet, with translations shared with a Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 3.0 Unported license. . . . → Read More: Seder Avodat Lev: early morning prayers of the farmers of Adamah
Shared by Aharon Varady on כ״ב באדר ב׳ ה׳תשע״א (March 28, 2011) 
When works are printed bearing shemot, any one of the ten divine names sacred to Judaism, they are cared for with love. If a page or bound work bearing shemot falls to the ground it’s a Jewish custom to draw up the page or book and kiss it. Just as loved ones are cared for after they’ve fallen and passed away, when the binding fails and leaves fall from siddurim and other seforim they are collected in boxes and bins and brought for burial, where their holy words can decompose back into the earth from which their constituent elements once grew, and were once harvested to become paper and books, and ink, string, glue. While teaching at the Teva Learning Center last Fall 2010, I collected all our shemot that we had intentionally or unintentionally made on our copy machine, or which we had collected from the itinerant teachers who pass through the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center on so many beautiful weekend shabbatonim. While leafing through the pages, I found one and kept it from the darkness of the genizah. . . . → Read More: Barukh Shem Kavod Malkhuto — an illustrated meditation on the unification of imagination and awareness through empathy
Shared by Aharon Varady on ט״ז בשבט ה׳תשע״א (January 21, 2011) 
Once upon a time, according to the Mishnah, it was the nusaḥ (liturgical tradition) of the Cohanim in the Bet Hamikdash[1] for the Ten Commandments to be read prior to the Sh’ma. Here’s the relevant teaching from Mishnah Tamid (32b in Talmud Bavli Tamid), emphasis mine:
מתני’ אמר להם הממונה ברכו ברכה אחת והם ברכו . . . → Read More: Adventures in Ancient Jewish Liturgy: The Ten Commandments and the Sh’ma in the Nash Papyrus
Shared by Rallis Wiesenthal on כ״ד במרחשון ה׳תשע״א (November 1, 2010) 
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
Shared by Chajm Guski on כ״א באלול ה׳תש״ע (August 31, 2010) יגדל אלוהים חי | Yigdal Elohim Hai
יִגְדַּל אֱלֹהִים חַי וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח נִמְצָא וְאֵין עֵת אֶל מְצִיאוּתוֹ. אֶחָד וְאֵין יָחִיד כְּיִחוּדוֹ נֶעְלָם וְגַם אֵין סוֹף לְאַחְדּוּתוֹ. אֵין לוֹ דְמוּת הַגּוּף וְאֵינוֹ גּוּף לֹא נַעֲרֹךְ אֵלָיו קְדֻשָּׁתוֹ. קַדְמוֹן לְכָל דָּבָר אֲשֶׁר נִבְרָא רִאשׁוֹן וְאֵין רֵאשִׁית לְרֵאשִׁיתוֹ. הִנּוֹ אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם לְכָל נוֹצָר יוֹרֶה גְּדֻלָּתוֹ וּמַלְכוּתוֹ. שֶׁפַע . . . → Read More: יִגְדַּל | Yigdal by Daniel ben Judah (a new German translation)
Shared by Shmueli on כ״ח באב ה׳תש״ע (August 8, 2010) 
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
Shared by Aharon Varady on כ״ה באב ה׳תש״ע (August 5, 2010) 
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)
Shared by Virginia Spatz on ט״ו באב ה׳תש״ע (July 26, 2010) 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
Shared by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi on א׳ במרחשון ה׳תש״ע (October 19, 2009) 
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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Is the Hebrew text below readable? א֚וֹ יַחֲזֵ֣ק בְּמָעוּזִּ֔י יַעֲשֶׂ֥ה שָׁל֖וֹם לִ֑י שָׁל֖וֹם יַֽעֲשֶׂה־לִּֽי׃ If the text above from Isaiah 27:5 is unreadable, please use a more capable web browser, such as Mozilla Firefox or Chromium (Google Chrome). To test your browser further, click here. Every shekel, drachma, or dollar you contribute helps to liberate the ingredients of Jewish spiritual practice for all collaborating free/libre and open source initiatives. Your tax deductible donation will help us afford to maintain this website, grow this project, and complete our web application.
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