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PULP Kaddish

Image: Monkey, Bananas, John Travolta & Samuel L. Jackson and More Bananas" by Mr. Cary and Banksy (license: CC-BY 2.0)

Tired of people who can’t tell their kiddish (blessings for the Sabbath) from their kaddish (prayer for the dead)? Well, it sets Samuel L. Jackson off too! But he found a way of making a bracha (blessing) and mourning the dead at the same time. Now I can’t vouch for the origins of his nusaḥ (custom) but it sounds very effective! Most people haven’t noticed, the only real part from the Bible is that last section, the first part is actually his own spiel: . . . → Read More: PULP Kaddish

Tikkun Ḥatzot: Getting Right at Midnight

Shmuel Gonzales, who has for years now been transcribing sections of the Nusah Ha-Ari (comparable to the liturgy in Siddur Tehillat Hashem and the Siddur Torah Ohr) graciously shared his latest work: a transcription of the midnight devotional liturgy called the Tikkun Ḥatzot. What follows is Shmuel’s introduction to this work. (All of Shmuel’s transcriptions . . . → Read More: Tikkun Ḥatzot: Getting Right at Midnight

The Nusaḥ Ha-Ari of Rav Schneur Zalman of Lyadi (transcribed by Shmuel Gonzales)

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: The Nusaḥ Ha-Ari of Rav Schneur Zalman of Lyadi (transcribed by Shmuel Gonzales)

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