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a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources
This project is sustained through reciprocity for those sharing prayers and crafting their own prayerbooks.
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  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:Liturgy for a motsei shabbat havdallah ritual centering the experience of those with long-COVID. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:Some communities have a practice of singing a song about Miriam alongside the well-known Havdalah song about Elijah the Prophet. But Miriam isn’t really a parallel to Elijah — she’s a parallel to Moshe and Aaron. When we’re talking about distaff counterparts to Elijah the clearest example is Seraḥ bat Asher. Seraḥ, the daughter of Asher, is mentioned only a handful of times in the Tanakh, but is given great significance in the midrash. Like Elijah, she is said to have never died but entered Paradise alive, and comes around to the rabbis to give advice or teachings. This song, which includes several references to midrashim about Seraḥ, is meant to be sung to any traditional tune of “Eliyahu haNavi.” It is dedicated to Ḥazzan Joanna Selznick Dulkin (shlit”a), who introduced me to the legends of Seraḥ bat Asher. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:The Blessing over Separations was first read by Shelby Handler on Rosh Ḥodesh Kislev at the 2017 ADVA Reunion, a reunion of the community of Adamah Farm fellows and Teva Learning Center educators at Isabella Freedman Retreat Center. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:A prayer-poem inspired by the ritual Havdallah, preparing a separation between Shabbat and weekday time. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:Three short havdallah meditations that culminate in a havdallah prayer/blessing. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:These are the lyrics of the song, Miryam haNevi’ah, written by rabbis Leila Gal Berner and Arthur Waskow (with Hebrew by Leila Gal Berner) as found published in My People’s Prayer Book, vol. 7: Shabbat at Home, (ed. L. Hoffman, 1997), section 3, p. 189. The English lyrics are from an article published several years earlier — “Memories of a Jewish Lesbian Evening” by Roger McDougle appearing in Bridges (vol. 4:1, Winter/Spring 1994), on the top of page 58. No specific date is given for the havdalah program described in the article, alas. If you know the earliest reference for the publication or use of Miryam haNevi’ah, please contact us. . . .  Contributor(s): Tags:The pedagogical song “Hashem is Everywhere!” by Rabbi Yosef Goldstein (1928-2013) can be found in the context of his story, “Where is Hashem?,” the second track on his album מדות טובות Jewish Ethics Through Story and Song (Menorah Records 1972). In the instructions to reciting the lyrics, the singer points first to the six cardinal directions and lastly, by pointing inward towards one’s self. In so doing, one explicitly affirms the idea of the divine within ourselves and implicitly, in each other. . . . הִנֵּה שָׁם אֶמְצָאֶךָּ | Where We Can Find Yah, a prayer-poem by Eugene Kohn (1945) inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali (Song Offerings, 1912) Contributor(s): Tags:“Where We Can Find God,” a prayer-poem inspired by passages appearing in David Frishman’s Hebrew translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali. . . . הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחֹל | Hamavdil Ben Ḳodesh l’Ḥol, a piyyut attributed to Yitsḥaq ben Yehudah ibn Ghayyat (German translation by Franz Rosenzweig 1921) Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:The text of the piyyut, “HaMavdil,” with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig. . . .  Contributor(s): Tags:This is a prayer offered by the Piacezna Rebbe, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (1889-1943) and likely written down sometime in the 1920s before it was printed among other letters and writings in his sefer Derekh haMelekh (1931). The prayer, vocalized from the 2011 Feldheim edition and translated into English, was circulated online via the Lost Princess Initiative of Rabbi Yaakov Klein (Eilecha) beginning 25 May 2023. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:This paraliturgical prayer for the end of Shabbat havdalah was made by Jessie Ethel Sampter and published in her Around the Year in Rhymes for the Jewish Child (1920), p. 64. . . . הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחֹל | Hamavdil Ben Ḳodesh l’Ḥol, a piyyut attributed to Yitsḥaq ben Yehudah ibn Ghayyat (rhymed translation by Alice Lucas, 1898) Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:A rhymed translation of the piyyut sung following the Havdallah ritual. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:“Prayer for the Close of the Sabbath” is one of thirty prayers appearing in Rabbi Moritz Mayer’s collection of tehinot, Hours of Devotion (1866), of uncertain provenance and which he may have written. . . . אֱלֹהִים יִסְעָדֵנוּ | Elohim Yisadenu, a piyyut by Avraham ibn Ezra (trans. Rabbi David Aaron de Sola, 1857) Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:This translation by Rabbi David Aaron de Sola of “Elohim Yisadenu” by a paytan named Avraham (possibly Avraham ibn Ezra) was first published in his Ancient Melodies of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (1857). . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:“Meditations—Saturday night, Jan. 14, 1837” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 200-202. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 123-124. . . .  Contributor(s): Tags:“Saturday night, Dec. 31, 1836” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 196-199. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 112-115. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:“Saturday night, Dec. 24, 1836” (17th of Tevet, 5597) by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 192-195. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 110-112. . . . Contributor(s): Categories:Master of all realms! You hear from all worlds. You look with love and grace upon all of your creations for whose sake you created Your world. Seize and fulfill the pure request from Your servant who comes before You after a full week, having shown her heart is full and her mood somber. The beloved Shabbes koidesh is already going away, and with our Shabbes, our rest has also disappeared. A new week comes up to meet us, against us, Master of the universe. We are people who know, just like You know, the heavy and difficult life of Your people Yisruel: their bitter mood, how difficulty and bitterly each Jew acquires his meager piece of bread through worry and heartache, the fear and hardship with which each Jew scrapes together his seemingly hopeless living. . . . א דוּדעלע (אַיֵּה אֶמְצָאֶךָּ) | A Dudele (Where shall I seek you?), by Rabbi Levi Yitsḥaq of Berditchev (ca. 18th c.) Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:A profound song invoking divine presence. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A zemirah for havdallah by an otherwise unknown rabbinic payyetan known only by his signature acrostic. . . . יָהּ, אָנָה אֶמְצָאֶךָּ | Yah, Where shall I find you?, a piyyut by Yehudah haLevi (ca. early 12th c.) Contributor(s):A piyyut that expresses the paradox of a divinity that is both “Beyond” and “Present.” . . . |