Project volunteers transcribe works already in the Public Domain. To safegaurd their attribution while permitting adaptive reuse, contributing liturgists and translators choose an Open Content license for their own work. By sharing in this way, those participating in Jewish prayer will always have the facility to utilize and improve upon available resources for their own needs and contexts while remaining clear about the origin and lineage of the resources. We hope that through the community and platform we develop here, those already familiar with Jewish prayer will be able to develop a more expansive cultural literacy in the diverse customs and languages of the historic and contemporary Jewish world. One committed at heart to the craft of their own prayerbook should really only be limited by their knowledge of prayers and liturgical customs.

   We contend that the cost of participation in the most primary activities of Judaism should be kept as low as possible so that our multilingual cultural infrastructure may continue to live and grow without arbitrary and proprietary barriers to access. For this reason, the resources and technologies collected and utilized by this project are shared freely: gratis (without cost) and libre (without restriction). As personal and communal prayer remains one of the primary activities of Jewish devotional practice, and siddurim are the primary means for accessing and engaging in Jewish prayer, we want every practitioner to have access to the resources they may need for compiling their own prayerbooks. The platform we are developing here exists to cultivate a community that shares Open Content licensed prayers and develops open-source publishing technologies for the production of new siddurim.

   Why are we so animated by this mission? We think it's key to keeping religious Jewish practice vital, relevant, beautiful, and liberating. Jewish prayers, liturgical customs, and ritual praxes were all developed as part of a cultural commons, built upon decades, centuries, and millennia of innovation. We think of siddurim not only as containers of Jewish identity and spiritual heritage, but also as public repositories of effective exercises, prompts, and methods – shared praxes – for growing the creative and emotional intelligence in the individuals and communities who choose to utilize them in their committed practice. We are opposed to the imposition of over-reaching access controls on the content of Jewish prayerbooks by proprietary interests, whether they be sectarian/denominational, private/commercial, or any other self-interest. (We take no issue with the layout, arrangement, and design choices of any one or group so long as the underlying semantic data remain accessible for redistribution and creative reuse under open standards and proper attribution.) If we truly believe that our avodah (sacred labor/work/craft) is life changing and integral to the repair of the world, then it should remain shareable in every channel available to its distribution, and guarded from monopolization by proprietary interests. In short, public resources should be shared with open licenses.

   Our commitment to collaboration and sharing is why we call our siddur project “open.” We aspire to be a resource of Jewish prayer as freely shared as the Torah of Loving-kindness (תּוֹרָת חֶסֶד) described in Sukkah 49b, transmitted as openly and earnestly as the Torah was shared in the Midbar Sinai, as free a resource for all who enter into the world as fire, water, and wilderness (cf. Mekhilta d'Rebbi Yishmael on Shemot 20:2, §Baḥodesh). Just as the otherwise ephemeral world of scholarship and creativity is sustained by the acknowledgment implicit in proper credit and attribution, so too is the vitality of this heartfelt collective. All these offerings of words, insight, and ritual praxis graciously shared by those "whose hearts have been stirred" (cf. Exodus 36:2) have been made with the expectation of attribution as explicitly stated in the rabbinic Jewish requirement concerning the proper transmission of oral teachings: they must be shared in the name of the one from whom they were received (cf. Avot 6:6, Megillah 15a:20). In this way, the lineage of the source is preserved, the creator is honored, and the lattice of kindness supporting the selfless creative act is reinforced.

   For these reasons, our project values are also aligned with the definition of open content and open data maintained by the Open Knowledge Foundation, the definition of open-source maintained by the Open Source Initiative, and the four values of libre/free culture maintained by the Free Culture Foundation. ☞ Read more in our copyright policy.

   Have a favorite prayer, piyyut, or praxis? If it's not yet in the archive, then please upload it! Make it available to others studying Jewish prayer or crafting their own prayerbooks.

   ☞ Read more about our mission and project history. If your question isn't answered there or in our FAQ, please contact us. (For a technical introduction, please consult this presentation. If you'd like to improve this website or help build our Open Siddur web-to-print application, please contact us and join us on github.)