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a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources — for those crafting their own prayerbooks and sharing the content of their practice
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2011 —⟶ Page 2 Through eating those fruits that our sages of blessed memory identified as the fruit of the tree of knowledge, we recall the best of creation, in its beauty and completeness. We remember that every human being, by virtue of being a human being, is the pinnacle of creation. Our task as caretakers is to preserve the world, to work it, and to repair it. Our task is to make the State of Israel more just, so that she will be a blessing to all of her inhabitants and those who love her. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): ‘Life Sentence’ is a poetic exploration of solitary authorship — interpreting the old-world literary tradition and archetypes for the ‘ADD’ generation. This is a boundary and genre-crossing work that exists at the intersection of Radical Jewish, Indy and Hip-Hop culture. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This prayer for Tu biShvat, derived from the prayer included with the seder for Tu biShvat, the Pri Ets Hadar, are based on the Ḳabbalah of the four worlds and the ancient idea that everything physical is an image of the spiritual. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, four worlds, Lurianic Kabbalah, North America, school of the ARI z"l Contributor(s): Traditional Judaism offers a confessional prayer, or vidui, to be recited during a time of serious illness or near death. If the patient is unable to recite the prayer, others may do so on his or her behalf. This modern adaptation [of vidui] places less emphasis on atonement for sins, and more on the bonds connecting the patient to his or her loved ones. It can be recited by a friend, family member, or chaplain on behalf of a person who is very ill, especially when life and death are hanging in the balance. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Avi Dolgin shares his mindful practice for maintaining “tashlikh consciousness” in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah. . . . The formulation for giving thanks for entering wakefulness innovated by Moshe ibn Makhir, as translated by Andrew Shaw. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Alive, English vernacular prayer, Gratitude, מודה אני Modeh Ani, רשות reshut, shaḥarit, Spirit, Sunrise, Wakefulness Contributor(s): Language is simultaneously a portal and a barrier to prayer. Jews have prayed in Hebrew for millennia, yet our oldest sources also speak of prayer in other languages. Come explore the history of the language of prayer, how our linguistic preferences define what prayer is about, and how we might approach this issue today. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An original liturgical poem inspired by the Modah|Modeh Ani prayer. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Compassion, Darkness, Dawn, English vernacular prayer, Gratitude, Hypnogogic State, Light, Needing Translation (into Hebrew), Sunrise, Threshold, Wakefulness Contributor(s): The prayer/songsheet used for the Avodat Lev dawn prayer service of the farmers in the Adamah Fellowship on the campus of the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center in Falls Village, Connecticut. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Adamah Farm, eco-conscious, farming, Ḥazon, Isabella Freedman Retreat Center, Openers, Prayers of Jewish Farmers, songbooks, weekdays Contributor(s): Noam Raye Lerman and I were co-teachers in the Fall 2011 season at Kolot Chayeinu‘s children’s learning program in Park Slope Brooklyn, and as a Ḥanukkah present we made a Ḥanukkah Madrikh for our Kittah Gimmel class. I’m certain there are Jewish educators all over the world preparing curricular resources for Ḥanukkah right about now. We hope that by sharing this they can take it and improve on it, or else we’ll save them some energy so they’ll be able to do even more mitsvot. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): As the month of Elul wanes, we are preparing. We prepare for the new moon, we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, and we prepare for the zombie invasion. I have it on good authority, as do you, that the onslaught is imminent. The alarm blares every morning — a shofar blast and a warning… . . . Categories: Tags: cannibalism, d'var t'fillah, אלול elul, predation, predatory nature, תהלים Psalms, Psalms 27, Tehillim, תשובה teshuvah, זמן תשובה Zman teshuvah Contributor(s): In the wake of the continued uprooting of fruit trees and human settlements in the Land of Israel, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights shared the following petitionary prayer. . . . Categories: Conflicts over Sovereignty and Dispossession, 🇮🇱 Yom haNətiōt (Planting Day), Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot (Tu biShvat), Planting Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., ecumenical prayers, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, Progressive Zionism, תחינות teḥinot Contributor(s): A song in English with Arabic translation, addressed from a Jew living in Jerusalem to his Arab neighbors, locally and regionally during the Arab Spring. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Arab Spring, Arabic translation, Egypt, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Jordan, Lebanon, love, فلسطين Filasṭīn Palestine, peace, Saudi Arabia, Syria, ישראל Yisrael Contributor(s): We are hereby ready to fulfill our obligation of K’vod Habriot, respect for the dignity of every human being. We pray that our fellow citizens shall not be the source of suffering in others. We commit ourselves to raise our voices in support of universal human rights, to know the heart of the stranger, and to feel compassion for those whose humanity is denied. May our compassion lead us to fight for justice. Blessed is the Source of Life, who redeemed our ancestors from Egypt and brought us together this night of Passover to tell the story of freedom. May God bring us security and peace, enabling us to celebrate together year after year. Praised are you, Source of Righteousness, who redeems the world and loves justice and freedom. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Freedom, haggadah supplements, North America, צדק צדק תרדוף tsedeq tsedeq tirdof Contributor(s): Last Sukkot 5771 (2011), Efraim Feinstein shared the sourcesheet for his late night shiur (lesson) on copyright in Rabbinic Halakhah (Jewish law). Efraim’s research adds a great deal of important perspective to our work here on the Open Siddur Project. It provides relevant historical context for our work advocating the adoption of free culture principles and free-culture licenses to facilitate sharing (tachlis) within the Jewish world. . . . Some rabbinic sourcetexts related to the topic of how to write in your siddur, shared with translations by Rabbi Mordechai Torczyner. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A prayer on the anniversary of the attacks on 11 September 2001. . . . Beginning late last year, I began a project to translate the Birkat Hamazon using Rabbi Simeon Singer’s English translation and the Nusaḥ ha-Ari as the basis for publishing birkonim (or in Yiddish, benchers). The original work was sponsored by the Teva Learning Center and its executive director, Nili Simhai, to be used in birkhonim specifically designed for use during weekdays during Teva’s Fall season. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): How good are you playing this amazing, venerable role-playing game called Judaism? Playing your whole life? Grand. So is it fun? Is it worthwhile? Would you recommend it to your friends? No. All right… so why not? Oh. Yeah. Oh… true. Ok, yeah, those are all good reasons. But what if I told you there was a way to play it better. Not everyone will catch on at first, but it should satisfy the most conservative players AND the most innovative. The geeks will love it and it will lower the bar for entry to even the most simple of players. Ok, it does sound too good to be true. But hey, what’s the point of playing the game if you’re not willing to suspend the physics of the familiar and try on a new set of rules. Embrace the illusion. Try on a new reality. Help create a new one, together. I just want players to use their imagination, feel appreciated instead of alienated, and just improve the game for everyone. So what is it? I’ll tell you. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): 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. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): | ||
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