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 Contributor(s): |
Dalia Marx and Aharon N. Varady (translation)
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 Categories: |
Sukkot, Hoshana Rabbah
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 Tags: |
acrostic, Hoshana Rabbah, הושענות hoshanot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Alphabetic Acrostic, Haqafot, ישראל Yisrael
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A supplemental hoshana (prayer for salvation) for healing and consolation for the sake of true love, needed blessings, rainfall in a timely fashion, paths and their repair, mountains and their crossing, goals and objectives, lasting memories, good dreams, cosmic goodness, etc. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Unknown Author(s)
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| Categories: |
Incantations, Adjurations, & Amulets, Home, Theurgy
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19th century C.E., קמעות ḳame'ot, 56th century A.M., Epidemic, Asiatic Cholera, Pandemic, ברכת הבית birkat habayit, קמעות qame'ot (amulets), Needing Attribution
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The Birkat Habayit is perhaps the most popular blessing in the Jewish world, appearing as a hanging amulet inside the entrance of many houses of Jews of all streams. I have added niqud to the blessing and I am very grateful to Gabriel Wasserman for his corrections to my vocalization. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Gabbai Seth Fishman (translation) and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
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| Categories: |
Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, Sukkot, Ecotastrophes, Hoshana Rabbah
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20th century C.E., eco-conscious, North America, Hoshana Rabbah, הושענות hoshanot, 58th century A.M., hakafot, ecoḥasid
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A supplemental Hoshanot liturgy for Sukkot confessing a selection of humanity’s crimes against creation. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Emily Aviva Kapor-Mater
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| Categories: |
Birkhot haShaḥar, Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31), Well-being, health, and caregiving
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all bodies, transgender bodies, disabled bodies, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אשר יצר Asher Yatsar, North Amercia
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Asher Yatzar (the “bathroom blessing”, traditionally said every morning and after every time one goes to relieve oneself) has always rung hollow to me, at best, and at worst has been a prayer not celebrating beauty but highlighting pain. The original version praises bodies whose nekavim nekavim ḥalulim ḥalulim (“all manner of ducts and tubes”) are properly opened and closed—yes, in a digestive/excretory sense, but it is quite easy to read a reproductive sense into it as well. What do you do if the “ducts and tubes” in your body are not properly opened and closed, what if one is open that should be closed, or vice versa? . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aryeh Bernstein
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| Categories: |
Well-being, health, and caregiving, Repenting, Resetting, and Forgiveness
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activism, social justice, medical treatment, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Chicago, צדק צדק תרדוף tsedeq tsedeq tirdof
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A disproportionate amount of the alarming gun violence in Chicago takes place on the South Side, yet the South Side lacks even a single level one adult trauma center. Consequently, gunshot victims sometimes minutes from death must be transported miles away to Downtown or North Side hospitals. In 2010, after Damien Turner, an 18-year-old resident of the South Side Woodlawn neighborhood, died waiting for an ambulance to drive him ten miles to a downtown hospital instead of two blocks to the University of Chicago Medical Center (UCMC), a grassroots collaboration of community organizations, faith leaders, and University of Chicago student groups began organizing the Trauma Center Coalition, dedicated to reopening a Level 1 adult trauma center at UCMC, the most well-resourced hospital on the South Side. So far, the university has refused. As part of the coalition’s ongoing campaign, last week [April 23, 2015], dozens of activists gathered on the university’s historic Midway field, for a vigil of prayer and song from different faith traditions. At dusk, participants lit candles to spell out “Trauma Center Now”, right across from the home of U. Chicago President Robert Zimmer, and then camped out for the night. As a representative of coalition partner Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, I was invited to offer a Jewish prayer, which is reproduced here; I read it in both the English and Hebrew. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Daniel Landau (translation) and Jessica Berlin
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| Categories: |
Planting, Separation
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Garlic, 21st century C.E., Adamah Farm, 58th century A.M., Jewish Farming, Teva Learning Center, Until Next Time, ADVA Reunion
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Garlic is typically the last crop planted on a farm, it is planted in the fall and harvested the following summer. So you are leaving a legacy for next years farmers (which might be you). We begin by separating the garlic bulbs from the cloves, similar to separating people from their community. Then, once the individual (garlic cloves) are planted, they form new communities in the ground. Similar to the process that we are all going through. Leaving our community here on the farm and going out into the world to create new communities. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
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| Categories: |
Seder l'Pesaḥ, Slavery & Captivity
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slavery, human trafficking, activism, social justice, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., community organizing
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“The wicked child asks: What does this work mean to you? Mah ha’avodah ha’zot lachem” (Exodus 12:26). I think about this question a great deal as a rabbi whose core work involves fighting modern-day slavery. I think about it when I talk to my children about what I do every day, when I call anti-trafficking activists and say, “What can rabbis do to support you?” or when I stand before Jewish audiences and urge them to put their energy behind this critical human rights issue. The answer must go deeper than simply saying, “We were slaves in Egypt once upon a time.” The memory of bitterness does not necessarily inspire action. What inspires me is not slavery but redemption. God could part the Sea of Reeds, but the Israelites could not truly be free until they had liberated themselves, after 40 years in the desert, from slavery. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and Nahum Waldman
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| Categories: |
Medinat Yisra'el (the State of Israel)
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| Tags: |
מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, North America, Progressive Zionism, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, ישראל Yisrael, Needing Translation (into Hebrew)
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This prayer for Israel was written by Rabbi Naḥum Waldman (1931-2004) for T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. T’ruah works to ensure that Israel remains a safe and secure home for Jews and a place that lives up to the ideal stated in the State of Israel’s 1948 Declaration of Independence that Israel “will foster the development of the country for all of its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Anat Hochberg (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Unknown Author(s)
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| Categories: |
Midrash Aggadah, Ḥanukkah Readings, Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat)
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Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, colonization, sexual violence, sexual predation, Droit du seigneur, eating animals, חג הבנות Ḥag HaBanot
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This digital edition of Midrash Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah was transcribed from the print edition published in Otzar Hamidrashim (I. D. Eisenstein, New York: Eisenstein Press, 5675/1915, p.189-190). With much gratitude to Anat Hochberg, this is the first translation of this midrash into English. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Nava Hefetz and Shaul Vardi (translation)
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| Categories: |
Conflicts over Sovereignty and Dispossession, Social Justice, Peace, and Liberty
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English Translation, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, safety, תחינות teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Arabic translation, the Next Generation, Jewish-Muslim Friendship, Prayers on behalf of children, Universal Peace, Israeli–Palestinian conflict
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A translation in Arabic and English of Rabbi Nava Hafetz’s prayer for the children of the world. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Bonna Devora Haberman
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| Categories: |
Purim Readings
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| Tags: |
Feminism, leadership
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What are the inner workings of such an intricately crafted story that it devolves into so much gratuitous violence at the end? Haman’s racism follows imminently upon the heels of the king’s sexism. Indeed, the root of Haman’s wrath against Mordekhai and the Jews parallels the king’s fury against Vashti and the women. Both Vashti and Mordekhai refused to submit to degradation before authority. Disdain for and subordination of women are pre-conditions for the progression toward violent evils that threaten to prevail under the jester-king. One of the fundaments of feminism is that until we fix the basic gender dyad, there will be no resolution of other derivative inequalities, prejudices, and abuses—at personal, ethnic, national, and global levels. Core relationships between woman and man must embody mutual respect, dignity, and equality in our humanity. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Virginia Spatz
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| Categories: |
Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Social Justice, Peace, and Liberty
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| Tags: |
United States, Neighborhood Violence, 21st century C.E., Parashat Shoftim, 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, שפטים Shoftim, Gun violence in the United States, Needing Translation (into Hebrew)
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“Does joy come in the morning, where weeping has not tarried for the night? Can we dance together, if we have not yet joined in lament?” This prayer is a kavanah for the morning blessings, using language and images from the prayer “Mah Tovu” [how lovely are your tents] commonly recited in the early morning blessings. Offered with special intention for the healing of Congress Heights, Capitol View, and other neighborhoods in Washington, DC, rocked by persistent violence. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), David Seidenberg, neohasid.org and Jorge Mario Bergoglio
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| Categories: |
Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System
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| Tags: |
eco-conscious, ecumenical prayers, North America, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Hebrew translation, ecoḥasid, Northampton, Catholic and Apostolic Church, Vatican City
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An ecumenical prayer by Pope Francis from his encyclical, Laudato Si (praise be to you) from May 24th, 2015. Here’s my draft of a Hebrew translation of Pope Francis’ prayer for our earth. It turns out no one had translated it yet. The translation includes sparks from the High Holiday liturgy. I thought we should have it available for Rosh Hashanah, even though I’m sure the translation could use more work and more feedback. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Trisha Arlin (liturgist)
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| Categories: |
Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, Rosh Ḥodesh Elul (אֶלוּל)
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| Tags: |
four worlds, North America, first person, insects, crawling things, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Fourth Day of Creation, New York City, Prayers as poems, English vernacular prayer, neo-lurianic
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I have come to see That we are not the only creatures who are B’tzelem Elohim, We are all in God’s image. So today, on Rosh Ḥodesh Elul, On the New Year of the Domesticated Beasts, Let’s give thanks to the bugs Like the four questioning children Wise and snarky and simple and oblivious, Like the four worlds of the kabbala The earth, the sky, the heart and the spirit We give thanks and acknowledge The bugs we have domesticated The bugs who serve us in their wild state The bugs that hurt us or gross us out And the bugs who live only for themselves, without any reference to us. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Ally Ehrman, Yitzchok Hutner and the Maharal of Prague
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| Categories: |
Open Source Judaism, Source Texts
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| Tags: |
Open Source Judaism, sharing, sourcetext
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In our continuing effort to expose the foundations of Open Source Judaism in Jewish source texts, we have made a transcription of Rabbi Ally Ehrman’s shiur (lesson) explaining Rabbi Yitsḥoq Hutner’s ראש השנה מאמר ב “Rosh Hashana Ma’amar 2” (circa 1950s) published in Paḥad Yitsḥoq, (a compendium of Rabbi Hutner’s teachings from the 1950s until his death in 1983). The ma’amar is an explication of the verse in Proverbs and familiar to anyone that sings Eyshet Ḥayil before the Sabbath evening meal, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and a loving-kind Torah is on her tongue,” (Proverbs 31:26). The ma’amar weaves ideas by the Maharal from Gevurot Hashem (6:4) commenting on the gemarah in Talmud Bavli Sukkah 49b that the meaning of Torat Ḥesed (loving-kind torah) is a torah learned with the intention of being retransmitted. Via the MaHaRaL, Rabbi Hutner teaches that this effort in giving is an act of loving-kindness whereby a new work is made freely and shared completely without any diminution of the source, the giver, or the recipient. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Unknown Author(s)
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| Categories: |
Shavuot, Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, Ḥanukkah
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| Tags: |
20th century C.E., animal welfare, צער באלי חיים tsa'ar baalei ḥayyim, בהמות behemot, animal protection, 57th century A.M., Yiddish songs, Pedagogical songs, ba'alei ḥayyim, ḥayot, Needing Source Images, Needing Attribution
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“Tsaar Balei Ḥayyim” ([It is forbidden to cause] suffering to a living creature), source unknown. Many thanks to Tiferet Zimmern-Kahan for recording the niggun for the song and to Naftali Ejdelman and The Jewish Daily Forward for providing the lyrics. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Gabriel Kretzmer Seed (translation) and Unknown Author(s)
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| Categories: |
Tishah b'Av
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קינות Ḳinnot, Mourning this Broken World, Yetsiat Mitsrayim, Ḥurban, Siege of Jerusalem (597 BCE), Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)
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Aish Tukad is a kinah for Tishah b’Av, usually recited towards the conclusion of the set of dirges for the morning service (in Goldshmidt’s numbering, it is number 32 of our 46 Kinot). According to Goldshmidt’s introduction, the structure of this Piyyut is based on a Midrash in Eicha Zuta 19, where Moses’ praises for God and Israel are seen as parallel to Jeremiah’s laments, thus creating the concept of a comparison between the joy of the Exodus and the pain of the Temple’s destruction. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
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| Categories: |
Learning, Study, and School, Torah Study
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| Tags: |
20th century C.E., talmud torah, Jewish Renewal, 58th century A.M., Elat Chayyim, Prayers before Torah Study, ecoḥasid
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A prayer before commencing the study of Torah in groups, in ḥavrutah study, or alone. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and David Fiensy
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| Categories: |
Shaḥarit l'Shabbat ul'Yom Tov, Liturgical traditions
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| Tags: |
Late Antiquity, Syria, 4th century C.E., 42nd century A.M., Greek vernacular prayer, Greek speaking Jewry
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This is a reconstruction of a sabbath liturgy for the Tefillah of the Amidah, at least in some variant of its public recitation, in Greek and preserved in an early Christian work, the Constitutiones Apostolorum (Apostolic Constitutions), a Christian work compiled around 380 CE in Syria. Several prayers derived from Jewish sources appear in the Apostolic Constitutions and they can be found grouped together and labeled “Greek” or “Hellenistic Syanagogal Works” in collections of apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. Because explicitly Christian references appeared to be added onto a pre-existing text with familiar Jewish or “Old Testament” themes and references, scholars in the late 19th century were already suggesting that as many as 16 of the prayers in the Apostolic Constitutions books 7 and 8 were derived from Jewish prayers. A more modern appraisal was made by Dr. Fiensy and published in Prayers Alleged to Be Jewish (Scholars Press 1985). Based on a careful analysis of the prayers, he concludes that the only prayers which can be identified as Jewish with certainty are those found in sections 33-38 of book 7. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Elijah's Journey and Oren Steinitz
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| Categories: |
Barekh
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North America, suicide prevention, community support, still small voice, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Psychopomp, haggadah supplements, suicide, suicide awareness, אליהו הנביא Eliyahu haNavi, Needing Vocalization
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Although God often speaks to humanity in the rumble of earthquakes, the roaring of wind and the thunder of storms, God spoke to Elijah, instead, in a still small voice. And, it was the nurturing power of the still small voice that slowly gave Elijah the courage and strength to be able to peek out of his deep abyss. On this night when we welcome Elijah to join our celebration, we acknowledge those who are so pained that they cannot fully celebrate, for joy eludes them. Although we may witness their physical wound with our eyes, we must also find ways to become attuned to their spiritual hurt and their emotional despair. The blood from the wound in their heart may not be visible and the cry in the depth of their throat may not be audible unless we train ourselves to attend to them. But, they are there. Our challenge is see and hear the pain of those whose depression affects their lives. Our response does not have to be bold in order to make a difference. A still small voice can transform a frown into a smile. A caring whisper that says, “I care” can raise a stooped head. A tender embrace can provide salve to a soul racked with pain. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Yaakov Reef
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| Categories: |
the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Kabbalat Shabbat
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North America, candle lighting, Aviv, Spring, vernal equinox, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M.
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In the year 5775 (2015), the vernal equinox coincided with Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan, the Hebrew month known also as Aviv (Spring), as well as the onset of Shabbat, and a total solar eclipse. Here is a short meditation to receive the shabbat in embrace of the new season. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Unknown Author(s)
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| Categories: |
Second Temple Period, Shavuot Readings
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| Tags: |
anti-predatory, pre-rabbinic judaism, 2nd century B.C.E., 36th century A.M., mytho-historical chronicles, early Judaism, deuterocanonical works, יובל Yovel Jubilee, Ethiopian Jewry, parabiblical aggadah, Mäṣḥäf Ḳədus
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We are grateful to Dr. James VanderKam for preparing this critical text of the Book of Jubilees (Sefer Yubalim) in its Ge’ez translation in Ethiopic script. The book of Jubilees is an early Jewish deutero-canonical text originally written in Hebrew and composed during the Second Temple period sometime before the Maccabean struggle (164 BCE). . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Rachel Salston (translation) and Elazar ben Killir
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| Categories: |
Tishah b'Av
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קינות Ḳinnot, Mourning this Broken World, 7th century C.E., 45th century A.M., אוי oy
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“Alelai Li” is a kinah recited on the morning of Tisha bAv. It was written by HaKalir around the 7th century. According to the Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot, it is number 17 of 50. The title is the refrain of the poem and is an onomatopoeic whimper (try saying it aloud, focusing on the alliteration). It is difficult to translate the opening word “im” which means “if” or “should”. This is an allusion to Job 10:15, “If I have done evil, then woe unto me.” I have decided to translate the kinah not in the conditional tense (which would render “If these horrible things happened, then woe is me!”) but as a lament upon memory; however, the former would be a more accurate (if not more awkward in English) translation. Adding to the awkwardness of the poem’s language is the feminine conditional verb that each line has after the word “im”. I have maintained this strange verb tense and placement in my translation by using the English progressive tense. The kinah ends with a collection in lines in a different meter suggesting that the Holy One (and the paytan himself) is angered that the Jewish people announce their sufferings but not their transgressions. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Eden Pearlstein and Shir Yaakov Feinstein-Feit
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| Categories: |
Art & Craft, Yotser Ohr
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| Tags: |
hip hop, acrostic, Aleph-Bet, animation, otiyot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Alphabetic Acrostic, Prayers as poems, English piyyutim, ספר יצירה Sefer Yetsirah, אל ברוך El Barukh, rap, יוצר אור yotser ohr
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A song by Darshan including the alphabetic acrostic piyyut, El Barukh, part of the morning Yotser Ohr blessing made prior to the Shema at the official beginning of the Shaḥarit service. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady
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| Categories: |
Art & Craft, Theurgy
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| Tags: |
Aleph-Bet, otiyot, gematria
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Basic Hebrew letter and vowel lists adorn the opening pages of a number of siddurim published a century ago — evidence of the centrality of the Jewish prayer book as a common curricular resource. But the Hebrew letters are not only essential to fluency in Hebrew language, they are also the atomic elements composing the world of the rabbinic Jewish imagination. This is especially so for those who conceive in their devotional literary practices an implicit theurgical capability in modifying and adapting the world of language though interpretation, translation, and innovative composition. To create a world with speech relies on thought and this creative ability is only limited by the facility of the creator to derive meaning from a language’s underlying structure. This, therefore, is a table of the Hebrew letters arranged in order of their numerical value, in rows 1-9, 10-90, and 100-900, so that elements with similar numerical structure, (but dissimilar phonetic amd symbolic attributes) appear in vertical columns. Attention has been given to the literal meaning of the letter names and the earliest glyph forms known for each letter in the Hebrew abgad. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Gabriel Kretzmer Seed (translation) and Elazar ben Killir
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| Categories: |
Tishah b'Av
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| Tags: |
קינות Ḳinnot, Mourning this Broken World
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Az Bahalokh Yirmiyahu is a kinah, “based on Eikhah Rabati Petikhta 24, in which Jeremiah says to God: “I am like a father who prepared to take his only son to be married, and the son tragically died under the wedding canopy. Do you not feel any pain for me or for my son?” God responds: “Go and rouse Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses from their graves, for they know how to cry…” (Daniel Goldschmidt, Seder Kinot le-Tisha b’Av, Jerusalem, 1972, 98). . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Rabbi Jacob Jehudah Leão (translation)
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| Categories: |
Government & Country, United Kingdom
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| Tags: |
Great Britain, 17th century C.E., 55th century A.M., Western Sepharadim, Sephardic Diaspora, Netherlandish Jewry, הנותן תשועה haNotén Teshuah, reconstructed text
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Rabbi Jacob Judah Leon’s Prayer for King Charles II, from his 1675 booklet, was the first Jewish prayer in English for an English king (Mocatta Library, University College London). . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Unknown Author(s), Aharon N. Varady and Rabbi Natan Slifkin
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| Categories: |
Rosh haShanah la-Melakhim, Erev Shabbat, Hekhalot Writings, Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, Birkhot haShaḥar, Rosh Ḥodesh Readings, Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot (Tu biShvat)
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animals, hymns of creation, heikhalot literature, Openers, Late Tannaitic, Early Ammoraic, Early Middle Ages, birds, creeping creatures, cosmological, 5th century C.E., 43rd century A.M., ההיכלות ויורדי המרכבה haHeikhalot v'Yordei haMerkavah
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Talmudic and midrashic sources contain hymns of the creation usually based on homiletic expansions of metaphorical descriptions and personifications of the created world in the Bible. The explicitly homiletic background of some of the hymns in Perek Shira indicates a possible connection between the other hymns and Tannaitic and Amoraic homiletics, and suggests a hymnal index to well-known, but mostly unpreserved, homiletics. The origin of this work, the period of its composition and its significance may be deduced from literary parallels. A Tannaitic source in the tractate Hagiga of the Jerusalem (Hag. 2:1,77a—b) and Babylonian Talmud (Hag. 14b), in hymns of nature associated with apocalyptic visions and with the teaching of ma’aseh merkaba serves as a key to Perek Shira’s close spiritual relationship with this literature. Parallels to it can be found in apocalyptic literature, in mystic layers in Talmudic literature, in Jewish mystical prayers surviving in fourth-century Greek Christian composition, in Heikhalot literature, and in Merkaba mysticism. The affinity of Perek Shira with Heikhalot literature, which abounds in hymns, can be noted in the explicitly mystic introduction to the seven crowings of the cock — the only non-hymnal text in the collection — and the striking resemblance between the language of the additions and that of Shi’ur Koma and other examples of this literature. In Seder Rabba de-Bereshit, a Heikhalot tract, in conjunction with the description of ma’aseh bereshit, there is a clear parallel to Perek Shira’s praise of creation and to the structure of its hymns. The concept reflected in this source is based on a belief in the existence of angelic archetypes of created beings who mediate between God and His creation, and express their role through singing hymns. As the first interpretations of Perek Shira also bear witness to its mystic character and angelologic significance, it would appear to be a mystical chapter of Heikhalot literature, dating from late Tannaitic — early Amoraic period, or early Middle Ages. . . . |
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