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a community-grown, libre and open-source 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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לְמַלְמֵל וּלְהַמהֵם | The non-cognitive experience of ambient mumbling in communal Jewish prayer by R’ Elie Kaunfer  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:The mode of silently reading prayers puts the worshiper in the realm of the cognitive—just as we might experience reading a book on the subway. But the act of mumbling moves from a purely cognitive experience to a more viscerally emotional act. The aesthetic effect of this mumbling serves a dual purpose: Besides its own value as a way of engaging in prayer, it provides a contrast to the truly silent parts of the prayer: the Amidah. . . . תְּפִלַּת הַדֶּרֶךְ לְרוֹכְבִים | A Traveler’s Prayer for Bicycle Riders, by Rabbis Rachel and Ofer Sabath Beit-Halachmi Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:May it be Your will, our God That You lead us toward peace; that You enable us to ride in safety; that You lead us with blessing. Save us from all accidents and unstable wheels, from a dangerous driver and a bounding chariot.[ref]after Nahum 3:2[/ref] סידור פרחי (מנהג הספרדים) | Siddur Farḥi, a bilingual Hebrew-Arabic prayerbook by Dr. Hillel Farḥi (1913) Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:Join us in creating a faithful digital transcription of the Siddur Farḥi (Hillel Farḥi, 1917), a nusaḥ sepharadi, minhag Egypt siddur. After transcription and proofreading, this new digital edition will be shared under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) Public Domain dedication. The edition will then be encoded in TEI XML and archived in the Open Siddur database, a libre Open Access liturgy database. We are grateful to Alain Farḥi for imaging this Public Domain work and providing a digital copy for this effort. . . . חׇנֵּנוּ יָהּ חׇנֵּנוּ | Ḥonenu Yah Ḥonenu (Forgive Us Yah in the Merit of Moshe Rabbenu), by the Ben Ish Ḥai (ca. 19th c.) Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:The 7th of Adar is the traditional date for the yahrzeit of Moshe Rabbeinu and it is also remembered as the day of his birth 120 years earlier. This variation of of the piyyut, Hanenu Yah Hanenu (Forgive Us Yah, Forgive Us), sung on 7 Adar, is attributed to Rabbi Yosef Ḥayyim of Baghdad (the Ben Ish Ḥai, 1832-1909). The earliest published version we could find appears in בקשות: ונוסף עוד פתיחות ופיוטים הנוהגים לומר בזמה הזה (1912) containing piyyutim by Israel ben Moses Najara (1555-1625), a Jewish liturgical poet, preacher, Biblical commentator, kabbalist, and rabbi of Gaza. The contemporary audio recording of the Iraqi nusaḥ presented here was made by משה חבושה (Moshe Ḥavusha). . . . תהילים או לוס סאלמוס; טריסלאד’אד’וס דיל לשון הקדש אין לה לינגואה ספרדית | Psalms in Ladino (Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit, ca. 1852/3) Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:Join us in creating a faithful digital transcription of Tehilim, o los Salmos, trezladados del leshon ha-ḳodesh en la lingua Sefaradit (Ǧ. Griffit, 1852/3). After transcription and proofreading, this new digital edition will be encoded in TEI XML and archived in the Open Siddur database. We are grateful to the Sephardic Studies Collection at the University of Washington Library for imaging this Public Domain work. . . . אמרי לב | Prières D’un Cœur Israélite, a collection of paraliturgical prayers and teḥinot in French by Jonas Ennery & Rabbi Arnaud Aron (1848/53) Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:A collection of paraliturgical prayers and teḥinot, edited by the chief rabbi of Strasbourg and translated into French by Jonas Ennery, as a supplement to the Jewish liturgy of the synagogue. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:Making sense of Ḥad Gadya beyond its explicit meaning has long inspired commentary. For me, Ḥad Gadya expresses in its own beautiful and macabre way a particularly important idea in Judaism that has become obscure if not esoteric. While an animal’s life may today be purchased, ultimately, the forces of exploitation, predation, and destruction that dominate our world will be overturned. Singing Ḥad Gadya is thus particularly apropos for the night of Passover since, in the Jewish calendar, this one night, different from all other nights, is considered the most dangerous night of the year — it is the time in which the forces of darkness in the world are strongest. Why? It is on this night that the divine aspect of Mashḥit, the executioner, is explicitly invoked (albeit, only in the context of the divine acting as midwife and guardian/protector of her people), as explained in the midrash for Exodus 12:12 . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:The 7th of Adar is the traditional date for the yahrzeit of Moshe Rabbeinu and it is also remembered as the day of his birth 120 years earlier. This variation of of the piyyut, Tsa’akah Yokheved, popularly sung on 7 Adar, is first attested in a 1712 Sepharadi mahzor published in Amsterdam, as transcribed above with some minor changes with the contemporary audio recording of the Iraqi nusaḥ made by משה חבושה (Moshe Ḥavusha). (The piyyut appear without niqqud.) An older version (perhaps the original version), attributed in the Maagarim database to Shmuel Shlomo and dated before 1050 CE, is attested in two manuscripts: “London, British Library 699” and “Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ham. 288”. Ibn Ezra (1089-1167) quotes a stanza from the version we have presented here (“וכבד אמי אחרי התנחמי”) indicating that this version may be at least as old. . . . מגילת ניקנור | Megillat Niqanor (II Maccabees, chapters 13-15), a Reading for the Day of the Elephantarch Contributor(s): Categories:It is challenging to think of how to mark Nicanor Day, as it remains at a disadvantage, not only on years when it conflicts with Ta’anit Esther but on all years since it has no mitzvot. This is probably the main reason that, unlike Chanukah and Purim, it was lost to Jewish practice for more than a thousand years. Nevertheless, we do have its megillah, which has been translated into Hebrew and English. Perhaps, if we start reading chapters 13-15 of 2 Maccabees, even just to ourselves, on the 13 of Adar, we can begin to resurrect a holiday that was celebrated and instituted by Judah Maccabee and his followers over two millennia ago, and which they envisioned would continue throughout Jewish History. With the return of Jews to Israel and Jewish sovereignty to Jerusalem, I believe it is about time. . . . |
A Companion to the Authorised Daily Prayer Book, by Israel Abrahams (revised edition 1922)
A literary and historical commentary on the Jewish liturgy corresponding to the pages of the Authorised Daily Prayer Book of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire (1890). . . .