December 2019 • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff on 30 December 2019

Contributor(s):

United States Congressional Record and Arnold E. Resnicoff

Categories:

United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags:

תחינות teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, 116th Congress, 2019 Monsey Hanukkah stabbing

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 30 December 2019. . . .

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff on 26 December 2019

Contributor(s):

United States Congressional Record and Arnold E. Resnicoff

Categories:

United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags:

Impeachment of Donald Trump, תחינות teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, 116th Congress

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 26 December 2019. . . .

Ḥanukkah Visualization on Infinite Light, by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein

Contributor(s):

Daniel Raphael Silverstein and Applied Jewish Spirituality

Categories:

Ḥanukkah, Visual Meditation

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אור הגנוז or haganuz, Light

A Ḥanukkah meditation on the hidden, infinite light of creation, the Or HaGanuz, with some of the midrashic and Ḥasidic sources it is based upon. . . .

Al HaNisim: For the Banners, by Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit

Contributor(s):

Ilana Streit

Categories:

Ḥanukkah

Tags:

English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical al haNissim, על הנסים al hanissim, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers as poems

An interpretive version of Al HaNisim for Ḥanukkah that is playful, powerful, and embodied. May it fuel our activism, including the self-care and community-building that is part of activism. . . .

Additions to Piyyutim on the High Holidays for the Shemitah Year, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg and neohasid.org

Categories:

Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Yom Kippur, the Shmitah Year (Earth's Shabbat)

Tags:

פיוטים piyyutim, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., ecoḥasid, היום תאמצנו Hayom T'amtsenu

Two suggestions for ḥazanim (cantors) and shliḥei tzibur on the High Holidays. . . .

Addition to the Rosh Hashanah Seder Akhilat haSimanim for the Shmitah Year, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org)

Contributor(s):

David Seidenberg and neohasid.org

Categories:

Seder Akhilat haSimanim, Symbolic Foods, the Shmitah Year (Earth's Shabbat)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., ecoḥasid

Many people eat special foods as part of a mini-seder at the beginning of the Rosh Hashanah meal and invoke blessings for the year as they eat them. This year, you can add figs to your Rosh Hashanah seder (apples and honey, or apples, dates, beets, etc.) and recite with this kavvanah (intention). . . .

Introduction [to the Siddur], by Rabbi Dr. Israel Wolf Slotki (1964)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Israel Wolf Slotki

Categories:

Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., introducing the Siddur, introducing Jewish prayer

An introduction to the Siddur, by scholar and translator Israel Wolf Slotki (1884–1973). . . .

אַמעריקע די פּרעכטיקע | America the Beautiful, a patriotic hymn by Katharine Lee Bates (1895) with Yiddish translation by Berl Lapin (1950)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Berl Lapin (translation) and Katharine Lee Bates

Categories:

Independence Day (July 4th)

Tags:

doikayt, hereness, 19th century C.E., United States, זמירות zemirot, 57th century A.M., Yiddish translation, Yiddish songs, American Jewry of the United States, Patriotic hymns

“America the Beautiful,” the patriotic hymn (1911 version) by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) in its Yiddish translation by Berl Lapin (1889-1952). . . .

Kavvanot and Blessings over Kindling the Ḥanukkah lights (HUC-JIR Klau Library MSS 281, Italy 1793)

Contributor(s):

Jason Schapera (translation) and Unknown Author(s)

Categories:

Ḥanukkah

Tags:

56th century A.M., 18th Century C.E., Liturgical customs of Kabbalists, in the merit of Matatiyah

Kabbalistic kavvanot and blessing formulations for the eight nights of Ḥanukkah. . . .

תחינה פון ראש חודש בענטשן | Prayer for Blessing the New Moon on the Shabbat Mevorkhim, by Sarah bat Tovim from the Tkhine of Three Gates (ca. early 18th c.)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Tracy Guren Klirs (translation) and Sarah bat Tovim

Categories:

Shabbat Məvorkhim

Tags:

תחינות tkhines, 56th century A.M., 18th Century C.E., Yiddish vernacular prayer, Paraliturgical Prayer for the New Month

The Prayer for Rosh Ḥodesh from the Teḥinah of the Three Gates by Sarah bat Tovim (18th century). . . .

אֵין אַדִּיר כַּיְיָ (מִפִּי אֵל)‏ | Ayn Adir kAdonai (Mipi El) :: There is none like YHVH

Contributor(s):

Akiva Sanders (translation), Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Unknown Author(s)

Categories:

Shavuot, Shemini Atseret (and Simḥat Torah), Se'udat Leil Shabbat

Tags:

פיוטים piyyutim, 17th century C.E., 54th century A.M., Alphabetic Acrostic, הקפה ד׳ fourth haḳafah, זמירות zemirot, acrostic

A popular piyyut for Simḥat Torah (4th hakkafah) originally composed as a piyyut for Shavuot and often referred to by its incipit, “Mipi El.” . . .

💬 מִדְרַשׁ מַעֲשֶׂה חֲנֻכָּה ב׳ | Midrash Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah “bet,” a retelling of Megillat Antiokhus as Midrash Aggadah

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)

Categories:

Midrash Aggadah, Ḥanukkah Readings

Tags:

martyrdom, Megillat Antiokhus

A retelling of the story found in Megillat Antiokhus as midrash aggadah. . . .

מְגִילַּת אַנטְיוּכַס | Megillat Antiokhus in Aramaic, critical text by Menaḥem Tsvi Kaddari with English translation by John C. Reeves

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), John C. Reeves (translation), Menaḥem Tsvi Kaddari and Unknown Author(s)

Categories:

Megillot, Ḥanukkah Readings

Tags:

המקבים Maccabees, Megillat Antiokhus, 40th century A.M., 2nd century C.E., English Translation, Aramaic, Bar Kochba Rebellion, Late Antiquity, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael

The critical text of Megillat Antiokhus in its original Aramaic, prepared by Menaḥem Tsvi Kaddari and translated into English by John C. Reeves. . . .

תהלים קל״ט | Psalms 139, a mizmor by David with verses attributed to Adam haRishon for the Winter Solstice

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (translation), the Masoretic Text and David haMelekh ben Yishai (traditional attribution)

Categories:

Tehilim Book 5 (Psalms 107–150), the Winter Solstice (21 December)

Tags:

Kalendes, Calends, solstice, מזמור Mizmor, קלנדס Ḳalends, Psalms 139, winter

A well-known midrash explaining the universality of the Kalends festival beginning after the Winter Solstice attributes this psalm to Adam haRishon, the primordial Adam, as they describe being knitted together within the Earth in Psalms 139:13-16. In the Roman calendar, the calends or kalends (Latin: kalendae) is the first day of every month. Named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, and derived from ianua, “door,” January began with the first crescent moon after the winter solstice, marking the natural beginning of the year. Marcus Terentius Varro, in his Res Rusticae (37 BCE) divided the agricultural year into eight parts. In the final part beginning on the winter solstice, no hard work was to be done outdoors. . . .