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the Open Siddur Project ✍︎ פְּרוֹיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ
an open-source, community-grown archive for those sharing prayers and crafting their own prayerbooks
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  Contributor(s): Categories:This version of Eyshet Ḥayil replaces valor with value, and while it speaks of man in terms of family, community, and the natural world, it is not heteronormative. . . . Prayer for Reparation and Restoration, an alternative to the Prayer for Welfare of the Government by Rabbi Brant Rosen (Tzedek Chicago) Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer for collective and communal well-being with an emphasis on dismantling systems of oppression and repairing their harms. . . . שמחת בת (זבד הבת) | Simḥat Bat: Zeved HaBat (The Gift of a Daughter), a Ceremony Guide to the Naming of a Jewish Girl by Dovi Seldowitz (2021) Contributor(s): Categories:This Simḥat Bat ceremony guide includes an order of blessings and ceremony with attention to various traditional customs regarding the use of blessings and prayers. The guide also includes words of Torah and rabbinic teachings which relate to the themes in the guide. . . . הַכָּרָת רִבּוֹנוּת הָאָרֶץ | Indigenous Land Acknowledgment for Cincinnati, Ohio, by Aharon Varady (Havayah community, 2021) Contributor(s): Categories:An indigenous land acknowledgement for Jewish communities in Cincinnati, Ohio. . . . כַּפָּרוֹת | Kaparōt, the ritual for the expiation of offenses before Yom Kippur (using money dedicated for charity) Contributor(s): Categories:The ritual of kaparot using a bundle of money dedicated for tsedaqah. . . .  Contributor(s):This prayer for a parent (or primary caregiver) on the vaccination of their children by Cantor Hinda Labovitz was first shared via their Facebook page on 5 November 2021, . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A personal declaration to become a shomer/et shalom on Yom Kippur. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:This mi sheberakh for the ill, and the two additional prayers, all appear on page 15-16 of Hayyim Obadya’s Seder Akhilat haSimanim for 5781. . . . תפלה להסרת מסכה | A Prayer for Removing the Mask, by Rabbi Dr. Dalia Marx and Rabbi Inbar Bluzer Shalem (2021) Contributor(s): Categories:“A Prayer for Removing the Mask,” was composed by Rabbi Dr. Dalia Marx and Rabbi Inbar Bluzer Shalem in June 2021. The English translation was made by Alex Cicelsky. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:Invocation for a Memorial Day ceremony at the Washington DC Vietnam War Veterans Memorial. . . .  Contributor(s):A contemporary Jewish prayer for healng, used at congregation Tzedek Chicago. . . . אֶפְתַּח פִּי לְךָ אָדוֹן | Eftaḥ Pi L’kha Adōn, a seliḥah for Kristallnacht by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer Contributor(s): Categories:There’s a lot of controversy over Yom haShoah as a date. One of the key issues is this: traditionally, the ways Jews mourn communal tragedies is through establishing a fast day. It’s forbidden to fast during the month of Nisan. It’s hard to pick any specific date to commemorate a tragedy as enormous as the Shoah, but one which seems appropriate to me would be 16 Marḥeshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom. This piyyut is a seliḥah for Kristallnacht, to be recited on 16 Marḥeshvan (or 15 Marḥeshvan on years like 5782 where the sixteenth falls on a Thursday). . . . Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff on 10 September 2021 Contributor(s): Categories:The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 10 September 2021. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A kavvanah for clarifying and elevating the activity of tax preparation. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer for the government on a day of violent insurrection in the heart of American democracy. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer for the observance of Memorial Day in the United States. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:Liturgy for a motsei shabbat havdallah ritual centering the experience of those with long-COVID. . . . Inauguration Day Prayer for the Government of the United States, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org 2021) Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer for the government of the United States of America on the day of the 59th Presidential Inauguration. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A pre-Shavuot prayer in the shadow of the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:Rabbi Yosi son of Rabbi Yehuda says: “Three good sustainers arose for Israel. These are they: Moses and Aaron and Miriam. And three good gifts were given because of them, and these are they: well, and cloud, and manna. The well was given in merit of Miriam… Miriam died and the well ceased, as it is written (Numbers 20:1-2) “And Miriam died there,” and it says right afterwards “and there was no water for the community.” . . .  Contributor(s): Tags:Prayers as poems, English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical nishmat kol ḥai, paraliturgical elohai neshamah, 2020 coronavirus pandemic, אלהי נשמה Elohai neshamah, September 2020 Western United States wildfires, 2020 United States racial reckoning, 21st century C.E., State v. Chauvin, 58th century A.M.
A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in 2021 reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer upon receiving a vaccination for COVID. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:Aleinu, as rewritten in Hebrew and English for Ḥavurat Shalom, Somerville, Massachusetts. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer of gratitude upon receiving a COVID vaccination. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:The popular table song calling for the redemption of the Messianic age in Tsiyon. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer for America on the day upon which right-wing militias carried out an insurrection upon the representative democratic institution of the United States. . . . קדיש דרבנן | Ḳaddish d’Rabanan (of Our Teachers), a translation by Everett Fox after Franz Rosenzweig Contributor(s): Categories:The Ḳaddish d’Rabanan, in Hebrew with English translation by Everett Fox after Franz Rosenzweig. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer on being present in the moment of the inauguration of the 59th president of the United States. . . . כַּוָּנָה וּבְרָכָה עַל רְאִיַּת נְחִיל רֶמֶשׂ גָּדוֹל עַד־מְאוֹד | Kavvanah and Blessing for Observing a Massive Swarm of Creeping Things, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer Contributor(s):There are blessings for beautiful vistas, and there are blessings for powerful weather. But is there a blessing for giant swarms of bugs? Certainly! There just wasn’t a kavvanah for it… yet. Inspired by the appearance of Brood X in May 2021, this is a meditation and blessing for the unique experience of seeing an enormous number of non-dangerous insects. Cicadas are NOT a plague — they don’t eat crops or spread disease, but they do help revitalize the soil and keep forest ecosystems healthy. As a natural part of the universal order, we should work to see the divinity and goodness in them, even if we might normally think of them as gross. . . .  Contributor(s):A prayer for those administering vaccinations. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer for students studying-abroad in Israel. . . . On the Reconciliation of Yitsḥaq: a meditation on the Offering of the Two Goats on Yom Kippur, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center) Contributor(s): Categories:Especially for those of us who use the Torah passages on the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael and the Binding of Isaac for Rosh Hashanah, together with Rabbi Phyllis Ocean Berman, I want to recommend that you read from the Sefer Torah the passage in Genesis 25:7-11 on the reconciliation of the two brothers as they come together to bury their dangerous father Avraham/Ibrahim/Abraham. . . . זמירות המזרח: מחזור ליום כפור | Zemirot haMizraḥ: Maḥzor for Yom Kippur, by Daniel Cayre (Kanisse 2021) Contributor(s): Categories:A bilingual Hebrew-English Sepharadi Jewish prayerbook (maḥzor) for Yom Kippur, with gender inclusive language, compiled and translated by Daniel Cayre for Kanisse: a Modern Sephardic + Mizrahi Community. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:If you are doing a Rosh Hashanah seder of simanim (signs, augurs, portents) using food puns, here are some topical additions including for beginning the Shmitah year. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:This translation of Tsam’ah Nafshi was made by Avi Shmidman and Tzvi Novick, and first published by the Az Yashir Moshe Project birkon (2009), p. 56-57. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A supplement to the Al Ḥet of the Yom Kippur vidui. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:The blessings for kindling the Ḥanukkah lights in Hebrew with English translation. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:Based on the acrostic signature, this piyyut popularly sung at the Shabbat table, is attributed to an otherwise unknown paytan named Yehonatan. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:“How Much Light? A Ḥanukkah Meditation” by Rabbi Menachem Creditor was first shared on the second night of Ḥanukkah 5782 (2021) via the Open Siddur Project discussion group on Facebook. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:Psalms 126 in Masoretic Hebrew, with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig. . . . How Desolate Lie Our Borders, a prayer adaptated from Eikhah for a Tishah b’Av vigil at an immigrant detention center by Rabbi Brant Rosen (2019) Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer for the correction of the United States immigration policy in support of immigrants and open borders. . . . Contributor(s): Categories:An old Persian tradition involves hitting each other with leeks during the recitation of Dayenu. Nowadays this is replaced with a gentle tap with a scallion for safety reasons. . . . קְלִפּוֹת לֶפֶת | Items for the Second Seder Plate: Turnip peels, after the Holocaust remembrance of Pearl Benisch Contributor(s): Categories:Pearl Benisch… remembers Passover in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in the spring of 1945, just days before her liberation. . . . כוונה לקראת ישיבת הבורד | Kavvanah before the Meeting of the Board of a Philanthropic Organization, by Limor Rubin Contributor(s): Categories:A prayer of intention before the meeting of the board of a philanthropic organization determining the recipients of the largess in their trust. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A penitential piyyut for the fast of the 17th of Tammuz. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:A global and inclusive prayer for the well-being of the diverse congregation of the people of Yisrael. . . . Təʾəzazä Sänbät, a work from the Greater Betä Ǝsraʾel Canon, translated and cantillated in Masoretic Hebrew Contributor(s): Categories:The Təʾəzazä Sänbät, or the Commandments of the Sabbath, is a unique and fascinatingly eclectic work, combining Enochic and aggadic material with an almost kabbalistic personification of Shabbat, and influence from Islamic and Christian texts. Attributed to Abba Ṣabra, a famed 15th-century convert to Judaism, it is a compilation of texts meant to be studied and considered on Shabbat, alongside unique and striking visualizations of divine cosmology, heaven and hell, and midrashim found nowhere else. . . . הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא | Ieste el pan de la afrisiyon | Ha laḥ’ma anya (This is the Bread of Oppression): the opening of Magid in a Ladino translation Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:This is Ha Laḥma Anya in Aramaic with translations in Ladino and English, from the Passover Seder Haggadah of Rabbi Emily Aviva Kapor-Mater, Haggadah Shir Geulah (2015, v.2.1/2016). . . . וּתְקוֹל | U-tqol of Djerba — a Midrashic Addition to the Haggadah relating the story of Avraham & Nimrod’s Furnace in Judeo-Tunisian Arabic Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:The ancient Jewish community of Djerba, an island off the coast of southern Tunisia, has many unique customs and practices. Among them is that during the Maggid, after the citation of Joshua 24:2-4 and before the paragraph beginning “Praise the One who keep faith with the people Israel,” an extensive work in Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is recited, telling the well-known story of Abraham’s realization of divine unity and his ordeal in the oven of fire. Here is a transcript of that text, vocalized according to the original manuscripts, transcribed, and translated into English and modern Hebrew. . . . בַּעָל חוֹבֵנוּ | Ba’al Ḥoveinu, a piyut for Seliḥot on the advent of the Shmitah year by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org) Contributor(s): Categories:This short piyut touches on these four themes related to Shmitah: release of debts, the rights of the land, the rights of wild animals (who share our food during Shmitah), and the freeing of slaves. The piyut would fit as part of Seliḥot before Rosh haShanah and during Yom Kippur. . . . לִשְׁמֹר הַשָּׁנָה שֶׁל שְׁמִטָּה | Candlelighting for Rosh haShanah, Shabbat, and Yom Tov during the Shmitah Year, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow Contributor(s): Categories:Four blessings to recite upon commencing the Shmitah year in candlelighting for Rosh haShanah, and to add to subsequent shabbat and festival candlelightings. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:Some communities have a practice of singing a song about Miriam alongside the well-known Havdalah song about Elijah the Prophet. But Miriam isn’t really a parallel to Elijah — she’s a parallel to Moshe and Aaron. When we’re talking about distaff counterparts to Elijah the clearest example is Seraḥ bat Asher. Seraḥ, the daughter of Asher, is mentioned only a handful of times in the Tanakh, but is given great significance in the midrash. Like Elijah, she is said to have never died but entered Paradise alive, and comes around to the rabbis to give advice or teachings. This song, which includes several references to midrashim about Seraḥ, is meant to be sung to any traditional tune of “Eliyahu haNavi.” It is dedicated to Ḥazzan Joanna Selznick Dulkin (shlit”a), who introduced me to the legends of Seraḥ bat Asher. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:The Amidah for the Shabbat Shaḥarit service in Reb Zalman’s devotional English adaptation, set side-by-side with the corresponding Hebrew liturgy. . . .  Contributor(s):A creative, interpretive translation of the the Mourner’s Ḳaddish. . . . הרקיע השביעי | The Seventh Heavenly Dome, a description and hymn of divine praise from Sefer ha-Razim Contributor(s): Categories:A hymn of praise found in the description of the 7th dome of heaven in Sefer ha-Razim . . . בַּשָּׁנָה הַבָּאָה | baShanah haBa’ah (Next Year), an elegy by Ehud Manor for his brother killed during the War of Attrition (1968) Contributor(s): Categories:“baShanah haBa’ah” (Next Year) by Ehud Manor written in 1968 in memory of his brother Yehudah. . . . Contributor(s):The Mourner’s Ḳaddish, in Hebrew with English translation by Everett Fox after Franz Rosenzweig. . . . תפילת העמידה ביום חול | the Weekday Amidah, a paraliturgical reflection by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman Contributor(s): Categories:A paraliturgical reflection of the weekday Amidah for a shame resilience practice. . . . בִּרְכָּת גָּאַל יִשְׂרָאֵל | Emet v’Yatsiv, a paraliturgical reflection by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman Contributor(s): Categories:A paraliturgical reflection of the blessing following the Shema, the Birkat Ga’al Yisrael, for a shame resilience practice. . . . Contributor(s): Categories:A paraliturgical reflection of the second blessing prior to the Shema, the Birkat Ahavah, for a shame resilience practice. . . . Contributor(s): Categories:A paraliturgical reflection of the second blessing prior to the Shema, the Birkat Ahavah, for a shame resilience practice. . . . Contributor(s): Categories:A paraliturgical reflection of the first blessing prior to the Shema, Yotser Ohr, for a shame resilience practice. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:“Lord! when I hear Thy holy law,” by Penina Moïse, was published in 1842, and appears under the subject “Divine Law” as Hymn 17 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), pp. 21-22. . . . Contributor(s): Categories:A paraliturgical reflection of the prayer Barukh She’amar for a shame resilience practice. . . . Contributor(s): Categories:A paraliturgical reflection of the prayer Aleinu for a shame resilience practice . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:The mantra-like piyyut “Ēin k-Ēlohēinu,” a praise of God’s attributes and uniqueness featuring incremental repetition, is found in siddurim as far back as the siddur of Rav Amram, and may date back to the Hekhalot literature. Many versions of it have been compiled in different languages, most famously Flory Jagoda (zç”l)’s Judezmo variant “Non como muestro Dyo.” Here the editor has compiled traditional Yiddish and Ladino translations, as well as developed new Aramaic and Arabic translations for this piyyut. The post-piyyut verses used in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic rites have been included. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:An earlier form of the prayer known as Aleinu, as found in the esoteric Jewish literature of the first millennium CE. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:This prayer appears on page 13-16 of Hayyim Obadya’s Seder Akhilat haSimanim for 5781. It is a variation of the piyyut Tayanu v’Tayatru albeit with a different opening line. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:This prayer appears on page 11-12 of Hayyim Obadya’s Seder Akhilat haSimanim for 5781. It is a variant of the prayer, “Eloheinu Shebashamayim,” a supplication read in the sephardic tradition during seliḥot. This version contains twenty-five lines as found in Sefer Selihot haShalem, Hazon Ovadia, p.48-51/. Other variations have fifty or more lines. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:This piyyuṭ, bearing the acrostic signature “Samuel,” is traditionally recited in the communities of Babylonia and India as a petiḥa, or opening poem, before the Song of the Sea. It is also sung on Shabbat Shira, the Sabbath where we read the Song of the Sea in public. This translation is an attempt to preserve the original meaning as well as the rhyme scheme and poetic form. . . . הפטרה לחג הפאי | Haftarah for the Festival of Pi, the twenty-second day of the seventh month (which falls on Shmini Atseret), I Kings 7:23-26 and 8:54-66 Contributor(s):Shmini Atseret is a strange festival. In some ways part of Sukkot, in some ways its own thing, it occupies an equivocal place in the yearly cycle. But one thing that is completely true: Shmini Atseret is on Pi Day. Well, Pi Approximation Day — the twenty-second day of the seventh month. Inspired by my friend and math enthusiast Aryeh Baruch (may he have a long life), I’ve compiled this altered form of the haftarah for Shmini Atseret in the diaspora, including the description of King Solomon’s “molten sea,” as well as an Aramaic “reshut” poem with a numeral acrostic of the first few digits of pi. . . . אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים | El Malé Raḥamim – Interfaith Memorial Service for the Homeless, by Rabbi Victor Reinstein (2014) Contributor(s): Categories:This paraliturgical adaptation of the El Malei prayer for an Interfaith Memorial Service for the Homeless was offered by Rabbi Victor Reinstein in 2014. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:Psalms 140 decries the injustice tolerated, supported, and rallied around within the community of Israel. This contemporary adaptation does the same. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories: Tags:In Yemenite practice, directly after the four questions are recited the youngest literate person at the table reads a brief Judeo-Arabic passage, here transcribed per the Yemenite transliteration system (wherein gimel dagesh = j and qof = g) and translated into Arabic and Hebrew. Instructional notes say this passage is “for the benefit of women and toddlers,” the two main classes of people who would have not had access to Hebrew education at the time. . . .  Contributor(s): Categories:An article in the Yiddish Daily Forverts (Forward) on the activities of the Open Siddur Project and its founder, Aharon Varady. . . . Purim 2021: From Darkness to Light, by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat & Rabbi David Evan Markus (Bayit: Building Jewish, 2021) Contributor(s): Categories:Tropified texts for Purim 2021 juxtaposing the text of Queen Esther with the words of Vice President Kamalla Harris and poet laureate Amanda Gorman. . . . Contributor(s): Categories:A paraliturgical reflection of Ashrei for a shame resilience practice. . . .  Contributor(s): Tags:English vernacular prayer, Palestinian refugees, Palestinian Diapsora, סליחות seliḥot, 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Needing Translation (into Hebrew), מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, Needing Translation (into Arabic), فلسطين Filasṭīn Palestine, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Refugee Crisis, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M.
A Tishah b’Av seliḥah for Gaza during the 2014 Gaza War. . . . Trōpifying English and other Latin Script Language Readings with Masoretic Hebrew cantillation marks (t’amim, trōp) Contributor(s): Categories:A digital font integrating Masoretic Hebrew cantillation marks in languages presented in Latin scripts. . . . |
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