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Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
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the Dry Season (Spring & Summer), Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System
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insects, crawling things, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Periodical cicadas, Brood X
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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. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Yaaqov ben Meir, Yonatan ben Uziel, the Masoretic Text and Ḥabaquq haNavi
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Shavuot Readings, Ḥabaquq
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acrostic, Aramaic, פיוטים piyyutim, תרגום targum, 12th century C.E., Acrostic signature, transtropilation, הפטרות haftarot, rhyming translation, 50th century A.M., Acrostic translation, יציב פתגם Yetsiv Pitgam
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The haftarah for the second day of Shavuot, Ḥabakkuk 2:20-3:19, interspersed with a cantillated text of the Targum Yonatan ben Uzziel. Since Targum Yonatan is a bit more drash-heavy than Targum Onkelos, it is translated separately as well. The haftarah reading includes the piyyut Yetsiv Pitgam, with an acrostic rhyming translation of the poem, with the second-to-last verse restored to its rightful place, as well as a concluding paragraph for the meturgeman to recite, as found in the Maḥzor Vitry. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)
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Shavuot
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acrostic, Aramaic, פיוטים piyyutim, תרגום targum, 13th century C.E., 51st century A.M., Alphabetic Acrostic, Decalogue, Acrostic translation
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“Ar’a Raqda,” a piyyut read directly before the Ten Commandments in the Targum, uses wedding imagery and language from the Shir haShirim to paint Sinai as a ḥuppah. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Brodie and Joseph Herman Hertz
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Government & Country, United Kingdom
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20th century C.E., Great Britain, British Commonwealth, 58th century A.M., British Jewry, British Empire, הנותן תשועה haNotén Teshuah, Queen Elizabeth II, British Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy, Queens
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The text of the prayer, haNoten Teshuah, as adapted for Queen Elizabeth II. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Joseph Herman Hertz
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Government & Country, United Kingdom
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20th century C.E., Great Britain, British Commonwealth, 58th century A.M., British Jewry, British Empire, World War II, הנותן תשועה haNotén Teshuah, British Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy
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The text of the prayer, haNoten Teshuah, as adapted for King George VI. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Laura Duhan-Kaplan (translation) and Daniel ben Yehudah Dayyan
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Arvit l'Shabbat, Baqashot
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interpretive translation, זמירות zemirot, פיוטים piyyutim, 15th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., doctrinal, יגדל yigdal, rhyming translation
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The philosophical-creed-as-piyyut, Yigdal, in Hebrew with a creative English translation. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Hillel ben Yaaqov of Bonn
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Khaf Sivan, Tishah b'Av
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סליחות seliḥot, acrostic, קינות Ḳinnot, 12th century C.E., Alphabetic Acrostic, 50th century A.M., Blois Incident of 1171
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Some Jewish communities, especially those in the region of the Four Lands, have a custom of fasting on the 20th of Sivan. This day has a full seliḥot service, commemorating a series of horrors that occurred on that day, most prominently the Chmielnicki (Khmielnetsky) massacres of 1648-49. But this poem was written for another horrific occurrence on 20 Sivan, the blood libel of Blois in 1171. This was the first time the accusation of ritual murder was ever made against the Jews of France, but it wasn’t the last. This seliḥah poem, written by Hillel ben Jacob of Bonn, starts with the dramatic accusation that God has abandoned the people Israel, continuing by listing those who died in myriad horrid ways, and ending with several citations from the apocalyptic final chapter of the book of Joel. . . . |
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