Dedication-Hymn, by Felix Adler (1868)

“Dedication-Hymn” is a hymn written by Felix Adler and published in Hymns, for Divine Service in the Temple Emanu-El (1871), hymn №37, p. 71. We have tentatively dated this hymn to 1868, since another hymn by Adler (“School-hymn, no. 36”) can be found appended from another unattributed work in A Guide to Instruction in the Israelitsh Religion (Samuel Adler, trans. M. Mayer, Temple Emanu-El, 1864, 4th printing 1868). That date does match the year that the then new building for Temple Emanu-El’s synagogue was dedicated, 11 September 1868. . . .

Categories: Homes & Community Centers

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., dedications and consecrations, English vernacular prayer, hymns

Contributor(s): Felix Adler and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

O Tag des Herrn! (O Day of YHVH), a paraliturgical Kol Nidrei by Leopold Stein (1840)

“O Tag des Herrn!” is a paraliturgical Kol Nidrei by Leopold Stein. All the translations I’ve found from the 19th or early 20th century were produced for use in choirs and try to emulate the rhymed structure in the Stein’s German. So here is a straight translation I’ve made of the stanzas that avoids that pretense. –Aharon Varady . . .

Categories: Yom Kippur

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., German vernacular prayer, O Tag des Herrn, paraliturgical kol nidrei

Contributor(s): Leopold Stein and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

תְשׁוּאוֹת מִקְהִלַת הָעִבְרִים בְּרוֹמָא | Universitatis Hebreorum urbis Gratiarum actio | Plaudit for Pope Benedict ⅩⅣ, by the Jewish Community of Rome (1751)

A plaudit of gratitude in Latin and Hebrew for Pope Benedict XIV’s interventions after the River Tiber overflowed its banks and flooded the Jewish Ghetto in Rome. . . .

Categories: 🇮🇹 Italy

Tags: 18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., flash floods, Floods, Latin translation, Pope Benedict XIV, Prayers for leaders

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

רָנּוּ שָׁמַֽיִם | Ronnu shamayim, a piyyut celebrating the Decalogue by Elyaqim

This piyyut is signed “Elyaqim Ḥazaq.” Alas, we do not know who this Elyaqim was or even whether he was a rabbinic or Karaite Jew. The piyyut has been preserved for us in the Karaite cycle (Vilna printing press, 1852, Vol. IV, p. 135.) and there are several other piyyutim signed with his name. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: Acrostic signature, Decalogue, פיוטים piyyutim, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Stephen Belsky, Anonymous (translation), Elyaqim haPayyetan, Ḳaraite Jews of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)