— for those crafting their own prayerbooks and sharing the content of their practice
A prayer for a country poised between demise and rebirth, by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein (Applied Jewish Spirituality 2023)Written on 6 Nisan 5783, 27 March 2023 (after nightfall), in response to the Israeli people’s spontaneous demonstrations against the government’s attempts to amass virtually unchecked power. . . . The first day of Pesach, according to the Sages, is the day the world is judged for grain and dew. Because of this, many customs have developed tying it into the pomp of the High Holy Days. One custom preserved in many medieval maḥzorim is to extend the final blessing of the the Musaf “Tal” (Dew) service, including a Hayom piyyut, a piyyut form otherwise almost exclusively associated with the Yamim Noraim. This extended Sim Shalom berakha including piyyutim is presented here, largely based on the form compiled by Ernst Daniel Goldschmidt (zatsal). . . . על השואה ועל התפלתה | Prayer in the Shoah, an essay and a prayer by Rabbi Dr. David Weiss Halivni (2000)A meditation on a unique prayer heard by Rabbi Dr. David Weiss Halivni at the Rosh Hashanah services at the Wolfsberg Labor Camp in 1944. . . . Categories: Holocaust & Genocide Memorial Day Readings, 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer, Davvening Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust (DRVH), non-dual theology, the Holocaust Contributor(s): Peter W. Ochs (translation), David Weiss Halivni and Aharon N. Varady (transcription) Blessings and Ethics: The Spiritual Life of Justice, a dvar tefillah on berakhot by Rabbi Dr. Joshua Gutoff (1997)An article looking at the questions of why there aren’t brakhot for ethical mitsvot, in which an approach to the function brakhot as part of a spiritual and imaginative discipline is proposed. At the same time, it is argued that all ethical practices are first exercises in listening. . . . Categories: Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer A paraliturgical adaptation of the prayer/curse, “Shfokh Ḥamatekha,” this prayer, likely written during, or just after the Holocaust, recognizes those nations and righteous gentiles who fought and risked their lives to aid and rescue European Jewry. . . . Categories: Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Barekh, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust 📖 סדר תפלת ישורון (מנהג הספרדים) | Seder Tefilat Yeshurun, a bilingual Hebrew-English prayerbook translated by Menaḥem-Gershon Glenn (1935)This is סדר תפלת ישורון Book of prayers Tephilath Jeshurun: containing all the prayers for the year according to the custom of the holy congregations of the Sephardim in the Orient and elsewhere translated by Menaḥem ben Mosheh Yeḥezqel and published by the Hebrew Publishing Company in 1935. . . . Categories: Comprehensive (Kol Bo) Siddurim Mediæval Hebrew Minstrelsy: Songs for the Bride Queen’s Feast (1926), an anthology of Sabbath table songs with rhymed English translations by the compiler, Herbert Loewe as well as others identified in his “Introduction.” The sixteen zemirot included have commentaries based on those provided by Dr. Leo Hirschfeld in his בזמרות נריע לו Die häuslichen Sabbathgesänge für Freitag⸗Abend, Sabbath⸗Tag und Sabbath⸗Ausgang (1898). Musical notation for the zemirot melodies were prepared, and a chapter on the music was written, by Rose L. Henriques. There are also delightful illustrations throughout by Beatrice Hirschfeld. Chief Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz provided the foreword. . . . 📖 בזמרות נריע לו | Die häuslichen Sabbathgesänge für Freitag⸗Abend, Sabbath⸗Tag und Sabbath⸗Ausgang, by Dr. Leo Jehudah Hirschfeld (1898)Birkonim (bentschers) with table songs sung on the Sabbath with accompanying translations are now commonplace, but they not always were. The first major collection with accompanying translations was Dr. Leo Hirschfeld’s בזמרות נריע לו Die häuslichen Sabbathgesänge für Freitag⸗Abend, Sabbath⸗Tag und Sabbath⸗Ausgang (1898), an anthology of Sabbath table songs organized according to their traditional feast (Sabbath night, day, and Sabbath afternoon) in the Ashkenazi tradition. . . . Contributor(s): Leo Jehudah Hirschfeld and Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation) Morning Prayers was compiled by Rabbi Gustav Gottheil for the morning prayer service of his congregation at Temple Emanu-El, New York, in 1889. . . . Categories: Morning siddurim Contributor(s): Gustav Gottheil, Temple Emanu-El (New York City) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription) “Prayer of Thanksgiving for the Last Days of Passover” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), pp. 21-22. . . . Categories: 7th Day of Pesaḥ “Prayer for the First Days of Passover (פסח)” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), pp. 20-21. . . . Categories: Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag Gebet am Uiberschreitungsfeste (חג הפסח) | Prayer on the Passover Festival, a teḥinah by Meïr haLevi Letteris (1846)“Gebet am Uiberschreitungsfeste” was written by Meïr haLevi Letteris and published in תָּחֲנוּנֵי בַּת יְהוּדָה (Taḥnunei bat Yehudah): Andachtsbuch für Israelitische Frauenzimmer (1846), pp. 35-36. In the Judeo-German edition, it is found on pp. 34-36. . . . Categories: Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag Gebet am Erinnerungsfeste der Befreiung aus Egypten (Pessach) | Prayer on the Festival of the Liberation from Egypt (Pesaḥ), a teḥinah by Max Emanuel Stern (1841)“Gebet am Erinnerungsfeste der Befreiung aus Egypten. (Pessach.)” was written by Max Emanuel Stern and published in Die fromme Zionstochter (1841), pp. 42-45. In its 1846 printing, the prayer is found on pp. 43-46. . . . Categories: Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag תַשְׁפִּיעַ עָלַי חָכְמָה בִּינָה וָדַעַת מֵאִתְּךָ | Pour upon me your wisdom, understanding, and knowledge (Liqutei Tefilot Ⅰ:58 part 1) by Reb Noson Sternhartz of Nemyriv (ca. 1820s) and “A Student’s Prayer” as adapted by Rabbi Morrison David Bial (1962)“A Student’s Prayer,” was adapted by Rabbi Morrison David Bial from Reb Nosson Sternhartz of Nemyriv’s Liqutei Tefilot I:58.1, itself adapted from the teachings of Rebbe Naḥman of Bratslav in Liqutei Moharan I:58.1. The adaptation by Rabbi Bial was first published in his anthology, An Offering of Prayer (1962), p. 83, from where the English was transcribed. I have set his adaptation side-by-side with the Hebrew as well as I could determine, providing for a reference Yaacov David Shulman’s translation as originally published by the Breslove Research Insitute in 2009. –Aharon Varady . . . Categories: Learning, Study, and School Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., Prayers before Torah Study, public speaking, תחינות teḥinot Contributor(s): Morrison David Bial, Noson Sternhartz of Nemyriv and Aharon N. Varady (transcription) “Am Überfhreitungsfest (At the Exodus Festival)” was first published in Pereẓ (Peter) Beer’s Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion (1815), as teḥinah №26 on pages 85-90 where it was rendered in Judeo-German. The German rendering transcribed above follows teḥinah №26 in Henry Frank’s 1839 edition on pages 74-78. A variation can also be found in the Beer’s 1843 edition as teḥinah №27 on pages 70-74. . . . Categories: Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag אֲשֶׁר בָּרָא יֵין עָסִיס | Asher Bara Yayin ‘Asis — a Poetic Extension of the Blessing over Wine for the Passover Seder (ca. 9th c.)The following piyyut seems to have been customarily used in some Babylonian communities as an extensive replacement for the “creator of the vine-fruit” opening of the kiddush. Rav Saadia Gaon forbade it for being an alteration of the talmudic formula, but his successor Rav Hai Gaon permitted it for its cherished status. No communities today have preserved a custom of reciting it, but in 1947 Naphtali Wieder (zçl) published a text he found in the Cairo Geniza, which is replicated and translated below. Daniel Goldschmidt (zçl) suggests that it may be in it of itself a compilation of two different rites. The conjunction point is marked below with a black line. . . . Categories: Ḳadesh אתי בשלם | ࠀࠕࠉ࠰ࠁࠔࠋࠌ | Itti Bishlam (Come in Peace), a Samaritan Aramaic Poem for the Festival Season by Marqeh ben Amram (ca. 4th c.)Itti Bishlam is a sixteen-hundred year old Samaritan Aramaic poem attributed to the great Samaritan sage Marqeh son of Amram. In twelve stanzas it tells the story of the night of the tenth plague and the Exodus. Samaritans traditionally recite it on the night before the holidays, the Sabbaths before the holidays, and the evening before the first day of the first month (the Samaritan new year, fourteen days before Passover). Largely a half-alphabetical acrostic, the fifth stanza of Itti Bishlam begins with an īt (ḥeth) rather than the expected īy (her), understandable considering the loss of guttural distinctions in Samaritan phonology. (See the number of Jewish poems which confuse sin and samekh for a parallel occurrence.) Itti Bishlam is, interestingly enough, lacking polemic or sectarian content — it never calls upon the Samaritan holy mountain of Aargaarizem (Mt. Gerizim), nor does it include any context that contradicts the traditional Jewish interpretation of the paschal narrative. It is worthwhile for Jews to learn about and understand the liturgical practices of their sister religion, and this poem is a great place to start! . . . Categories: Magid | ||
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