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a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources
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 Contributor(s):I tried to look at different aspects of what we as Jews contemplate and think about as we move towards the High Holy Days. God’s view of what we did out of fear and loneliness and perhaps why we can never see God’s face and for us to reflect on how we act in the world and what God has asked us of in this lifetime. This poem/prayer is perhaps a little rough, that was intentional. Rather than being a true historical commentary on Elul, I tried to tell a little story about it. . . . Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff on 8 August 2023 Contributor(s):The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 8 August 2023. . . . Contributor(s):This prayer/poem [‘Call of the Shema’] came out of Rabbi Greene’s (Rabbi of Cong. Har Hashem in Boulder, Colarado) sermon this past Friday and our Torah Study discussion Saturday morning on Parashat Eikev. . . . תְּפִלָּה לְשׂוֹרְדֵי הַשּׁוֹאָה | Mi sheBerakh for Survivors of the Holocaust, by Rabbi Avi Baumol (2021) Contributor(s):“Holocaust Survivor Prayer” was written in English by Rabbi Avi Baumol in 2021 upon the establishment of Holocaust Survivor Day by the JCC of Krakow, Poland. The prayer was first published at the website of Holocaust Survivor Day. . . . Contributor(s):“Kinah Lekhurban Gan Eden” was written by Richard Kaplan and first published as the fourth track to his album Life of the Worlds: Journeys in Jewish Sacred Music (2003). This work is under the copyright stewardship of the estate of Richard Kaplan and was republished here at the request of Barak Gale who made a recording of the song with the permission of Richard Kaplan while he was alive. . . . Contributor(s):These are the lyrics of the song, Miryam haNevi’ah, written by rabbis Leila Gal Berner and Arthur Waskow (with Hebrew by Leila Gal Berner) as found published in My People’s Prayer Book, vol. 7: Shabbat at Home, (ed. L. Hoffman, 1997), section 3, p. 189. The English lyrics are from an article published several years earlier — “Memories of a Jewish Lesbian Evening” by Roger McDougle appearing in Bridges (vol. 4:1, Winter/Spring 1994), on the top of page 58. No specific date is given for the havdalah program described in the article, alas. If you know the earliest reference for the publication or use of Miryam haNevi’ah, please contact us. . . . Contributor(s):The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (UDAR) was first proclaimed in Paris on 15 October 1978 at the headquarters of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) with the ambition of it being formally adopted in the United Nations General Assembly. The French League of Animal Rights spurred the development of a revised text written during the General Assembly of the International League of Animal Rights, held June 3–4, 1989 in Luxembourg, and adopted on October 21, 1989. The declaration was submitted to the UNESCO Director General in 1990 however it has never been formally adopted. . . . Contributor(s):This is the Hanoten Teshua formula of the Prayer for the Wellbeing of the Government as translated by Artur Carlos de Barros Basto in Portuguese on page 34 of his Shabbat morning prayer-pamphlet Oração Matinal de Shabbath (1939). I have set Barros Basto’s Portuguese translation side-by-side with the Hebrew text of Hanoten Teshua (the variation of the prayer corresponding to Barros Basto’s translation). . . . Contributor(s):“My America (Our New Hymn)” was written by Morris Rosenfeld and published by the Jewish Morning Journal sometime mid-April 1917. On April 2nd, the United States had entered the World War against Germany and its allies. In the xenophobic atmosphere of the United States during World War Ⅰ, Representative Isaac Siegel (1880-1947), R-NY, offered the hymn as evidence of the patriotism of America’s “foreign-born” Jewish immigrants. The poem in its English translation was added to the Congressional Record on 18 April 1917 in an extension of remarks. Xenophobia in the United States though did not ebb. Nearly a year later, on April 4, 1918, a German immigrant, Robert Prager, was lynched in Collinsville, Illinois. . . . 💬 Amendment ⅩⅣ to the Constitution of the United States of America (1866/1868, with translations in Hebrew and Yiddish 1891) Contributor(s):The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, initially proposed by Congress on 13 June 1866 and adopted on 9 July 1868 was the second of three Reconstruction Amendments addressing citizenship rights and equal protection under the law. It was enacted in response to issues related to emancipated slaves following the failure of the Slaveholders’ Rebellion (1861-1865). . . . הֵיאַךְ יַרְגִּיל הָאָדָם עַצְמוֹ בְּמִדַּת הַחָכְמָה | How a person should conduct themself with Wisdom — chapter three from Tomer Devorah by Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (ca. 16th c.) Contributor(s):Chapter three of Rabbi Mosheh Cordovero’s Tomer Devorah, concerning the relationship between Wisdom and Empathy and its expression in the humane treatment of all living creatures. . . . Contributor(s):This is Rabbi Dr. David Prato’s Italian translation of Adon Olam from his bilingual Hebrew-Italian everyday siddur, Tefilah l’David: Preghiere di Rito Italiano (1949), p. 272-275. . . . אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים) | Adōn Olam (Portuguese translation by Artur Carlos de Barros Basto, 1939) Contributor(s):This is Artur Carlos de Barros Bastos’s Portuguese translation of Adon Olam from his prayer-pamphlet, Oração Matinal de Shabbath (1939), p. 52-53. I have set the translation side-by-side with the Hebrew text from which it was derived. . . . Contributor(s):Rabbi Dr. Mojżesz Schorr’s translation of Adon Olam in Polish was first printed on pages 8-9 of Modlitewnik na wszystkie dni w roku oraz modlitwę za Rzeczpospolitą ułożoną przez prof. Schorra (1936). . . . אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים במזרח) | Adōn Olam (Ladino translation from the Sidur Tefilat Kol Pe, 1891) Contributor(s):The Seder Tefilat Kol Peh was printed in 1891 in Vienna, and features a full Ladino translation of the entire siddur. The Ladino translation here is found on the left side of pagespread №145. Along with a full transcription of the Ladino text, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer has also prepared a full romanization of the Ladino. . . . Contributor(s):This is Yosef Naḥmuli’s Greek translation of Adon Olam from his bilingual Hebrew-Greek everyday siddur, Καθημεριναι Προσευχαι (Corfu 1885), p. 6-9. . . . Contributor(s):Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster’s translation of Adon Olam in Romaninan was first printed on pages 3-4 of Siddur Tefilat Yisrael: Carte de Rugăcĭunĭ Pentru Israeliţĭ (1883), his daily Siddur. . . . Contributor(s):This is Isaac Pinto’s English translation of Adon Olam from Prayers for Shabbath, Rosh-Hashanah, and [Yom] Kippur (1766), p. 29. The translation there appears without the Hebrew. The Hebrew text of the piyyut set side-by-side with the translation was transcribed from Rabbi David de Sola Pool’s Tefilot l’Rosh haShanah (1937). . . . Contributor(s):Ḥakham Ishak Nieto’s translation of Adon Olam was first printed on page 197 of Orden de las Oraciones de Ros-ashanah y Kipur (1740), his maḥzor in Spanish translation for Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur. The Hebrew text of the piyyut set side-by-side with the translation was transcribed from Rabbi David de Sola Pool’s Tefilot l’Rosh haShanah (1937). . . . Contributor(s):Psalms №27 has a very tight thematic structure, with a set of word plays around שיר–מישור–שוררי (straight lines of verse, path, those that line up against me/opponents), צור–צרי–צרי (Rock, those that trap/trouble me, dire straits), and the consonance between צוררי–שוררי. We also get the heavy parallelism and light chiastic structure in the framing, repeated call backs to images and phrases (My Salvation, raising, no fear, God’s Face, being forsook), word play (parents forsake so God is my הורני – the one who instructs me as a parent). There is also the contrasting image of God’s prolonged angry snort vs the shallow exhalation of violence of the lying witnesses. Note too that this is an early example of “words as violence”. The penultimate verse calls back to verse 4, looking upon God’s delightful goodness, and life or the land of the living is compared to the Temple. There is also a fascinating external reference to Moses (and Elijah) being hidden in the cleft of the Rock and from there seeking to see God’s Face. Finally, there is a rather intriguing question about what it means for God to keep us on the straight and narrow path for the sake of those that line up against us. Is God acting on their behalf? Thru them? Is this the classic “antisemitism aids in Jewish unity” argument from three millennia ago or do we walk this path in order to actually save even our opponents in some way. Perhaps צוררי–שוררי is about opponents vs adversaries and praying God will draw a fine line between them from which we will not cross over or stray into. . . . Contributor(s):This is an interpretive translation of Psalms 27 first published by Zackary Sholem Berger on medium. . . . |
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