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a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources
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תפילה מונגשת לזמן מלחמה | A Prayer for Israel in Wartime, in simplified Hebrew (Masorti Movement in Israel 2023) Contributor(s):The Masorti Movement in Israel, in cooperation with the Israeli Institute on Cognitive Accessibility and Ami: The Association for People with Cognitive Developmental Challenges, produced this “accessible” Prayer in Times of War in simplified Hebrew with communications symbols. The prayer was offered in the spirit of the Masorti Movement’s Siddur b’khol Darkhekha (2018), designed primarily for special needs Bar/Bat Mitzvah programs. . . . תפילה לשלומם ולחזרתם של הנעדרים והשבויים בין אחינו ואחיותינו | Prayer for the Welfare and the Return of Israel’s Captured and Missing from Among our Sisters and Brothers (Masorti Movement in Israel 2023) Contributor(s):This prayer for the captives was prepared for the Masorti Movement in Israel by the Knesset haRabanim b’Yisrael and disseminated in Hebrew, English, French, and Spanish. These were published online for the Masorti Solidarity Shabbat (27-28 October 2023). . . . בָּתֵּי תּוֹסֶפֶת לְ”אָבִינוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ“ לְמִלְחֶמֶת ”חַרְבוֹת בַּרְזֶל“ | Additional Stanzas of ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ for the Ḥarvot Barzel War, by Yael Levine Contributor(s):An addendum to “Avinu Malkeinu”, which is intended for recitation following the traditional version, which is said in many synagogues now during the Ḥarvot Barzel war (“War of Iron Swords,” i.e., the 2023 Israel–Hamas war). . . . תפלת מי שברך לעת מלחמה מרחשוון תשפ״ד | Mi sheBerakh prayer for Israel at a time of War (Marḥeshvan 5784), by the Masorti Movement in Israel (2023) Contributor(s):“Prayer at a time of war (Marḥeshvan 5784)” was offered by The Masorti Movement In Israel-התנועה המסורתית בישראל and the כנסת הרבנים בישראל for use by congregations worldwide. Originally written by Rabbi Simcha Roth ז״ל, it was adapted by Ze’ev Kainan to suit the current horrors committed by Hamas. . . . Contributor(s):This prayer was offered by Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed in the days following the attacks of Ḥamas and its allies from Gaza on southern Israel beginning Shemini Atseret 5784 (7 October 2023). The English translation was made Rabbi Zac Kamenetz and Rabbi Marc Margolius. . . . Contributor(s):This prayer for rabbis, cantors, educators, and other congregational workers was offered by Rabbi Menachem Creditor and shared by the author through the Open Siddur Project discussion group on Facebook, 20 October 2023. . . . אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים לְנִשְׁמוֹת תּוֹשָׁבֵי מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל מֶהַיִשּׁוּבֵי עוֹטֵף עַזָּה | El Malé Raḥamim for the residents of the State of Israel from the communities on the Gaza Border, by Cantor Amnon Seelig Contributor(s):This is an El Malé Raḥamim prayer by Cantor Amnon Seelig for the victims of the invasion of HAMA”S from Gaza on Shemini Atseret 5784, with an English translation by Rabbi Oren Steinitz. . . . אל מלא רחמים לזכר הנרצחים | El Malé Raḥamim Prayer for the Victims of Terrorism in the Land of Israel Contributor(s):An El Malé Raḥamim prayer for Victims of Terror in Erets Yisrael, with an English translation by Rabbi Hillel Ḥayyim Lavery-Yisraeli from Prayers for Israel, for Protection from Terror Attacks, and In Memory of the Victims (15 October 2023), page 6. . . . 📖 תְּפִלּוֹת לְמַֽעֲן יִשְׂרָאֵל, נֶֽגֶד מַתְקֵפוֹת, וּלְזִכְרָם שֶׁל הַנִּרְצָחִים | Prayers for Israel, for Protection from Terror Attacks, and In Memory of the Victims, by Rabbi Hillel Ḥayyim Lavery-Yisraëli (2023) Contributor(s):A prayer-booklet prepared for a communal prayer service on 15 October 2023, in the aftermath of the massacres of HAMAS and its allies on Shemini Atseret 5784 (7 October 2023). . . . Contributor(s):As I was in NYC, I first heard the news of the pogrom with which Hamas opened the war between Hallel and the Torah reading on Shemini Atseret. The beginnings of what is now the final stanza of this… I am unsure whether to refer to it as a qinah or a piyut first stirred in my soul during Tefillat Geshem, and the refrain of that stanza during Hakafot that evening. Prayer and song, no matter how joyous, has taken on a somber, cutting, desperate edge for me in this new world where the safety I had once taken for granted was revealed to be an illusion, which is reflected in taking from the phrases taken from the liturgy of the Yomim Nora’im. . . . Prayer for Israel, Tishrei 5784 by Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the UK & the Commonwealth, 12 October 2023) Contributor(s):A prayer for Israel offered by the Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Efraim Mirvis on 12 October 2023, in the aftermath of the massacres perpetrated by HAMA”S and their allies in Gaza on the residents and citizens of the State of Israel on Shemini Atseret 5784. The prayer was originally published on the website of the Office of the Chief Rabbi and disseminated via its social media accounts. . . . Contributor(s):This prayer by Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff was offered at the Temple Micah, Lunch and Learn, on 11 Oct 2023. . . . הושע נא | Hosha-na [after the war begun on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Rabbi Annie Lewis (10 October 2023) Contributor(s):This litany of Hoshana’ot was written by Rabbi Annie Lewis. Hebrew translation by Shoshana Michael Zucker. . . . A Prayer for Israel [after the war begun on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein (10 October 2023) Contributor(s):This prayer for Israel was written by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein and first shared via his Facebook page on 10 October 2023, in the aftermath of the massacres by HAMA”S and its allies on 7 October 2023. He added, “A dear teacher of mine asked me to try and compose an appropriate prayer for this moment.” . . . Contributor(s):“A Prayer from a Traumatized Jewish Heart” was written by Rabbi Menachem Creditor and shared by the author via the Open Siddur Project discussion group on Facebook, 10 October 2023. . . . Contributor(s):This prayer by Rabbi David Wolpe was first shared via his Facebook page in the aftermath of the war begun by Hamas on Shemini Atseret 5784. . . . תְּפִלָּה לִשְׁלוֹם הַמְּדִינָה | Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel [during the war begun on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Rabbi Mira Regev (HaTenuah HaReformit 2023) Contributor(s):This prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel, by Rabbi Mira Regev, was disseminated by HaTenuah HaReformit (The Israel Movement for Reform and progressive Judaism). English translation by Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman and Rabbi Efrat Rotem. . . . תְּפִלָּה לְפִדְיוֹן שְׁבוּיִם | Prayer for the Redemption of Israelis Taken Captive [during the war begun on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Rabbi Ofer Sabath Beit Halachmi (2023) Contributor(s):This prayer for the liberation of abducted Israeli citizens and military personnel was offered by Rabbi Ofer Sabath Beit Halachmi in response to the war initiated by Hamas from Gaza on Shemini Atseret 5784. The English translation was prepared by Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit Halachmi. . . . תְּפִלָּה לִשְׁלוֹם הַמְּדִינָה | Prayer for the Peace of the State of Israel [during the war begun on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Rabbi Ofer Sabath Beit Halachmi (2023) Contributor(s):This prayer for the State of Israel was offered by Rabbi Ofer Sabath Beit Halachmi in response to the war initiated by Hamas from Gaza on Shemini Atseret 5784. The English translation was prepared by Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit Halachmi. . . . תפילה לנוכח המלחמה שפרצה בבוקר שמיני עצרת, תשפ”ד | Prayer in response to the war that broke out on the morning of Shemini Atseret 5784, by Rabbi Gil Nativ (Masorti Movement 2023) Contributor(s):A prayer offered by Rabbi Gil Nativ for the Masorti Movement in Israel and the Knesset haRabanim b’Yisrael in response to the invasion from Gaza on Shemini Atseret 5784 (2023), and disseminated via their Facebook page. . . . Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Hannah Spiro on 5 September 2023 Contributor(s):The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 5 September 2023. . . . תפילת גשם כולל אמהות | Tefillat Geshem including the matriarchs with stanzas in a backwards acrostic, an adaptation by Eliran Sobel Contributor(s):On Shemini Atseret, one is supposed to begin mentioning rain in the second blessing of their Amidah prayers (Ta’anit 2a). In many communities, this is liturgically marked by a poetic introduction in the repetition of the Amidah, called Geshem, specifically with the piyyut “Zekhor Av” written by Rabbi Eleezer BeRabbi Kalir, which alludes to the references of our forefathers’ relations to water. One feature of this poem is that it utilizes an alef-bet-ical acrostic, and while there are various modern adaptations that include biblical women, those break the acrostic. This is my attempt to compose a version including stanzas for our foremothers, while maintaining the acrostic by writing the women’s stanzas as a backwards acrostic (i.e. starting from tav and going to alef). This backwards acrostic containing the foremothers is then interspersed with Kalir’s original. . . . the song at the sea of ending one story and beginning another, by Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit (February 2023) Contributor(s):This piece emerged in February 2023 upon realizing that instead of reading ים סוף as Yam Suf (generally understood at the Sea of Reeds), it could be read as Yam Sof: Sea of End[ing]. It was apparent to me that we may have approached this sea (escaping from slavery) thinking that it would be the end of us. It was not. But it was the end of *something*. . . . Contributor(s):This is an undated prayer written attributed to Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (1937-2020) and shared via the Facebook page of Merkaz Steinsaltz (the Steinsaltz Center). The English translation (possibly also made by Rabbi Steinsaltz) was shared by the Center in a separate document. . . . מִי שֶׁבֵּרַךְ לְפִדְיוֹן שְׁבוּיִם | Mi sheBerakh for the redemption of those in captivity (or whose whereabouts are unknown) Contributor(s):This mi sheberakh was published by the Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth in June 2014, as “Prayer Issued for Missing Israeli Teenagers,” writing: “The prayer…currently being recited across Israel for missing teenagers Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, was issued today to Rabbanim of the United Hebrew Congregations by Chief Rabbi Mirvis.” Recitation of this psalm and mi sheberakh seem appropriate to me in the case of unconscionable, immoral, and unjust state policies that separate children from their caregivers. To help fulfill the mitsvah of ransoming captives, please contribute to funds paying out bail bonds and demonstrate your opposition to these policies. . . . The “Dona Nobis Pacem” blues from Leonard Bernstein’s MASS (1971), original Hebrew translation by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer Contributor(s):An original Hebrew translation of the blues-rock portion of the Agnus Dei movement from Leonard Bernstein’s MASS (note: always spelled with ALL CAPS), where the crowd of disaffected and disillusioned young parishioners interrupts the offertory to demand peace now, and hold God to account for not giving it to us. It’s unsurprising that for a composer as proudly and openly Jewish as Bernstein that even his setting of the Tridentine Mass has major “shaking your fist at God” energy. Not gonna lie, I was listening to this on a plane out of Jerusalem as the war was starting, and I started to tear up. I immediately started writing this translation and finished it up in the process of about an hour while stuck somewhere a few thousand feet above Greenland. It’s amazing and moving and tragic and enraging and a little full of itself in exactly the right way to hit me in the heart. . . . ברכות־הנפטרין על פי האמונה הבוקוניסטית | the Last Rites of Bokonon, by Kurt Vonnegut (1963, Hebrew translation by Amatsyah Porat 1978) Contributor(s):This is an adaptation of the “Last Rites of Bokonon” from the 99th chapter of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle (1963) translated by Amatsyah Porat for the 1978 Hebrew language edition of the novel. . . . Contributor(s):This is a prayer for captives, written in November 1938 in Hamburg, following Kristallnacht (my translation following the Hebrew). “May each and every one of them return to their family…who are worrying about them.” . . . Prayer on Behalf of the Religious Diversity of Humanity, by the Jewish Religious Union of London (1902) Contributor(s):This prayer for a pluralism respecting religious and philosophical differences, first appears in A Selection of Prayers, Psalms, and Other Scriptural Passages, and Hymns for Use at the Services of the Jewish Religious Union (1902), where it is №7 on page 6. (In the revised 1903 edition of the prayerbook, it is №20 on page 20.) . . . Contributor(s):This prayer for the wellbeing of the Jewish people first appears in A Selection of Prayers, Psalms, and Other Scriptural Passages, and Hymns for Use at the Services of the Jewish Religious Union (1902), where it is №6 on page 6. (In the revised 1903 edition of the prayerbook, it is №19 on page 19.) . . . Contributor(s):This is Dr. Morris Faierstein’s transcription and translation of one of the earliest teḥinot from the earliest surviving edition of the Tsenah u-Re’enah (Basel/Hanau 1622) as found in his article “The Earliest Published Yiddish Tehinnot (1590–1609)” in Hebrew Union College Annual, 2020, Vol. 91 (2020). The transcription of the Yiddish sourcetext is found on page 206 and the English translation is found on page 187. The translation is shared under the libre Open Access license (Creative Commons Attribution) provided for the critical translation of the text in Ze’enah U-Re’enah: A Critical Translation into English (Volume 96 in the series Studia Judaica, ed. Morris M. Faierstein; De Gruyter 2017). . . . Contributor(s):The Geshem prayer for Shmini Atzeret in the Maḥzor Aram Ṣoba has some things in common with other Geshem texts, but its most unique facets are twofold. First and most obviously, the extensive catena of verses from Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim that falls between the introductory announcement and the piyyutim themselves. And second, several Aramaic passages relatively rare in other texts, which seem to reflect an archaic form predating the adoption of Arabic as the spoken language of the Aleppo Jews. (These Aramaic passages are marked in green in the transcription.) As standard in Eastern practice, especially in the Maḥzor Aram Ṣoba (which shows a surprisingly modern reticence to interrupt the ‘amidah), this prayer is placed after the Torah service and before musaf begins. . . . עַל־מֹשֶׁה אֶרְגָּז וְאָהִים | Al Mosheh Ergaz v-Ahim — a pizmon on Mosheh’s death for Simḥat Torah, by R. Shmuel ha-Dayan of Aram Ṣoba (ca. 12th c.) Contributor(s):This pizmon was written by R. Shmuel ben Moshe Ha-Dayan of Aram Ṣoba (ca. 1150-1200) an Aleppine payṭan whose works were almost completely lost before being rediscovered in the Maḥzor Aram Ṣoba. It emphasizes the uneasy juxtaposition of the joy of Simḥat Torah with the tragedy of Moshe’s death. Originally it was probably recited before musaf, but perhaps for those who follow Ashkenazi customs a more appropriate location would be as an introduction to the Yizkor service on Shemini ‘Atseret — which for those who don’t keep second-day yontef is the same day. . . . Contributor(s):“Aḥeinu” is the final prayer in a set of supplications recited on Mondays and Thursdays as the Torah scroll is being prepared to be returned to the Aron. The prayer is first found with variations in wording in the surviving manuscripts of the Seder Rav Amram Gaon (ca. 9th c.). . . . אֲשֶׁר בִּגְלַל אָבוֹת בָּנִים גִּדֵּל | Asher Biglal Avot Banim Gidel — an archaic piyyut on Mosheh’s Death for Simḥat Torah Contributor(s):This piyyut of unknown authorship is certainly ancient, showing the lack of a rhyme scheme characteristic of the REALLY old piyyutim (see also Aleinu or El Adon). It is still found in some Ashkenazi and Teman maḥzorim, with many different mostly minor variants (which have been combined together somewhat eclectically into one text here). It is presented here along with an English translation attempting to preserve the Hebrew acrostic. Originally it was recited before the Ashrei leading into musaf, but perhaps for those who follow Ashkenazi customs a more appropriate location would be as an introduction to the Yizkor service on Shmini ‘Atzeret — which for those who don’t keep second-day yontef is the same day. It could also be adapted as part of the liturgy for the seventh of Adar, although the final verse (the old Western rite berakha for finishing a full Torah cycle) would have to be elided. . . . Contributor(s):Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s translation of Psalms 120 was first published in Psalms in a Translation for Praying (Alliance for Jewish Renewal, Philadelphia: 2014), p. 214. . . . תהלים קכ״א | Psalms 121, an “up song” (shir la-ma’alot) translated by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi Contributor(s):Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi’s translation of Psalms 121 was first published in Psalms in a Translation for Praying (Alliance for Jewish Renewal, Philadelphia: 2014), p. 215. . . . Contributor(s):This is Psalms 140 attributed to David ben Yishai, with an English translation by Rabbi Hillel Ḥayyim Lavery-Yisraeli from Prayers for Israel, for Protection from Terror Attacks, and In Memory of the Victims (15 October 2023). . . . |
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