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a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources — for those crafting their own prayerbooks and sharing the content of their practice
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a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources — for those crafting their own prayerbooks and sharing the content of their practice
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2025 —⟶ April 🡄 (Previous month) :: 📅 March 2025 📅 May 2025 :: (Next month) 🡆 📅 Resources published in April 2025 Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? A Passover seder haggadah containing the traditional form of the text as well as other lesser known forms from across Jewish history and the Jewish world. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An original set of weekday yotsrot, in the style of those found in the Cairo Geniza (and compiled at Weekday Yotzrot, thanks to the work of Dr. Avi Shmidman), for Yom ha-Atsma’ut. The weekday yotsrot of the Cairo Geniza have a structure quite different from normative Ashkenazi festival yotsrot, and much closer to that of Ashkenazi maaravot. There are no yotser or ofan piyyutim — each blessing has a stanza of an extended, unified poem before its ḥatimah, and the only stanzas inserted into the guf ha-berakha are in the final blessing, surrounding the Mi Khamokha. They’re also generally much shorter and more user-friendly than the complex and intricate mysticism of Ashkenazi festival yotsrot. This cycle is written in an alphabetical acrostic, followed by the author tag “Yitzḥaq Harel son of Avraham the Kohen and Ya’el, be strong and courageous, amen.” Each stanza begins with a different word from Isaiah 47:4, and ends with a citation of a different relevant verse. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, פיוטים piyyuṭim, יוצרות yotsrot Contributor(s): This mi sheberakh by Rabbi David Seidenberg, for the safety and safe return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia detained by the United States government and deported “in error” to captivity under dangerous and vulnerable conditions in El Salvador, was first shared on his Facebook page on 10 April 2025. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Donald Trump, English vernacular prayer, מי שברך mi sheberakh Contributor(s): In preparation for the coming days of Remembrance, which are the days of longing and questions about the meaning of life on this planet and the meaning of its end, I share in a prayer I wrote at the request of Nikki, a member of our family, who lost her only sister, Andy, to Alzheimer’s disease at such a young age (58). We also translated this prayer into English and it was recited in Melbourne, Australia, at a funeral service. During the shiva, the community rabbi asked for permission to recite it at more funerals, and since then it has been repeated and I am happy that it comforts more and more families. I am releasing it here in Israel as well and dedicating it to all the good souls who decided to watch over us from another dimension, and to the loving relatives who are left to miss and fix the world from within. –Limor Rubin A prayer-poem inspired by the story of Noah and the ark to embrace all people regardless of gender identity or whom they love. This is an annually updated chart that I have been creating and sharing for 10+ years. This grid for counting the omer includes the secular date for 2026 as well as Hebrew dates and the sefirot associated with each day of the omer. More information can be found on my website. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Originally written by Aaron Zeitlin for the Yiddish play “Esterke” in 1940, ‘Dona Dona’ is a popular song the world over, having been adapted to many languages — often not preserving the original, deeply Jewish context. The gist of the original lyrics, which never state their metaphor outright, is: a calf is bound to a wagon being dragged to the slaughterhouse. It looks up and sees a swallow flying around. The farmer shouts at it, saying “it’s your own fault for being a calf and not a bird!” The implication being: the people telling the Jews it’s our own fault we’re persecuted are the ones driving the wagon. Gentiles will murder Jews, the song implies to us, and then say Jews are to blame because of how murderable our Jewish face is, so maybe we should get a less murderable and more goyish face. But the whole time they’re the one with the knife. Here included is the original Yiddish text (in the Ukrainish theatre dialect), as well as new translations into Ladino and Aramaic. Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror Tags: anti-predatory, Aramaic translation, Ladino Translation, predation, עין הרע predatory gaze (ill will/evil eye), predatory nature, צער באלי חיים tsa'ar baalei ḥayyim, Yiddish songs Contributor(s): This is a full transcription of the 1919 edition of a Bundist haggadah in Yiddish, first written as a pedagogical and parodic text in 1886. Categories: Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., labor exploitation, parody, Revolutions of 1917–1923, socialism, Yiddish songs, Yiddish vernacular prayer Contributor(s): The Seder ha-Tamid, a Provençal (Nusaḥ Comtat Venaissin) siddur published in Avignon in 1766, has liturgical additions for an amazing five different local festivals — one for Avignon, and two each for Carpentras and Cavaillon. Here’s a series of piyyutim for the ninth of Nisan in Carpentras. On 9 Nisan 5442 (17 April 1682), the gentile murderer of a Jew from Carpentras was drowned according to law. A mob began to form to attack the Jews for deigning to not be murdered. The rector of the comtat, Michele Antonio Vibò, decided to send guards to protect the Jews from the mob. This decision was celebrated by the Jews with multiple piyyuṭim and a full recitation of Hallel. Uniquely for the minor Purims analyzed in the Seder ha-Tamid so far, we know the author of one of these piyyutim, a sage and payṭan by the name of R. Mordecai Astruc! Categories: Tags: 17th century C.E., 55th century A.M., על הנסים al hanissim, Arba Kehillot, Carpentras, local communal deliverance commemorations, Nusaḥ Comtat Venaissin, salvation, second Purims Contributor(s): A series of fourteen short couplets describing the fourteen traditional stages of the Haggadah, written in Judeo-Italian and first published in the famous 1609 Venice Haggadah of Isaac Gershon. The Italian used in the Venice Haggadah lacks a lot of the most divergent aspects of the Judeo-Italian languages, sticking to a more mainline Tuscan grammatical norm, but there are enough obsolete, poetic, or dialectal forms that several footnotes have been included to explain them. Also included is an original English-language rhyming translation! Ḥad Gadya has a place in Seder tables throughout the Jewish quadrant, and in many communities it was read in translation. This adaptation into the language of the Na’vi is very useful when celebrating liberation from the tyrannical RDA. Categories: Tags: 16th century C.E., 24th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., 61st century A.M., Aramaic, constructed languages, חד גדיא Ḥad Gadya, Na'vi translation, פיוטים piyyuṭim, predation, salvation, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): A Luganda translation of Ḥad Gadya. Luganda is the vernacular language of the Abayudaya Jewish community of Uganda. Also included is a system for Hebrew transliteration of Luganda texts! Categories: Tags: 16th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., Abayudaya Jews, Aramaic, חד גדיא Ḥad Gadya, Luganda translation, פיוטים piyyuṭim, predation, salvation, Uganda, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): This is a translation of Ḥad Gadya into Guaraní, a vernacular language in Paraguay and central South America. Categories: Tags: 16th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., Aramaic, Guaraní translation, חד גדיא Ḥad Gadya, Indigenous Peoples, Paraguay, פיוטים piyyuṭim, predation, salvation, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): A Judeo-Tunisian translation of Ḥad Gadya, as performed by Nathan Cohen in this recording. Categories: Tags: 16th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., Arabic translation, Aramaic, חד גדיא Ḥad Gadya, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian, פיוטים piyyuṭim, predation, salvation, Tunisia, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): This is the translation of Ḥad Gadya into a dialect of Aramaic in Zakho, a/k/a Lishana Deni (Zakho Jewish Neo-Aramaic) by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. Categories: Tags: 16th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., Aramaic, חד גדיא Ḥad Gadya, Kurdistan, Neo-Aramaic, נרצה Nirtsah, פיוטים piyyuṭim, predation, salvation, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): A translation of Ḥad Gadya into Judeo-Provençal, largely based on a recording made by Eliane Amado Levi-Valensi (ca. 1972). Categories: Tags: 16th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., Aramaic, Arba Kehillot, Carpentras, חד גדיא Ḥad Gadya, נרצה Nirtsah, Nusaḥ Comtat Venaissin, פיוטים piyyuṭim, predation, salvation, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): This piyyut, “Ḥanaiah, Mishael, and Azariah,” was originally written to be recited as an introduction to the targum of the Second Commandment, the prohibition on worshiping other gods. It is a dispute-poem retelling the story of Ḥanaiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the three “holy children” of Daniel chapter 3 who would rather be thrown into an oven than worship an idol. It’s an intricate multi-part acrostic that I absolutely love. (I also am partially convinced it may be influenced by the apocryphal “Song of the Three Holy Children,” if not in context then in the idea of an extensive poem related to their story.) Since the original poem’s acrostic only goes halfway through the alphabet, the great Meir bar Isaac Nehorai of Orleans wrote a continuation that is also included here. Categories: Tags: 45th century A.M., 7th century C.E., acrostic, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aramaic, Decalogue, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum Contributor(s): Qallir’s reshut for the Ṭal service on the first day of Pesaḥ. Also included is an acrostic English translation, as well as the catena of verses found in manuscripts but missing from most modern printings Categories: Tags: 45th century A.M., 7th century C.E., phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, מוריד הטל morid hatal, Prayers for Precipitation, רשויות reshuyot, water cycle Contributor(s): This adapted translation by Lisa Tarlau of Yehallelukha (“May all Your creations praise You”) can be found in Rabbi Max Grunwald’s anthology of Jewish women’s prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1909), page 169. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This adapted translation of the blessing commencing Hallel by Rabbi Max Grunwald can be found in his anthology of Jewish women’s prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1907), page 306. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): | ||
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