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2025 📅 Resources published in 2025 Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? This is Rev. William Channing Gannett’s rhymed English translation of Daniel ben Yehudah Dayyan’s “Yigdal” made at the request of Rabbi Max Landsberg and published in Gannett’s Unity hymns and chorals (1911), pp. 2-3. This is Rev. Newton Mann’s rhymed English translation of Daniel ben Yehudah Dayyan’s “Yigdal” as first published in Rabbi Max Landsberg’s Ritual for Jewish Worship (1884), pp. 13-14. Categories: Tags: 15th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., doctrinal, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation, statements of belief, יגדל yigdal, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): This is a pizmon for Shabbat Shirah (Parashat B’Shalaḥ) by an unknown author. The text is as transcribed from the pizmonim included in the siddur משמרת הקדש: קול שומר שבת Mishmeret haQodesh: Qol Shomer Shabbat (Pisa 1821), p. 117. This is the piyyut “Eyumah Nikhtrah (Lo, the Mighty Nation…)” by Isaac ben Meshulam for maariv (after the shema) on the second night of Shavuot, was first published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Shavuot, Avodat Ḥag ha-Shavuot (1909), pp. 178-179. Categories: Tags: 15th century C.E., 52nd century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, מערבות maaravot, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation Contributor(s): This is “El Mi Migoalei,” a rahuṭah piyyut for Yom Kippur by Avraham ben Shmuel, as indicated by the acrostic signature (likely the same person as Avraham Abulafia.) Our transcription of the text follows that found in National Library of Russia, Ms. EVR II A 913. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Azharot are a genre of piyyut today associated almost exclusively with the grand lists of mitsvot recited on Shavuot, but this is not strictly accurate. An azharah is any poetic listing of mitsvot, and often would be recited on the Shabbat before a holiday as a reminder of the halakhot of the upcoming day. In Western Ashkenazi practice, for instance, an extensive azharah by Joseph Bonfils is recited for Shabbat haGadol before Pesaḥ. Presented here is an azharah and pizmon for the Shabbat before Rosh haShanah, by the 13th century Toledan payṭan Pinḥas ben Yosef ha-Levi. This text was published in the old Salonika Catalonian rite at the beginning of this maḥzor. Much of the translation is based on the work of Prof. Yaakov Shmuel Spiegel, published in Hebrew in 1985. Categories: Tags: 13th century C.E., 51st century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, אזהרות azharot, Nusaḥ Catalunya, פיוטים piyyuṭim, פזמונים pizmonim, שופר shofar, shofar blowing Contributor(s): This is a portion of the tenth gate from ספר תחכמוני Sefer Taḥkemoni of Yehudah Al-Harizi (ca. 1179-1235), narrated by The Farmer. The transcription and English translation was made by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. Isaac adds, “While Israel Davidson in Parody in Jewish Literature (1907) considered this satire, the imagery of a rooster so desperate not to be killed and eaten that he is begging humans to kill and eat his children instead is horrifying.” An ahava piyyut for Shabbat Vayera, recited in the old Nusaḥ Polin (Eastern Ashkenazi) rite, written (according to Davidson) by R. Shmuel bar Avraham haLevi. Shmuel bar Avraham haLevi (1165-1216, according to Graetz) was a poet and scholar of the ibn Ḥasdai family of Barcelona, and the father of the noted Maimonidean translator Avraham bar Shmuel ibn Ḥasdai. This piyyuṭ takes God’s fateful instruction to Abraham — “Take, please, your son, your only one, whom you love,” and, in a shocking bit of poetic ḥutzpah, reframes it a request that God takes back Israel! This meorah, by R. Avraham bar Shmuel of Speyer (the elder brother of R. Yehuda heḤasid and a great scholar in his own right) is recited on Shabbat Naso. This is usually after Shavuot, but sometimes (in 2025, for instance) it is before. This meorah is a poetic interpretation of the Priestly Blessing, and a plea for vengeance against the antisemitic nations. As a meorah, it is recited prior to the final line of the guf and the ḥatima of the Yotser Or blessing. This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom rishon (hymn or song of unity for the first day), as translated by Nina Salaman and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler (1907). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom sheni (hymn or song of unity for the second day), as translated by Nina Salaman and published in the maḥzor for Yom haKippurim by Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler (1904). Categories: Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., neo-Aristotelian Judaism, פיוטים piyyuṭim, שיר היחוד Shir haYiḥud, via negativa Contributor(s): This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom shlishi (hymn or song of unity for the third day), as translated by Arthur Davis and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler (1907). Categories: Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., neo-Aristotelian Judaism, פיוטים piyyuṭim, שיר היחוד Shir haYiḥud, via negativa Contributor(s): This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom revi’i (hymn of unity for the fourth day), as translated by Nina Salaman and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler (1907). This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom ḥamishi (hymn of unity for the fifth day), as translated by Herbert Adler and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1907). Categories: Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., neo-Aristotelian Judaism, פיוטים piyyuṭim, שיר היחוד Shir haYiḥud, via negativa Contributor(s): This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom shishi (hymn of unity for the sixth day), as translated by Herbert Adler and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1907). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom shabbat (hymn of unity for day of shabbat), as translated by Herbert Adler and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1907). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is the piyyut “Ki Hinéh kaḤomer (Lo! as the potter…)” a piyyut by an unknown paytan for maariv on Yom Kippur, published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Yom Kippur, Avodat Yom ha-Kippurim vol. 1 (1904), p. 39. Categories: Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., כי הנה כחמר ki hineh kahomer, פיוטים piyyuṭim, פזמונים pizmonim, rhyming translation Contributor(s): This geulah piyyut, by R. Yehuda heḤasid, is, similar to the prior zulat, a response to the massacres of the First Crusade. It specifically focuses, in the way only a maverick like heḤasid could, on holding God to account for breach of covenant, and calls out both Christians and — on a much rarer theme — Muslims for their slaughter of Jews during the Crusades. As a geulah, it is recited right before concluding berakha of the Emet blessing and the Amidah. This zulat piyyut, by R. Shmuel bar Yehuda (fl. 12th c.), is a keening cry in response to the traumatic First Crusade Rhineland massacres, known as the Gzerot TaTN”O in Hebrew, specifically focusing on the 3 Sivan massacre and martyrdoms in Mainz. The massacres of the Gzerot TaTN”O were so traumatic to Ashkenazi Jewry that to this day, the Av haRaḥamim prayer for martyrs, usually elided on Shabbat Mevorkhim, is not elided on Shabbat Mevorkhim Iyar or Sivan. As a zulat, it is recited at the end of the “Emet v-Emuna” paragraph. Generally the second half of the paragraph is altered slightly when a zulat is inserted. In this case, the alteration, according to the old Nusaḥ Polin, is included. This is a partial English translation of Al Ahavatekha offered by rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman to accompany a video by Nigunim Ensemble presenting their musical setting of the piyyut on Youtube in 2018. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): | ||
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