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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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2026 🡄 (Previous year) :: 📅 2025 📅 Resources published in 2026 Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? This is the piyyut, “Aamir Otekha Selah” by Elazar ben Qallir for Sukkot, as translated into rhyming English verse by Alice Montefiore Lucas, first published in her anthology of versified translations Songs of Zion by Hebrew Singers of Mediæval Times (1894). Her translation was later set opposite Qallir’s Hebrew text in Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Ḥag haSukkot (ed. Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler, 1908). This is a variation of the “Baugesang,” a variation of the piyyut Adir Hu sung in German translation. Better known in form found in the 1769 Selig Haggadah, this is a variation published in 1717 by Paul Christian Kirchner. Categories: Tags: 18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., אדיר הוא Adir Hu, Christian Hebraism, German vernacular prayer, haggadah supplements, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Temple restoration, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): Doyen has a place in Seder tables throughout Arda, and in many communities it was read in translation. This translation into Quenya is necessary for any good Lothlórien sedarim. But to be serious, Quenya was one of several languages developed by J.R.R. Tolkien. It serves as the sacred ancestral language of the Noldorin elves in the Middle-Earth legendarium. The editor here has, to the best of his ability, developed this adaptation of the litany of thanksgiving at the culmination of Maggie into Quenya, with thanks and credit to the experts at elfdict and in the Vinyë Lambengolmor Discord server for their help. He has also transcribed it into a home-brewed transcription system into Hebrew script also used for his Min Yacincë translation of Ḥad Gadya, as well as his Minë mamo ista? Translation of Eḥad Mi Yodea. Categories: Tags: constructed languages, דיינו Daiyenu, High-Elven, Middle-Earth, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Quenya translation, זמירות zemirot Contributor(s): The 18th of Iyyar on which the 33rd day of the Omer coincides is a day of historical significance. On that day in the year 363, the Byzantine Roman emperor Julian in collaboration with Atiochian Jewry attempted to lay the foundations of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. For centuries afterward, the day was commemorated as a fast day. One primary source in rabbinic Judaism that references the day is Sefer Zerubavel. Given the relative obscurity of Sefer Zerubavel today, we thought that we could help remedy that on just the day it currently references in the rabbinic Jewish calendar: Lag ba-Omer — a day which otherwise lacks any liturgical reading. Below is the text of Sefer Zerubavel as found in Divrei Yeraḥmiel (according to the text transcribed and published as Sefer ha-Zikronot hu’ Divrey ha-Yamim le-Yerahme’el (ed. Eli Yassif; Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2001), pp. 427-435, set side-by-side with the English translation by the scholar John Reeves. The Yiddish translation of the Aramaic piyyut “Arkin” is appended to the first known printing of the Maaséh Aqdamut (Fürth 1694). The transcription is based on an earlier transcription of the Fürth 1694 printing published by Isaac Rivkind in “די היסטאָרישע אַלעגאָריע פון ר׳ מאיר שַ״ץ” (“The Historical Allegory of Rabbi Meir, shatz [Shaliaḥ Tsibur]”) the first chapter in Filologishe shriftn vol. 3 (1929), pp. 1-42. (This translation of the Aqdamut appears on pages/numbered columns 40-42.) Categories: Tags: acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Angelic Nature, Angelification, Angels, Aramaic, ארכין Arkin, Decalogue, ההיכלות ויורדי המרכבה haHeikhalot v'Yordei haMerkavah, mid-first millennium CE, Mosheh Rabbenu, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum, Yiddish translation Contributor(s): “Arkin” is one of two Aramaic piyyutim read by some Ashkenazi communities at the beginning of the Torah reading on the first day of Shavuot (the other being the Aqdamut). The piyyut makes reference to an important legend featuring Mosheh experiencing an ascent in which he must wrest the Torah from angelic entities that are averse to parting with it, or loathe to giving it up, to humanity. Introducing the piyyut she translated in Jewish Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity (Brill: 2018), Dr. Laura Lieber writes, “This [Shavuot] poem dramatizes neither the content of revelation, as other poems here do, nor the season of its giving, as the story of Ruth does. Instead, our poet imagines God’s summoning of Moses to the heavens to receive the Torah atop Mount Sinai. God’s voice is most prominent here, although the angels also speak; Moses, however, keeps silent, and the poet depicts him with anything but aggression and bravado. The poet crafts a scene that recreates the tension of the imagined encounter: God repeatedly reassures Moses, who fears angelic aggression, but the angels also express fear of Moses, who is here depicted as having horns, which God encourages Moses to use in self-defense.” Categories: Tags: acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Angelic Nature, Angelification, Angels, Aramaic, Decalogue, ההיכלות ויורדי המרכבה haHeikhalot v'Yordei haMerkavah, mid-first millennium CE, Mosheh Rabbenu, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum Contributor(s): This is the early piyyut, “v-Yeètayu Kol l’Avdèkha,” as paraphrased in rhymed English verse by Israel Zangwill in Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler’s Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Yom haKippurim vol. 2 (1904), pp. 154-155. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An early variation of the Ḥatsi Qaddish as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested in Bodleian Library Ms. Opp. Add. Qu. 28. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An early variation of the Ḥatsi Qaddish as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested in British Library Or. 1067, fol. 12v. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An early variation of the Ḥatsi Qaddish as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested on fol. r of JTS MS 4074. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The story of Yiftaḥ, or Jephthah, is read as the haftara for Parashat Ḥuqqat. However, in most practices the end of the story is not read. This is probably because it is horrific — because of Yiftaḥ’s foolish vow, he sacrifices his own daughter! Unlike the story of Isaac, there is no angel, no last-minute salvation. The knife falls, the girl dies. That would be bad enough, but the daughter of Yiftaḥ isn’t even named in the text! The text of Biblical Antiquities, traditionally albeit incorrectly attributed to Philo of Alexandria, is one of the more interesting and under-studied deuterocanonical works. Almost certainly written in Hebrew but preserved in its entirety only in Latin, it is an example of the genre of “rewritten Bible,” a proto-midrashic genre also found in texts such as Jubilees. It is the earliest source for a substantial number of legends that became part of the midrashic canon — from Abraham’s casting into the furnace to Dinah’s marriage to Job. And it has a unique tendency to elaborate on the stories of women in the Bible. In the case of Yiftaḥ’s daughter, Biblical Antiquities gives her three things she deserves: agency, a song, and a name. Agency, because she is a willing participant in the process of sacrifice, encouraging her father to go through with it and leaving the sages speechless. A song, because she laments the fact she will die a virgin. And a name — in the Latin text, Seila. In the Hebrew, Sheila, “asked for.” Categories: Tags: 1st century CE, 39th century AM, Antiquity, Biblical Women, Classical Antiquity, deuterocanonical works, dreams, Jewish Women's Prayers, martyrdom, mytho-historical chronicles, parabiblical aggadah, polyglot, pre-rabbinic judaism, self-sacrifice Contributor(s): This prayer for the Shaliaḥ Tsibur is found in the Musaf Amidah for Rosh haShanah, in the Malkhuyot between Aleinu and Al Kén. The translation offered here is based on that found in the Metsudah Maḥzor for Rosh Hashanah. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An early variation of the early piyyut Barukh shèAmar as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested on fol. 4r of JTS MS 4074. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An early variation of the early piyyut Barukh shèAmar as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested in British Library Or. 1067, fol. 6v-7r. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An early variation of the early piyyut Barukh shèAmar as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested in Bodleian Library Ms. Opp. Add. Qu. 28. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): In the period following the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, rabbinic Jewish liturgy reïfied the teaching to replace sacrificial offerings with offerings of the lips (per Psalms 51:18) by directly quoting those verses from the Torah dictating those sacrifices. This formula is evident in the the blessing meqadesh hashabbat for the musaf Shabbat Amidah, in which the musaf offering is invoked directly via Numbers 28:9, while blessing Hashem, hallower of the Shabbat. For this blessing, my ḥavrutah Jonathan Schachter would remind those davvening with him musaf that they could follow the recitation of this verse with that of Hosea 14:3, our oldest scriptural witness to a counter-tradition of prayer as a surrogate for animal sacrifice. We offer this amendment to the Shabbat musaf Amidah as a corrective to the notion that the return of the Temple cult must necessarily bring a return of animal sacrifice and to bolster long extant Jewish traditions that regard with love and dignify with inclusion all those tame animals (behemot) within our shabbat boundaries as respected members of our community (find Deuteronomy 5:14). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is the Song of Miriam from a parabiblical (or pseudo-biblical) attestation in 4Q365, as reconstructed by scholars based on the work of largely based on the work of Dr. Ariel Feldman, and with addition lacunae filled in by Issac Gantwerk Mayer. Isaac also vocalized, cantillated, and translated the test according to Masoretic norms, and provided a rendering of the text styled according to the Shirat ha-Yam as reproduced by scribes in the Masoretic tradition. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Classical Antiquity, Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Women's Prayers, Miriam, גאולה geūlah (redemption), Second Temple Period, שבת שירה shabbat shirah Contributor(s): This is the text of the Ladino translation of the Shavuot Day One readings from Exodus 19:1-20:23 as transcribed in romanized Ladino by Moshe Lazar in his Ladino Pentateuch: (Constantinople, 1547) (1988), and retranscribed as digital text by Shmuel Gonzales (2026). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is the text of the Ladino translation of the Shavuot Day Two readings from Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17 (and the Maftir: Numbers 28:26-31) as transcribed by Moshe Lazar in his Ladino Pentateuch: (Constantinople, 1547) (1988), and retranscribed as digital text by Shmuel Gonzales (2026). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): | ||
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