📖 סדר תפלה בקצרה | La Tefila du Soldat, an abridged bilingual Hebrew-French prayerbook for Jewish soldiers compiled by Rabbi Maurice Liber (Consistoire central israelíte de France 1914/1939)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation), Maurice Liber, Mayer Lambert, Isaïe Schwartz and Consistoire central israélite de France

Shared on:

4 November 2025 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

Categories:

Comprehensive (Kol Bo) Siddurim, Personal & Paraliturgical collections of prayers, Martial siddurim

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., French Jewry, French vernacular prayer, military, World War Ⅰ, World War Ⅱ

La Tefila du Soldat is an abridged bilingual Hebrew-French prayerbook for French-Jewish soldiers prepared in 1939 by Rabbi Maurice Liber, the former interim Chief Rabbi of France under Rabbi Israël Lévi (from 1934-1939). In addition to abridged liturgy, the prayerbook also contains a curated selection of teḥinot in vernacular French, and psalms in French translation. Rabbi Isaie Schwartz, appointed chief rabbi in 1939, wrote the introductory letter to Jewish soldiers at the start of the French section of the siddur. In it, he notes the prayerbook is, essential, a copy of one offered to French-Jewish soldiers by the Consistoire central israelíte de France during World War Ⅰ.

The note to the first edition explains that the contents are mostly derived from material found in Prières D’un Cœur Israélite (1848/1853) by the former chief Rabbi Arnaud Aron and the Guide du croyant israélite (1857) by the former chief Rabbi L. Wogue. The note also names the scholar, Dr. Mayer Lambert, as having (posthumously) contributed to the siddur.

In the printed edition, the Hebrew and French sections open from the right and from the left, respectively. In this digital edition, the French pages follow the Hebrew pages. An index at the end of the prayerbook provides corresponding page numbers for Hebrew prayers in French translation.

For more information on Jewish military participation in the French Army in World War II, find this 2017 post at the They Were Soldiers blog.

This work was scanned by Aharon Varady for the Open Siddur Project from a volume held in the collection of the HUC Klau Library, Cincinnati, Ohio. (Thank you!) This work is cross-posted to the Internet Archive.

Source (French) Translation (English)
A nos frères israélites aux Armées,
To our Jewish brothers in the Armed Forces,
Celle Tefila est la reproduction de celle qui avait aidé vos ainés de la dernière guerre à prier el à élever leur àme vers Dieu.
This work of liturgy is a reproduction of the one that helped your elders in the last war to pray and lift their souls to God.
Appelés — à vingt ans de distance à peine — à défendre contre le mème ennemi notre Pays el ses libertés, vous saurez y puiser, à votre tour, les forces nécessaires pour accomplir sans défaillance, comme eux, la tàche qui vous attend, si dure soil-elle.
Called upon—barely twenty years later—to defend our country and its freedoms against the same enemy, you will, in turn, draw from it the strength necessary to accomplish without fail, as they did, the task that awaits you, however difficult it may be.
La cause de notre Patrie et de ses alliés est juste et noble entre toutes. De son triomphe dépend, avec notre sécurité, la paix du monde. À son service, vous vous montrerez les dignes descendants des hèros asmonéens dont tout Israël célèbre en ce moment la gloire impérissable.
The cause of our homeland and its allies is just and noble above all others. Its triumph, along with our security, is essential to world peace. In its service, you will prove yourselves worthy descendants of the Hasmonean heroes whose enduring glory is currently being celebrated throughout Israel.
Aussi est-ce du plus profond de notre cœur que nous disons avec l’Ecriture à chacun de vous — sans jamais cesser de prier pour vous tons: «Sois fort el résolu, sans peur el sans farblesse, car l’Eternel ton Dieu est avec loi dans toutes les boies».
Therefore, from the depths of our hearts, we say to each of you with the Scriptures—never ceasing to pray for you—“Be strong and courageous, without fear or fainting, for the Lord your God is with you in all your ways.”
Ce premier jour de Hanouca (25 Kislev 3670) /
7 décembre 1939

Isaie SCHWARTZ,
Grand-Rabbin de France.
This first day of Ḥanukkah (25 Kislev 3670) /
7 December 1939

Isaie SCHWARTZ,
Chief Rabbi of France.

Source (French) Translation (English)
AVERTISSEMENT DE LA PREMIERE EDITION
NOTE TO THE FIRST EDITION
Le présent Livre de Priéres à l’usage des militaires israélites, destiné au culte privé, contient, dans sa partie hébraïque, les prières principales des jours ouvrables, du sabbat et des fêtes, ainsi qu’un certain nombre de prières de circonstance. — Quand le texte d’une prière diffère dans le rite achkenazi ou septentrional et dans le rite sefardi ou méridional — ces divergences sont du reste accessoires — on a donné la préférence, pour des raisons pratiques, au rite sefardi, tel qu’il est usité dans le midi de la France et en Algérie.
This Prayer Book for use by Jewish soldiers, intended for private worship, contains, in its Hebrew section, the main prayers for weekdays, the Sabbath, and holidays, as well as a number of prayers for special occasions. When the text of a prayer differs between the Ashkenazi or northern rite and the Sephardic or southern rite—these differences being incidental—preference has been given, for practical reasons, to the Sephardic rite, as practiced in the south of France and Algeria.
La partie francaise se compose principalement de traductions et d’imitations des prières hébraïques. Elle est empruntée presque entièrement, mais avec quelques modifications de forme, aux «Prières d’un cœur israélite» du grand-rabbin A. Aron et au «Guide du croyant israélite» du grand-rabbin L. Wogue. Ces prières sont suivies, en Appendice, d’un choix de psaumes, dont la lecture a paru plus particulièrement indiquée pour des militaires et pendant le temps de guerre. La traduction de ces psaumes est empruntée à la Bible du Rabbinat.
The French section consists mainly of translations and imitations of Hebrew prayers. It is borrowed almost entirely, but with a few modifications in form, from the Prières D’un Cœur Israélite (1848/1853) by Chief Rabbi A. Aron and the Guide du croyant israélite (1857) by Chief Rabbi L. Wogue. These prayers are followed, in the Appendix, by a selection of psalms, which seemed particularly appropriate for soldiers and during wartime. The translation of these psalms is borrowed from the Rabbinic Bible.
La Table des matiéres peut servir en même temps de guide pour le fidèle.
The Table of Contents can also serve as a guide for the faithful.
Le calendrier donne la concordance entre le calendrier israélite et le calendrier civil et indique la date des fétes israélites.
The calendar shows the correspondence between the Jewish calendar and the civil calendar and indicates the dates of Jewish holidays.
Le présent volume a été préparé par le rabbin M. Liber, aumônicr militaire, avec le concours de M. Mayer Lambert, professeur à l’Ecole Rabbinique de France, sous les auspices de M. Le Grand-Rabbin du Consistoire Central, Alfred Lévy.
This volume was prepared by Rabbi M. Liber, military chaplain, with the assistance of M. Mayer Lambert, professor at the Rabbinical School of France, under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi of the Central Consistory, Alfred Lévy.

Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation)

Aharon Varady, founding director of the Open Siddur Project, is a copyright researcher and amateur book scanner. He prepares digital images and new digital editions of prayer books and related works in the Public Domain in order to make their constituent parts (prayers, translations, annotations, etc.) publicly accessible for collaborative transcription by project volunteers. (In some cases, he finds existing digital editions prepared by others that require correction and reformatting.) If you appreciate his efforts, please send him a kind note or contribute to his patreon account.

Maurice Liber

Rabbi Maurice Liber (1884–1956), born in Warsaw, he was a scholar and the chief rabbi of France. Liber came to Paris with his parents at the age of four. After graduating from the Ecole Rabbinique de Paris in 1907 he began lecturing on Jewish history there. In 1911 he was appointed assistant to the chief rabbi of Paris, serving as an army chaplain and receiving the Croix de Guerre during World War Ⅰ. In 1920 Liber became rabbi at the Rue de la Victoire synagogue, in 1921 lecturer in the history of rabbinic Judaism at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, and in 1927 succeeded his teacher Israël Lévi as professor. He was appointed director of religious education by the Paris Consistoire in 1930 and, two years later, head of the Ecole Rabbinique. In 1934 Liber was appointed chief rabbi of France par interim, to assist the aging Israël Lévi in his task. Under the German occupation of France during World War Ⅱ, he strove hard to safeguard the Ecole Rabbinique – which had been evacuated to unoccupied southern France – and the religious character of the Consistoire. He also strove to maintain some sort of Jewish education, both legal and underground. Liber's chief field of research was French-Jewish history. He is best known by his biography of Rashi (1905; Eng. tr. 1906). He wrote a series of articles, based on archival sources, under the title "Les Juifs et la convocation des Etats Généraux" (in REJ, vols. 63–66, 1912–13), and another series, "Napoléon et les Juifs" (ibid., vols. 71–72, 1920–21). On liturgy he wrote, among other works, La Récitation du Schema… (1909), "La Formation de la liturgie Synagogale" (in Annuaire de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 1933/34), and "Structure and History of the Tefilah" (in JQR, 40 (1949/50), 331–57). Liber also wrote an extensive introduction to the reprint of M. Schwab's French translation of the Palestinian Talmud (1932). Liber opposed Zionism, calling it a national theory unacceptable to those who believe that emancipation resolved the national question for the Jews. Though deeply religious, he felt compelled to compromise with the facts of French synagogue life, such as the use of an organ.

Mayer Lambert

Mayer Lambert (1863–1930), born in Metz, France, was a French Jewish Oriental scholar and Hebraist. Lambert initially studied in Metz before continuing to the rabbinical seminary in Paris where he received his rabbinical degree in 1886. He later studied at the Sorbonne. In 1887, he became professor of Arabic and Syriac at the seminary. In 1894, he also joined the seminary's faculty of Hebrew. During that time, he taught Hebrew at the École Normale Orientale, which was run by the Alliance Israélite Universelle. In 1903, he became professor of Arabic and Syriac at the École des Hautes Études. He was associated with Joseph Derenbourg for many years in Derenbourg's research into Hebrew and oriental literature. Lambert contributed a number of articles to periodicals like the Revue des Etudes Juives and the Journal Asiatique. He also contributed to the publication of the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum and was involved with a French translation of the Bible that was issued by the French rabbinate. He published, among other articles, Eléments de Grammaire Hébraique in 1890, Commentaire sur le Séfer Yesira, ou livre de la Création par Saadiah in 1891, Saadiah's version of and commentary on Proverbs, text and French translation with Derenbourg Oeuvres complètes de Saadia. Traduction des Proverbes in 1894, and Glossaire hébreu-français du xiiime siècle with L. Brandin in 1905. Three parts of his work Traité de Grammaire Hébraïque were published between 1931 and 1938, Mayer Lambert was the son of the religious textbook author Elie Lambert, his grandfather was Chief Rabbi Lion Mayer Lambert of Metz, and his great-grandfather was Chief Rabbi Aaron of Worms, and through the latter he was a descendant of Gershon Ulif Ashkenazi and the sixteenth-century Worms rabbi and hazzan Elijah Blin.

Isaïe Schwartz

Isaïe Schwartz (15 January 1876, in Traenheim – 1952, in Paris) was the Chief Rabbi of France at the beginning of World War Ⅱ.

Consistoire central israélite de France

The Consistoire central israélite de France (English: Israelite Central Consistory of France) is an institution originally created by Napoleon I by the Imperial Decree of 17 March 1808 to administer Jewish worship and congregations in France. Given Napoleon's political emancipation of the Jews, he wanted a representative body that could deal with his government. He also directed the establishment of regional Israelite Consistories, subordinate to the Central Consistory, across France and Italy. The consistories were ranked as établissements publics du culte (public-law corporations of worship). In its first year, the consistory was led by Rabbi David Sinzheim, who headed the Assembly of Notables and the Grand Sanhedrin that preceded it in organization.

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La Tefila du Soldat (Isaie Schwartz 1939) – title pages

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)