the Open Siddur Project ✍︎ פְּרוֹיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ
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🖖︎ Prayers & Praxes // 🌞︎ Prayers for the weekday, Shabbat, and season // Everyday // Daytime // Birkhot haShaḥar 📁 Birkhot haShaḥar ![]() “Morning Prayer” by Rabbi Menachem Creditor was shared via the Open Siddur Project’s Discussion Group on Facebook, 15 June 2023. . . . ![]() “Asher Yatzar (The One Who Forms): a prayer of gratitude for our bodies as transgender, nonbinary, intersex people, and everybody else” was written by Rabbi Elliot Kukla and adapted from the blessing known by its incipit “Asher Yatsar” or “the bathroom blessing” traditionally recited after excretion of waste. The blessing is also recited as part of the birkhot hashaḥar complex of blessings recited upon waking up and becoming active. Rabbi Kukla’s blessing was first published in Where Healing Resides (CCAR 2013), p. 32. . . . ![]() Four morning blessings inspired from traditional blessing in the Birkhot haShaḥar and Shaḥarit services. . . . ![]() A paraliturgical reflection on the prayer over being animated with life sustaining breath, Elohai Neshamah, for a shame resilience practice. . . . ![]() A paraliturgical reflection on the prayer following urination and defecation, Asher Yatsar, for a shame resilience practice. . . . ברכות השחר | Birkhot haShaḥar (Morning Blessings), paraliturgical reflections by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman![]() Paraliturgical reflections of the morning blessings for a shame resilience practice. . . . ![]() A paraliturgical reflection on the blessings over learning Torah, the Birkhot haTorah, for a shame resilience practice. . . . ![]() A paraliturgical reflection of the prayer Ribon haOlamim for a shame resilience practice. . . . אשר יצר | Asher Yatsar prayer for recognizing the Divine Image in all our bodies, by Rabbi Emily Aviva Kapor![]() Asher Yatzar (the “bathroom blessing”, traditionally said every morning and after every time one goes to relieve oneself) has always rung hollow to me, at best, and at worst has been a prayer not celebrating beauty but highlighting pain. The original version praises bodies whose nekavim nekavim ḥalulim ḥalulim (“all manner of ducts and tubes”) are properly opened and closed—yes, in a digestive/excretory sense, but it is quite easy to read a reproductive sense into it as well. What do you do if the “ducts and tubes” in your body are not properly opened and closed, what if one is open that should be closed, or vice versa? . . . ![]() Given that the Torah forbids impressing our imaginations with illustrations of the divine, some other method is necessary to perceive divine Oneness. One method is found in the verse in Psalms 16:8, “I have set YHVH before me at all times.” . . . ![]() Thankful am I in your Presence, Spirit who lives and endures, for You’ve returned to me my soul with compassion. Abundant is your faith! . . . ![]() An original liturgical poem inspired by the Modah|Modeh Ani prayer. . . . ![]() Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l, included his translation of the Birkhot haShaḥar in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). . . . אֱלֹהַי נְשָׁמָה שֶׁנָּתַתָּ בִּי | Neshamah Shenatata Bi (the breath you have given me), interpretive translation by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi![]() This English translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l of “Neshama Shenatata Bi,” was first published in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). Linear associations of this translation according to the nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l by Aharon Varady. . . . ![]() This English translation of the prayer “Asher Yatsar” by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l, was first published in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). Versification by Aharon Varady according to the nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l. . . . ![]() An adaptation of the prayer Elohai Neshama in honor of a bar mitsvah. . . . ![]() A morning prayer for young girls composed in Magyar and published in 1930, with English translation. . . . ![]() “Morning Prayer (For Very Young Children)” by Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy is found in The Helpful Manual (Centre of Jewish Science, 1927), p. 26. . . . ![]() “Morning Prayer (for Older Children)” by Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy is found in The Helpful Manual (Centre of Jewish Science, 1927), p. 27. . . . תְּחִנָה קַבָּלַת עוֺל מַלְכוּת שָׁמַיִם | Tkhine [for Women] Receiving the Yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven (1916)![]() The author of this tkhine intended for women to begin their morning devotional reading of prayers by first accepting patriarchal dominion. Women compensate for their inherent weakness and gain their honor only through the established gender roles assigned to them. The placement of this tkhine at the beginning of the Shas Tkhine Rav Peninim, a popular collection of women’s tkhines published in 1916 (during the ascent of women’s suffrage in the U.S.), suggests that it was written as a prescriptive polemic to influence pious Jewish women to reject advancing feminist ideas. . . . ![]() This untitled “morning mediation,” a waking prayer, was written by Dinah Julia Levi née Emanuel and included by her daughter, Annie Josephine Levi, in her anthology of teḥinot in English, Meditations of the Heart (1900), pp. 56-57. . . . ![]() A rhyming translation of Elohai Neshamah. . . . Reggeli ima | Gebet am Morgen | Morning Prayer, a paraliturgical Elohai Neshamah by Rabbi Arnold Kiss (1897)![]() This prayer by Rabbi Arnold Kiss for the well-being of a husband by their wife, “A nő imája férjéért,” was first published in his anthology of prayers for Jewish women, Mirjam (1897) on p.246-248. It doesn’t appear to me to have been translated in the subsequent German edition (1907). I’ve set my English translation side-by-side with the Magyar. –Aharon Varady . . . ![]() “Morning Prayer” was written by Lilian Helen Montagu and published in Prayers for Jewish Working Girls (1895), pp. 7-8. . . . ![]() “Morning Prayer for Children” is one of thirty prayers appearing in Rabbi Moritz Mayer’s collection of tehinot, Hours of Devotion (1866), of uncertain provenance and which he may have written. . . . ![]() A prayer upon rising in the morning. . . . ![]() A paraliturgical prayer for cultivating humility modeled after the morning prayer, Ribon haOlamim. . . . Refreshed By Sleep, That Sovereign Balm – a hymn on “Morning” by Penina Moïse (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1842)![]() “Refresh’d by sleep, that sov’reign balm” by Penina Moïse, published in 1842, appears under the subject “Morning” as Hymn 48 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), pp. 51-52. . . . ![]() “Family morning prayer” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 153-155. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 164-166. . . . ![]() “Morning meditation” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in the UK edition of Sacred Communings, pp. 69-70. . . . ![]() “Morgen⸗ und Abendgebet” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №65 on pp. 93-95. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №67 on pp. 116-118. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №70 on pp. 121-123. . . . ![]() “Desgleichen [Morgengebet №2]” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №67 on pp. 97-98. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №69 on pp.121-122. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №72 on pp. 126-127. . . . ![]() “Desgleichen [Morgengebet №3]” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №68 on pp. 98-101. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №70 on pp. 122-125. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №73 on pp. 127-130. . . . ![]() “Desgleichen [Morgengebet №1]” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №66 on pp. 95-96. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №68 on pp. 118-120. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №71 on pp. 123-125. . . . ![]() The custom of reciting this intention is attributed to Rav Yitzḥak Luria, circa 16th century, on Leviticus 19:18, recorded in Minhagei ha-Arizal–Petura d’Abba, p.3b by R’ Ḥayyim Vital. . . . ![]() Modeh Ani first appeared as an addendum in Seder ha-Yom (1599) by Moshe ibn Makhir of Safed. A slightly different formula offers a deep insight into who and what has returned to one’s self upon waking. . . . מודה אני | Modeh Ani by Moshe ibn Makhir (interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi)![]() Modeh Ani, in Hebrew with English translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. . . . ![]() A variation of the prayer Ribon ha-Olamim from the section of prayers preceding Psukei d’Zimrah/Zermirot. . . . בְּנדּיגֿ טוּ שַנט…קִי פִֿיש מִי פְינַה | Blessed are you…who made me a woman, a variation of the morning blessing for Jewish women in Judeo-Provençal (ca. 14-15th c.)![]() From the Morning Blessings (Birkhot ha-Shaḥar) of the Seder tefilot be-targum le-Shuʾadit [סדר תפילות בתרגום לשואדית], a translation of the Siddur into Judaeo-Provençal dating from the 14th-15th century providing the following blessing for women. . . . 📖 פֶּרֶק שִׁירָה | Pereq Shirah, a litany of verses spoken by the creatures & works of Creation (after the arrangement of Natan Slifkin)![]() Talmudic and midrashic sources contain hymns of the creation usually based on homiletic expansions of metaphorical descriptions and personifications of the created world in the Bible. The explicitly homiletic background of some of the hymns in Perek Shira indicates a possible connection between the other hymns and Tannaitic and Amoraic homiletics, and suggests a hymnal index to well-known, but mostly unpreserved, homiletics. The origin of this work, the period of its composition and its significance may be deduced from literary parallels. A Tannaitic source in the tractate Hagiga of the Jerusalem (Hag. 2:1,77a—b) and Babylonian Talmud (Hag. 14b), in hymns of nature associated with apocalyptic visions and with the teaching of ma’aseh merkaba serves as a key to Perek Shira’s close spiritual relationship with this literature. Parallels to it can be found in apocalyptic literature, in mystic layers in Talmudic literature, in Jewish mystical prayers surviving in fourth-century Greek Christian composition, in Heikhalot literature, and in Merkaba mysticism. The affinity of Perek Shira with Heikhalot literature, which abounds in hymns, can be noted in the explicitly mystic introduction to the seven crowings of the cock — the only non-hymnal text in the collection — and the striking resemblance between the language of the additions and that of Shi’ur Koma and other examples of this literature. In Seder Rabba de-Bereshit, a Heikhalot tract, in conjunction with the description of ma’aseh bereshit, there is a clear parallel to Perek Shira’s praise of creation and to the structure of its hymns. The concept reflected in this source is based on a belief in the existence of angelic archetypes of created beings who mediate between God and His creation, and express their role through singing hymns. As the first interpretations of Perek Shira also bear witness to its mystic character and angelologic significance, it would appear to be a mystical chapter of Heikhalot literature, dating from late Tannaitic — early Amoraic period, or early Middle Ages. . . .
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The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.
ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "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
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