Birkhot haTorah

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ברכות התורה | Blessing for Torah Study, interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

This English translation of the blessing for Torah study by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l, was first published in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). Versification according to the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l by Aharon Varady.

Categories:

Birkhot haTorah, Torah Study

Tags:

Amoraic prayers, Antiquity, devotional interpretation, ecoḥasid, English Translation, interpretive translation, Jewish Renewal, Late Antiquity, North America, Prayers before Torah Study, talmud torah, Tannaitic prayers

Contributor(s):

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation) and Unknown

ברכות לתלמוד תורה לפני תפלה | Blessings and Passages for Torah Study justifying prayer in place of sacrificial offerings in the Italian rite

The nusaḥ Italki (Italian rite) preserves a full curriculum of Torah study in advance of the morning prayers. Included are passages from the Torah, Mishnah, and Gemarah familiar to other nusḥaot. In the Italian rite, the blessings over Torah study and ensuing passages appear after all the other birkhot hashaḥar, concluding it and providing a bridge to liturgy preceding the Zemirot (a/k/a Pesuqei d’Zimra). What is remarkable in this tradition is how interlinked the blessing and recitation of these passages is to the otherwise separate and adjacent section concerning the sacrificial offerings in the Temple and the rules of halakhic exegesis in Rabbinic hermeneutics. While additional portions and verses are presented, the passages provide an explicit justification for the otherwise radical innovation carried forth in rabbinic Judaism to offer services of prayer in place of the services of the Temple cult, providing Hosea 14:3 as the authority to do so — a necessity in an age where the Torah mandated arrangements of animal sacrifices, incense and grain offerings, and wine libations remains otherwise interrupted.

Categories:

Birkhot haTorah, Incense and other Offerings, Exegetical Rules, Torah Study

Tags:

Italian Jewry, Minhag Roma, Nusaḥ Italḳi

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation) and Unknown

ברכה לפני קריאת תהלים | Blessing before the Recitation of Psalms (nusaḥ Erets Yisrael)

A blessing before the recitation of psalms, used in the old Eretz Yisrael rite as found in the Cairo Geniza. Since its structure is similar to the blessing before the haftara which is often cantillated, I have taken the liberty of adding psalmodic cantillation to the text.

Categories:

Birkhot haTorah

Tags:

blessings, Cairo Geniza, Nusaḥ Erets Yisrael, תהלים Psalms

Contributor(s):

Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

Prayer before reading the Bible, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

“Prayer before reading the Bible” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 155-156. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on page 166.

Categories:

Birkhot haTorah

Tags:

19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, family prayers, paraliturgical birkhot haTorah, תחינות teḥinot, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

בִּרְכוֹת הַתּוֹרָה | Birkhot haTorah, paraliturgical reflections by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman

A paraliturgical reflection on the blessings over learning Torah, the Birkhot haTorah, for a shame resilience practice.

Categories:

Birkhot haTorah, Torah Study

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., ברכות התורה birkhot haTorah, English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical birkhot haTorah, shame resilience

Contributor(s):

Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman

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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)

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