Resources employing French language← Back to Languages & Scripts Index This piyyut envisions Queen Esther’s prayer as she enters King Ahasuerus’ palace unbidden. In Tractate Megilla 15b, the sages associate verses from Psalm 22 with Esther in these pivotal moments. Written in the first person, this poem weaves together verses from Psalms and the Book of Esther, along with interpretations and commentaries of Talmudic Sages, to evoke Esther’s prayer at this crucial moment. Its structure mirrors the Rosh Hashanah piyyut “‘Et Sha‘are Ratson”, which recounts the binding of Isaac through the perspectives of its protagonists. Like Isaac, Esther is headed to a sacrifice, but she goes with full awareness and intent for the sake of her people. . . . This prayer for the captives was prepared for the Masorti Movement in Israel by the Knesset haRabanim b’Yisrael and disseminated in Hebrew, English, French, and Spanish. These were published online for the Masorti Solidarity Shabbat (27-28 October 2023). . . . This prayer for peace in Ukraine was co-written by the Masorti Movement in Israel and the Rabbinic Assembly in Israel, and read by Rabbi Ori Friedland (Hebrew) and Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg (English) in an international prayer service organized by Masorti Olami in solidarity with Ukraine and the Jewish communities therein. . . . In 2019, Richard Collis released an album providing recordings of the prayers for the Shabbat Morning Services, from Nishmat til the end of Musaf, We Sing We Stay Together: Shabbat Morning Service Prayers. Accompanying liner notes included the romanized Hebrew text for each recorded prayer track, with an original translation in English below each sung phrase. Describing it he wrote, “The 64 track music CD album set We Sing We Stay Together of the Shabbat Morning Service Prayers, and a companion Sing-Along Prayer Book of the same name (to make it beyond easy to learn) is designed to help everyone access the beauty of their Judaic heritage, no prior knowledge required. These prayers belong to all of us.” In 2022, Collis released a follow-up edition with translations in Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, and Russian. This is Richard Collis’s sing-a-long prayerbook for Shabbat morning in French. . . . A Proclamation of Fundamental Animal Rights drafted by the West German Green Party in 1989 upon the 200th anniversary of the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” (1789), in German with translations in English, French, and Portuguese. . . . The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (UDAR) was first proclaimed in Paris on 15 October 1978 at the headquarters of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) with the ambition of it being formally adopted in the United Nations General Assembly. The French League of Animal Rights spurred the development of a revised text written during the General Assembly of the International League of Animal Rights, held June 3–4, 1989 in Luxembourg, and adopted on October 21, 1989. The declaration was submitted to the UNESCO Director General in 1990 however it has never been formally adopted. . . . The Chanson Internationale (‘International Song’) was originally written in 1871 by Eugène Pottier, a French public transportation worker, member of the International Workingmen’s Association (The First International), and activist of the Paris Commune. He wrote it to pay tribute to the commune violently destroyed that year. The song became the official anthem of The Second International, of the Comintem, and between 1921 and 1944 also of the Soviet Union. Most socialist and communist parties adopted it as their anthem during the last decades of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, adapting it in local languages (Russian, Yiddish, etc.) to their particular ideological framework. The anthem was first translated into Hebrew by Avraham Shlonsky in 1921. . . . A prayer for the French Emperor, Napoleon III, a year before he was captured by the Prussians in the doomed Franco-Prussian War of 1870, including the formula of the prayer, haNoten Teshuah, as adapted for Napoleon III. . . . An Ashkenazi siddur with a French translation compiled by Elḥanan ben Netanel Durlacher. . . . A birkat hamazon for children. . . . A prayer for children before school. . . . A child’s prayer for the well-being of their parents. . . . A prayer offered by the parents of a Bar or Bat Mitsvah after they are confirmed in a public ceremony. . . . A prayer offered by the tutors of a Bar or Bat Mitsvah after they are confirmed in a public ceremony. . . . A morning prayer for children. . . . An evening, bedtime prayer for children. . . . A paraliturgical prayer for Monday in French with English translation. . . . A meditation and a teḥinah (supplicatory prayer) composed in parallel to the Prayer for Thursday, following in the paraliturgical tradition of Yiddish tkhines, albeit written in French. . . . A paraliturgical prayer for the Psalm for Wednesday, in French with English translation. . . . A paraliturgical prayer for the Psalms of Tuesday in French, with English translation. . . . A prayer for Kabbalat Shabbat, reflecting on the creator of creation. . . . A paraliturgical prayer for Sunday in French, with English translation. . . . A paraliturgical prayer for cultivating humility modeled after the morning prayer, Ribon haOlamim. . . . A prayer on Erev Shabbat upon lighting the Shabbes Candles, in French with English translation. . . . A blessing given by the parents of a Bar or Bat Mitsvah after they are confirmed in a public ceremony. . . . A prayer on behalf of a friend or relative on their travels. . . . A prayer offered by a Bar or Bat Mitsvah after they are confirmed in a public ceremony. . . . A prayer for children after school. . . . A prayer of gratitude after a dangerous and distressing situation is resolved for the good. . . . A prayer for travel. . . . A prayer for parnassah (livelihood) for someone impoverished or in danger of poverty. . . . A prayer in severe distress. . . . A prayer during an event of immanent communal danger and distress. . . . A child’s prayer for someone suffering from an illness. . . . A preliminary prayer offered by a Bar or Bat Mitsvah before they are confirmed in a public ceremony. . . . This prayer of gratitude for the emancipation of French Jewry was included by Rabbi Arnaud Aron and Jonas Ennery in their opus, אמרי לב Prières d’un Coeur Israelite (Société Consistoriale de Bons Livres, 1848), pp. 61-62. In the second edition published in 1852, it appears on pp. 95-96. . . . This is a paraliturgical prayer for rain during the wet season, read during the festival of Sukkot, following in the tradition of Yiddish tkhines, albeit written in French. The prayer was included by Rabbi Arnaud Aron and Jonas Ennery in their opus, אמרי לב Prières d’un Coeur Israelite (first edition) published in 1848 by the Société Consistoriale de Bons Livres. . . . To the best of my ability, this is a faithful transcription of a teḥinah (supplicatory prayer) composed in parallel to the Prayer for the New Moon, following in the paraliturgical tradition of Yiddish tkhines, albeit written in French. . . . A paraliturgical Mah Tovu, in French with English translation. . . . This is the “Prière Pour la Fête de Hanouka” as found in אמרי לב Prières D’un Cœur Israélite, a collection of paraliturgical prayers and teḥinot in French by Jonas Ennery & Rabbi Arnaud Aron (Consistoire central israélite de France 1848/53). In the 1848 edition, the prayer can be found on pages 158-160. In the 1852 edition, on pages 401-403. . . . A collection of paraliturgical prayers and teḥinot, edited by the chief rabbi of Strasbourg and translated into French by Jonas Ennery, as a supplement to the Jewish liturgy of the synagogue. . . . A prayer composed for honoring Napoleon Ⅰ by the emancipated Jews of France. . . . A speech given in honor of Napoleon concluding with a prayer by Abraham de Cologna, chief rabbi of the Central Consistory of Israelites, in 1809 on the anniversary of the emperor’s coronation. . . . A prayer composed for convening the Grand Sanhedrin established under the court of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807. . . . A prayer offered at the inaugural session of the Grand Sanhedrin (9 February 1807) by Rabbi David Sinzheim, as found in Italian in Raccolta degli atti dell’assemblea degli Israeliti di Francia e del regno d’Italia (1807), p. 21-23, and in French in Collection des Proces-verbaux er decisions du Grand Sanhedrin (1807), p. 23-25. . . . A prayer by Rabbi David Sinzheim given during the Festival of Napoleon the Great on 15 August 1806, as recorded in Collection des Actes de l’Assemblée des Israélites de France et du Royaume d’Italie, pp. 218-219, and Raccolta degli atti dell’assemblea degli Israeliti di Francia e del regno d’Italia, p. 221. . . . Bénissons is the French version of the well-known Bendigamos, a prayer and melody of the Spanish & Portuguese Jewish communities, most probably originating in Bordeaux, France. . . . “Lamnatseaḥ Shir” composed by Moses Ensheim, and its accompanying paraliturgical French translation by Isaïah Berr Bing, was first published in 1792 when it was sung in the synagogue of the Jewish community of Metz in celebration of the victory of the French Revolution and their emancipation as full citizens of France in 1791. . . . “La Marseillaise” is the national anthem of France. This Hebrew translation was made by Efrayim Dror for the Free French Army (Forces Françaises Libres) and its many Jewish volunteers during the early years of World War II. The translation was published in 1951. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled “Chant de guerre pour l’Armée du Rhin” (“War Song for the Army of the Rhine”). The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic’s anthem in 1795. The song acquired its nickname after being sung in Paris by volunteers from Marseille marching to the capital. After the fall of Napoleon in 1815 “La Marseilles” was banned and it became the anthem of the French left. The Government brought back the iconic anthem in an attempt to motivate the French people during the Franco-Prussian War. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “La Marseillaise” was recognized as the anthem of the international revolutionary movement; as such, it was adopted by the Paris Commune in 1871, albeit with new lyrics under the title “La marseillaise de la Commune.” Eight years later, in 1879, it was restored as France’s national anthem. On Simḥat Torah (18–19 October) 1973, the Lubavitcher Rebbe adapted the melody to the Jewish prayer “Ha’aderet v’ha’emuna”. In ḤaBaD, the melody is believed to convey the idea of a “spiritual French revolution” – in that Torah should be spread around the world as an advent to the messianic era. . . . This is “Had Gadiâ | Un Cabri: La Légende de l’Agneau (Poésie chaldaico-provençale, chantée a la table de famille les soirs de Paques),” a translation of Ḥad Gadya into French by Dom Pedro Ⅱ (1825-1891), emperor of Brazil, as published in Poésies hébraïco-provençales du rituel israélite comtadin traduites et transcriptes par S. M. D. Pedro Ⅱ, de Alcântara, empereur du Brésil (1891), pp. 45-59. A note on the last page indicates the translation was made in Vichy, France on 30 July 1891. . . . |
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