The following is a color-coded analysis of the Shabbat morning liturgy of second generation Reconstructionist Judaism (as witnessed in the Siddur Kol Haneshama: Shabbat v’Ḥagim, Reconstructionist Press, 1994) as compared with the traditional Nusaḥ Ashkenaz (minhag Polin). . . .

A prayer for a beloved animal first compiled in English by Aharon N. Varady for Nethaniel Puzael, his family’s cat, in 1994. . . .

We call to sukkat shalom, the shelter of peace, all of our various selves To rest from the contortion of social life and the demands of others. We liberate ourselves and each other from roles and titles labels and closets positions and pretendings internalized oppressions and oppressive projections hierarchies and competition. . . .

A declaration in 1993 by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in response to the impending danger of global warming and other ecotastrophes brought about by the callous harm of human industry and land use decisions. Translated by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. . . .

A prayer for the well-being of the Navy personnel assigned to the newly built Sa’ar 5 corvette, INS Eilat, in 1993. . . .

The full text of Rabbi Jacob Goldstein’s prayer offered at the Democratic National Convention, July 14th, 1992. . . .

Tu biShvat, the 15th of the month of Shevat, was designated by the Talmud as the New Year for the Trees. It was tax time for HaShem, a time of tithing for the poor. This tithing has its origin in the following Torah verse: “Every year, you shall set aside a tenth part of the yield, so that you may learn to revere your God forever.” The Kabbalists of 17th century Safed developed the model of tikkun olam that we embrace today — healing the world by gathering the scattered holy sparks. To encourage the Divine flow — shefa — and to effect Tikkun Olam, the Kabbalists of Safed (16th century) created a Tu biShvat seder loosely modeled after the Passover seder. In recent decades we have learned how the well being of trees is intimately connected to the well being of all creation. This relationship is clearly stated in the following Midrash: “If not for the trees, human life could not exist.” (Midrsh Sifre to Deut. 20:19) Today the stakes of environmental stewardship have become very high. Tu biShvat calls upon us to cry out against the enormity of destruction and degradation being inflicted upon God’s world. This degradation includes global warming, massive deforestation, the extinction of species, poisonous deposits of toxic chemicals and nuclear wastes, and exponential population growth. We are also deeply concerned that the poor suffer disproportionately from environmental degradation. Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote: “[Human beings have] indeed become primarily tool-making animal[s], and the world is now a gigantic tool box for the satisfaction of [their] needs…” . . .

The Megillah of Esther: An Original English Rendition (set to trop) by Ḥazzan Jack Kessler was first published in 1990. This second “version 2.0” edition was published in 2016. . . .

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Reb Arthur Waskow, and others helped to formulate this grammatically feminine Hebrew blessing for an oleh in their blessing over the Torah reading, in the early years of Congregation Mishkan Shalom in Philadelphia (1988-1983). . . .

It is the responsibility of leadership in every generation to remove stumbling blocks from paths provided for seekers of Hashem. The needs of the faith community have dramatically changed. In our generation, many of the paths to Heaven that used to work very well in the past, don’t work any more. Why is that? For several reasons: . . .

A ceremony for the naming of a baby daughter. . . .

The “Pledge of Allegiance to the Family of Earth” was offered by the Women’s Foreign Policy Council (co-chaired by Bella Abzug and Mim Kelber). The earliest publication of the pledge that we were able to located is as found in the article, “Earthlings Unite” by Nina Combs in Ms. Magazine, vol. 18:1&2 (July/August 1989), p. 19. . . .

We name our daughters on their fifteenth day of life. This is based on Vayiqra 12:1-5, which describes the length of a woman’s period of impurity after childbirth. If she gives birth to a son, she is impure for seven days; if she gives birth to a daughter, she is impure for fourteen days. The passage seems to connect the baby boy’s circumcision on the eighth day to the conclusion of the mother’s seven day period of impurity. (Similarly, Vayiqra 22:27 says that a newborn animal must remain with its mother for seven days, and on the eighth day and onward it is acceptable as a sacrificial offering.) It seems, then, that for the first seven days of a little boy’s life, and the first fourteen days of a little girl’s life, the child and mother are still closely linked, and both remain separate from the larger family and community. Then, on the eighth day of her son’s life, and on the fifteenth day of her daughter’s life, the mother begins to rejoin her family and community, and the child too becomes incorporated as a member of the family and community. That is why a baby boy’s father becomes obligated to circumcise his son only on the eighth day, and why the baby boy first receives his name at his brit milah; it is then that the baby boy becomes a member of the community of Israel. On our daughter’s fifteenth day, we come together as a family and as a community to welcome this new member and to give her a name. . . .

The unabridged edition of the Tu biShvat seder haggadah, The Trees are Davvening. . . .

Aleinu, as rewritten in Hebrew and English for Ḥavurat Shalom, Somerville, Massachusetts. . . .

This Prayer for Peace by Samuel Avital was composed in January 1984 for a gathering of spiritual teachers from all over the world at Mt. Sinai in March 1984. A month later, the State of Israel would return the Sinai to Egyptian sovereignty. While that event was not documented in any media, the prayer was first published in Four Worlds Journal vol. 2 no. 4, (January 1985), pp. 16-17. Of the event itself, Samuel Avital adds, “I performed there some of my mime performances like Jacob & Angel, Black & White and others.” The prayer for peace is included in Samuel Avital’s Passover Haggadah (2021). . . .

This is a kavvanah (intention) for anyone in a desperate circumstance of needing to eat or drink for their mortal health, to do so with the full confidence that they are fulfilling a mitsvah required for them in the Torah, to preserve their life. The kavvanah was related by Rav Yitschok Zilberstein in his Toras haYoledes (1983), chapter 52, section 10, p. 357 (pp. 331-332 in the bilingual edition 1989), “הועתק ממחזור עתיק” (as “copied from an old maḥzor”). Unfortunately, we can’t provide a more direct reference to this maḥzor. If you know, please leave a comment or contact us. . . .

In the early 1980s, while speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist haggadah that suggested adding a crust of bread on the seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians (suggesting that there’s as much room for a lesbian in Judaism as there is for a crust of bread on the seder plate). Heschel felt that to put bread on the seder plate would be to accept that Jewish lesbians and gay men violate Judaism like ḥamets violates Passover. So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. She offered the orange as a symbol of the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. . . .

An El Malé Raḥamim prayer for Victims of Terror in Erets Yisrael, with an English translation by Rabbi Hillel Ḥayyim Lavery-Yisraeli from Prayers for Israel, for Protection from Terror Attacks, and In Memory of the Victims (15 October 2023), page 6. . . .

A ḳinnah composed by a concentration camp survivor. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 8 June 1976. . . .

מַחֲזוֹר לְראֹשׁ השנה Majzor leRosh Hashanah (1976) is the first edition of a bilingual Hebrew-Spanish nusaḥ Sefaradi Rosh haShanah prayerbook compiled and translated by Rabbi Meir Matsliaḥ Melamed (1920-1989). Rabbi Melamed had in 1971 been installed at the pulpit of the Cuban Sephardic Hebrew Congregation, after having served previously in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where his 1966 Hebrew-Portuguese siddur Tefilat Masliaḥ was first published. For both prayerbooks, as no Hebrew type with vocalization and cantillation marks was available to Rabbi Melamed, liturgy was reproduced from images of older siddurim. Rabbi Melamed’s translation appears to the sides of these images and his commentary underneath. . . .

A prayer written for the play David Dances (1997) by playwright Stephen Mo Hanan. . . .

The pedagogical song “Hashem is Everywhere!” by Rabbi Yosef Goldstein (1928-2013) can be found in the context of his story, “Where is Hashem?,” the second track on his album מדות טובות Jewish Ethics Through Story and Song (Menorah Records 1972). In the instructions to reciting the lyrics, the singer points first to the six cardinal directions and lastly, by pointing inward towards one’s self. In so doing, one explicitly affirms the idea of the divine within ourselves and implicitly, in each other. . . .

This is the first edition of סִדּוּר תְּפִלַּת מַצְלִיחַ Sidur Tefillat Masliah (Libro de Oraciones) (1974), a bilingual Hebrew-Spanish nusaḥ Sefaradi prayerbook compiled and translated by Rabbi Meir Matsliaḥ Melamed (1920-1989). As no Hebrew type with vocalization and cantillation marks was available to printers in Brazil, where Rabbi Matsliaḥ first began compiling prayerbooks, he developed a process of reproducing the liturgy from images of older siddurim and, occasionally, typewritten text. Rabbi Melamed’s translation appears to the sides of these images and his commentary underneath. This Spanish edition was preceded by a bilingual Hebrew-Portuguese edition published in Brazil in 1966. . . .

This prayer by Rabbi Seymour Siegel at the second inauguration of President Richard M. Nixon was recorded in the United States’ Congressional Record on January 20, 1973. . . .

הַגָּדָה שֶׁל פֶּסַח Hagada de Pesaj (1973) is the first edition of a bilingual Hebrew-Spanish nusaḥ Sefaradi Passover haggadah compiled and translated by Rabbi Meir Matsliaḥ Melamed (1920-1989). Rabbi Melamed had in 1971 been installed at the pulpit of the Cuban Sephardic Hebrew Congregation, after having served previously in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where his 1966 Hebrew-Portuguese siddur Tefilat Masliaḥ was first published. For that prayerbook, as with this haggadah, no Hebrew type with vocalization and cantillation marks was available to Rabbi Melamed, so liturgy was reproduced from images of older authoritative works. Rabbi Melamed’s translation appears to the sides of these images and his commentary underneath. . . .

Variations of the original three lines culminating with “…walk beside me…” first appear in high school yearbooks beginning in 1970. The earliest recorded mention we could find was in The Northern Light, the 1970 yearbook of North Attleboro High School, Massachusetts. In the Jewish world of the early to mid-1970s, a young Moshe Tanenbaum began transmitting the lines at Jewish summer camps. In 1979, as Uncle Moishy, Tanenbaum published a recording of the song under the title “v’Ohavta” (track A4 on The Adventures of Uncle Moishy and the Mitzvah Men, volume 2). . . .

An original Hebrew translation of the blues-rock portion of the Agnus Dei movement from Leonard Bernstein’s MASS (note: always spelled with ALL CAPS), where the crowd of disaffected and disillusioned young parishioners interrupts the offertory to demand peace now, and hold God to account for not giving it to us. It’s unsurprising that for a composer as proudly and openly Jewish as Bernstein that even his setting of the Tridentine Mass has major “shaking your fist at God” energy. Not gonna lie, I was listening to this on a plane out of Jerusalem as the war was starting, and I started to tear up. I immediately started writing this translation and finished it up in the process of about an hour while stuck somewhere a few thousand feet above Greenland. It’s amazing and moving and tragic and enraging and a little full of itself in exactly the right way to hit me in the heart. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 18 February 1969. . . .

The Ḥassidic-Sefardic edition of Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem, a bilingual Hebrew-English comprehensive prayerbook arranged and translated by Paltiel Birnbaum for the Hebrew Publishing Co. in 1969. . . .

“baShanah haBa’ah” (Next Year) by Ehud Manor written in 1968 in memory of his brother Yehudah. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 2 May 1968 in the event of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. . . .

מַחֲזוֹר לְיוֹם כִּפּוּר Majzor leYom Kipur (Mexico: 1972) is the second edition of a bilingual Hebrew-Spanish nusaḥ Sefaradi Yom Kippur prayerbook compiled and translated by Rabbi Meir Matsliaḥ Melamed (1920-1989), first published in 1968. (This “second edition” appears to be more of a “second printing” than an update or revision of the first edition.) As no Hebrew type with vocalization and cantillation marks was available to Rabbi Melamed at the time, liturgy was reproduced from images of older siddurim. Rabbi Melamed’s translation appears to the sides of these images and his commentary underneath. . . .

מחזור לראש השנה Majzor para Rosh haShanah (1968) is a bilingual Hebrew-Spanish prayerbook for Rosh haShanah compiled and translated by Rabbi Marcos Edery z”l, and published by the World Council of [Conservative/Masorti] Synagogues under the supervision of Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer (1930-1993). Earlier prayerbooks represented the Ashkenazi liturgical tradition. This is the first siddur that we are aware of for Sepharadi congreations in the Conservative movement. Besides the liturgy (in the Ashkenazi nusaḥ), the prayerbook is prefaced by Seliḥot and includes essays concerning prayer by 20th century scholars in Spanish translation. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 17 April 1967. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 21 February 1967. . . .

מחזור לראש השנה ויום כיפור Majzor para Rosh haShanah y Yom Kipur (1967) is a bilingual Hebrew-Spanish prayerbook for the Yamim Noraïm compiled and translated by Rabbi Marcos Edery z”l, and published by the World Council of [Conservative/Masorti] Synagogues under the supervision of Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer (1930-1993). Rabbi Reubén Nisembom (1938-2023), then a student at the Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano, proofread the maḥzor. Besides the liturgy (in the Ashkenazi nusaḥ), the prayerbook is prefaced by Seliḥot and includes essays concerning prayer by 20th century scholars in Spanish translation, such as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Buber. . . .

A Hebrew translation of the lyrics to Harry Nilsson’s “One” (1967) as sung by Aimee Mann (1995) . . .

A traditional tefilat haderekh supplemented by a 20th century prayer for airplane travel. . . .

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 27 April 1966. . . .

This is the first edition of Sidur Tefillat Matsliaḥ (1966), a bilingual Hebrew-Portugues nusaḥ Sefaradi prayerbook compiled and translated by Rabbi Meir Matsliaḥ Melamed (1920-1989). . . .

This is the scholar Dr. Jakob Petuchowski’s translation of the Amidah for Shabbat Minḥah from his Shabbat Minḥah prayer-pamphlet (1966), p.5r-13r. . . .

This prayer-leaflet was primarily intended for a group of Hebrew Union College students who met every sabbath afternoon for extra-curricular (noncredit) Torah study with Rabbi Dr. Jakob Petuchowki in the mid-1960s. Their service was conducted entirely in Hebrew and in the traditional nusaḥ with some minor but interesting Liberal innovations. Petuchowki writes, “We have omitted only the various repetitions as well as the prayer for the restoration of the sacrificial service. (But we have retained the place of Zion as the symbol of the messianic hope.) In the ‘Alenu prayer, we have preferred a positive formulation of the “Election of Israel” to the traditional negative one.” . . .

סדור לחול לשבת וליום טוב Ritual de Oraciones para Todo el Año (1965) is a bilingual Hebrew-Spanish prayerbook for the entire year compiled and translated by Rabbi Marcos Edery z”l, and published by the World Council of [Conservative] Synagogues. Besides the liturgy of the siddur, this prayerbook includes essays concerning prayer by 20th century scholars in Spanish translation, such as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Israel Abrahams. . . .

The blessing for Tsar Nicholas II as given in the lines of the musical, Fiddler on the Roof. . . .

This is an adaptation of the “Last Rites of Bokonon” from the 99th chapter of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle (1963) translated by Amatsyah Porat for the 1978 Hebrew language edition of the novel. . . .

“Tefilat haDerekh l’Tsevet haTsolelot,” a prayer by Rabbi Shlomo Goren for missions of submariners in the service of the IDF was first published in his Siddur Tefilot l’Ḥayyal (p. 76 in the 1963 printing). . . .

Rabbi Shlomo Goren’s “Tefilah Lifnei Yetsiah laQrav,” a prayer for IDF soldiers before embarking on a combat mission was first published in his Siddur Tefilot l’Ḥayyal (pp. 72-73 in the 1963 printing). . . .

“Tefilat haDerekh l’Tayas,” a prayer for sorties by military aviators in the service of the IDF by Rabbi Shlomo Goren was first published in his Siddur Tefilot l’Ḥayyal. . . .