“Gebet für den Regenten” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro from the traditional prayer for the sovereign (“Hanoten Teshua”) and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1833 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion on pp. 66-67. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №45 on pp. 75-76. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №47 on pp. 78-79, with the name of Friedrich Wilhelm Ⅲ (1770-1840) replaced by Friedrich Wilhelm Ⅳ (1795-1861). The Hebrew liturgy from which Miro’s translation was derived was reconstructed from variations of Hanoten Teshua current in the 19th century at the time this prayer was published.

The prayer, haNoten Teshu’a, as adapted for King George III in 1810.

The prayer for the government presented by Gershom Seixas at K.K. Shearith Israel on Thanksgiving Day 1789.

The prayer for King George III in the English colonies before the Revolutionary War.

Rabbi Jacob Judah Leon’s Prayer for King Charles II, from his 1675 booklet, was the first Jewish prayer in English for an English king (Mocatta Library, University College London).

The text of Hanoten Teshua in its English translation as presented by Menasseh ben Israel to Oliver Cromwell in 1655. We have reconstructed the corresponding Hebrew from the S&P nusaḥ of the Jewish community in Amsterdam.

This is the first piyyuṭ in a yotsrot cycle for the Shabbat before Rosh haShanah, according to Minhag Polin (as traditionally practiced in the Ashkenazi communities of northeastern Germany and Poland), all written by a Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Moshe haLevi according to the authorial acrostic. Zunz identifies the author as Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Mainz, who died in the Gzerot Tatno of 1096. Fraenkel disputes this and suggests Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Vienna (a/k/a the Or Zarua), of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, who died in around 1270. The yotser is an exultant heikhalot-tinged description of the midrash of seven heavens befitting the Shabbat before creation. Also included is the German text of Isaac Seligman Baer’s Avodat Yisrael translation, in modernized spelling.

This is the second piyyuṭ in a yotsrot cycle for the Shabbat before Rosh haShanah, according to Minhag Polin (as traditionally practiced in the Ashkenazi communities of northeastern Germany and Poland), all written by a Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Moshe haLevi according to the authorial acrostic. Zunz identifies the author as Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Mainz, who died in the Gzerot Tatno of 1096. Fraenkel disputes this and suggests Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Vienna (a/k/a the Or Zarua), of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, who died in around 1270. The ofan is an invocation to the listener to repent, calling upon specific angels by name. Also included is the German text of Isaac Seligman Baer’s Avodat Yisrael translation, in modernized spelling.

This is the third piyyuṭ in a yotsrot cycle for the Shabbat before Rosh haShanah, according to Minhag Polin (as traditionally practiced in the Ashkenazi communities of northeastern Germany and Poland), all written by a Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Moshe haLevi according to the authorial acrostic. Zunz identifies the author as Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Mainz, who died in the Gzerot Tatno of 1096. Fraenkel disputes this and suggests Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Vienna (a/k/a the Or Zarua), of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, who died in around 1270. This zulat piyyuṭ, citing Psalms 119 repeatedly, begs for divine justice, invoking martyrs’ memories (and perhaps endorsing Fraenkel’s suggestion that its authorship must postdate the Gzerot Tatno!).

This is a portion of the tenth gate from ספר תחכמוני Sefer Taḥkemoni of Yehudah Al-Harizi (ca. 1179-1235), narrated by The Farmer. The transcription and English translation was made by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. Isaac adds, “While Israel Davidson in Parody in Jewish Literature (1907) considered this satire, the imagery of a rooster so desperate not to be killed and eaten that he is begging humans to kill and eat his children instead is horrifying.”

A variation of the prayer Ribon ha-Olamim from the section of prayers preceding Psukei d’Zimrah/Zermirot.

This seliḥah poem, written by R. Joseph of Chartres, commemorates the martyrdom of approximately 150 Jews in Clifford’s Tower, York, England, in the year 1190. A summary of the events of 1190, sometimes referred to as “the English Masada,” can be found here. Like many medieval Jewish poems about massacres, Elohim B’alunu carefully treads the line between assuming guilt and declaring innocence. This poem, interestingly enough, directly calls out the person seen by R. Joseph of Chartres as ultimately responsible — the crusader King Richard Ⅰ. Beloved in Christian memory, this radical zealot of a king has a much darker, more horrific reputation among Jewish and Muslim groups.

An ahava piyyut for Shabbat Vayera, recited in the old Nusaḥ Polin (Eastern Ashkenazi) rite, written (according to Davidson) by R. Shmuel bar Avraham haLevi. Shmuel bar Avraham haLevi (1165-1216, according to Graetz) was a poet and scholar of the ibn Ḥasdai family of Barcelona, and the father of the noted Maimonidean translator Avraham bar Shmuel ibn Ḥasdai. This piyyuṭ takes God’s fateful instruction to Abraham — “Take, please, your son, your only one, whom you love,” and, in a shocking bit of poetic ḥutzpah, reframes it a request that God takes back Israel!

This meorah, by R. Avraham bar Shmuel of Speyer (the elder brother of R. Yehuda heḤasid and a great scholar in his own right) is recited on Shabbat Naso. This is usually after Shavuot, but sometimes (in 2025, for instance) it is before. This meorah is a poetic interpretation of the Priestly Blessing, and a plea for vengeance against the antisemitic nations. As a meorah, it is recited prior to the final line of the guf and the ḥatima of the Yotser Or blessing.

This post is a storage container for facsimile editions and digital transcriptions of Maimonides’ Seder Tefillot (Order of Prayers) found at the end of his Sefer Ahava (Book of Love) in his Mishneh Torah.

This is the piyyuṭ for Yom Kippur known by its incipit שופט כל הארץ “Shofeṭ kol ha-Arets” (“Thou Judge of all the earth”) by the late 12th century payṭan, Shlomo ben Abun of France, as adapted in the form of a rhyming translation by Nina Salaman for Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Yom haKippurim vol. 2, arranged and translated by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1904), p. 86.

This is the Minhag Ashkenaz (western Germany, codified in Frankfurt) Maȝaravot for the seventh day of Pesaḥ, by Rabbi Menaḥem ben Jacob of Worms.

I wrote this back in 2023 when it was pointed out to me that none of the attested mnemonics for the seder follow the Maimonidean practice, which lacks breaking the matzo. According to the Rambam, the matzo is only divided right before the blessings. This means that Yemenites recite a mnemonic that doesn’t follow their practice! I decided that was unfair and wrote an alternative that follows the Rambam’s instructions. (That being said, I’m still doing yaḥatz at mine.)

This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom rishon (hymn or song of unity for the first day), as translated by Nina Salaman and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler (1907).

This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom sheni (hymn or song of unity for the second day), as translated by Nina Salaman and published in the maḥzor for Yom haKippurim by Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler (1904).

This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom shlishi (hymn or song of unity for the third day), as translated by Arthur Davis and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler (1907).

This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom revi’i (hymn of unity for the fourth day), as translated by Nina Salaman and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler (1907).

A rhyming translation of the pizmon for maariv on Yom Kippur.

This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom ḥamishi (hymn of unity for the fifth day), as translated by Herbert Adler and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1907).

This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom shishi (hymn of unity for the sixth day), as translated by Herbert Adler and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1907).

This is the shir ha-yiḥud l’yom shabbat (hymn of unity for day of shabbat), as translated by Herbert Adler and published in the maḥzor for Rosh ha-Shanah by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1907).

Aish Tukad is a ḳinah for Tishah b’Av, usually recited towards the conclusion of the set of dirges for the morning service (in Goldshmidt’s numbering, it is number 32 of our 46 Kinot). According to Goldshmidt’s introduction, the structure of this Piyyut is based on a Midrash in Eicha Zuta 19, where Moses’ praises for God and Israel are seen as parallel to Jeremiah’s laments, thus creating the concept of a comparison between the joy of the Exodus and the pain of the Temple’s destruction.

A “praying translation” of the piyyut, Anim Zemirot.

A translation of the piyyut, Anim Zemirot.

The piyyut and popular shabbat table song, Ki Eshmera Shabbat, in Hebrew with a rhyming translation.

This translation of “Ki Eshmera Shabbat” by Rabbi David Aaron de Sola of a piyyut by Avraham ibn Ezra was first published in his Ancient Melodies of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (1857).

Some Jewish communities, especially those in the region of the Four Lands, have a custom of fasting on the 20th of Sivan. This day has a full seliḥot service, commemorating a series of horrors that occurred on that day, most prominently the Chmielnicki (Khmielnetsky) massacres of 1648-49. But this poem was written for another horrific occurrence on 20 Sivan, the blood libel of Blois in 1171. This was the first time the accusation of ritual murder was ever made against the Jews of France, but it wasn’t the last. This seliḥah poem, written by Hillel ben Jacob of Bonn, starts with the dramatic accusation that God has abandoned the people Israel, continuing by listing those who died in myriad horrid ways, and ending with several citations from the apocalyptic final chapter of the book of Joel.

A medieval manuscript illustration of the aggadah that the Yam Suf was split in 12 discrete channels, one for each tribe, as reflected above by a 12-color rainbow

“Oy Meh Haya Lanu” is a ḳinah traditionally recited on the night of Tisha b’Av directly after the reading of Eikha. According to the Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot, it is number 1 of 50. The title is the refrain of the poem, a reflective lament. This ḳinah is based on the fifth and final chapter of Eikha, taking the opening phrase of each line of the megillah as the first line of each couplet and poetically expanding the description for the second. This translation is an attempt to convey the vulgarity and horror of the paytan’s depiction of the destroyed Jerusalem in vernacular English. The ḳinah ends just as the megillah ends, with the four verses of pleas for redemption.

A pizmon recited on the Fast of Tevet in the tradition of nusaḥ Ashkenaz.

The haftarah for the second day of Shavuot, Ḥabakkuk 2:20-3:19, interspersed with a cantillated text of the Targum Yonatan ben Uzziel. Since Targum Yonatan is a bit more drash-heavy than Targum Onkelos, it is translated separately as well. The haftarah reading includes the piyyut Yetsiv Pitgam, with an acrostic rhyming translation of the poem, with the second-to-last verse restored to its rightful place, as well as a concluding paragraph for the meturgeman to recite, as found in the Maḥzor Vitry.

This is the piyyut “Ki Hinéh kaḤomer (Lo! as the potter…)” a piyyut by an unknown paytan for maariv on Yom Kippur, published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Yom Kippur, Avodat Yom ha-Kippurim vol. 1 (1904), p. 39.

This translation by Rabbi David Aaron de Sola of “Elohim Yisadenu” by a paytan named Avraham (possibly Avraham ibn Ezra) was first published in his Ancient Melodies of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (1857).

This pizmon was written by R. Shmuel ben Moshe Ha-Dayan of Aram Ṣoba (ca. 1150-1200) an Aleppine payṭan whose works were almost completely lost before being rediscovered in the Maḥzor Aram Ṣoba. It emphasizes the uneasy juxtaposition of the joy of Simḥat Torah with the tragedy of Moshe’s death. Originally it was probably recited before musaf, but perhaps for those who follow Ashkenazi customs a more appropriate location would be as an introduction to the Yizkor service on Shemini ‘Atseret — which for those who don’t keep second-day yontef is the same day.

This piyyut, attributed to Menaḥem ben Aharon, is found in the Maḥzor Vitry, siman 465. It is a note-for-note structural parody of a beloved Pesaḥ maarava poem, Leil Shimurim. Israel Davidson, in his 1907 work “Parody in Jewish Literature,” writes, “The parodist apparently has no other aim than to dress a wine-song in the garb of a religious hymn. The burden of the song is that on Purim one must throw of all care and anxiety… But in order to make our happiness complete, we must remember the needy, and share our luxuries with those that are in want of them.”

This is the piyyut, עֵת שַׁעֲרֵי רָצוֹן (Eit Shaarei Ratson) by Rabbi Yehuda ben Shmuel ibn Abbas (12th century Aleppo, Syria (born in Fez, Morocco)). The English translation presented here is by Rabbi Stephen Belsky.

This is the Shir haKavod (“Hymn of Glory,” also known by its incipit “An’im Zemirot”) attributed to Rabbi Yehudah he-Ḥasid of Regensburg, included at the conclusion of the Shir haYiḥud (first attested in print in Thiengen 1560). This translation by Israel Zangwill, was first published in Arthur Davis and Herbert Adler’s Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Yom haKippurim (Evening Service) (1904), pp. 73-74.

An ofan piyyuṭ for the second shabbat after Pesaḥ, as well as the Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, recited in the minhag of Pehm and Bruna (Bohemia and Moravia). Signed with the name “Yaakov,” this ofan is of uncertain origin but has been attributed to R. Yaakov ben Meir, more well known as Rabbeinu Tam. Also included is Seligman Baer’s German translation, as well as an original English translation.

Im Afes Rova’ ha-Qen, an Aqedah (poetic retelling of the binding of Isaac) written by the 12th-century scholar R. Ephraim ben Isaac of Regensburg, is one of the few piyyuṭim of Ashkenazi origin to have a beloved place in the Sephardic liturgy. (Much more commonly things go the other way.) In current Sephardic practice it is recited every single weeknight in the month of Elul, as part of the seliḥot liturgy — as well as on the second day of Rosh haShanah. It is also recited in most Ashkenazi Seliḥot liturgies — in the Bohemian and Lithuanian customs on the fast of Gedaliah, and in the Polish custom on the fourth day of the ten days. Which means that not only is this Ashkenazi piyyuṭ beloved by Sephardim, it is substantially *more* beloved by Sephardim than it is by Ashkenazim! And as with any beloved piyyuṭ, it has been translated into the colloquial for all the people to appreciate its language. The following is not only the complete Hebrew text of Im Afes along with a new English translation, but also a rhyming Ladino translation composed by R. Reuven Eliyahu Yisrael, the spiritual leader of the Sephardic community of Craiova, Romania, and published in the aforementioned town in the year 1910 (in טראדוקסייון ליברי די לאס פואיזיאס איבראיקאאס). To demonstrate the techniques used by R. Yisrael in his translation, a literal translation of the Ladino, as well as a transcription into the Latin-script Aki Yerushalaim orthography, is also provided.

“Yom Nilḥamu Vi” is the reshut offered before the Barkhu preceding the Shaḥarit blessings before the Shema. It is the eighth reshut among the reshuyot in the Old Sefaradi Tiqun for Shabbat Ḥazon — the final shabbat before 9 Av.

“Nishmat Emunim” is the third reshut offered before Nishmat at the outset of the Zemirot (preceding Shaḥarit). It is the fifth reshut among the reshuyot in the Old Sefaradi Tiqun for Shabbat Ḥazon — the final shabbat before 9 Av.

This geulah piyyut, by R. Yehuda heḤasid, is, similar to the prior zulat, a response to the massacres of the First Crusade. It specifically focuses, in the way only a maverick like heḤasid could, on holding God to account for breach of covenant, and calls out both Christians and — on a much rarer theme — Muslims for their slaughter of Jews during the Crusades. As a geulah, it is recited right before concluding berakha of the Emet blessing and the Amidah.

This zulat piyyut, by R. Shmuel bar Yehuda (fl. 12th c.), is a keening cry in response to the traumatic First Crusade Rhineland massacres, known as the Gzerot TaTN”O in Hebrew, specifically focusing on the 3 Sivan massacre and martyrdoms in Mainz. The massacres of the Gzerot TaTN”O were so traumatic to Ashkenazi Jewry that to this day, the Av haRaḥamim prayer for martyrs, usually elided on Shabbat Mevorkhim, is not elided on Shabbat Mevorkhim Iyar or Sivan. As a zulat, it is recited at the end of the “Emet v-Emuna” paragraph. Generally the second half of the paragraph is altered slightly when a zulat is inserted. In this case, the alteration, according to the old Nusaḥ Polin, is included.

The prayer of Azaryah and his song of praise with Ḥananyah, and Mishael from within the Furnace (also known as “the song of the three holy children”) found in Aramaic in the Divrei Yeraḥmiel (the Chronicles of Jeraḥmeel, Oxford Bodleian Heb d.11).

This an an untitled piyyut by Eleazer of Worms, eulogizing his beloved wife Dulcea (Heb: דולצא, also, Dulcia and Dolce). The Hebrew text is derived from the transcription offered by Israel Kamelhar inRabbenu Eleazar mi-Germaiza, ha-Roqeah (Rzeazow, 1930), pp. 17-19. The translation and annotation come from Dr. Ivan G. Marcus from his article, “Mothers, Martyrs, and Moneymakers: Some Jewish Women in Medieval Europe” in Conservative Judaism, vol. 38(3), Spring 1986.