Resources employing English language← Back to Languages & Scripts Index Adir Hu, a classic Pesaḥ song if ever there was one, is a part of Seder tables all over the planet. Its alphabetical list of God’s attributes, combined with its repeated pleas for a return to Jerusalem, make it a classic, to the point where the traditional German farewell greeting for Passover was not “chag sameach” or “gut yontef” but “bau gut” – build well. This interpretation, while not a direct translation by any means, has the same rhythmic pattern and alphabetical structure, giving a sense of the greatness of God. . . . A guiding text and haggadah for a Seder Pesaḥ Sheni. . . . The Fourth of July is a day on which Americans celebrate liberty, equality under heaven, and freedom from tyranny and foreign rule. Thus it is an appropriate day to read Torah. This is a Torah reading (divided into three aliyot) and a Haftarah reading to be recited on the Fourth of July. . . . This text takes the basic idea of the Baladi-rite ‘Brikh Shmeh d’Kudsha Brikh Hu’ and adapts it for the Askenazi nusach of the Kaddish. It can be used when praying alone wherever a minyan would say the entire Kaddish. It could also be recited by a community in unison out loud when it can’t make a minyan, to show that even if we don’t have a full minyan, we still welcome mourners as part of our community. . . . Many people eat special foods as part of a mini-seder at the beginning of the Rosh Hashanah meal and invoke blessings for the year as they eat them. This year, you can add figs to your Rosh Hashanah seder (apples and honey, or apples, dates, beets, etc.) and recite with this kavvanah (intention). . . . Two suggestions for ḥazanim (cantors) and shliḥei tzibur on the High Holidays. . . . A litany of hoshanot for use in a ritual prayer circle march on the festival of Sukkot. . . . A litany of hoshanot for use in a ritual prayer circle march on the festival of Sukkot. . . . A meditation which can be used to prepare for Pesaḥ, or for sharing at the Seder, to deepen the experience of liberation for yourself and others. . . . A prayer in solidarity with the Greater Iowa City Church of the Nazarene, whose building was the target of hateful vandalism. . . . One small request to accompany the seliḥot service. . . . A meditation on living through the lens of dying. . . . This prayer is a line by line interpretative translation of a traditional Ashkenazi variation of the Hashkiveinu prayer recited for Ma’ariv Leil Shabbat. . . . The words of Greta Thunberg adapted for a prayer for intervention in the anthropogenic climate crisis, for a Honshana ritual for Sukkot. . . . Richard Shavei-Tzion writes, “At this time when mankind is wreaking havoc on our Eco-System, we pray to God to preserve the treasure that is the earth and to grant us the wisdom to make pro-active efforts to protect it for the sake of our future generations and all which dwell upon it.” . . . A prayer for a teacher to say or adapt as needed at the beginning of their school year. . . . A “mi sheberakh” blessing for children and the parents of children returning to school at the beginning of the new school year. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 6 February 2019. . . . A prayer for the correction of the United States immigration policy in support of immigrants and open borders. . . . “A Prayer for the Spiritual Welfare of the United States at a Time of Trial,” by Rabbi Joe Schwartz was first published at The Forward on 28 June 2019. . . . A prayer in English to end gun violence before Rosh haShanah, . . . A prayer on the first anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh. . . . A ḳinah for the martyrs of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Boston in 2018. . . . Psalms 140 decries the injustice tolerated, supported, and rallied around within the community of Israel. This contemporary adaptation does the same. . . . A prayer for a government when that government is causing pain through malicious policies. . . . A ḳinnah composed in response to the agonizing and cruel United States immigration policy implemented under the presidency of Donald Trump. . . . A prayer for universal peace offered by Hillel Yisraeli-Lavery as an opening prayer to a talk given in Hamilton, Canada by 2011 Nobel Prize winner Leymah Gbowee. . . . A prayer for the safety of all the inhabitants of the Land of Israel offered during the November 12th, 2019 Tel Aviv rocket strike. . . . A prayer written in response to the massacre of Muslim worshipers during Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand. . . . A prayer for the welfare of the Kurdish People in Northern Syria (Rojava) following their betrayal by Donald Trump acting as commander-in-chief of the United States armed forces and their oppression by the Republic of Turkey. . . . An article in the Yiddish Daily Forverts (Forward) on the activities of the Open Siddur Project and its founder, Aharon Varady. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 20 November 2018. . . . A Tu Bishvat Seder Haggadah prepared for a time when the Jewish New Year’s Day festival for trees coincides with a total lunar eclipse, as occurred in Tevet 5779 (January 2019). . . . A bilingual Hebrew and English High Holiday (Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur) maḥzor prepared for the Hill Havurah congregation in Washington, D.C. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 20 June 2018. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 24 September 2018. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 12 June 2018. . . . The birkon/bentsher (blessing-book) prepared for the wedding of Honi Sanders and Simona Dalin on July 7th, 2019. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 6 June 2018. . . . Siddur Or uMasoret is a weekday prayerbook, containing the liturgy for normal daily services, as well as additions for Rosh Ḥodesh, Ḥol haMo’ed, Purim and Ḥanukkah. This siddur includes artwork by Noam Sienna and other community contributors, a set of seven bakashot (songs for the early morning), and various additions to the Torah service to mark life cycle events. The revised second edition adds 200+ pages of new material, as well as other style and content updates that bring it in line with Siddur Or veShalom for Shabbat and Festival use (2023). The siddur contains the full traditional Sefaradi liturgy, including a diverse range of Sefaradi customs, piyyutim (songs and poetry), and psalms. It also provides a full transliteration and guiding commentary. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 29 May 2018. . . . A prayer offered by Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff at the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day May 28th 2018. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 25 April 2018. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 27 February 2018. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 19 January 2018. . . . This is an undated prayer written attributed to Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (1937-2020) and shared via the Facebook page of Merkaz Steinsaltz (the Steinsaltz Center). The English translation (possibly also made by Rabbi Steinsaltz) was shared by the Center in a separate document. . . . This is a new version of the popular Ḥanukkah song, Banu Ḥoshekh. (The original by Sara Levi-Tanai can be found here.) Our new version does two things: 1) it avoids the association of darkness and blackness (shḥor) with evil and harm, which in our society gets tangled up with white supremacy, and 2) honors the darkness as something precious that we need, especially in our time of light pollution when so much of the time, so many people can’t even see the stars. . . . Especially for those of us who use the Torah passages on the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael and the Binding of Isaac for Rosh Hashanah, together with Rabbi Phyllis Ocean Berman, I want to recommend that you read from the Sefer Torah the passage in Genesis 25:7-11 on the reconciliation of the two brothers as they come together to bury their dangerous father Avraham/Ibrahim/Abraham. . . . Created by students of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and Rabbi Arthur Waskow. Written by Sarah Barasch-Hagans, Sarah Brammer-Shlay, Miriam Geronimus, Lonnie Kleinman, Chayva Lerman, Michael Perice, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, May Ye. Formatted and Edited by Sarah Barasch-Hagans. . . . This is a prayer to be read between the 17th and the 27th of Iyyar (בין י״ז ו-כ״ז באייר), between the 32nd (ל״ב) and 42nd (מ״ב) days of the Omer. . . . |
![the Open Siddur Project [logo]](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2016.svg){kind=logo}
