מַחְזוֹר בִּרְכַּת שָׁלוֹם Maḥzor Birkat Shalom (second edition, 2022) is the egalitarian Rosh haShanah & Yom Kippur prayerbook of Havurat Shalom in Sommerville, Massachusetts.

A paraliturgical adaptation of Psalms 92.

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 10 September 2021.

Invocation for a Memorial Day ceremony at the Washington DC Vietnam War Veterans Memorial.

“A Prayer for Those Denied Abortion Care” was composed collectively by the staff of the National Council of Jewish Women and disseminated on Facebook in response to the regressive health care policies of the State of Texas in the United States in 2021.

We believe Jewish prayers and rituals can help to strengthen our mental well-being, resilience and recovery in the same way middot, or Jewish values, can promote them. Faith is an important part of healing for many, and Jewish thinkers and leaders historically have brought the two together. When someone is ill or recovering from illness or an accident, we often recite a mi sheberakh to wish them a refuah sheleimah, or a “full recovery.” We have expanded this prayer for those who are struggling with mental health with this Mi Sheberakh for Mental Health. –the Blue Dove Foundation

“A Prayer for Removing the Mask,” was composed by Rabbi Dr. Dalia Marx and Rabbi Inbar Bluzer Shalem in June 2021. The English translation was made by Alex Cicelsky.

“Holocaust Survivor Prayer” was written in English by Rabbi Avi Baumol in 2021 upon the establishment of Holocaust Survivor Day by the JCC of Krakow, Poland. The prayer was first published at the website of Holocaust Survivor Day.

Tropified texts for Purim 2021 juxtaposing the text of Queen Esther with the words of Vice President Kamalla Harris and poet laureate Amanda Gorman.

This Simḥat Bat ceremony guide includes an order of blessings and ceremony with attention to various traditional customs regarding the use of blessings and prayers. The guide also includes words of Torah and rabbinic teachings which relate to the themes in the guide.

Liturgy for a motsei shabbat havdallah ritual centering the experience of those with long-COVID.

A prayer for America on the day upon which right-wing militias carried out an insurrection upon the representative democratic institution of the United States.

A prayer for the government of the United States of America on the day of the 59th Presidential Inauguration.

This prayer for a parent (or primary caregiver) on the vaccination of their children by Cantor Hinda Labovitz was first shared via their Facebook page on 5 November 2021,

A prayer on being present in the moment of the inauguration of the 59th president of the United States.

A prayer upon receiving a vaccination for COVID.

Four blessings to recite upon commencing the Shmitah year in candlelighting for Rosh haShanah, and to add to subsequent shabbat and festival candlelightings.

A prayer for the government on a day of violent insurrection in the heart of American democracy.

Sources and meditation instructions excerpted from a larger source sheet on Not-knowing, Joy and Purim, from the Applied Jewish Spirituality “Kabbalah Through the Calendar” course.

A prayer of gratitude upon receiving a COVID vaccination.

A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in 2021 reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere.

A comprehensive list of the Noaḥide laws recorded in early rabbinic traditions.

An indigenous land acknowledgement for Jewish communities located in the historic lands of the Shawnee and Miami people.

A hoshana prayer in the times of the COVID pandemic.

“A New Birkat haMazon/Blessing After the Meal” was first published by Rabbi Brant Rosen via his liturgy blog, Yedid Nefesh (8 March 2021). He writes, “In composing this new Birkat Hamazon/Blessing After the Meal, I maintained the essential structure of the traditional prayer, which consists of four basic spiritual themes or categories. As with the other new liturgies that I’ve written, I seek here to compose Jewish prayers that express a Diasporist ethic; that is to say, liturgy that views the entire world as our “homeland” and resists the influence of modern political Zionism, which has become so thoroughly enmeshed in contemporary Jewish liturgy.”

A pre-Shavuot prayer in the shadow of the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis.

A bilingual Hebrew-English Sepharadi Jewish prayerbook (maḥzor) for Yom Kippur, with gender inclusive language, compiled and translated by Daniel Cayre for Kanisse: a Modern Sephardic + Mizrahi Community.

The ritual of kaparot using a bundle of money dedicated for tsedaqah.

This version of Eyshet Ḥayil replaces valor with value, and while it speaks of man in terms of family, community, and the natural world, it is not heteronormative.

A kavvanah for clarifying and elevating the activity of tax preparation.

A prayer for the observance of Memorial Day in the United States.

סִדּוּר בִּרְכַּת שָׁלוֹם Siddur Birkat Shalom (second edition, 2021) is the shabbat morning prayerbook of Havurat Shalom in Sommerville, Massachusetts. As explained in the Introduction to the first edition (1991), work on the egalitarian siddur began in 1984 by eight members of the ḥavurah. The first edition was dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Simcha Dov Kling (1922-1991). The second edition of Siddur Birkat Shalom is dedicated to the memory of Reena Kling (1954-2017).

If you are doing a Rosh Hashanah seder of simanim (signs, augurs, portents) using food puns, here are some topical additions including for beginning the Shmitah year.

A prayer of intention before the meeting of the board of a philanthropic organization determining the recipients of the largess in their trust.

This short piyut touches on these four themes related to Shmitah: release of debts, the rights of the land, the rights of wild animals (who share our food during Shmitah), and the freeing of slaves. The piyut would fit as part of Seliḥot before Rosh haShanah and during Yom Kippur.

“Tilt: A Prayer for the Winter Solstice” was first published by the author on her website (17 December 2015).

Torah and Haftarah readings for Tu biShvat selected by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer.

“How Much Light? A Ḥanukkah Meditation” by Rabbi Menachem Creditor was first shared on the second night of Ḥanukkah 5782 (2021) via the Open Siddur Project discussion group on Facebook.

There’s a lot of controversy over Yom haShoah as a date. One of the key issues is this: traditionally, the ways Jews mourn communal tragedies is through establishing a fast day. It’s forbidden to fast during the month of Nisan. It’s hard to pick any specific date to commemorate a tragedy as enormous as the Shoah, but one which seems appropriate to me would be 16 Marḥeshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom. This piyyut is a seliḥah for Kristallnacht, to be recited on 16 Marḥeshvan (or 15 Marḥeshvan on years like 5782 where the sixteenth falls on a Thursday).

There are blessings for beautiful vistas, and there are blessings for powerful weather. But is there a blessing for giant swarms of bugs? Certainly! There just wasn’t a kavvanah for it… yet. Inspired by the appearance of Brood X in May 2021, this is a meditation and blessing for the unique experience of seeing an enormous number of non-dangerous insects. Cicadas are NOT a plague — they don’t eat crops or spread disease, but they do help revitalize the soil and keep forest ecosystems healthy. As a natural part of the universal order, we should work to see the divinity and goodness in them, even if we might normally think of them as gross.

Pearl Benisch… remembers Passover in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in the spring of 1945, just days before her liberation.

Some communities have a practice of singing a song about Miriam alongside the well-known Havdalah song about Elijah the Prophet. But Miriam isn’t really a parallel to Elijah — she’s a parallel to Moshe and Aaron. When we’re talking about distaff counterparts to Elijah the clearest example is Seraḥ bat Asher. Seraḥ, the daughter of Asher, is mentioned only a handful of times in the Tanakh, but is given great significance in the midrash. Like Elijah, she is said to have never died but entered Paradise alive, and comes around to the rabbis to give advice or teachings. This song, which includes several references to midrashim about Seraḥ, is meant to be sung to any traditional tune of “Eliyahu haNavi.” It is dedicated to Ḥazzan Joanna Selznick Dulkin (shlit”a), who introduced me to the legends of Seraḥ bat Asher.

Why is this coffee different from all other coffees? Because Maxwell House coffee is a deeply spiritual representation of the Diaspora experience.

An old Persian tradition involves hitting each other with leeks during the recitation of Dayenu. Nowadays this is replaced with a gentle tap with a scallion for safety reasons.

Rabbi Yosi son of Rabbi Yehuda says: “Three good sustainers arose for Israel. These are they: Moses and Aaron and Miriam. And three good gifts were given because of them, and these are they: well, and cloud, and manna. The well was given in merit of Miriam… Miriam died and the well ceased, as it is written (Numbers 20:1-2) “And Miriam died there,” and it says right afterwards “and there was no water for the community.”

A blessing for growth in springtime

This mi sheberakh for the ill, and the two additional prayers, all appear on page 15-16 of Hayyim Obadya’s Seder Akhilat haSimanim for 5781.

A blessing for us and the year ahead from the last month of the Jewish calendar year.

The Mourner’s Ḳaddish, in Hebrew with English translation by Everett Fox after Franz Rosenzweig.

This is a poetic Birkat haMazon, similar to those found in the Cairo Geniza, intended for this specific break-fast meal. The editor has included the text in Hebrew, English, and an attempted Liturgical Ge’ez translation.