Resources shared under Fair Use Right — 👂︎ Liturgical Readings, Sources, and Cantillation

📃 Rabbi Yosef vs. the Sorceror, a tale of a miraculous rescue on erev Yom Kippur retold by Rabbi Yehudah heḤasid in RSL Ms. Guenzburg 82 (ca. 12th c.)

This is an early wizard battle tale found in RSL Ms. Guenzburg 82, fol. 78b-79a, first transcribed by Joseph Dan in his article סיפורים דימונולוגיים מכתבי יהודה החסיד (“Demonological stories from the writings of Yehudah he-Ḥasid”) and published in Tarbits (vol. 30, 1961), as story #29 on pp. 288-289. The English translation by Dan, was re-printed in chapter 15 of Jewish Mysticism vol. 2: The Middle Ages, pp. 359-360, and first published in “An Early Source of the Yiddish Akdamot Story,” in Hebrew University Studies in Literature, vol. 1 (1993), pp. 39-46.

Remarks on Yom Kippur, an essay by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (August 1965)

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel from “Yom Kippur” [“Remarks on Yom Kippur”] Mas’at Rav (A Professional Supplement to Conservative Judaism), August 1965, pp. 13–14 — as found in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity (ed. Dr. Susannah Heschel, 1997), pp. 146-147.

💬 Four excerpts from a “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1963), cantillated by Rabbi David Evan Markus

This is a haftarah comprised of excerpts from a “letter from a Birmingham jail” by Martin Luther King Jr. (16 April 1963). The haftarah was cantillated by Rabbi David Evan Markus for a public reading on MLK Shabbat (the sabbath preceding MLK Day).

💬 “I have a Dream” by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1963), cantillated by Rabbi David Evan Markus

In 2017, Rabbi David Evan Markus prepared the end of Dr. King’s famous speech read at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (August 28, 1963) with trope (t’amim, cantillation). The following year on Facebook he shared a recording of the reading hosted on Soundcloud. Rabbi Markus writes, “This weekend at Temple Beth El of City Island, I offered the end of Dr. King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, which I set to haftarah trope because I hold Dr. King to be a prophet. When my community applauded, I offered President Obama’s response, ‘Don’t clap: vote.’ And do more than vote: organize, donate, volunteer, help, heal, advocate. Only then, in Dr. King’s words quoting Isaiah 40:5, will ‘all flesh see it together.'”

💬 Excerpts from the Speeches and Letters of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1958-1968) from an ecumenical MLK Day service by Temple Emanu-El & Abyssinian Baptist Church

Selections from speeches and letters by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. read in ecumenical services for Martin Luther King Day in the United States.

💬 Excerpts from speeches by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1956-1968) selected by Rabbi Marcia Prager, cantillated by Ḥazzan Jack Kessler

These quotations from Dr. King’s speeches were edited by Rabbi Marcia Prager and set to Haftarah Trop by Hazzan Jack Kessler. This adaptation was first published in Kerem (Fall 2014), in Jack Kessler’s article, “English Leyning: Bringing New Meaning to the Torah Service.”

💬 זָכוֹר אֶת־יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ | Remember the Shabbat day to keep it holy, a reading for the first se’udah of Shabbat from the Zohar (parashat Yitro)

A reading from the Zohar providing context for the first meal of Shabbat on Friday evening.

💬 זָכוֹר אֶת־יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ | Remember the Shabbat day to keep it holy, a reading for the third se’udah of Shabbat from the Zohar (parashat Yitro)

A reading from the Zohar providing context for the third meal of Shabbat (the Saturday afternoon meal, se’udah shlishit/shaleshudes).

💬 מַעֲשֶׂה חֲנֻכָּה ב׳ | Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah “bet” in Ladino, a retelling of Megillat Antiokhus with details from II Maccabees by Rabbi Isaac Magriso (1764)

This is a largely uncorrected transcription of Rabbi Isaac Magriso’s telling of Megillat Antiokhus in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) from the Me’am Loez: Bamidbar Parshat BeHe’alotekha (Constantinople, 1764). The paragraph breaks are a rough estimation based on my comparison with the English translation of Dr. Tzvi Faier (1934-2009) appearing in The Torah Anthology: Me’am Loez, Book Thirteen – In the Desert (Moznaim 1982). I welcome all Ladino speakers and readers to help correct this transcription and to provide a complete English translation for non-Ladino readers.