“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.

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

This Veterans Day Prayer was first published by Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, Chaplain, USN (Retired), on his twitter page. He writes, “Because of COVID this is the first Veterans Day in a long time I am not part of a ceremony — and I know that’s the situation for many fellow vets. So I wrote it yesterday to share today as a virtual prayer for Veterans Day 2020.” On 11 November 2022, Rabbi Resnicoff offered the expanded revision of this prayer as offered above at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC.

This prayer for Tu b’Av by Lior bar-Ami, in German and English, was first offered in 2020.

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

This prayer by Lior bar-Ami for a synagogue congregation’s Rabbinic Search Committee was first offered in German and English in 2020.

This prayer for setting a holy intention before a board meeting was first offered by Lior bar-Ami around 10 January 2023.

This prayer by Lior bar-Ami for the ḥazzan of services during the Yamim Noraim (days of awe) was first offered in German and English in 2020.

This prayer by Lior bar-Ami for the installation of solar energy generating panels was first offered in German and English in 2020.

This prayer for rain by Lior bar-Ami, including the matriarchs, was first offered in German and English in 2020.

The blessing recited prior to the Shema, in the wording of Michal Talya.

Four morning blessings inspired from traditional blessing in the Birkhot haShaḥar and Shaḥarit services.

An al hanissim prayer for the State of Israel’s Day of Independence.

This poem was composed at the end of August 2020 / Elul 5780 as part of Rabbi Katy Allen’s Earth Etudes for Elul 5780.

The major themes of the Rosh haShanah musaf liturgy, color coded with the three central blessings of the service presented comparatively in parallel columns.

A prayer for the ingathering of Jews from the Diaspora to Erets Yisrael.

According to Mishnah Pesaḥim 10:4, “One expounds (doresh) from ‘A wandering Aramean was my father’ (Deuteronomy 26:5) until he finishes the whole story.” This supplement to Maggid, the verse Deuteronomy 26:9 and its midrash, fulfills the obligation. The verse and its midrash fit into the Passover Haggadah after the ten plagues and the midrash on them, right before the song Dayyenu.

A paraliturgical translation of “k’Gavna” — a portion of the Zohar on parashat Terumah read before Ma’ariv in the ḥassidic-sefardic nusaḥ.

This prayer is not a comprehensive list of every single sin we sinned, every error we erred, every mark we missed. The original Al Ḥeyt is intended to show us the roots of all failures, to dig beneath how we harm, to see where that hurt came from. We follow these trails together, not absolved from our own repairs, but never alone in struggles to uproot, to propagate new ways of being ourselves, new ways of being ourselves, of being together.

This acrostic poetic form of Birkat haMazon was written for the se’udah mafseqet (pre-fast meal) before Yom Kippur, in the manner of the poetic Birkat haMazon variants recorded in the Cairo Geniza.

This is a poetic text for Birkat haMazon, signed with an alphabetical acrostic and the name of the author, to be recited on the first of Elul. It celebrates the variety of God’s creation as exemplified by the natural diversity of species, as well as alluding to the livestock tithes traditionally assigned on the first of Elul.

A Birkat haMazon with additions for the pre-Fast meal of Tisha b’Av

The Raḥamana piyyut is a litany beloved in Sephardic and Mizraḥi communities, a standard part of their Seliḥoth services throughout the month of Elul and the days of repentance. Traditionally it cites a list of Biblical men (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Pinhas, David, and Solomon) and asks to be remembered for their merit and their covenants, for the sake of “Va-yaŋabor” — the first word of Exodus 34:6, the introduction to the verses of the Thirteen Attributes recited in Seliḥoth services. This text instead uses Biblical women (Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, Serach, Miriam, Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, and Esther).

A blessing for announcing the new moon of Nisan, for Rosh Ḥodesh Nisan, and for the first half of the month, corresponding to the waxing moon.

A blessing for announcing the new moon of Av, for Rosh Ḥodesh Av, and for the whole month. A poem of grieving and gentleness as part of collective liberation.

A blessing for announcing the new moon of Elul, for Rosh Ḥodesh Elul, and for the whole month. A poem of kindness, rootedness and transformation as we enter into a time of turning and returning.

A soulful, playful, embodied, grounded poem for announcing the new moon of Tishrei, for Rosh Ḥodesh Tishrei (otherwise known as Rosh HaShanah) and for the whole month.

A blessing for announcing the new moon of Shevat, for Rosh Ḥodesh Shevat, and for the whole month.

A blessing for announcing the new moon of Adar, for Rosh Ḥodesh Adar, and for the whole month.

A poem-blessing for trailblazers of many kinds, to honor everyday courage and to inspire trust and self-compassion.

A playful, powerful, passionate reading for Passover seder or any time. Can be chanted to the traditional Ashkenazi lilt for the Four Questions.

An alternative weekday aliyah.

A prayer for focusing one’s mind and intention during the separation of dough in the preparation of halah before Shabbat.

A short amidah for the Friday evening service for Shabbat.

A companion to the classic piyyut, Yigdal.

Two kavvanot, one for before and one for after casting away in a Tashlikh ritual.

An opening prayer for divine communication and closeness.

A ḳinnah for humanity’s willful, negligent, and callous destruction of habitat and species known and unknown.