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This is the Open Siddur Project logo, with twelve delineated colors representing the twelve shevatim (tribes) and mazalot (constellations) — a reference to the diversity of the remnant of the Israelite people and the international Jewish community in its expressions of prayer. The spectrum of colors evokes the divine canopy of peace protecting the earth after the covenant with Noaḥ that humanity never let itself become as depraved as the predatory dor hamabul (generation of the flood). The colorwheel itself is derived from Johannes Itten’s Farbkreis (“color wheel” 1961) and is a nod to both the Arts & Crafts movement of William Morris and its development by the Bauhaus movement in Weimar Germany. The circle here is a reference to the form of Sandalfon, the angel of prayer, who daily weaves the prayers of the world into a wreath crown that is delivered to Hashem during the Qedushah. As the Latin letter ‘O’, the circle also stands for the word ‘Open’ in connection to the open-source principle and licensing framework undergirding this project, and in reciprocity to the divine project of giving through the renewal of creation in every moment (per Psalms 145:16). The Hebrew letters forming the word סידוּר (siddur, an arrangement of prayers, i.e. a prayerbook) appear inside the circle. The text appears here and elsewhere with various styles of Hebrew typography. In the reference image below, the type is sourced from the Times New Roman digital font.

Aharon Varady is the founding director of the Open Siddur Project. A community planner (M.C.P, DAAP/University of Cincinnati.) and Jewish educator (M.A.J.Ed., the William Davidson School of Education), his work in open-source Judaism has been written about in the Yiddish Forverts, the Atlantic Magazine, Tablet, and Haaretz. If you find any egregious mistakes in his work, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also transcribes and translates prayers, besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project.)
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