The source of this short prayer, “Shfokh Ahavatekh,” an alternative to the more familiar “Shfokh Ḥamatekha,” was traced by Rabbi Dr. David Golinkin to a work likely created by Rabbi Mosheh Ḥayyim ben Avraham Abba Bloch. (Bloch himself credited an untitled Passover haggadah in his collection.) Writes Golinkin:

[A] number of scholars have pointed our that this prayer was probably invented by Hayyim Bloch himself, who was born in Galicia and later moved to Vienna (ca. 1917) and New York (1939). He was one of the rabbis who published the Kherson letters attributed to the Besht and his disciples, which later turned out to be forgeries. He also published a letter from the Maharal of Prague, whose authenticity was already disproved by Gershom Scholem.

Finally, from 1959-1965 he published three volumes containing over 300 letters of great rabbis opposed to Zionism, but Rabbi Shemuel Hacohen Weingarten has proved that these “letters” were invented by Rabbi Bloch himself. Therefore, we may assume that “Shefokh Ahavatkha” was not composed in Worms in 1521, but rather by Rabbi Hayyim Bloch…

There’s a little confusion over the date to ascribe to “Shfokh Ahavatekh.” Naftali Ben-Menachem’s 1963 article quoting it in Mahanayim 80 helped to popularize it. However, Dr. Alan Brill notes that the edition of היכל לדברי חז״ל (Heikhal l’Divrei Hazal, accessible online thanks to Hebrewbooks) shows this text printed in 1948. That year is significant as it coincides with the recognition of the State of Israel in the nascent United Nations, with the crucial support of allied nations, but given that Bloch was affiliated with the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta movement, it seems more likely to me that Shfokh Ahavatekh was authored in the context of World War II when the future of European Jewry was in existential jeopardy and the role of righteous gentiles in saving Jewish lives was vital and given recognition here.

With gratitude to Gabrielle Spitzer for asking the question in the Ask the Beit Midrash Facebook discussion group that prompted this research.

Source(s)

shfokh ahavatekh – Heikhal l’Divrei Hazal (Hayyim Bloch 1948), p. 591

“שְׁפוֹךְ אֲהָבָתֵךְ | Shfokh Ahavatekh (Pour Out Your Love), by Rabbi Ḥayyim Bloch (1948)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, 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 translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Mosheh Ḥayyim ben Avraham Abba Bloch

Mosheh Ḥayyim ben Avraham Abba Bloch (1881-1973) was a rabbi and scholar affiliated with the Neturei Karta movement. Unfortunately, he is also remembered as a historical fabulist and forger of documents.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

Works of related interest:

 

שִׁיר הַגְאוּלָה (החיינו אל) | Shir ha-Ge’ulah (Song of Redemption), by an anonymous author (1940)

תפילה לעזרת היהודים תושבי גרמניה | Prayer for German Jewry under Nazi oppression before and after Kristallnacht (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1938)

קִינָה עַל חֻרְבָּן הָאַחֲרוֹן | Lamentation on the Holocaust, by Shimon Zuker (1980)

אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים | El Malé Raḥamim for Victims of the Shoah (the Netherlands, ca. late 1940s)

‏אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים תְפִילָה לַנִּסְפִּים בַּשּׁוֹאָה | El Malé Raḥamim Prayer for the Victims of the Shoah, by Rabbi Yehoyada Amir

[Prayer on] the German Crisis, by Rabbi Norman M. Goldburg (3 April 1933)

זאָג ניט קײן מאָל | Partisaner Lid (the Partisan Song), by Hirsh Glik (Vilna Ghetto, 1943)

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