ברכת המזון לחול ולשבת | Birkat haMazon for Weekdays and on Shabbat from the Cairo Genizah fragment Or.1080 15.4

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (translation), Shoshana Michael Zucker (translation) and Unknown Author(s)

Shared on:

1 February 2021 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Blessings After Eating

Tags:

Cairo Geniza, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
ברכת המזון לחול	Blessing after meals for weekdays
ברוך אתה י״י אלהינו מלך העולם בורא עולם ויצר אדם מכין מזון לכל בריותיו כאמור פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת־יָדֶךָ וּמַשְׂבִּיעַ לְכָל־חַי רָצוֹן (תהלים קמה:טז) ברוך אתה י״י הזן את הכל.	Blessed are you, YHVH our elo’ah cosmic Majesty, world creator and fashioner of the human being, preparing food for all your creatures, as it is said: “You open your hands and satiate all the living,” (Psalms 145:16) Blessed are you YHVH who feeds all.
ארץ עשיתהׄ שולחן ערכתה תורה וברית חלקינו נתתה ועל כן נודך ונברך לשמך כאמור וְאָכַלְתָּ וְשָׂבָעְתָּ וּבֵרַכְתָּ אֶת־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ עַל־הָאָרֶץ הַטֹּבָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַן־לָךְ (דברים ח:י) ברוך אתה י״י על הארץ ועל המזון.	Earth you made, a table you set Torah and covenant you gave as our portion, and therefore we will thank and bless your name as it is said: “You shall eat and be satiated and bless YHVH your elo’ah for the good land They gave you.” (Deuteronomy 8:10) Blessed are you YHVH for the land and for food.
עירך תבנה שלם תכונן ובית מקדשך ברחמים תפקוה בימינו ומלכות משיחך מהרה תחזירה למקומה כי לך י״י מיחלות עינינו ותבנה עיר קדשך בימינו כאמור בּוֹנֵה יְרוּשָׁלִַם יְהוָה נִדְחֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יְכַנֵּס שם (תהלים קמז:ב) אצמיח קרן לדויד על נר למש ברוך אתה י״י אלהי דויד בּוֹנֵה יְרוּשָׁלִַם.	Your city build fully and establish, your Temple in compassion produce in our days, and the kingdom of the anointed one speedily return to its place For to you YHVH our eyes yearn and build your holy city in our days as it is said: “YHVH builds Jerusalem; the scattered of Yisrael gather” there. (Psalms 147:2) Grow the horn of David, a light to your annointed one. Blessed are you YHVH elo’ah of David, builder of Jerusalem.
ברוך אתה י״י אלהינו מלך העולם קדושינו קדוש המלך הטוב והמיטיב שכל יום הוא מיטיב ^[1] transcription continued on verso מיטיב עמנו גמלנו יגמלנו חן וחסד ורחמים וכל טוב כאמׄור טוֹב־יְהוָה לַכֹּל וְרַחֲמָיו עַל־כָּל־מַעֲשָׂיו (תהלים קמה:ט) וכאמׄור טוֹב יְהוָה לְקוָֹו לְנֶפֶשׁ תִּדְרְשֶׁנּוּ (איכה ג:כה) וכאמׄור טוֹב יְהוָה לְמָעוֹז בְּיוֹם צָרָה (נחום א:ז חלק) מה שאֶכלנו יהא לשבעה ומה שהותרנו יהי לברכה ומה ששתינו ומה שנשתה יהי לרפואה תתברכו באלהי אמן תיושעו באלהי אמן וכולכם ברוכים.	Blessed are you, YHVH our elo’ah cosmic Majesty, our Holy One, the holy Majesty who is good and does good who every day does good, does good with us, has repaid us, will repay us grace and mercy and compassion and all good, as it is said: “Good is YHVH to all, whose compassion is on all [creatures],” (Psalms 145:9) and it is said: “Good is YHVH to those who trust in Them, to the soul that seeks Them out.” (Lamentations 3:25) And it is said: “Good is YHVH as a refuge on the day of stress.” (Nahum 1:7 part) May what we have eaten be for satiety, and may what we left over be for blessing, and may what we drank and what we will drink be for healing. Be blessed in the elo’ah of Amen and be sated in the elo’ah of Amen^[2] find Isaiah 65:16. and we will all be blessed.
ברכה לשבת	[Alternative First] Blessing for Shabbat
ברוך אתה י״י אלהינו מלך העולם הזן את העולם כולו בטובו ובחסד וברחמים ונתן לחם לכל בשר כי לעולם חסדו עמנו בטובו הגדול לא חסר לנו ואל יחסר לנו מזון מעתה ועד עולם כי הוא זן ומפרנס לכל ושולחנו ערוך לכֹל תמיד כאמור פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת־יָדֶךָ וּמַשְׂבִּיעַ לְכָל־חַי רָצוֹן (תהלים קמה:טז) ברוך אתה י״י הזן את הכל.	Blessed are you, YHVH our elo’ah cosmic Majesty, world creator, who feeds the whole world in goodness and in mercy and in compassion and gives bread to all flesh, for eternal is Their mercy with us, and in Their great goodness has never denied us and never will deny us food from now and forever more for They feed and provide for all and Their table is full for all, always, as it is said: “You open your hands and satiate all the living” (Psalms 145:16) Blessed are you YHVH, who feeds all.

This is a transcription and translation of formulas for the birkat hamazon on weekdays and on shabbat found on a fragment from the Cairo Genizah, “Liturgy (Or.1080 15.4)” recto and verso, held in the collection of the library of the University of Cambridge.

An unreconstructed faithful transcription of this manuscript can be found here. Transcription and translation by Shoshana Michael Zucker (thank you!), with further editing by Aharon Varady. For a gender-neutral translation, I employed the singular ‘They’ when translating the default masculine in Hebrew grammar. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Liturgy (Or.1080 15.4) recto

Liturgy (Or.1080 15.4) verso

Notes[+]

Notes
1	transcription continued on verso
2	find Isaiah 65:16.

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“ברכת המזון לחול ולשבת | Birkat haMazon for Weekdays and on Shabbat from the Cairo Genizah fragment Or.1080 15.4” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (translation)

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

Shoshana Michael Zucker (translation)

Shoshana Michael Zucker was first fascinated by the boundaries and history of Jewish liturgy as a teenager in NFTY in the early 1970s, the waning days of the Union Prayer Book. Since then, she has moved to Israel, raised a family and launched them into adulthood, while praying from varied siddurim with countless notes in the margin and extra notes stuck between the pages. A translator and editor by profession, she would rather study and teach Torah.

Unknown Author(s)

Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.

Pocket Pinterest Reddit 𝕏 Facebook Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email

Works of related interest:

ברכת המזון לשבועות ‬| Birkat haMazon for Shavuot, according to the Cairo Geniza fragment ‫T-S H6.37 vocalized and translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Cambridge, CUL T-S H6.37, Fragment 1r, FGP No. C243956

ברכת המזון לפורים | Poetic Birkat haMazon for Purim, according to the Cairo Geniza fragment T-S H6.37 vocalized and translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Cambridge, CUL T-S H4.13, Fragment 1r, FGP No. C242900

ברכת המזון לחנוכה | Poetic Birkat haMazon for Ḥanukkah, reconstructed from multiple Cairo Geniza manuscripts by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

ברכת המזון לפסח | A poetic Birkat haMazon for Pesaḥ, from the Cairo Geniza (CUL T-S H11.88 1v)

"Wheat, ear, dry, harvest, autumn" (credit: pxhere, license: CC0)

ברכת המזון לשבת א׳ דנחמתא (נחמו)‏ | Birkat haMazon additions for Shabbat Naḥamu

"Vivien's adventures at the park." (credit: pxhere, license: CC0)

בִּרְכַּת הַמָּזוֹן בִּקְצָרָה | Birkat HaMazon Biqtsarah :: Abbreviated Blessing after the Meal

ברכת המזון לסעודה מפסקת ערב תשעה בעב | Birkat haMazon for the Seudah Mafseqet (Pre-Fast Meal) of Tishah b’Av, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

prev next

1 comment to ברכת המזון לחול ולשבת | Birkat haMazon for Weekdays and on Shabbat from the Cairo Genizah fragment Or.1080 15.4

adrienne varady
2021-02-02 at 11:15 am · Reply.
Thank you for including the original pages of the prayers. It’s very important to see the actual script.

Comments, Corrections, and QueriesCancel reply

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=35228

Associated Image:

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Source Data: XML | JSON

Re-formatted: HTML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to Aharon N. Varady (translation), Shoshana Michael Zucker (translation) and Unknown Author(s).
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=35228>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, patrons, or institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture. If you like what you've found here, please help keep our project alive and online with your financial contribution.

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