☞ Need to copy a column or column(s) of text? We recommend the CopyTables extension.
☞ Unsure how to open an editable ODT (OpenDocument Text) file? Download and install LibreOffice. (You can also open this format just fine in MS Word.) Our project supports open, non-proprietary, and future-proof document standards.
When a person goes out
[alone][1]The addition of “alone” is found in Ms. Opp. Add. Q° 28 (Bodleian Library) also known as the Manuscript O for Seder Rav Amram. Levene, Marx, and Bharyo note that “When the Tosefta defines the halakhic category of a fool, it mentions among other things ‘one who goes out at night alone,'” Tosefta Terumot 1.3.
at night,[2]See Bavli Berakhot 43b on the dangers of traveling at night.
at no specific hour,
they should say:
מימיני אל
ומשמאלי עזיאל
ומלפני נמואל
ומאחורי שעשואל.
שכינת אל על ראשי.
May El be on my right,
and on my left, Uziel,
and Nemuel before me,
and behind me, Sha’ashuel.
Shekhinat-El is above my head.
הצילני ה׳
מפגע רע
ומשטן רע.
Save me YHVH
from an evil affliction
and from an evil satan.[3] lit. accuser.
This “angels on all sides” formula for protection while traveling at night can be found on page 60 of the Codex Sulzberger manuscript of the Seder Rav Amram Gaon, transcribed by Dr. Daniel Goldschmidt (Mossad haRav Kook 1971) on p. 184. Codex Sulzberger is widely considered the best of all the surviving manuscripts of Seder Rav Amram. Named after Mayer Sulzberger (1843-1923), the manuscript first became known through the research of the scholar Alexander Marx in 1907. The full manuscript may be viewed online courtesy of the digital library of the Jewish Theological Society of America.
This invocation is discussed briefly within the context of other liturgical and theurgical works containing an “angels on all sides” formula in “‘Gabriel is on their Right’: Angelic Protection in Jewish Magic and Babylonian Lore” by Dan Levene, Dalia Marx, and Siam Bharyo in Studia Mesopotamica (Band 1: 2014) pp.185-198. The authors include a chart listing the various numinous entities associated with each direction in a number of comparative bowls, amulets, and other texts.
The addition of “alone” is found in Ms. Opp. Add. Q° 28 (Bodleian Library) also known as the Manuscript O for Seder Rav Amram. Levene, Marx, and Bharyo note that “When the Tosefta defines the halakhic category of a fool, it mentions among other things ‘one who goes out at night alone,'” Tosefta Terumot 1.3.
“כשיוצא אדם בלילה | When a person goes out at night: an apotropaic invocation of angelic protection in the Seder Rav Amram Gaon (ca. 9th c.)” is shared by the contributors with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Founding director of the Open Siddur Project, Aharon Varady is a community planner (M.C.P.) and Jewish educator (M.A. J.Ed.) working to improve stewardship of the Public Domain, be it the physical and natural commons of urban park systems or the creative and cultural commons of Torah study. His work on the adoption of Open Source strategies in the Jewish community has been written about in the Yiddish Forverts, the Atlantic Magazine, Tablet, and Haaretz. Aharon Varady studied environmental planning and planning history at DAAP/University of Cincinnati, and the intersection of theurgy, experiential education, and ecology at the Davidson School of Education/JTSA. Here at opensiddur.org, he serves as a hierophant, welcoming new users, editing new posts, keeping the site up-to-date, and occasionally contributing his own original work. If you find any mistakes in his translations or transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin, Ministarot Nakeniשְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you find his work helpful to your own or you'd simply like to support him, please consider donating via his Patreon account.
Rabbi Dalia Marx (PhD) is an Associate professor of liturgy and midrash at the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-JIR, and teaches in various academic institutions in Israel and Europe. Marx, tenth generation in Jerusalem, earned her doctorate at the Hebrew University and her rabbinic ordination at HUC-JIR in Jerusalem and Cincinnati. She is involved in various research projects and is active in promoting liberal Judaism in Israel. Marx writes for academic and popular journals and publications. She is the author of Bazman, When I Sleep and when I Wake: On Prayers between Dusk and Dawn (Yediot Sfarim 2010, in Hebrew), A Feminist Commentary of the Babylonian Talmud (Mohr Siebeck, 2013, in English) and the co-editor of a few books. Marx lives in Jerusalem with her husband Rabbi Roly Zylbersztein (PhD) and their three children. More information can be had from her website at dalia-marx.com.
Amram Gaon (Hebrew: עמרם גאון, or Amram bar Sheshna, Hebrew: עמרם בר רב ששנא, or sometimes: Amram ben Sheshna or Amram b. Sheshna; died 875) was a famous Gaon or head of the Jewish Talmud Academy of Sura in the 9th century. He was the author of many Responsa, but his chief work was liturgical. He was the first to arrange a complete liturgy for the synagogue. His Prayer-Book (Siddur Rab Amram or Seder Rav Amram), which took the form of a long responsum to the Jews of Spain, is still extant and was an important influence on most of the current rites in use among the Jews. He was a pupil of Natronai II, Gaon of Sura, and was exceptionally honored with the title of Gaon within the lifetime of his teacher. Upon Natronai's death, about 857, the full title and dignities of the gaonate were conferred upon Amram, and he held them until his death. It is characteristic of Amram's method to avoid extreme rigor; thus he decides that a slave who has embraced Judaism, but desires to postpone the necessary circumcision until he feels strong enough for it, is not to be hurried (ib. iv. 6, 11). He placed himself almost in opposition to the Talmud, when he protested that there is no sense in fasting on account of bad dreams, since the true nature of dreams cannot be known. (via wikipedia)
Comments, Corrections, and Queries