אֱלֹהַי נְשָׁמָה שֶׁנָּתַתָּ בִּי | Neshamah Shenatata Bi (the breath you have given me), interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Contributor(s):

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation) and Unknown

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11 September 2017 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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Tags:

Amoraic prayers, Asiyah, Body as Cosmos, Breath, breathing, devotional interpretation, אלהי נשמה Elohai neshamah, English Translation, four worlds, interpretive translation, Late Antiquity, neshamah, Prayers in the Babylonian Talmud

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
אֱלֹהַי, נְשָׁמָה שֶׁנָּתַתָּ בִּי טְהוֹרָה הִיא, אַתָּה בְרָאתָהּ, אַתָּה יְצַרְתָּהּ, אַתָּה נְפַחְתָּהּ בִּי,	My God, The breath You have given me Is fresh. You create it. You form it. You breathe it into me.
וְאַתָּה מְשַׁמְּרָהּ בְּקִרְבִּי,	And you keep me breathing.
וְאַתָּה עָתִיד לִטְּלָהּ מִמֶּנִּי,	At some time, You will take it away from me, And I will have breathed my last breath in this body.
וּלְהַחֲזִירָהּ בִּי לֶעָתִיד לָבֹא.	And You will resuscitate me, To the life of the spirit.
כָּל זְמַן שֶׁהַנְּשָׁמָה בְּקִרְבִּי מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶיךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהַי וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתַי, רִבּוֹן כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים, אֲדוֹן כָּל הַנְּשָׁמוֹת:	For each breath still in me, I thank You, My own God, Who is also my parents’ God, Lord of all spirits, Master of all that happens.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ הַמַּחֲזִיר נְשָׁמוֹת	I offer You thanks, Cosmic Majesty, And worship You, For keeping me breathing.
לִפְגָרִים מֵתִים:	And in this way, With each breath, You give me Life anew.

This English translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l of “Neshama Shenatata Bi,” was first published in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). Linear associations of this translation according to the nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l by Aharon Varady.

Source

The earliest formula for “Neshama Shenatata Bi” can be found in the Talmud Bavli, Berakhot 60b:

Source (Hebrew)

Translation (English)

כי מתער אומר
אלהי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה
אתה יצרתה בי
אתה נפחתה בי
ואתה משמרה בקרבי
ואתה עתיד ליטלה ממני
ולהחזירה בי לעתיד לבא
כל זמן שהנשמה בקרבי
מודה אני לפניך
ה׳ אלהי ואלהי אבותי
רבון כל העולמים
אדון כל הנשמות
ברוך אתה ה׳
המחזיר נשמות לפגרים מתים

When one awakens, they recite:
My elo’ah, the neshamah you have placed within me is pure.
You formed her within me,
You breathed her into me,
and you guard her while she is within me.
One day you will take her from me
and restore her within me in the time to come.
As long as the neshamah is within me,
I thank you,
YHVH my elo’ah and elo’ah of my ancestors,
Master of all worlds,
Lord of all neshamot.
Blessed are you, YHVH,
who restores neshamot to lifeless bodies.

Source(s)

Notes

Notes
1	neshamah ≈ breath, soul. neshamot ≈ Breath, souls

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation)

Rabbi Dr. Zalman Meshullam Schachter-Shalomi, affectionately known as "Reb Zalman" (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014) was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement. Born in Żółkiew, Poland (now Ukraine) and raised in Vienna, he was interned in detention camps under the Vichy Regime but managed to flee the Nazi advance, emigrating to the United States in 1941. He was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi in 1947 within the ḤaBaD Hasidic movement while under the leadership of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, and served ḤaBaD communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He subsequently earned an M.A. in psychology of religion at Boston University, and a doctorate from the Hebrew Union College. He was initially sent out to speak on college campuses by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but in the early 1960s, after experimenting with "the sacramental value of lysergic acid", the main ingredient in LSD, leadership within ḤaBaD circles cut ties with him. He continued teaching the Torah of Ḥassidut until the end of his life to creative, free and open-minded Jewish thinkers with humility and kindness and established warm ecumenical ties as well. In September 2009, he became the first contributor of a siddur to the Open Siddur Project database of Jewish liturgy and related work. Reb Zalman supported the Open Siddur Project telling its founder, "this is what I've been looking forward to!" and sharing among many additional works of liturgy, an interview he had with Havurah magazine in the early to mid-1980s detailing his vision of "Database Davenen." The Open Siddur Project is proud to be realizing one of Reb Zalman's long held dreams.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)