Johann Stephan Rittangel (Latin: Rittangelius) (b.1606 Forscheim near Bamberg – d. 1652 Königsberg ) was a Christian Hebraist. Born Jewish, he later converted to Catholicism, and later to Calvinism and Lutheranism. In 1640, Rittangel was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the University of Königsberg (Prussia). In 1641, Rittangel visited a community of Karaite Jews in Trakai, before traveling to London and then to the Dutch Republic where, in Amsterdam, he taught Hebrew and possibly identified, for a time, as a Jew. In July 1642 he left the Low Countries to go to Königsberg, where he spent the rest of his life until his death in 1652. He obtained a Hebrew manuscript of the Sefer Yezirah through the Mennonite merchant Gerebrand Anslo, for a translation into Latin in 1642 ( Liber Jezirah qui Abrahamo Patriarchae adscribitur). In 1644, he published his Latin translation of the Passover Haggadah. He made one of the earliest translations of Jewish prayers, under the title Hochfeyerliche Sollennitaeten, Gebethe und Collecten Anstatt der Opfer, Nebst Andern Ceremonien so von der Jüdischen Kirchen am Ersten Neuen-Jahrs-Tag Gebetet und Abgehandelt Werden Müssen, Königsberg, 1652. His posthumous work Bilibra Veritatis was written to substantiate the claim that the Targums prove the doctrine of the Trinity. This is also the subject of his Veritas Religionis Christianæ (Franeker, 1699).

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.

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.)

From a family of musicians, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer believes that creative art is one of the most powerful ways to get in touch with the divine. He composes music and poetry in Hebrew and English. (He also authors his own original works and transcribes Hebrew and Aramaic text, adding niqqud and t'amim as needed.) Isaac runs a Jewish music transcription service, which will transcribe and set any Jewish music in any language, recorded or written. Contact his service on Facebook or via his music blog.