שיר האמונה | Song of Faith, by Rabbi Avraham Yitsḥaq haKohen Ḳooḳ (ca. 1919)
Contributed by
❧A religious Zionist national anthem composed by Rav Kook in response to the secular Zionist Hatikvah. . . .
💬 מגילת הנצחון של װאודראו װילסאן | Megillat Wilson — a Purim Sheni scroll for Armistice Day [after World War Ⅰ] by Rabbi Jacob Gerstein (1919)
Contributed by
❧This is a letter written by Rev. Jacob Gerstein in the form of a megillah to honor President Woodrow Wilson for his military support of France, thereby defeating Kaiser Wilhelm, Emperor of Germany, and ending World War Ⅰ. Rev. Gerstein notes the Hebrew/Jewish calendar date for the end of hostilities as 7 Kislev 5679 (11 November 1918). The letter was sent some time while Wilson was engaged in peace talks in France after the war, between 14 December 1918 and 28 June 1919. The English translation presented here is the one offered by the author of the megillah. The transcription here was made from a copy of the letter published for Armistice Day (11 November) 1921, לזכרון עולם (L’zikaron Olam ≈ “Everlasting Memorial”), מגילת נצחון (megilat nitsaḥon ≈ “Victory Scroll”). . . .
Prayer on the Declaration of War [against Imperial Germany], by Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1914)
Contributed by
❧“Prayer Composed by the Chief Rabbi on the Declaration of War. (August 1914.),” by Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz, was published in the Prayer Book for Jewish Sailors and Soldiers [of H.M. Forces] (Office of the Chief Rabbi 1914), p. 32. . . .
תפלה בעד שלום המדינה | Prayer for the Government of William Howard Taft, by Avraham Hyman Charlap (1912)
Contributed by
❧A prayer for the government of President William Howard Taft and Vice-President James Sherman offered by a first generation immigrant to the United States. . . .
গীতাঞ্জলি | גִּיטַאנְיַ׳אלִי (קרבן־זמרה) | Gitanjali (Song-offerings), by Rabindranath Tagore (1912); translated into Hebrew by David Frischmann (1922)
Contributed by
❧The Nobel prize winning collection of “song-offerings” or Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore, in Bengali and English, translated to Hebrew by David Frischmann. . . .
כַּוָּנָה לִפְנֵי עֲבוֹדָה בְּאַדְמַת הַקֹּדֶשׁ | Kavvanah before working with the holy soil of Erets Yisrael, by Rabbi Shalom Ḥayyim Sharabi (ca. 1911)
Contributed by
❧A kavvanah for focusing one’s intention before working with the soil of Erets Yisrael. . . .
תפלה בלחש | A Whispered Prayer (for protection from noxious air and people), by Tsvi Hirsch Robinson (1909)
Contributed by
❧A prayer for protection against noxious gases and people. . . .
Gebet eines jungen Mädchens am Neujahrsfeste | Prayer of a young girl on Rosh haShanah, by Lise Tarlau (1907)
Contributed by
❧“Gebet eines jungen Mädchens am Neujahrsfeste” by Lise Tarlau can be found in Rabbi Max Grunwald’s anthology of Jewish women’s prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1907), pages 126-128. . . .
Nachtgebet eines Kindes | Night prayer of a child [for the Bedtime Shema], by Lise Tarlau (1907)
Contributed by
❧“Nachtgebet eines Kindes” by Lise Tarlau can be found in Rabbi Max Grunwald’s anthology of Jewish women’s prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1907), page 30. . . .
Abendlied | Evening prayer [for the Bedtime Shema], by Lise Tarlau (1907)
Contributed by
❧“Abendlied” by Lise Tarlau can be found in Rabbi Max Grunwald’s anthology of Jewish women’s prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1907), page 29. . . .
בּרידער | “Brothers” – Y.L. Peretz’s Sardonic Rejoinder to Friedrich Schiller’s Paean to Universal Enlightenment, An die Freude (Ode to Joy)
Contributed by
❧Y.L. Peretz rejected cultural universalism, seeing the world as composed of different nations, each with its own character. Liptzin comments that “Every people is seen by him as a chosen people…”; he saw his role as a Jewish writer to express “Jewish ideals…grounded in Jewish tradition and Jewish history.” This is Peretz’s lampoon of the popularity of Friedrich Schiller’s idealistic paean made famous as the lyrics to the climax of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. . . .
הַכְנִיסִינִי תַּחַת כְּנָפֵךְ | Take Me Under Your Wing, by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (1905)
Contributed by
❧The prayer-poem, “Take Me Under Your Wing” (1905) by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik. . . .
הַנּוֹתֵן תְּשׁוּעָה | Prayer for the Royal Family of King Edward Ⅶ (1904)
Contributed by
❧The text of the prayer, haNoten Teshuah, as adapted for Edward VII. . . .
אַיֵּךְ | Ayekh (Where are you?), by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (1904)
Contributed by
❧The poem, Ayekh (Where are you?), by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik. . . .
שַׁבָּת הַמַּלְכָּה | The Shabbat Queen, by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (1903)
Contributed by
❧This translation of Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik’s “Shabbat ha-Malkah” by Israel Meir Lask can be found on pages 280-281 in the Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) where it appears as “Greeting to Queen Sabbath.” The poem is based on the shabbat song, “Shalom Alekhem” and first published in the poetry collection, Hazamir, in 1903. I have made a faithful transcription of the Hebrew and its English translation as it appears in the Sabbath Prayer Book. The first stanza of Lask’s translation was adapted from an earlier translation made by Angie Irma Cohon and published in 1920 in Song and Praise for Sabbath Eve (1920), p. 87. (Cohon’s translation of Bialik’s second stanza of “Shabbat ha-Malkah” does not appear to have been adapted by Lask.) . . .
עִם שָׁמֶשׁ | At Sunrise, a poem by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (1903)
Contributed by
❧The poem, “Im Shamesh” (At Sunrise) by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik in June 1903. . . .
📖 סדר התפלות ליום כפור (מנהג הספרדים) | Seder haTefilot l’Yom Kippur, edited and revised by Moses Gaster (1904, amended 1934)
Contributed by
❧A bilingual Hebrew-English maḥzor for Yom Kippur, nusaḥ sefarad, with a translation for Rabbi David de Aaron de Sola, revised and edited by Moses Gaster, amended by Rabbi David Bueno de Mesquita. . . .
צַפְרִירִים | Tsafririm (Morning Spirits), a poem by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (1900)
Contributed by
❧The poem “Tsafririm” (1900) by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik with an English translation by Ben Aronin. . . .
📖 (רפורמי) A Book of Prayer, compiled by Rabbi J. Leonard Levy (1902)
Contributed by
❧A prayerbook compiled for Rodeph Shalom, a Reform movement congregation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. . . .
אֲשׁוֹרֵר שִׁירָה | Ashorer Shirah, a piyyut in honor of the Torah by Ḥakham Raphael Baruch Toledano (ca. 20th c.)
Contributed by
❧A piyyut in honor of the Torah. . . .
חׇנֵּנוּ יָהּ חׇנֵּנוּ | Ḥonenu Yah Ḥonenu (Forgive Us Yah in the Merit of Moshe Rabbenu), by the Ben Ish Ḥai (ca. 19th c.)
Contributed by
❧The 7th of Adar is the traditional date for the yahrzeit of Moshe Rabbeinu and it is also remembered as the day of his birth 120 years earlier. This variation of of the piyyut, Hanenu Yah Hanenu (Forgive Us Yah, Forgive Us), sung on 7 Adar, is attributed to Rabbi Yosef Ḥayyim of Baghdad (the Ben Ish Ḥai, 1832-1909). The earliest published version we could find appears in בקשות: ונוסף עוד פתיחות ופיוטים הנוהגים לומר בזמה הזה (1912) containing piyyutim by Israel ben Moses Najara (1555-1625), a Jewish liturgical poet, preacher, Biblical commentator, kabbalist, and rabbi of Gaza. The contemporary audio recording of the Iraqi nusaḥ presented here was made by משה חבושה (Moshe Ḥavusha). . . .
Offerings, by Alice Lucas (1898)
Contributed by
❧A meditation on prayer and earnest offering. . . .
תפלה לבני ישראל בעד הצלחת יושבי ארצנו בּמלחמתם עם השׂפּנים | Prayer for the success of the United States in its war with Spain, by Rabbi Joshua Seigel (1898)
Contributed by
❧A Prayer for American Victory in the Spanish-American War by Rabbi Joshua Seigel (1846-1910), New York: Eliakum Zunser, [1898]. . . .
📖 סדר אל־תוחיד | Seder al-Tawḥid for Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan
Contributed by
❧The project page for the transcription and translation of the Seder al-Tawḥid for Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan. . . .
בִּרְכַּת עָם (תֶחֱזַקְנָה) | The People’s Blessing (a/k/a Teḥezaqnah), by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (1894)
Contributed by
❧Before HaTikvah was chosen, Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik’s “People’s Blessing” (בִּרְכַּת עָם, also known by its incipit תֶחֱזַֽקְנָה Teḥezaqnah) was once considered for the State of Israel’s national anthem. Bialik was 21 years old when he composed the work in 1894. It later was chosen as the anthem of the Labor Zionist movement. We hereby present the first ever complete English translation of this poem. . . .
גַּמָּדֵי לָיִל | Gnomes of the Night, a poem by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (ca. 1894)
Contributed by
❧The poem “Gamodei Layil” (Gnomes of the Night) by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik, ca. 1894. . . .
תפלה על המגפה שתעצר | Prayer for Cessation of the Disease Now Raging, by Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster (1892)
Contributed by
❧A prayer for the end of a cholera epidemic written by Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster in 1892. . . .
📖 תפלת בית אהבה (רפורמי) (Tefilat Beit Ahaḇah) A Book of Prayer for Jewish Worship, compiled by Rabbi Edward N. Calisch (1893)
Contributed by
❧A prayerbook compiled for Beth Ahaḇa, a Reform movement congregation in Richmond, Virginia. . . .
Prayer on the Centennial of the Inauguration of George Washington, by Rabbi Yaakov Yosef (1889)
Contributed by
❧The proclamation and prayer of chief rabbi Yaakov Yosef, on the centennial of President George Washington’s Inauguration . . .
שיר מזמור לפורים | Shir Mizmor l’Purim, an anti-Prohibition drinking song for Purim by Rabbi Sabato Morais (1889)
Contributed by
❧This “Shir Mizmor l’Purim” by Rabbi Sabato Morais (we think) was first published in The Jewish Exponent on 15 March 1889. It was preserved by Rabbi Sabato Morais in his ledger, an archive of newsclippings recording material he contributed to the press, among other announcements. . . .
הַנּוֹתֵן תְּשׁוּעָה | A Prayer for the Kaiser, Nikolai Ⅱ Alexanderovich (1889)
Contributed by
❧This prayer for the well-being of the Kaiser (Emperor) Nikolai II and his family appears in the siddur Shir Ushvaḥah (1889) . . .
Prayer on the Jubilee of Her Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, by Rabbi Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler (21 June 1887)
Contributed by
❧This prayer by chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire Nathan Marcus Adler is found in an order of service prepared for the celebration of Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1887. . . .
אֵל שְׁמֹר הַמַּלְכָּה | God Save the Queen, an adaptation of Hyman Hurwitz’s Hebrew translation of “God Save the King” for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Celebration (1887)
Contributed by
❧“God Save the Queen” is an adaptation of “God Save the King,” a work by an unknown author, first circulated in three stanzas during the reign of Britain’s King George Ⅱ, circa 1745. This Hebrew translation was published in a pamphlet circulated by New Road (Whitechapel) Synagogue in 1892 “on the 73rd Birthday of Her Majesty Queen Victoria,” an event attended by then chief rabbi of the British Empire, Rabbi Dr. Hermann Adler. . . .
דער נײער קאָלאסוס | The New Collosus, a paean to the Shekhinah/”Mother of Exiles” by Emma Lazarus (1883, Yiddish translation by Rachel Kirsch Holtman 1938)
Contributed by
❧This is the sonnet, “The New Collosus” (1883) by Emma Lazarus set side-by-side with its Yiddish translation by Rachel Kirsch Holtman. Lazarus famously penned her sonnet in response to the waves of Russian-Jewish refugees seeking refuge in the Unites States of America as a result of murderous Russian pogroms following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Her identification and revisioning of the Statue of Liberty as the Mother of Exiles points to the familiar Jewish identification of the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence, in its feminine aspect) with the light of the Jewish people in their Diaspora. . . .
Prayer for the Recovery of President James A. Garfield, by Rabbi Leopold Rosenstraus (9 July 1881)
Contributed by
❧A prayer for the recovery of President James A. Garfield was offered at Beth El Hebrew Congregation (Alexandria, Virginia) by Rabbi Leopold Rosenstraus in a public service on 9 July 1881 after the president was mortally wounded earlier that month (2 July) in an ultimately successful assassination attempt. The prayer was published on the front page of The Hebrew Leader (15 July 1881). . . .
הַתִּקְוָה | Hatiḳvah (the Hope), by Naphtali Herz Imber (1878)
Contributed by
❧The poem, Hatiḳvah, in its original composition by Naphtali Herz Imber, later chosen and adapted to become the national anthem of the State of Israel, with a full English translation, and the earliest, albeit abbreviated, Yiddish translation . . .
זֶה הֶעָפָר הָיָה פַּעַם הָאִישׁ | This Dust was Once the Man, an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln by Walt Whitman (1871), Hebrew translation by Shimon Halkin (1952)
Contributed by
❧An elegy by Walt Whitman for President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination, in English with Hebrew translation. . . .
תפלה לשלום המלכות | Prière pour l’empereur | Prayer for the Well-being of Louis Napoleon Ⅲ, Emperor of France (1869)
Contributed by
❧A prayer for the French Emperor, Napoleon III, a year before he was captured by the Prussians in the doomed Franco-Prussian War of 1870, including the formula of the prayer, haNoten Teshuah, as adapted for Napoleon III. . . .
תודה | Prayer of Thanksgiving for the Safe Return of Sir Moses Montefiore from Romania (Ḳ.Ḳ. Shaar haShamayim, 1867)
Contributed by
❧This thanksgiving prayer was offered by ḲḲ Shaar haShamayim (a/k/a Bevis Marks, the S&P Synagogue in London) upon the safe return of Sir Moses Montefiore from a trip to Romania on behalf of Romanian Jewry in 1867. The prayer was likely written by Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster who served as rabbi for Bevis Marks during this period and who had emigrated from Romania. . . .
💬 Amendment ⅩⅣ to the Constitution of the United States of America (1866/1868, with translations in Hebrew and Yiddish by Judah David Eisenstein 1891)
Contributed by
❧The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, initially proposed by Congress on 13 June 1866 and adopted on 9 July 1868 was the second of three Reconstruction Amendments addressing citizenship rights and equal protection under the law. It was enacted in response to issues related to emancipated slaves following the failure of the Slaveholders’ Rebellion (1861-1865). . . .
📖 הֶגְיוֹן לֵב | Hegyon Lev (Meditations of the Heart): Israelitisches Gebetbuch für die häusliche Andacht, arranged by Rabbi Benjamin Szold (1867)
Contributed by
❧This is Rabbi Benjamin Szold’s הגיון לב (Hegyon Lev, “Meditation of the Heart”) Israelitisches Gebetbuch für die häusliche Andacht (1867). . . .
Evening Prayer for Children, by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (1866)
Contributed by
❧“Evening Prayer for Children” is one of thirty prayers appearing in Rabbi Moritz Mayer’s collection of tehinot, Hours of Devotion (1866), of uncertain provenance and which he may have written. . . .
Morning Prayer for Children, by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (1866)
Contributed by
❧“Morning Prayer for Children” is one of thirty prayers appearing in Rabbi Moritz Mayer’s collection of tehinot, Hours of Devotion (1866), of uncertain provenance and which he may have written. . . .
הוֹ קְבַרְנִיט! קְבַרְנִיטִי! | O Captain! My Captain!, an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln by Walt Whitman (1865), Hebrew translation by Shimon Halkin (1952)
Contributed by
❧Walt Whitman’s famous poem eulogizing President Abraham Lincoln after his assassination, in English with Hebrew translation. . . .
שריך לינקאלען | Memorial Prayer for Abraham Lincoln, by Isaac Goldstein haLevi (1865)
Contributed by
❧Exalted are you Lincoln. Who is like you! You were highly respected among Kings and Princes. All that you accomplished you did with a humble spirit. You are singular and cannot be compared to anyone else. Who among the great are like Lincoln? Who can be praised like you? . . .
📖 סדר סליחות מכל השנה | Seder Seliḥot mikol ha-Shanah :: The Order of Seliḥot for the entire year, translated by David Asher, Ph.D. (1866)
Contributed by
❧A comprehensive arrangement of seliḥot (סליחות, penitential prayers) for the entire year, translated into English by the great scholar David Asher. . . .
הַנּוֹתֵן תְּשׁוּעָה | Prayer for the Royal Family of Queen Victoria (1864)
Contributed by
❧The text of the prayer, haNoten Teshuah, as adapted for Queen Victoria. . . .
Prayer of praise for Tsar Alexander II, emancipator of the serfs of the Russian Empire (HaMelitz, 1861)
Contributed by
❧This prayer of praise of Tsar Alexander II (1818-1881), for largely ending feudalism by emancipating the serfs of the Russian Empire was written by an unknown author and published in HaMelitz on Thursday, 28 March 1861. . . .
Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Morris J. Raphall on 1 February 1860
Contributed by
❧This is the text of the Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall’s prayer offered before the U.S. House of Representatives as recorded in the Congressional Globe, (part 1, 36th Congress, 1st Session, 1859-1860) pp. 648-649, and reprinted in The Occident and American Jewish Advocate, 18:46 9 Feb 1860, pp. 275-276. . . .
Sandalphon, a poem concerning the angel by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1858)
Contributed by
❧The poem, “Sandalphon,” as composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 – 1882) and completed January 18, 1858, first published in Birds of Passage (1858), section “Flight the First,” page 62. . . .