Contributed by: Binyamin Benisch ben Yehudah Loeb ha-Kohen, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Anonymous (translation)
A prayer for protection and blessing offered in the name of of Rebbi Yishmael from the Sefer Shem Tov Qatan. . . .
Contributed by: Hermann Gollancz, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This is a version of the Invocation of Baraqon, a spell found in the Key of Solomon (Clavicula Solomonis) and its Hebrew translations (Mafteaḥ Shlomo). This particular variation is as found on the folios 70a-70b of a manuscript republished as ספר מפתח שלמה Sepher Maphteaḥ Shelomo (Book of the Key of Solomon): An exact facsimile of an original book of magic in Hebrew (1914) with a partial transcription translated into English by Rabbi Sir Hermann Gollancz. Claudia Rohrbacher-Stricker writes that Gollancz had located the manuscript in the collection of his father, Samuel H. Gollancz. The manuscript itself dated from around 1700 in Amsterdam, in a Sefardic script. Gershom Scholem was able to prove the Arabic origin of the Baraqon operation in “Some Sources of Jewish-Arabic Demonology,” Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 16 (1965), p. 6. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A paraliturgical birkat hamazon in Ladino. . . .
Contributed by: Jacob Chatinover (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This is a 17th century prayer for the Holy Roman Emperor found in Ms. 110 (Jewish Museum in Prague, Czech Republic). . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer for a pregnant woman anticipating childbirth, from an unidentified volume of the Seder Tkhines (circa 1640-1720). . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer of a pregnant woman anticipating childbirth. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer for a pregnant woman anticipating her childbirth. . . .
Contributed by: Akiva Sanders (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A popular piyyut for Simḥat Torah (4th hakkafah) originally composed as a piyyut for Shavuot and often referred to by its incipit, “Mipi El.” . . .
Contributed by: Akiva Sanders (translation), Unknown (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
This is a variation of Mipi El in Hebrew with a Judeo-Arabic translation found in the Seder al-Tawḥid for Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan, compiled by Mosheh Asher ibn Shmuel in 1887 in Alexandria. . . .
Contributed by: Johann Stephan Rittangel (Latin translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
The text of the popular counting song “Who Knows One?” in its original Hebrew, with a translation in Latin. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The text of the popular Passover song “Who Knows One?” in its original Hebrew and Yiddish, with a translation in English. . . .
Contributed by: Johann Stephan Rittangel (Latin translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A Latin translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Making sense of Ḥad Gadya beyond its explicit meaning has long inspired commentary. For me, Ḥad Gadya expresses in its own beautiful and macabre way a particularly important idea in Judaism that has become obscure if not esoteric. While an animal’s life may today be purchased, ultimately, the forces of exploitation, predation, and destruction that dominate our world will be overturned. Singing Ḥad Gadya is thus particularly apropos for the night of Passover since, in the Jewish calendar, this one night, different from all other nights, is considered the most dangerous night of the year — it is the time in which the forces of darkness in the world are strongest. Why? It is on this night that the divine aspect of Mashḥit, the executioner, is explicitly invoked (albeit, only in the context of the divine acting as midwife and guardian/protector of her people), as explained in the midrash for Exodus 12:12 . . .
Contributed by: James Alan Montgomery (translation), Richard Gottheil (transcription), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
An apotropaic ward for the protection of women in their pregnancy and of infant children against an attack from Lilith and her minions, containing the story witnessing her oath to the prophet, Eliyahu along with one variation of her many names. . . .
Contributed by: Nina Davis Salaman (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The paralitugical Birkat haMazon Tsur Mishelo, in Hebrew with an English translation. . . .
Contributed by: Susan Weingarten (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Moshe Shmi'el Dascola, Unknown
This is a faithful transcription of the text of the medieval Megillat Yehudith (the Scroll of Judith), not to be confused with the deutero-canonical Book of Judith, authored in Antiquity. We have further set this text side-by-side with the English translation made by Susan Weingarten, and vocalized and cantillated the Hebrew so that it may be chanted. . . .
Contributed by: Alice Lucas (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A rhymed translation of Tsur Mishelo, a paralitugical Birkat haMazon. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A litany of angelic names recorded in Sefer HaQanah, whose initial letters spells out the 42 letter divine name as also found in Sefer haPeliah. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A litany of angelic names recorded in Sefer haPeliah whose initial letters spells out the 42 letter divine name as also found (in variation) in Sefer HaQanah. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
From the Morning Blessings (Birkhot ha-Shaḥar) of the Seder tefilot be-targum le-Shuʾadit [סדר תפילות בתרגום לשואדית], a translation of the Siddur into Judaeo-Provençal dating from the 14th-15th century providing the following blessing for women. . . .