תחנה פאר די ליכט מאכין אום ערב יום כפור | Tkhine for Candlemaking on Erev Yom Kippur, by Sarah bat Tovim (ca. early 18th c.)
Contributed by: Tracy Guren Klirs (translation), Sarah bat Tovim, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This is the tkhine for candlemaking on erev Yom Kippur as found in Sarah bat Tovim’s Tkhine of Three Gates, likely written by her sometime in the early 18th century. . . .
תפלה נוראה מרבי ישׁמעאל כהן הגדול | The Awesome Prayer of Rebbi Yishmael, the Kohen Gadol (Sefer Shem Tov Qatan 1706)
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. . . .
ניסיון באראקון | the Baraqon Operation, as found in Sefer Maftéaḥ Shlomo (Hermann Gollancz 1914, ca. 1700)
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. . . .
Ya Komimos (We have eaten), a piyyut for the Birkat haMazon in Ladino
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A paraliturgical birkat hamazon in Ladino. . . .
Morgen-Lieder (Auf, auf, den Herrn zu loben) | Morning Song (Arise to praise the Lord), a hymn by Johann Franck (1674), adapted for use in synagogue (1850)
Contributed by: James Koppel Gutheim, Johann Franck, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
“Auf, auf, den Herrn zu loben” is a hymn by the Lutheran composer of hymns, Johann Franck (1618-1677). The first two stanzas were translated by Rabbi James Koppel Gutheim and published as “Ein gottergehener sinn (Pious Resignation.)” in his Hymns, for Divine Service in the Temple Emanu-El (1871) as hymn №4, pp. 8-9. The use of these two stanzas in a Jewish context can be found in Gebet- und Gesangbuch für die sabbathe und Feste des Jahres: eingefuehrt in der israelitischen Gemeinde zu Coblenz (1850), hymn №18, p. 117. The source of the text from a Christian hymnal is that of Schatzkästlein von hundert und fünfzig geistreichen Liedern älterer Zeit (Samuel Christian Gottfried Küster, 1821) where it is hymn №6, p. 10. The original printing of the hymn is found in the first volume of Franck’s collected hymns Teutsche Gedichte, enthaltend geistliches Zion samt Vaterunserharfe nebst irdischem Helicon oder Lob-, Lieb-, Leidgedichte, etc (Guben, 1674), pp. 212-214. . . .
ברכה לאדונינו הקיסר ירה | Prayer for the Holy Roman Emperor and Empress, Leopold Ⅰ and Margaret (1658/1666)
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). . . .
על אלה אני בוכיה | Ḳinah for the Chmielnicki Massacres of 1648–1649, by Yaaqov Ḳoppel ben Tsvi Margoliyot (1658)
Contributed by: Jacob Chatinover (translation), Yaaqov Ḳoppel ben Tsvi Margoliyot, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A kinah/elegy for those massacred in the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648–1649 composed by a possible eyewitness to the tragedy. . . .
📖 פְּרִי עֵץ הֲדַר | Pri Ets Hadar (Fruit of the Majestic Tree), the original seder for Tu biShvat (School of Rabbi Yitsḥak Luria, circa 17th century)
Contributed by: Miles Krassen, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
From the Pri Etz Hadar, the first ever published seder for Tu Bishvat, circa 17th century: “speech has the power to arouse the sefirot and to cause them to shine more wondrously with a very great light that sheds abundance, favor, blessing, and benefit throughout all the worlds. Consequently, before eating each fruit, it is proper to meditate on the mystery of its divine root, as found in the Zohar and, in some cases, in the tikkunim, in order to arouse their roots above.” . . .
סדר הגדה של פסח | Liber Rituum Paschalium, a haggadah in Latin translation by Johann Stephan Rittangel (1644)
Contributed by: Johann Stephan Rittangel (Latin translation), Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
Johann Stephan Rittangel (1606-1652) was a Christian Hebraist and Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Königsberg (Prussia) from 1640 till his death. Born Jewish, he converted to Christianity (to Catholicism and afterward to Calvinism, and then Lutheranism). After making a translation of the Sefer Yetsirah into Latin in 1642, he made this translation of the Passover Haggadah. In the Haggadah, Rittangel included musical scores for two piyyutim popularly sung during the final course of the Passover seder: “Adir Hu” and “Ki Lo Na’eh.” . . .
A Prayer for a Woman before giving birth, from a Seder Tkhines (ca. 1640-1720)
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). . . .
וִדּוּי בַּיָּמִים מֵחֲמִשִּׁים שָׁנָה וְאֵלֶךְ | Vidui for those fifty years old and over, by Rabbi Mosheh Halperin (1611)
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation), Abe Katz (translation), Mosheh Halperin
This vidui prayer for those privileged to live past the age of 50 is found in Rabbi Mosheh ben Zevulun Eliezer Halperin’s Zikhron Mosheh (Lublin: 1611), siman 13. . . .
A Delightful Tkhine for a Pregnant Woman to Say (ca. early 17th c.)
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer of a pregnant woman anticipating childbirth. . . .
A Prayer for a Pregnant Woman to Say when She Wishes for an Easy Labor (ca. early 17th c.)
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer for a pregnant woman anticipating her childbirth. . . .
אֵין אַדִּיר כַּיְיָ (מִפִּי אֵל) | Ayn Adir kAdonai (Mipi El) :: There is none like YHVH
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.” . . .
אֵין אַדִּיר כַּיְיָ (מִפִּי אֵל) | Ayn Adir kAdonai | לָא קָאדִּר סַוָא אַלְלָה (There is none like Allah), minhag Cairo variation with a Judeo-Arabic translation
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. . . .
הֲרֵינִי מְקַבֵּל עָלַי | A kavvanah to love your fellow as yourself, before prayer (ca. 1572)
Contributed by: Yitsḥak Luria, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A crucial intention to align one’s davvenen practice with the command to love one’s fellow as oneself per Leviticus 19:18, as recorded in Minhagei ha-Arizal–Petura d’Abba, p.3b by Ḥayyim Vital. . . .
יְדִיד נֶפֶשׁ | Yedid Nefesh, a piyyut transmitted by Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (ca. 16th c.) translated by Rabbi Sam Seicol
Contributed by: Rabbi Sam Seicol, Elazar ben Moshe Azikri, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A variation of the piyyut “Yedid Nefesh” in Hebrew with English translation. . . .
יְדִיד נֶפֶשׁ | Yedid Nefesh, a piyyut transmitted by Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (ca. 16th c.) translation by Nina Salaman (1897)
Contributed by: Nina Davis Salaman (translation), Elazar ben Moshe Azikri, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The piyyut, Yedid Nefesh, in Hebrew with an English translation. . . .
יוֹם זֶה לְיִשְׁרַאֵל | Yom Zeh l’Yisrael, a Shabbat hymn attributed to Rabbi Yitsḥaq Luria (interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi)
Contributed by: Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation), Yitsḥak Luria, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
An interpretive translation in English of the shabbes hymn Yom Zeh l’Yisrael. . . .
יוֹם זֶה לְיִשְׁרַאֵל | Yom Zeh l’Yisrael, a piyyut by Rabbi Yitsḥaq Luria (translation by Nina Salaman, 1914)
Contributed by: Nina Davis Salaman (translation), Yitsḥak Luria, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A translation of the piyyut Yom Zeh l’Yisrael. . . .