תְּפִלָּה לְשִׁחְרוּר הַחֲטוּפִים | Prayer for the Release of the Hostages, by Rabbi Noa Mazor
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❧This prayer for the safe return of the captives taken by HAMA”S and its allies on 7 October 2023 was offered by Rabbi Noa Mazor in the period anticipating the release of the surviving captives in January 2025 as part of a larger ceasefire agreement between the State of Israel and HAMA”S in Gaza. It was first published on her Facebook page on 13 January 2025. . . .
Gebet für die Geflüchteten, die an der EU-Außengrenze ums Leben kamen | Prayer for the refugees who lost their lives at the EU’s external border, by Rabbi Lior Bar-Ami
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❧This prayer for refugees tragically killed en route to Europe was offered by Rabbi Lior Bar-Ami sometime before May 2024. . . .
Молитва про захист наших сердець від ненависті | תפילה לשמירה על ליבנו משנאה (בזמן המלחמה) | Prayer to Protect Our Hearts from Hatred in Wartime, by Miriam Klimova (2022)
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❧Miriam Klimova’s prayer “Молитва про захист наших сердець від ненависті” תפילה לשמירה על ליבנו משנאה (בזמן המלחמה) (Prayer to Protect Our Hearts from Hatred in Wartime), in the context of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, was first shared in Hebrew and Ukrainian via her Facebook page. . . .
לזכרם של ההרוגים במלחמה באדמות אוקראינה | Молитва в пам’ять про загиблих у війні на землях України | Yizkor for those killed in the war in Ukraine, by Rabbi Miriam Klimova (2022)
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❧A prayer for a Yizkor service on Yom Kippur during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. . . .
תפילה לאוקראינה | Молитва за Україну | Prayer for Ukraine, by Rabbi Miriam Klimova (2022)
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❧A prayer for Ukraine by Rabbi Miriam Klimova in Hebrew and Ukrainian first shared via her Facebook page on 24 February 2022. . . .
כַּוָּנוֹתִי בְּשִׁיר הָאַהֲבָה | Kavvanah for Shir ha-Ahavah (Song of Love), by Mendel Roth
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❧This is Mendel Roth’s prayer upon sharing his Shirat ha-Ahavah (song of love). The text of the prayer was provided in the description to the video on Youtube. English translation of the pointed Hebrew by Aharon Varady. . . .
שַׁוְעַת נָשִׁים: תפילה לשלומן של נשים קורבנות אלימות | Shav’at Nashim, a prayer for the safety of women who are victims of violence (Masorti Movement in Israel)
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❧A prayer for the safety and well-being of women who are victims of violence, and especially domestic violence. . . .
תחינה לימי נגיף הקורונה | Supplication for the Days of the Coronavirus (Masorti Movement in Israel 2020)
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❧A prayer disseminated by the Masorti Movement in Israel in response to the Coronavirus outbreak in Israel and around the world. . . .
תפילה בתגובה למגפה | Prayer in response to the Coronavirus Outbreak in Italy (Assemblea Dei Rabbini D’Italia 2020)
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❧A prayer disseminated by the Assemblea Dei Rabbini D’Italia in response to the Coronavirus outbreak in Italy and around the world. . . .
תפילה נוכח הרעה מדרום | Prayer in the face of the worsening situation in southern Israel (Masorti Movement in Israel 2019)
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❧A prayer for the safety of all the inhabitants of the Land of Israel offered during the November 12th, 2019 Tel Aviv rocket strike. . . .
תפילה לשלום העם הכורדי | Prayer for the Welfare of the Kurdish People (Masorti Movement in Israel, 2019)
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❧A prayer for the welfare of the Kurdish People in Northern Syria (Rojava) following their betrayal by Donald Trump acting as commander-in-chief of the United States armed forces and their oppression by the Republic of Turkey. . . .
📖 סִימָן לְבָנִים | Siman l’Vanim: a birkon celebrating the wedding of Honi Sanders and Simona Dalin (2019)
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❧The birkon/bentsher (blessing-book) prepared for the wedding of Honi Sanders and Simona Dalin on July 7th, 2019. . . .
תפילה לנספים בשטפונות | Prayer for Flash Flood Victims, by the Masorti Movement in Israel (2018)
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❧Flash floods are dangerous in every season, but are rare in the dry season, after most rain and snow are thought to have fallen. Changes in the global climate due to global warming caused by anthropogenic activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the conversion of land for raising animals for their meat is a significant contributor to extreme weather experienced around the world. The Masorti Movement of Israel’s prayer for flood victims was first published on their website, here. . . .
אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים תְפִילָה לַנִּסְפִּים בַּשּׁוֹאָה | El Malé Raḥamim Prayer for the Victims of the Shoah, by Rabbi Yehoyada Amir
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❧A prayer for the victims of the Holocaust in Hebrew with English, Romanian, and Ukrainian translations. . . .
הושענא לתיקון ולנחמה | Hoshana for Healing and Consolation, by Rabbi Dr. Dalia Marx
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❧A supplemental hoshana (prayer for salvation) for healing and consolation for the sake of true love, needed blessings, rainfall in a timely fashion, paths and their repair, mountains and their crossing, goals and objectives, lasting memories, good dreams, cosmic goodness, etc. . . .
כוונה ליום הבחירות | Kavvanah for Israeli Election Day, by Rabbi Noa Mazor
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❧כוונה ליום הבחירות יכולה להיאמר בכל שלב של יום הבחירות עצמו. בעיניי היא מתאימה בעיקר כחלק מתפילת שחרית של אותו היום או רגע לפני הכניסה אל מאחורי הפרגוד. נכתב על ידי נועה מזור, סטודנטית לרבנות, והרבה המלווה של נוער תל״ם. . . .
תפילה לבוחר טרם הבחירות | A Prayer for Voters Before the Israeli Election, by Rabbi Esteban Gottfried
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❧A prayer for voting on election day in the State of Israel. . . .
שבע ברכות | The Seven Blessings over a Wedding (interpretive translation by Aharon Varady)
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❧A translation of the Seven Blessings shared just in time for Shavuot, and in honor of several of my friend’s weddings. . . .
תְּפִילַּת הַנּוֹטֵעַ | Prayer for a Virtual Tree Planting in Israel, by Rabbi Eliyahu Yosef She’ar Yashuv Cohen (2012)
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❧This is the prayer for planting trees by the late chief rabbi of Haifa, Eliyahu Yosef She’ar Yashuv Cohen zt”l (1927-2016). . . .
מי שברך לחיילי צה״ל | Mi sheBerakh for the Welfare of Israel Defense Forces Soldiers, by Rabbi Shlomo Goren (1956); amended by Dr. Alex Sinclair (2012)
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❧The prayer for the welfare of IDF soldiers by Rabbi Shlomo Goren, with additional text as added by Dr. Alex Sinclair emphasizing our desire for soldiers to engage in righteous and ethical conduct in accord with the IDF code of conduct. . . .
על הניסים ליום העצמאות | Al haNissim for Yom ha-Atsma’ut, by Amos Ḥakham (2012)
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❧An al hanissim formulation for Yom Ha-Atsma’ut by the scholar Amos Hakham. . . .
תפילה לשלום ירושלים | Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, by Rabbi Eliyahu Yosef She’ar Yashuv Cohen
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❧The “Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem” by the late chief rabbi of Ḥaifa, Eliyahu Yosef She’ar Yashuv Cohen zt”l (1927-2016), is often included in programs praying for peace in Jerusalem in periods of conflict. . . .
The path of the righteous man (הַדֶרֶךְ שֶׁל הַצָדִיק Ha-derekh shel ha-tsadiq) — from the film The Bodyguard (1976), adapted by Jules Winnfield in the film Pulp Fiction (1994)
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❧Tired of people who can’t tell their ḳiddish (blessings for the Sabbath) from their ḳaddish (prayer for the dead)? Well, it sets Samuel L. Jackson off too! But he found a way of making a bracha (blessing) and mourning the dead at the same time. Now I can’t vouch for the origins of his nusaḥ (custom) but it sounds very effective! Most people haven’t noticed, the only real part from the Bible is that last section, the first part is actually his own spiel: . . .
תפילה לשלום צוות אח״י אילת | Prayers for the Welfare of the Navy Personnel of the “INS Eilat,” by rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau & Arnold Resnicoff (1993)
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❧A prayer for the well-being of the Navy personnel assigned to the newly built Sa’ar 5 corvette, INS Eilat, in 1993. . . .
“Just Walk Beside Me” (לֵךְ פָּשׁוּט לְצִדִּי | امشي بجانبي | נאָר גיין לעבן מיר), lines from an unknown author circulating in 1970; Jewish adaptation with translations in Aramaic, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Arabic
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❧Variations of the original three lines culminating with “…walk beside me…” first appear in high school yearbooks beginning in 1970. The earliest recorded mention we could find was in The Northern Light, the 1970 yearbook of North Attleboro High School, Massachusetts. In the Jewish world of the early to mid-1970s, a young Moshe Tanenbaum began transmitting the lines at Jewish summer camps. In 1979, as Uncle Moishy, Tanenbaum published a recording of the song under the title “v’Ohavta” (track A4 on The Adventures of Uncle Moishy and the Mitzvah Men, volume 2). . . .
אֶחָד | One, a song by Harry Nilsson (1967)
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❧A Hebrew translation of the lyrics to Harry Nilsson’s “One” (1967) as sung by Aimee Mann (1995) . . .
מי שברך לחיילי צה״ל | Mi sheBerakh for the Welfare of Israel Defense Forces Soldiers, by Rabbi Shlomo Goren (1956)
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❧The mi sheberakh for the IDF composed by Rabbi Shlomo Goren in the context of the Suez Crisis and Israel-Egypt conflict of 1956. . . .
A Scholar’s Prayer for Intellectual Honesty, adapted from a prayer quoted by Dr. Leslie Weatherhead (1951)
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❧A prayer for intellectual honesty before study. . . .
📖 תפלה לדוד (נוסח איטלקי מנהג הרומית) | Tefilah l’David: Preghiere di Rito Italiano, a bilingual Hebrew-Italian prayerbook compiled by the chief Rabbi of Rome, David Prato (1949)
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❧A bilingual Hebrew-Italian prayerbook compiled by the chief Rabbi of Rome according to the Nusaḥ Italḳi. . . .
תפילת המדינה | Prayer for the State [of Israel], by S.Y. Agnon (1948)
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❧In September 1948, while editing Rabbi Yitshak haLevi Hertzog’s new Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel, S.Y. Agnon (1888-1970) drafted this adaptation. . . .
מוֹדה אֲנִי | Returning the body to the soul: an adaptation of Modeh Ani by Moshe ibn Makhir
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❧Modeh Ani first appeared as an addendum in Seder ha-Yom (1599) by Moshe ibn Makhir of Safed. A slightly different formula offers a deep insight into who and what has returned to one’s self upon waking. . . .
ברכות לנרות חנוכה | the Blessings over Kindling the Light of Ḥanukkah
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❧The blessings for kindling the Ḥanukkah lights in Hebrew with English translation. . . .
תפילה לחודש כסלו עד סוף חנוכה | Prayer for the month of Kislev through the end of Ḥanukkah (from Isaiah 60), by Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman
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❧Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman introduced the tradition of reading these verses from Isaiah during the month of Kislev through the end of Ḥanukkah in his Siddur Ha’Avodah Shebalev of Kehillat Kol HaNeshamah (R’ Levi Weiman-Kelman, R’ Ma’ayan Turner, and Shaul Vardi, 2007). The translation provided here was adapted from the one made by Shaul Vardi in Siddur Ha’Avodah Shebalev. –Aharon Varady. . . .