An “angels on all sides” formula included with the Bedtime Shema service in the Maḥzor Vitry.

The prayers invoking the memory of the Aqeidat Yitsḥaq (Genesis 22:1-19) in the morning preparatory prayers in the liturgical custom of the Sefaradim.

The prayers invoking the memory of the Aqeidat Yitsḥaq (Genesis 22:1-19) in the morning preparatory prayers in the liturgical custom of Ashkenaz.

This prayer for captives, containing a piyyut followed by meaningful verses and a mi sheberakh, was transcribed by Dr. Yehoshua Granat from a manuscript produced in late medieval France, Ms. Barginsky 206 (fol. 67b) in the Braginsky Collection in Zurich, Switzerland, under the title “יש מקומות שנהגו לבקש רחמים על האסור בבית האסורים כדרך הזה” (“There are places where it was customary to ask for mercy for the imprisoned in this way”).

The nusaḥ Italki (Italian rite) preserves a full curriculum of Torah study in advance of the morning prayers. Included are passages from the Torah, Mishnah, and Gemarah familiar to other nusḥaot. In the Italian rite, the blessings over Torah study and ensuing passages appear after all the other birkhot hashaḥar, concluding it and providing a bridge to liturgy preceding the Zemirot (a/k/a Pesuqei d’Zimra). What is remarkable in this tradition is how interlinked the blessing and recitation of these passages is to the otherwise separate and adjacent section concerning the sacrificial offerings in the Temple and the rules of halakhic exegesis in Rabbinic hermeneutics. While additional portions and verses are presented, the passages provide an explicit justification for the otherwise radical innovation carried forth in rabbinic Judaism to offer services of prayer in place of the services of the Temple cult, providing Hosea 14:3 as the authority to do so — a necessity in an age where the Torah mandated arrangements of animal sacrifices, incense and grain offerings, and wine libations remains otherwise interrupted.

This is the form of the prophylactic prayers following the birkhot hashaḳar and which precede the birkhot Talmud Torah in the Italian nusaḥ attested by Rabbi David Prato from his siddur, תפלה לדוד Preghiere di Rito Italiano (1949), pp. 10-12.

“Aḥeinu” is the final prayer in a set of supplications recited on Mondays and Thursdays as the Torah scroll is being prepared to be returned to the Aron. The prayer is first found with variations in wording in the surviving manuscripts of the Seder Rav Amram Gaon (ca. 9th c.).

A birkat haMazon found in the collection of Cairo Geniza fragments at the University of Cambridge library.

A well-wishing prayer for couples on their wedding day found in the Seder Rav Amram Gaon.

An apotropaic prayer of protection for traveling at night containing an “angels on all sides” formula.

The text and translation of an amulet bowl discussed in “‘Gabriel is on their Right’: Angelic Protection in Jewish Magic and Babylonian Lore” by Dan Levene, Dalia Marx, and Siam Bharyo in Studia Mesopotamica (Band 1: 2014) pp.185-198. The apotropaic ward found in the amulet bowl, SD 12, contains an “angels on all sides” formula similar to that appearing in the Jewish liturgy of the bedtime shema.

The text of the Sefer Yetsirah presented here follows the “experimental exercise” produced by A. Peter Hayman in his Sefer Yeṣira: Edition Translation and Text-Critical Commentary, “Appendix III: The Earliest Recoverable Text of Sefer Yesira” (Mohr Siebeck, 2004). For details on his construction and his review of the available recensions of Sefer Yetsirah, please refer to Hayman’s complete commentary. Numbers in parentheses indicate sections. I have added spaces between sections indicate traditional chapter breaks. Square brackets indicate some doubt as to whether the included wording was present in the earlier form of the text (p.124).

This prayer for the Shaliaḥ Tsibur is found in the Musaf Amidah for Rosh haShanah, in the Malkhuyot between Aleinu and Al Kén. The translation offered here is based on that found in the Metsudah Maḥzor for Rosh Hashanah.

The blessings for kindling the Ḥanukkah lights in Hebrew with English translation.

The popular piyyut for welcoming the Shabbat, in Hebrew with translations in Assyrian-Aramaic and English.

The formula for the abbreviated Birkat Hamazon, in Hebrew with English translation.

The text of the prayer Nishmat Kol Ḥai in Hebrew with English translation.

In the period following the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, rabbinic Jewish liturgy reïfied the teaching to replace sacrificial offerings with offerings of the lips (per Psalms 51:18) by directly quoting those verses from the Torah dictating those sacrifices. This formula is evident in the the blessing meqadesh hashabbat for the musaf Shabbat Amidah, in which the musaf offering is invoked directly via Numbers 28:9, while blessing Hashem, hallower of the Shabbat. For this blessing, my ḥavrutah Jonathan Schachter would remind those davvening with him musaf that they could follow the recitation of this verse with that of Hosea 14:3, our oldest scriptural witness to a counter-tradition of prayer as a surrogate for animal sacrifice. We offer this amendment to the Shabbat musaf Amidah as a corrective to the notion that the return of the Temple cult must necessarily bring a return of animal sacrifice and to bolster long extant Jewish traditions that regard with love and dignify with inclusion all those tame animals (behemot) within our shabbat boundaries as respected members of our community (find Deuteronomy 5:14).

The blessing upon preparing one’s hands for attaining a state of ritual purity before a sacred activity.

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.