Contributed by: David Asher (translation), Saadiah ben Yosef Gaon, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A seliḥah for the Fast of Gedalyah, attributed to Rav Saadia Gaon.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation), Unknown
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.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation), David Prato (translation), Unknown
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.
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The full text of the alphabetic mesostic piyyut, Hayom, according to the Italian nusaḥ.
Contributed by: Jacob Chatinover (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A prayer for unveiling a tombstone, according to the custom of the Jews of Pressburg.
Contributed by: David Asher (translation), Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The order of seliḥot for the day after Rosh haShanah, which is Tsom Gedalyah – the fast of Gedalyah.
Contributed by: Stephen Belsky, Elyaqim haPayyetan, Ḳaraite Jews of America, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Anonymous (translation)
This piyyut is signed “Elyaqim Ḥazaq.” Alas, we do not know who this Elyaqim was or even whether he was a rabbinic or Karaite Jew. The piyyut has been preserved for us in the Karaite cycle (Vilna printing press, 1852, Vol. IV, p. 135.) and there are several other piyyutim signed with his name.
Contributed by: the Masorti Movement in Israel, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A pizmon in the nusaḥ hasepharadim recited at Seliḥot during the monh of Elul and Yom Kippur.
Contributed by: David de Sola Pool, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
An alphabetic acrostic pizmon for seliḥot and Yom Kippur with an alphabetic acrostic English translation.
Contributed by: David Asher (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A penitential piyyut for the fast of the 17th of Tammuz.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), John C. Reeves (translation), Unknown
The Secrets of Rebbi Shimōn ben Yoḥai is a pseudepigraphal record of the divine visions of the second-century rabbi, Shimon ben Yoḥai. Scholarly opinion about the date of its composition is divided. Adolf Jellinek thought it was likely authored during the time of the Crusades, while Heinrich Graetz thought it was likely composed in the mid-8th century. The visions described in the secrets portrays the Yishmaelites being led by a violent saviour of the Jews from the hegemony of the Byzantine Empire. It describes the events and rulers of the eighth-century Umayyad Empire, as well as eight-century battles between the Byzantines (known in the text as the Ḳenites or the Kingdom of Edōm) and the Umayyads (known in it as the Kingdom of Yishmael).
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The “angels on all sides” formula included with the Bedtime Shema service in many contemporary siddurim.
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The origin story of Lilith as told in the Alphabet of ben Sira.
Contributed by: Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The piyyut, El Adon, in Hebrew with an interpretive “praying translation” by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalom, z”l.
Contributed by: David de Aaron de Sola (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This translation of “Adonai boker e’erokh lekha” by Rabbi David Aaron de Sola of a piyyut by an unknown paytan was first published in his Ancient Melodies of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (1857).
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Elazar ben Qallir
This is the piyyut “Aɐpid Nézer Ayom” by Elazar ben Qalir with the English translation of Paltiel Birnbaum found in his Maḥzor haShalem l’Rosh Hashanah v’Yom Kippur (1951), pp. 223-226.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Elsie Davis (translation), Elazar ben Qallir
This is the piyyut “Kehoshata Elim (Savior of mighty ones…)” by Eleazar Kalir for the hoshanot on the second day of Sukkot, published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Sukkot, Avodat Ḥag ha-Sukkot (1908), pp. 144-145.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Elsie Davis (translation), Unknown
This is the piyyut “Az K’einei Avadim (As slaves, with eyes beseeching,…)” by an unknown paytan for the seventh circuit of the Hoshana Rabba service (on the seventh and final day of Sukkot), published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Sukkot, Avodat Ḥag ha-Sukkot (1908), pp. 183.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Elsie Davis (translation), Elazar ben Qallir
This is the piyyut “Az Haytah Ḥanayat Sukō (Of yore, abode His dwelling place,)” a qerovah piyyut by Elazar Kalir for the first day of Sukkot, published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Sukkot, Avodat Ḥag ha-Sukkot (1908), pp. 212.
Contributed by: Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Elsie Davis (translation), Unknown
This is the piyyut “Az K’einei Avadim (As slaves, with eyes beseeching,…)” by an unknown paytan for the seventh circuit of the Hoshana Rabba service (on the seventh and final day of Sukkot), published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Sukkot, Avodat Ḥag ha-Sukkot (1908), pp. 183.

