
From a family of musicians, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer believes that creative art is one of the most powerful ways to get in touch with the divine. He composes music and poetry in Hebrew and English. (He also authors his own original works and transcribes Hebrew and Aramaic text, adding niqqud and t'amim as needed.) Isaac runs a Jewish music transcription service, which will transcribe and set any Jewish music in any language, recorded or written. Contact his service on Facebook or via his music blog.
https://igmjewishcreativeworks.com Filter resources by Category
🇺🇸 Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th) | 🇺🇸 Abraham Lincoln's Birthday Readings | Addenda | Additional Fast Days | Additional Preparatory Prayers | After the Aliyot | Weekday Amidah | Aqédat Yitsḥaq | 🌐 Armistice Day Readings | Arvit l'Shabbat | Asarah b'Tevet | Asarah b'Tevet Readings | Ashrei | Rosh Ḥodesh Av (אָב) | Morning Baqashot | Barekh | Barkhu | Barukh shèAmar | Bedtime Shema | Before the Aliyot | Berakhot she'Asani | Blessings After Eating | Birkhot haTorah | Bnei (Bar/Bat) Mitsvah & Other Birthday Prayers | Tehilim Book 5 (Psalms 107–150) | Tehilim Book 4 (Psalms 90–106) | Tehilim Book 1 (Psalms 1–41) | Tehilim Book 3 (Psalms 73–89) | Tehilim Book 2 (Psalms 42–72) | Brit Milah & Simḥat Bat | 🇺🇸 National Brotherhood Week | Slavery & Captivity | Congregation & Community | Sefer Devarim (Deuteronomy) | the Dry Season (Spring & Summer) | 🇺🇸 Education and Sharing Day | Eikhah (Lamentations) | Epidemics & Pandemics | Erev Pesaḥ | Erev Shabbat | Extracanonical Megillot | Ezra-Neḥemiah | Pogroms & Genocide | 🇩🇪 Germany | Government & Country | Ḥabaquq | Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag | Pesaḥ Readings | Ḥag haBanot (Eid el Benat) Readings | Ḥaggai | Hallel for Festivals & Rosh Ḥodesh | Hallel | Ḥanukkah | Ḥanukkah Readings | Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry | Holocaust & Genocide Memorial Day Readings | Imminent Communal Danger & Distress | Incantations, Adjurations, & Amulets | 🇺🇸 Independence Day Readings | 🇮🇪 Ireland | Rosh Ḥodesh Iyyar (אִיָּר) | 🇺🇸 Juneteenth | 🇺🇸 Juneteenth (Emancipation Day) Readings | Ḳaddish | Learning, Study, and School | Magid | Rosh Ḥodesh Marḥeshvan (מַרְחֶשְׁוָן) | 🇮🇱 Medinat Yisra'el (the State of Israel) | Melakhim (Kings) | Midrash Aggadah | Midrash Halakhah | Mimouna | Seder Mimouna | Modern Miscellany | Morning Seliḥot | Motsaei Shabbat | Mourning | Mussar (Ethical Teachings) | Nirtsah | Rosh Ḥodesh Nisan (נִיסָן) | Nittel Nacht Readings | Parashat Bereshit | Parashat b'Shalaḥ | Parashat Devarim | Parashat Éqev | Parashat Ḥuqat | Parashat va'Etḥanan | Parashat Vayera | Parashat Yitro | Haggadot for the Seder Leil Pesaḥ | Pesaḥ | 7th Day of Pesaḥ | 🌐 π Day Readings | Psalm of the Day | Psalms 149 | Psalms 150 | Psuqei d'Zimrah/Zemirot l'Shabbat ul'Yom Tov | Purim | Purim Sheni | Purim Sheni Readings | Ḳabbalat Shabbat | Ḳadesh | Qedushah | Reading Schedules | Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation | Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit) | Rosh haShanah la-Behemah | Rosh haShanah la-Behemah Readings | Rosh haShanah la-Ilanot (Tu biShvat) | Tu biShvat Readings | Rosh haShanah la-Melakhim | Rosh Ḥodesh | Rosh Ḥodesh Readings | Rūt (Ruth) | Samaritan Prayerbooks | Saturday | Second Temple Period | Seder al-Tawḥid | Seder haTefilot laTaaniyot | Seder intro | Sefirat ha-Omer | Sefirat ha-Omer Readings | Seudat Leil Shabbat | Seudat Purim | Shabbat haGadol | Shabbat Kallah Readings | Shabbat Məvorkhim | Minḥah l'Shabbat | Musaf l'Shabbat | Shabbat Readings | Shaḥarit l'Shabbat ul'Yom Tov | Shabbat Siddurim | Social Justice, Peace, and Liberty | Shavuot | Shavuot Readings | Shemini Atseret | Shemini Atseret Readings | Sefer Shemot (Exodus) | Shir haShirim (the Song of Songs, Canticles) | Shirat ha-Yam | Shiv'ah Asar b'Tamuz | Shiv'ah b'Adar | Shiv'ah b'Adar Readings | Sigd Festival | Sigd Festival Readings | Simḥat Torah | Simḥat Torah Readings | Khaf Sivan | Special Haftarot | Torah Study | Sukkot | Symbolic Foods | Taanit Esther | 🤦︎ Taḥanun (Nefilat Apayim) | Tehilim (Psalms) | Terror | Tishah b'Av | Tishah b'Av Readings | Rosh Ḥodesh Tishrei (תִּשְׁרֵי) | 🌐 Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20th) | 🌐 Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31st) | Travel | Tsom Gedalyah | Tu b'Av | 🇺🇸 Veterans Day Readings | War | Engagements & Weddings | Well-being, health, and caregiving | the Wet Season (Fall & Winter) | Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah | Yaḥats | Yeshayah (Isaiah) | Yirmiyah (Jeremiah) | Yishtabaḥ Shimkha | 🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar) | 🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut Readings | 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan) | Yom Kippur | Yom Meturgeman | Yom Simḥat Kohen | Yotser Or
Filter resources by Tag
Filter resources by Name
Filter resources by Language
Filter resources by Date Range
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Shlomoh ben Yehudah ha-Bavli
This is the ofan piyyuṭ for Shabbat Bereshit by Shlomo haBavli, with English rhyming acrostic translation and a new rhyming acrostic translation in English. Less commonly recited in Minhag Polin, It is found in Sefer haMinhagim of R. Isaac Tyrnau.
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Seligman Baer, Binyamin bar Zeraḥ
This is the ofan piyyuṭ for Shabbat Bereshit (Minhag Ashkenaz), by Rabbi Binyamin bar Zeraḥ, with Seligman Baer’s German translation and a new rhyming acrostic translation in English. Minhag Polin recites it on the third Shabbat after Pesach, and some communities both in the west and east recite it on the additional festival day of Pesaḥ when it falls on a weekday.
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Seligman Baer, Shlomo ibn Gabirol
This is the ofan piyyuṭ for Shabbat Bereshit (most commonly recited in Minhag Polin), by Shlomo ibn Gabirol, with Seligman Baer’s German translation and a new rhyming acrostic translation in English.
Contributed by:
Eleazar ben Yehudah ben Ḳalonymus of Worms, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
“Af Oraḥ Mishpatekha” is an ofan, a type of piyyut recited as a part of the Ḳedushah d-Yotzer liturgy as an introduction to Ezekiel 3:12. Specifically, it is an ofan written by the Rokeaḥ, R. El’azar ben R. Yehuda of Worms, for the morning liturgy on Shabbat Ḥazon, the Shabbat before Tishah b’Av. It is here included along with an original translation and with cited verses marked. Also included is a series of images from a 1714 maḥzor printed in Frankfurt au Main that includes the piyyut. To note, the text included above is not exactly the same as that of the 1714 maḥzor, having been edited in accordance with Isaac Meiseles’s 1993 critical edition of the Rokeaḥ’s work.
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac ben Moses of Vienna
This is the second piyyuṭ in a yotsrot cycle for the Shabbat before Rosh haShanah, according to Minhag Polin (as traditionally practiced in the Ashkenazi communities of northeastern Germany and Poland), all written by a Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Moshe haLevi according to the authorial acrostic. Zunz identifies the author as Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Mainz, who died in the Gzerot Tatno of 1096. Fraenkel disputes this and suggests Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Vienna (a/k/a the Or Zarua), of the Ḥasidei Ashkenaz, who died in around 1270. The ofan is an invocation to the listener to repent, calling upon specific angels by name. Also included is the German text of Isaac Seligman Baer’s Avodat Yisrael translation, in modernized spelling.
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Seligman Baer, Yaaqov ben Meir
An ofan piyyuṭ for the second shabbat after Pesaḥ, as well as the Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, recited in the minhag of Pehm and Bruna (Bohemia and Moravia). Signed with the name “Yaakov,” this ofan is of uncertain origin but has been attributed to R. Yaakov ben Meir, more well known as Rabbeinu Tam. Also included is Seligman Baer’s German translation, as well as an original English translation.
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Menaḥem ben Makhir
The ofan piyyuṭ for Shabbat Shuva, minhag Polin, by the great payṭan Menaḥem ben Rabbi Makhir. A half-acrostic, each stanza begins with a word from parashat Ha’azinu, usually read on Shabbat Shuva, and ends with a verse that includes the word “holy” or “sanctify” in it.
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Binyamin bar Zeraḥ
An ofan (a piyyut inserted into the Qedusha d’Yotser) recited in the eastern Ashkenazi Minhag Polin rite for Shabbat haGadol. Signed “Benjamin,” Davidson ascribes it to the great paytan R. Binyamin bar Zeraḥ, possibly as part of the same poetic cycle as Itti MiLvanon (his yotser for the same day).
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Unknown
This anonymous ofan, also recited on the second day of Shavuot in some communities, uses alliteration to describe the many hosts of angels descending upon Sinai in awe and reverence as the Torah was given. The translation preserves the alliteration over the alphabet, seeing as the ofan in this form doesn’t include the entire alphabet either. As an ofan, it is recited within the Ḳedusha d-Yotser, between the verses of Isaiah and Ezekiel (included here). The ofan is recited on the second day of Shavuot in some communities.