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Jonah Rank (translation)

Rabbi Jonah Rank is President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary: A Rabbinical School for the Deaf and Hearing. An award-winning Jewish songwriter, Rabbi Rank earned an MA in Jewish Thought and was ordained in 2015 at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Rabbi Rank has been involved in Jewish education for many years and served as the Maskil (“Teacher-of-Tradition”) at the Shaar Shalom Synagogue in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his spouse, Rabbi Dr. Raysh Weiss, served as Senior Rabbi. While living in Canada, Rabbi Rank initiated the annual Halifax Communal Beit Midrash, and collaborated with the community’s Education Committee in rebooting the Halifax Joint Hebrew School. Following his family’s return to the U.S, he became the Director of the Shul School at Kehilat HaNahar in New Hope, Pennsylvania. While managing the supplementary school, Rabbi Rank co-led a Virtual Youth Arts Beit Midrash serving youth across five states, designed a virtual reality Purim carnival, and created curricular materials for young Jews to engage with Jewish notions of responsibility towards marginalized communities and to the planet. Rabbi Rank has authored several academic articles, served as the Managing Editor of Zeramim: An Online Journal of Applied Jewish Studies, and is currently editing Siddur Kanfey HaShekhinah, a forthcoming traditional Ashkenazi Hebrew prayer book, where the language referring to God is with feminine grammar. An advocate for civic causes, Rabbi Rank was appointed in 2021 to the Environmental Advisory Council in the Township of Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania. Rabbi Rank’s recently moved with his family to Natick, Massachusetts.

https://jonahrank.wordpress.com
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תפילה לעת שרפה – וחמת האש תשכך | Prayer for the Wildfires to Subside (Masorti Foundation, trans. by R’ Jonah Rank)

Contributed on: 24 Nov 2016 by Jonah Rank (translation) | the Masorti Movement in Israel | Anonymous Author(s) | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) |

The Prayer for the Fire (תפילה לעת שרפה) was first published by the Masorti Foundation at their website here in response to the November 2016 wildfires in Israel. Translation by Rabbi Jonah Rank. Transcription by Aharon Varady. . . .


תחנון לימים קשים | Taḥanun [Plea for Mercy] on Hard Days by Noa Mazor (trans. by Jonah Rank)

Contributed on: 21 Jul 2014 by Jonah Rank (translation) | Noa Mazor |

A teḥinah (supplication) for divine help after terrible violence that interferes with the recognition of each person being made in the likeness of the divine image. . . .


תפילה (ישראלית) לפני הכניסה לקלפי (למאמין וללא מאמין)‏ | Prayer before entering the voting booth in Israel (for believers and non-believers)

Contributed on: 18 Mar 2013 by Jonah Rank (translation) | חיים היימס-עזרא |

May it be the will [before the Lord our God and the God of our ancestors] that this ticket which I am placing in my ballot will join thousands of other tickets that will promise reasoned leadership that will strengthen democratic values, aspire towards peace with our neighbors, separate religion and state, be concerned with the weak and protect the laborers, fight corruption and exercise leadership through personal role modeling. May it be the will [before the Lord our God and the God of our ancestors] that the nation sitting in Zion will merit years of freedom, quiet, productivity, education and good health and that our children may never fear at all. . . .


תשלומי קדיש יתום כשאין מניין | Replacement for the Orphans’ Ḳaddish when praying alone or when there is no minyan (1900)

Contributed on: 11 Aug 2013 by Jonah Rank (translation) | Isaac Seligman Baer |

“Gebet Statt Kaddisch” is a memorial prayer replacement (tashlum) for the ḳaddish yatom (orphans’ ḳaddish) when praying alone or where there is no minyan. It is found in Dr. Seligmann Baer and Rabbi Joseph Nobel’s Tozeoth Chajm: Vollständiges Gebet- und Erbauungsbuch zum Gebrauche bei Kranken, Sterbenden… (1900). . . .


אַתָּה ה׳, מָגֵן בַּעֲדִי | Attah Adonai Magen Ba’adi, a piyyut by R’ Fradji Shawat (late 16th c.)

Contributed on: 22 Apr 2019 by Jonah Rank (translation) | Fradji Sawat |

A (kosher-for-Passover) prayer for redemption from exile. . . .


שַׁבָּת וַחֲנֻכָּה נִגְּשׁוּ וַיְרִיבוּן (מִי כָמוֹךָ)‏ | Shabbat and Ḥanukkah Met and Fought, a piyyut by Shlomoh ben Eliyahu Sharvit HaZahav (ca. 15th c.)

Contributed on: 08 Dec 2020 by Jonah Rank (translation) | Shlomoh ben Eliyahu Sharvit haZahav |

A 15th century Ḥanukkah vs. Shabbat rap battle. Technically it’s not a rap battle–just a piyyut introducing “Mi Khamokha” in the blessing after the Shema on the Shabbat morning of Ḥanukkah . . . .


שִׁמְעוּ אֹֽמֶר בֵּאוּר מִשְׂגַּבְכֶם | Shim’u Omer Be’ur Misgavkhem, an ofan for Shabbat Matot-Mas’ei by Rav Shmu’el haShlishi (ca. 10th c.)

Contributed on: 17 Mar 2022 by Jonah Rank (translation) | Shmuel haShlishi ben Hoshana |

An ofan (a yotser piyyut for the qedushah) on the Shabbat upon which Parashat Matot-Mas’ei is read, by the paytan Rav Shemu’el HaShelishi. . . .


בִּסְעוּדָה הַזּוֹ | At this meal! – a piyyut for the Passover seder translated by Rabbi Jonah Rank

Contributed on: 23 Apr 2019 by Jonah Rank (translation) | Unknown Author(s) |

A litany of mythical guests and creatures presenting at the Passover seder. . . .


אֵיךְ תְּנַחֲמוּנִי הֶבֶל | Eikh T’naḥamuni Hevel, a ḳinah by Elazar ben Killir ca. 7th c. (trans. Jonah Rank)

Contributed on: 16 Feb 2022 by Jonah Rank (translation) | Elazar ben Killir |

The qinah, Eikh T’naḥamuni Hevel, in Hebrew with an English translation. . . .


אוֹי נָא לָֽנוּ כִּי חָטָֽאנוּ | Oy Na Lanu Ki Ḥatanu (Woe alas unto us, for we have sinned), a ḳinah possibly by Elazar ben Killir (ca. 7th c.)

Contributed on: 26 Jul 2023 by Jonah Rank (translation) | Elazar ben Killir |

This anonymously authored ḳinah (קינה, song of “lamentation”) begins with the line “אוֹי נָא לָֽנוּ כִּי חָטָֽאנוּ” (oy na lanu ki ḥatanu, “Woe—alas—unto us, for we have sinned”). Although the ancient Roman Jewish historian Flavius Josephus blames the Roman Empire for the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE—and Roman art even celebrates the Roman capture of the Temple’s candelabrum—this ḳinah suggests that the destruction of Jerusalem was, at least partially, the result of Jewish discord. The ḳinah, which was long part of the Romanian prayer service for Tish’ah b’Av, appears in few other traditional prayerbooks for Tish’ah b’Av. It seems that the author of this ḳinah was El’azar ben Kallir (ca. 570–640 CE), who composed approximately half of the kinot most commonly inserted into contemporary Tish’ah b’Av prayerbooks that include the 40-odd most common kinot (קינות, plural of ḳinah) Jews sang throughout Europe during much of the early modern period. The author did not sign their name but left us with an alphabetical acrostic listing of often-concrete reasons to mourn today. . . .