Contributed by: Jonah Rank (translation), the Masorti Movement in Israel, Anonymous, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The Prayer for the Fire (תְּפִלָּה לְעֵת שְׂרֵפָה) 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. . . .
Contributed 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. . . .
Contributed 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. . . .
Contributed 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). . . .
Contributed by: Jonah Rank (translation), Fradji Sawat
A (kosher-for-Passover) prayer for redemption from exile. . . .
Contributed 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 . . . .
Contributed 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. . . .
Contributed by: Jonah Rank (translation), Unknown
A litany of mythical guests and creatures presenting at the Passover seder. . . .
Contributed by: Jonah Rank (translation), Elazar ben Killir
The qinah, Eikh T’naḥamuni Hevel, in Hebrew with an English translation. . . .
Contributed 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. . . .