
the Open Siddur Project ✍︎ פְּרוֹיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ
an open-source, community contributed archive for those sharing prayers and crafting their own prayerbooks
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![]() Mordecai KaplanMordecai Menahem Kaplan (June 11, 1881 – November 8, 1983), was a rabbi, essayist and Jewish educator and the co-founder of Reconstructionist Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_Kaplan |
Contributed on: 11 Mar 2019 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mel Scult | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
A prayer on praying, singing, and Torah learning by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. . . .
Contributed on: 20 Feb 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
A civic prayer for the Sabbath occurring during Brotherhood Week (February 19th-28th) in the United States. . . .
Contributed on: 21 Jul 2018 by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira | ❧
Ecclesiasticus (ben Sira) 42:21-43:31 is presented as “God the Lord of Nature” in The Sabbath Prayer Book of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (The Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p. 376-372 in the Supplements subsection, “God in Nature.” The text of Ben Sira used here differs in places found in other manuscripts. . . .
Contributed on: 11 Jan 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | John Paul Williams | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This closing prayer for Arbor Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 86. . . .
Contributed on: 11 Apr 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Eugene Kohn | John Paul Williams | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
“Closing Prayer [for Labor Day]” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.165. . . .
Contributed on: 22 Dec 2020 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Eugene Kohn | John Paul Williams | Mordecai Kaplan | Members of the Faculty of Colgate-Rochester Divinity School | ❧
This “Closing Prayer” for New Year’s Day was adapted by Mordecai Kaplan and Eugene Kohn from a prayer first published by unnamed “Members of the Faculty” of the Colgate-Rochester Divinity School (The Colgate-Rochester Divinity School Bulletin, “Prayers for the New Year,” vol. 19 no. 2 (1947), pp. 65-71). Kaplan & Kohn’s adapted prayer essentially contains excerpts from the prayer of the Faculty (excluding any with explicit Christian content). The adapted prayer was published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 25-26. –Aharon Varady . . .
Contributed on: 22 Dec 2020 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Eugene Kohn | John Paul Williams | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This closing prayer for Thanksgiving Day was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 327-328 — following at the end of a number of readings selected by Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and J. Paul Williams for the day. . . .
Contributed on: 16 Oct 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | John Paul Williams | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This closing prayer for United Nations Day was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 272-273. . . .
Contributed on: 20 Feb 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | John Paul Williams | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This closing prayer for Washington’s Birthday as first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951). . . .
Contributed on: 15 Jul 2018 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
“Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 433-4 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . .
Contributed on: 29 Dec 2018 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Abraham Regelson (translation) | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
“God the Life of Nature” by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan was first published in his Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p. 382-391, where it appears side-by-side with its translation into Hebrew by Abraham Regelson. . . .
Contributed on: 01 Sep 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
A prayer-poem by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan based on the writings of Rabbi Leo Baeck, as published in the Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p.426-7. . . .
Contributed on: 13 Sep 2018 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
“Prayer in behalf of one celebrating a birthday,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 494-497 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) . . .
Contributed on: 07 Jun 2018 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This prayer by Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, first penned in his diary for 23 August 1942, was first published in The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan, by Mel Scult (1990). Although the prayer was not included in Kaplan’s Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945), it was added to the loose-leaf prayerbook he kept at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism synagogue. . . .
Contributed on: 16 Oct 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | John Paul Williams | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This opening prayer for United Nations Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 249-250. . . .
Contributed on: 11 Jan 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | John Paul Williams | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This opening prayer for Arbor Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 3-4 — as preface to a number of readings selected by Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and J. Paul Williams for the day. . . .
Contributed on: 11 Apr 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Eugene Kohn | John Paul Williams | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
“Opening Prayer on the Significance of [Labor] Day” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.165. . . .
Contributed on: 10 Feb 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | John Paul Williams | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This opening prayer-essay for Lincoln’s Birthday, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951) — as preface to a number of readings selected by Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and J. Paul Williams for the day. . . .
Contributed on: 22 Dec 2020 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Eugene Kohn | John Paul Williams | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This opening prayer for New Year’s Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 3-4 — as preface to a number of readings selected by Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and J. Paul Williams for the day. . . .
Contributed on: 22 Dec 2020 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Eugene Kohn | John Paul Williams | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This opening prayer for Thanksgiving Day, “The Significance of the Day,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 304 — as preface to a number of readings selected by Mordecai Kaplan, Eugene Kohn, and J. Paul Williams for the day. . . .
Contributed on: 20 Feb 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | John Paul Williams | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
This opening prayer for Washington’s Birthday, “The Significance of the Day,” as first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951). . . .
Contributed on: 14 Jul 2018 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | the Masoretic Text | Unknown Author(s) | ❧
Psalms 104, translated by Mordecai Kaplan and presented as “God as Creator and Renewer of Nature” can be found on p. 360-5 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945), the first prayer in a subsection of supplementary prayers called “GOD IN NATURE.” . . .
Contributed on: 15 Sep 2017 by Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation) | Mordecai Kaplan | Eugene Kohn | Ira Eisenstein | Milton Steinberg | Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation | ❧
Arranged and translated by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the Sabbath Prayer Book is the first Reconstructionist prayerbook we know of to have entered the Public Domain. . . .
Contributed on: 19 Aug 2018 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | Aaron David Gordon | ❧
“Salvation through Labor,” adapted by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan from the writings of Aaron David Gordon, can be found on p. 548-551 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). The translation was attributed in the Sabbath Prayer Book to its editors (Mordecai Kaplan & Eugene Kohn, assisted by Ira Eisenstein and Milton Steinberg). . . .
Contributed on: 27 May 2019 by Mordecai Kaplan | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
A prayer for Independence Day in the United States by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, prefaced by an abridged reading of the Declaration of Independence. . . .
Contributed on: 27 May 2019 by Mordecai Kaplan | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
A service and prayer for Memorial Day in the United States, containing a variation of El Malé Raḥamim, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. . . .
Contributed on: 14 Jul 2018 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
“That Religion Be Not a Cloak for Hypocrisy,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 435-5 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . .
Contributed on: 11 Apr 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Eugene Kohn | John Paul Williams | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
“Dignity of Labor” is a prayer for Labor Day first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.176-177. . . .
Contributed on: 22 Dec 2020 by Eugene Kohn | John Paul Williams | Mordecai Kaplan | Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation | ❧
A collection of civic prayers, poems, and readings arranged for thirteen civic holidays in the United States. . . .
Contributed on: 13 Jul 2018 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Mordecai Kaplan | Abraham Joshua Heschel | ❧
“The Pious Man” is a prayer-poem from Mordecai Kaplan’s diary entry, September 19, 1942, on the virtue of piety as expressed in an essay published earlier that year by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Piety was a Roman virtue, but in this essay, A.J. Heschel appears to be describing an idealization of Ḥasidut. . . .
Contributed on: 16 Oct 2021 by Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | John Paul Williams | Eugene Kohn | Mordecai Kaplan | ❧
“War Can Be Abolished,” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 262-265. . . .
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Creative Commons Zero (CC0), a Public Domain dedication (English) |
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