שִׁיר הַגְאוּלָה (החיינו אל) | Shir ha-Ge’ulah (Song of Redemption, ca. 1940)
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This is a vocalized transcription and translation of the World War Ⅱ era song, “Shir haGe’ulah (Song of Redemption)” from the source images shared in A Tribute to Rabbi Mordechai Meir Hakohen Bryski v”g Bryski (Rabbi Mordechai A. Katz, 2017), pp. 19-20. The song is also known by its incipit, “Heḥayyeinu El.” . . .
A Prayer for Protection from Oppression and Persecution (CCAR 1924)
Contributed by: Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR], Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This is an untitled prayer offered in the Evening Service for the Sabbath from the Union Prayer Book Newly Revised (CCAR 1924), pp. 68-69, as a reading between the Shema and the Amidah. As a prayer for protection it fits as a paraliturgical haskivenu, and in New York City, it makes sense in the context of the terrifying news of mass-murder, rape, and genocide being reported from Ukraine at the time. (Find Nokhem Shtif’s “פּאָגראָמען אין אוקראַיִנע : די צײַט פֿון דער פֿרײַװיליקער אַרמײ (The Pogroms in Ukraine: the Period of the Volunteer Army)” (1923) offered in Yiddish and in English translation at In Geveb.) The Ukrainian context of this prayer is further underscored in that the prayer is not found in the 1918 revised Union Prayer Book, but in the later 1924 edition. It may have been unique to Congregation Emanu-El in New York City, who compiled this version of the Union Prayer Book for radio listeners joining their service. . . .
אֵשֶׁת חַיִל | Eshet Ḥayil (Proverbs 31:10-31), German translation by Franz Rosenzweig (1921)
Contributed by: Franz Rosenzweig (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The Masoretic Hebrew text of Proverbs 30:10-31, the alphabetic acrostic “Eshet Ḥayil,” with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig. . . .
שָׁלוֹם עֲלֵיכֶם | Shalom Aleikhem, the piyyut for Friday evenings in German translation by Franz Rosenzweig (1921)
Contributed by: Franz Rosenzweig (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The popular adjuration of the angels of peace and ministering angels, Shalom Aleikhem, in Hebrew with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig. . . .
תחנה פון ליכט בענטשין | Tkhine for Lighting Candles [for Shabbes]
Contributed by: Tracy Guren Klirs (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This is a faithful transcription of the תחנה פון ליכט בענטשין (“Tkhine for Lighting Candles [for Shabbes]”) as it appeared in the Vilna, 1869 edition. I have transcribed it without any changes from The Merit of Our Mothers בזכות אמהות A Bilingual Anthology of Jewish Women’s Prayers, compiled by Rabbi Tracy Guren Klirs, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992. shgiyot mi yavin, ministarot nakeni. If you can scan an image of the page from the 1869 edition this was originally copied from, please share your scan with us. . . .
Kuando el rey Nimrod (When Nimrod was King), a song relating the story of Avraham & the Furnace (ca. 1890)
Contributed by: Unknown (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The sephardic folk-song “Kuando el rey Nimrod” in Ladino with English translation. . . .
גאָט פון אַבְרָהָם | Tkhine before Havdalah and Bakashe for the End of Shabbat (Got fin Avrum)
Contributed by: Unknown, Yudis Retig (translation), Yocheved Retig (translation), Levi Yitsḥaq Derbarmdiger Rosakov of Berditchev
Master of all realms! You hear from all worlds. You look with love and grace upon all of your creations for whose sake you created Your world. Seize and fulfill the pure request from Your servant who comes before You after a full week, having shown her heart is full and her mood somber. The beloved Shabbes koidesh is already going away, and with our Shabbes, our rest has also disappeared. A new week comes up to meet us, against us, Master of the universe. We are people who know, just like You know, the heavy and difficult life of Your people Yisruel: their bitter mood, how difficulty and bitterly each Jew acquires his meager piece of bread through worry and heartache, the fear and hardship with which each Jew scrapes together his seemingly hopeless living. . . .
אֵין אַדִּיר כַּיְיָ (מִפִּי אֵל) | Ayn Adir kAdonai (Mipi El) :: There is none like YHVH
Contributed by: Akiva Sanders (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A popular piyyut for Simḥat Torah (4th hakkafah) originally composed as a piyyut for Shavuot and often referred to by its incipit, “Mipi El.” . . .
📄 מעריב ליל שבת לפי נוסח פרס העתיק | Maariv for the Sabbath Evening according to the Ancient Persian Rite
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
This is a transcript and translation of the Maariv service for Shabbat evening in the Old Persian rite, as recorded in MS Adler 23 ENA (https://hebrewbooks.org/20923) in the JTS Library. The Old Persian rite shows some fascinating unique linguistic features. The first thing that immediately strikes one is its tendency towards poetic extensions and doublings, even in texts (such as the Avot blessing) where most other rites are almost completely uniform. It also shows some nonstandard vocalizations that appear to be influenced by the Babylonian system of vocalization. In modern Persian communities the standard rite is a variation of the Sephardic rite used throught the Mizraḥi world, but this older rite with its unique facets deserves to be preserved as well. This is part 1 of a planned series of transcripts and translations from MS Adler 23 ENA. . . .
פָּתַח אֵלִיָּֽהוּ | Pataḥ Eliyahu (Tiqqunei Zohar 17a), translated by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Contributed by: Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation), Unknown
Elijah began saying: Lord of the worlds You Who are One and not just a number You are the highest of the highest most hidden of the undisclosed no thought scheme grasps You at all. . . .
שיר הכבוד (אַנְעִים זְמִירוֹת) | Shir haKavod (An’im Zemirot), part eight of the Shir haYiḥud (interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi)
Contributed by: Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A “praying translation” of the piyyut, Anim Zemirot. . . .
אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים במזרח) | Adōn Olam, translation by Annie Kantar
Contributed by: Annie Kantar (translation), Unknown
The piyyut, Adon Olam, in its expanded fifteen line variation, in Hebrew with English translation. . . .
אֲדוֹן עוֹלָם (מנהג הספרדים) | Adōn Olam, rhyming translation by Rabbi David de Sola Pool (1937)
Contributed by: David de Sola Pool, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A rhyming translation in English to the popular piyyut, Adon Olam. . . .
Blessing for the Reading of BaMeh Madliqin on Erev Shabbat (Cairo Geniza)
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
The custom of reciting BaMeh Madliqin, the second chapter of Mishnah Shabbat, on Friday nights probably originated as an anti-Karaite polemic. While the Karaites were opposed to any use of fire on Shabbat, rabbinic Jews kindle lights before Shabbat, and the recitation of BaMeh Madliqin — the laws of Shabbat lights — emphasized this distinction. One of the best firsthand sources we have for this is the following introductory blessing from the Cairo Genizah (T-S NS 299.150 verso) for the recitation of BaMeh Madliqin, first published by Naftali Wieder in this article. This blessing emphasizes the continuity of the Torah both written and oral from Sinai to the sages and elders. . . .
קרובות למוסף שבת שקלים | Ḳerovot for Musaf Shabbat Sheqalim
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
The traditional Ashkenazi qerovot added to the Musaf repetition for Shabbat Sheqalim, alongside a new gender-neutral translation . . .
אֵל אָדוֹן (אשכנז) | El Adōn, a piyyut attributed to the Yordei Merkavah (interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi)
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. . . .
אֵל אָדוֹן (מנהג הספרדים) | El Adōn, a piyyut attributed to the Yordei Merkavah (translation by Sara-Kinneret Lapidot)
Contributed by: Sara Lapidot (translation), Unknown
The piyyut, El Adon, in Hebrew with an English translation. . . .
💬 פֶּרֶק שִׁירָה | Pereq Shirah, a litany of verses spoken by the creatures & works of Creation (after the arrangement of Natan Slifkin)
Contributed by: Unknown, Rabbi Natan Slifkin, Aharon N. Varady
Talmudic and midrashic sources contain hymns of the creation usually based on homiletic expansions of metaphorical descriptions and personifications of the created world in the Bible. The explicitly homiletic background of some of the hymns in Perek Shira indicates a possible connection between the other hymns and Tannaitic and Amoraic homiletics, and suggests a hymnal index to well-known, but mostly unpreserved, homiletics. The origin of this work, the period of its composition and its significance may be deduced from literary parallels. A Tannaitic source in the tractate Hagiga of the Jerusalem (Hag. 2:1,77a—b) and Babylonian Talmud (Hag. 14b), in hymns of nature associated with apocalyptic visions and with the teaching of ma’aseh merkaba serves as a key to Perek Shira’s close spiritual relationship with this literature. Parallels to it can be found in apocalyptic literature, in mystic layers in Talmudic literature, in Jewish mystical prayers surviving in fourth-century Greek Christian composition, in Heikhalot literature, and in Merkaba mysticism. The affinity of Perek Shira with Heikhalot literature, which abounds in hymns, can be noted in the explicitly mystic introduction to the seven crowings of the cock — the only non-hymnal text in the collection — and the striking resemblance between the language of the additions and that of Shi’ur Koma and other examples of this literature. In Seder Rabba de-Bereshit, a Heikhalot tract, in conjunction with the description of ma’aseh bereshit, there is a clear parallel to Perek Shira’s praise of creation and to the structure of its hymns. The concept reflected in this source is based on a belief in the existence of angelic archetypes of created beings who mediate between God and His creation, and express their role through singing hymns. As the first interpretations of Perek Shira also bear witness to its mystic character and angelologic significance, it would appear to be a mystical chapter of Heikhalot literature, dating from late Tannaitic — early Amoraic period, or early Middle Ages. . . .
אֵין כֵּאלֹהֵֽינוּ | Neniu Estas (נעניו עסטאַס) — an Esperanto translation of “Ein k’Eloheinu” by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
This is an original Esperanto translation of Ein K’Eloheinu, with a transcription using my own original Hebraization schema. . . .
💬 פרקי אבות פרק א׳ | Pirqei Avot: Chapter One, cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Chapter 1 of Pirqei Avot (Fundamental Principles [of Rabbinic Judaism]) with cantillation and English translation. . . .