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Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.
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Contributed on: 05 Aug 2021 by Franz Rosenzweig (translation) | Unknown Author(s) | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
A German translation of the Birkat haMazon prepared by Franz Rosenzweig. . . .
Contributed on: 22 Dec 2021 by Avi Shmidman | Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧
A poetic Birkat haMazon text for the breakfast after Yom Kippur found in British Library MS Or. 9772 D. All the opening words of the alphabetical acrostic are from Psalms 111. . . .
Contributed on: 01 Feb 2021 by Unknown Author(s) | Aharon N. Varady (translation) | Shoshana Michael Zucker (translation) | ❧
A birkat haMazon found in the collection of Cairo Geniza fragments at the University of Cambridge library. . . .
Contributed on: 21 Dec 2021 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧
This is a reconstruction of a liturgy for a Birkat haMazon for Ḥanukkah witnessed in multiple Cairo Geniza manuscripts, including Cambridge, CUL: T-S H4.13; T-S H6.37; T-S 8H10.14; T-S NS 328.56; T-S NS 328.61; T-S AS 101.293; New York, JTS: ENA 2885.7; Oxford: MS heb. e.71/27 – MS heb. e.71/32; St. Peterburg: Yevr. III B 135. . . .
Contributed on: 21 Dec 2021 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧
This is a reconstruction of a liturgy for a Birkat haMazon for Purim witnessed in the Cairo Geniza fragment T-S H6.37 (page 1, recto and verso). . . .
Contributed on: 17 Apr 2024 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | ❧
This is a poetic Birkat haMazon for Pesaḥ, from the Cairo Geniza (CUL T-S H11.88 1v). Much thanks to the work of Dr. Avi Shmidman, whose 2009 doctoral thesis is the foundational work for poetic Birkat haMazon studies. He marks it as Piyyut 64, and his Hebrew-language commentary begins on page 394 of his work. I’ve included two translations of the poetic portions — one literal and one preserving the acrostic and rhyme scheme. . . .
Contributed on: 28 Jun 2018 by Unknown Author(s) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) | ❧
The full Birkat haMazon (or Grace after Meals) according to Nusach Ashkenaz with optional additions for egalitarian rites, fully marked with ta’amei miqra (also known as cantillation marks or trope). Ta’amei miqra originally marked grammar and divisions in any Hebrew sentences, and older Hebrew manuscripts such as those from the Cairo Geniza often show ta’amei miqra on all sorts of texts, not just the Biblical texts we associate them with today. This text includes the full tradition for Birkat haMazon, including texts for weekdays, Shabbatot, and festivals, as well as additions for a wedding meal, a circumcision meal, and a meal in a mourner’s house. . . .
Contributed on: 16 Nov 2014 by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation) | Unknown Author(s) | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
The style by which Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l translated Jewish liturgy in English was neither literal nor idiomatic, but highly interpretive and interspersed with his own ḥiddushim (innovations). Showing Reb Zalman’s translation side-by-side with the Jewish liturgy helps to illuminate his understanding of the liturgy — it’s deeper meaning as well as how it might be communicated to a contemporary audience. In the version I have prepared below, I have set the interpretive translation of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l side-by-side with the liturgical Hebrew that may have inspired it. In several places, Reb Zalman’s formulation departs from the traditional Ashkenazi nusaḥ. Where there is no Hebrew, we can more easily observe where Reb Zalman has expanded upon the blessing. Still, my work was not exhaustive and I appreciate any corrections to the nusaḥ (liturgical custom) of the Hebrew that may have inspired Reb Zalman’s interpretation in English. . . .
Contributed on: 24 Feb 2019 by Unknown Author(s) | Aharon N. Varady (translation) | ❧
The formula for the abbreviated Birkat Hamazon, in Hebrew with English translation. . . .
Contributed on: 12 Aug 2021 by Franz Rosenzweig (translation) | the Masoretic Text | Unknown Author(s) | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | ❧
Psalms 126 in Masoretic Hebrew, with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig. . . .