
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 by:
Elie Kaunfer, Unknown
This is a prayer for captives, written in November 1938 in Hamburg, following Kristallnacht (my translation following the Hebrew). “May each and every one of them return to their family…who are worrying about them.”
Contributed by:
Binyamin Benisch ben Yehudah Loeb ha-Kohen, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Anonymous (translation)
A prayer for protection and blessing offered in the name of of Rebbi Yishmael from the Sefer Shem Tov Qatan.
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
Barukh shèAmar for Shabbat and festivals, in the Old Persian rite, as recorded in MS Adler 23 ENA 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 Barukh shèAmar is an intricate rhyming acrostic chock full of Biblical references.
Contributed by:
Aharon N. Varady (translation), Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Israel Brodie, Yaakov ben Yehudah Ḥazzan of London, Unknown
This is the remarkable and unique form of the prayer Elohai Neshamah as found in the Ets Ḥayyim, a compendium of law and tradition of the Jews of England completed in 1287 by Jacob Jehudah Ḥazzan of London (only three years before the expulsion of the Jews from England).
Contributed by:
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Gabriel Kretzmer Seed (translation), Unknown
This beautiful piyyut of unknown authorship is recited in most Sephardic, Mizrahi and Yemenite traditions on Tisha B’ab at Minḥah. In its stanzas, rich and replete with biblical references (as is particularly common in Sephardic Piyyut), God speaks to Jerusalem and promises to comfort her, and comfort and redeem her people.
Contributed by:
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), John C. Reeves (translation), Unknown
The Secrets of Rebbi Shimōn ben Yoḥai is a pseudepigraphal record of the divine visions of the second-century rabbi, Shimon ben Yoḥai. Scholarly opinion about the date of its composition is divided. Adolf Jellinek thought it was likely authored during the time of the Crusades, while Heinrich Graetz thought it was likely composed in the mid-8th century. The visions described in the secrets portrays the Yishmaelites being led by a violent saviour of the Jews from the hegemony of the Byzantine Empire. It describes the events and rulers of the eighth-century Umayyad Empire, as well as eight-century battles between the Byzantines (known in the text as the Ḳenites or the Kingdom of Edōm) and the Umayyads (known in it as the Kingdom of Yishmael).
Contributed by:
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), David Hedegård (translation), Unknown
An early variation of the Ḥatsi Qaddish as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested in Bodleian Library Ms. Opp. Add. Qu. 28.
Contributed by:
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), David Hedegård (translation), Unknown
An early variation of the Ḥatsi Qaddish as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested on fol. r of JTS MS 4074.
Contributed by:
Aliza Arzt, Isabel Bard (translation), Unknown
The following is the Midrash l’Ḥanukkah, one of a collection of three midrashim and two megillot containing the details of the story of Ḥanukkah in the Jewish rabbinic tradition. Those already familiar with these other works will quickly recognize portions or summaries of them here albeit with precious additional information added not found anywhere else.
Contributed by:
Michael A. Morgan (translation/English), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A hymn of praise found in the description of the 7th dome of heaven in Sefer ha-Razim
Contributed by:
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), David Hedegård (translation), Unknown
An early variation of the early piyyut Barukh shèAmar as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested on fol. 4r of JTS MS 4074.
Contributed by:
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), David Hedegård (translation), Unknown
An early variation of the early piyyut Barukh shèAmar as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested in British Library Or. 1067, fol. 6v-7r.
Contributed by:
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), David Hedegård (translation), Unknown
An early variation of the early piyyut Barukh shèAmar as found in Seder Rav Amram as attested in Bodleian Library Ms. Opp. Add. Qu. 28.