A pizmon for Shabbat Zakhor and Purim, found in many Livorno siddurim (seen as the standard form for most Sephardic communities) as far back as the 18th century and possibly earlier. It is signed with the name Avraham, as well as the names Moshe and Aharon, but the author is otherwise unknown. Seder Mishmeret haKodesh (1847) inserts it as an introduction to the Mi Khamokha piyyut of Yehuda haLevi, recited on Shabbat Zakhor. The bouncy, joyous tune used for this piyyut, of Italian origin, is also used for Purim songs in multiple languages, such as Fate Onore al Bel Purim, Con Gran Placer Señores, and Haman Mamzer el Malo.

This pizmon, signed with the name Moshe but of otherwise unclear attribution, is recited in the Sephardic communities of Rhodes and Istanbul (and nowadays in Seattle) before the open ark on Shabbat Shirah and the seventh day of Pesaḥ. The main Hebrew text of the first and last two stanzas are as found in the Seattle Sephardic community’s 2002 Siddur Zehut Yosef (as well as the Gözlem Kitap press in Istanbul’s 2011 Şaloş Regalim), with footnotes marking differences in the Shirei Yisrael B’Erets HaḲedem (published in Istanbul in 1921) and the Yeshiva University Library diwan of Baruch Moshe Moreno, written by hand in the monastery neighborhood of Tiberias in 1867 (YU MS. 1126). In between are three additional non-rhyming stanzas found in substantially different form in the other two sources but not recited in modern Sephardic communities.

This pizmon, signed with the name Moshe but of otherwise unclear attribution, is recited in the Sephardic communities of Rhodes and Istanbul (and nowadays in Seattle) before the open ark on Shabbat Shirah and the seventh day of Pesaḥ. The main Hebrew text of the first and last two stanzas are as found in the Seattle Sephardic community’s 2002 Siddur Zehut Yosef (as well as the Gözlem Kitap press in Istanbul’s 2011 Şaloş Regalim), with footnotes marking differences in the Shirei Yisrael B’Erets HaḲedem (published in Istanbul in 1921) and the Yeshiva University Library diwan of Baruch Moshe Moreno, written by hand in the monastery neighborhood of Tiberias in 1867 (YU MS. 1126). In between are three additional non-rhyming stanzas found in substantially different form in the other two sources but not recited in modern Sephardic communities.

There are many different versions of this beloved Ladino pizmon for Havdalah. This one is found in Tefilat Imanuel, published in Vienna in 1924.

A pizmon (a seliḥah with a refrain, to be recited aloud) recited in the Sephardic rite for the seventeenth of Tammuz, Elohei Yeshuatenu, like most seliḥot for that day, features stanzas for each of the five tragedies that occurred on the day. But what’s unique about it is the legend of its author. This piyyuṭ is signed with the name Andreas, the signature of the legendary Jewish Pope Andreas, whose popular story can be found throughout the Jewish world.

A Ladino pizmon recited on Shabbat evenings, “El Disho Ke Bueno Era” retells the events of the seven days of creation.

This is a pizmon for Shabbat Shirah (Parashat B’Shalaḥ) by an unknown author. The text is as transcribed from the pizmonim included in the siddur משמרת הקדש: קול שומר שבת Mishmeret haQodesh: Qol Shomer Shabbat (Pisa 1821), p. 117.

A rhyming translation of the pizmon for maariv on Yom Kippur.

This is the piyyut “Ki Hinéh kaḤomer (Lo! as the potter…)” a piyyut by an unknown paytan for maariv on Yom Kippur, published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Yom Kippur, Avodat Yom ha-Kippurim vol. 1 (1904), p. 39.

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.

A pizmon in the nusaḥ hasepharadim recited at Seliḥot during the monh of Elul and Yom Kippur.

An alphabetic acrostic pizmon for seliḥot and Yom Kippur with an alphabetic acrostic English translation.

Traditional Ashkenazi practice entailed the recitation of a large number of seliḥot piyyutim in every single one of the Yom Kippur ‘amidot. In many Ashkenazi communities today, these are (excepting Ma’ariv and Ne’ilah) skipped on account of time. But this has always felt like a great shame to me, because seliḥot are, in a sense, the theological and liturgical core of the Yom Kippur practice. So a while back I made a bunch of spreadsheets to compare all the attested Yom Kippur seliḥot rites as listed in Goldschmidt’s maḥzor, and designed an abbreviated cycle of seliḥot for Shaḥarit, Musaf, and Minḥah. Each cycle features two regular seliḥot, one ‘aqedah (a retelling of the binding of Isaac), and one pizmon (a final seliḥah with a repeated refrain, sung communally), for a total of four seliḥot and five repetitions of the thirteen attributes. This is the first result of this process, for Shaḥarit. Musaf and Minḥah selections will arrive eventually, albeit probably not this year.