Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
This Purim song, popular among the Sephardic and Italki communities of Livorno, can be sung to the melody of “Akh, Zeh Hayom Kiviti.” Like a lot of Italian Purim content, a large portion of it is listing different desserts. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The prayer, haNoten Teshu’a, as adapted for King George III in 1810. . . .
Contributed by: Isaac Pinto (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The prayer for King George III in the English colonies before the Revolutionary War. . . .
Contributed by: Menasseh ben Israel (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The text of Hanoten Teshua in its English translation as presented by Menasseh ben Israel to Oliver Cromwell in 1655. We have reconstructed the corresponding Hebrew from the S&P nusaḥ of the Jewish community in Amsterdam. . . .
Contributed by: Moshe ben Maimon, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (translation)
A variation of the prayer Ribon ha-Olamim from the section of prayers preceding Psukei d’Zimrah/Zermirot. . . .
Contributed by: Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A “praying translation” of the piyyut, Anim Zemirot. . . .
Contributed by: Alice Lucas (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A rhyming translation of the pizmon for maariv on Yom Kippur. . . .
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), the Mesorah (TaNaKh), Unknown
Psalms 106 in Hebrew with English translation by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. . . .
Contributed by: Moses Gaster, Yeraḥmiel ben Shlomo, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The prayer of Azaryah and his song of praise with Ḥananyah, and Mishael from within the Furnace (also known as “the song of the three holy children”) found in Aramaic in the Divrei Yeraḥmiel (the Chronicles of Jeraḥmeel, Oxford Bodleian Heb d.11). . . .
Contributed by: Yeraḥmiel ben Shlomo, Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Holy Children, one of the apocryphal Additions to Daniel, is an interpolation into the third chapter of the book of Daniel. The editor has here included a new vocalized and cantillated edition of the Aramaic text preserved in the 12th century Divrei Yeraḥmiel (Oxford Bodleian Heb d.11 transcribed by Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster). The language of this passage is an odd synthesis of Targumic, pseudo-Biblical Aramaic, and even some Syriac forms, so the editor’s vocalization is aiming for a happy medium of all the possibilities. . . .
Contributed by: Moses Gaster, Yeraḥmiel ben Shlomo, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
The story of Daniel and the dragon held captive by the neo-Babylonians found in Aramaic in the Divrei Yeraḥmiel (the Chronicles of Jeraḥmeel, Oxford Bodleian Heb d.11). . . .
Contributed by: Moses Gaster, Yeraḥmiel ben Shlomo, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Daniel’s battle with the Dragon, one of the apocryphal Additions to Daniel, is affixed to the end of the book in the Septuagint. The editor has here included a new vocalized and cantillated edition of the Aramaic text preserved in the 12th century Divrei Yeraḥmiel (Oxford Bodleian Heb d.11 transcribed by Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster). The language of this passage is an odd synthesis of Targumic, pseudo-Biblical Aramaic, and even some Syriac forms, so the editor’s vocalization is aiming for a happy medium of all the possibilities. (In several locations Divrei Yeraḥmiel uses incorrect Hebrew-specific forms, probably due to scribal error. These are here marked as a qere-ketiv split.) . . .
Contributed by: Annie Kantar (translation), Unknown
The piyyut, Adon Olam, in its expanded fifteen line variation, in Hebrew with English translation. . . .
Contributed by: David de Sola Pool, Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
A rhyming translation in English to the popular piyyut, Adon Olam. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A “bikkur” piyyut traditionally added at the end of Hashkivenu for Shavˁuot in the Old French (and Maḥzor Vitry) and Romaniote rites. From the acrostic we know the author was named Yosef ben Yaˁakov. Other than that we know very little about this poem’s origin and age, although its structure fits with the early Ashkenazi piyyut oeuvre. . . .
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. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A blessing before the recitation of psalms, used in the old Eretz Yisrael rite as found in the Cairo Geniza. Since its structure is similar to the blessing before the haftara which is often cantillated, I have taken the liberty of adding psalmodic cantillation to the text. . . .
Contributed by: David de Aaron de Sola (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
This translation by Rabbi David de Aaron de Sola of “Lema’ankha v’lo lanu” by an unknown paytan was first published in his Ancient Melodies of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (1857). . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
This piyyut, Izel Moshe (Arise, Moses), the fifth in a series of Aramaic piyyutim from the seventh day of Pesaḥ, is meant to be recited after the second verse of the song proper, as an elaboration on God’s strength. The English translation preserves the Hebrew acrostic of the original. . . .
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A prayer for those martyred in the First Crusade and Rhineland Massacres, and by extension, all subsequent pogroms up until and including the Holocaust. . . .