עֶזְרַת אֲבוֹתֵינוּ | 我们祖先的助手 | Ezrat Avoteinu (Wǒmen zǔxiān de zhùshǒu) — Chinese translation by Richard Collis (2022)
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❧This Chinese translation of the prayer “Ezrat Avotenu,” completing the Geulah blessing following the Shema, is found on pages 18-19 of the liner notes for the Chinese edition of Richard Collis’s album We Sing We Stay Together: Shabbat Morning Service Prayers (Wǒmen gēchàng, wǒmen xiāngjù — Ānxírì chén dǎo qídǎo). . . .
הַשְׁכִּיבֵנוּ | Hashkivenu, interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
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❧The Hashkivenu prayer of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. . . .
הַשְׁכִּיבֵנוּ | Hashkivenu, rhymed translation by Alice Lucas (1898)
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❧A rhyming translation of the evening prayer Hashkivenu. . . .
עמידה לשחרית שבת (אשכנז) | Amidah for Shabbat Morning — Chinese translation by Richard Collis (2022)
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❧This Chinese translation of the Shaḥarit Amidah for Shabbat is found on pages 20-27 of the liner notes for the Chinese edition of Richard Collis’s album We Sing We Stay Together: Shabbat Morning Service Prayers (Wǒmen gēchàng, wǒmen xiāngjù — Ānxírì chén dǎo qídǎo). . . .
עמידה | Another version of the Weekday Amidah, by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
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❧A version of the weekday Amiday by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi emphasizing personal prayer, set side-by-side with a Sefaradi text of the Amidah. . . .
תחנון | Taḥanun, translated by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
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❧My God! my soul is Yours my body is Your servant, take pity on what You have created; my soul is Yours and my body is Yours, God help us for Your sake. We come to You because we want to honor Your reputation. Help us in our moral struggle for the sake of Your reputation; because You are kind and compassionate. Forgive us, for there is so much we need to be forgiven for. . . .
תפילת הדרך | Tefilat haDerekh, a traveler’s prayer for safety and peace (trans. Rabbi David Seidenberg, neohasid·org)
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❧In this Tefilat haDerekh (the prayer for travel), I’ve made a synthesis of Ashkenazi and Sefardi nusaḥ. Even though the translation is pretty close to literal in most places, it comes across as an extraordinary and activist prayer for peace. So I think of this prayer not just as a prayer for the beginning a physical journey, but for any spiritual journey, and especially for any campaign or action for justice and peace that a person or group might undertake. When applied to activism, the “enmity and ambush and theft and predation” we ask to be rescued from could also be interpreted as hatred, deceit, jealousy, and aggression, i.e., the kinds of feelings that cause people to work against each other, even within an organization, instead of working together. I first used this version of the prayer at the beginning of a tour of Israel and Palestine focused on the human rights and non-violent resistance, when the group passed through the first checkpoint of the trip. . . .
סֵדֶר קִדּוּשׁ לְבָנָה ☽ Ḳiddush Levanah: Sanctification of the Moon (Rabbi David Seidenberg, neohasid·org)
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❧In Ḳabbalistic tradition, the new moon is sanctified seven days after its appearance, under a clear sky, standing facing east. It may be said as early as three days after the new moon, and as late as a day before the full moon (the moon should still be visibly waxing). It is the custom in the month of Av to wait to sanctify the moon until after Tisha b’Av, and in Tishrei to wait until after Yom Kippur. In a minyan, the Aleinu prayer and ḳaddish are traditionally added at the end. . . .
💬 Mäṣḥäf Ḳədus 6:15-22 | ספר היובלים ו:טו-כב (Sefer haYovelim 6:15-22) — A Reading from Jubilees for Shavuot
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❧A reading from Jubilees (Sefer haYovelim) 6:15-22, including the text of the Mäṣḥäf Ḳədus (the Ge’ez translation of Jubilees) and original cantillated Hebrew and gender-neutral English translations, for Shavuot. Jubilees is considered to be the earliest source connecting Shavuot with the Sinaitic covenant, and emphasizes the latter as a fulfillment of the Noaḥide covenant (in the narrative of Noaḥ) that had only been maintained through the lineage of Abraham. . . .
💬 ספר היובלים | መጽሐፈ ኩፋሌ | Sefer haYovelim (the book of Jubilees, in Ge’ez)
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❧We are grateful to Dr. James VanderKam for preparing this critical text of the Book of Jubilees (Sefer Yubalim) in its Ge’ez translation in Ethiopic script. The book of Jubilees is an early Jewish deutero-canonical text originally written in Hebrew and composed during the Second Temple period sometime before the Maccabean struggle (164 BCE). . . .
💬 מעשה טוביה ליום שני של שבועות | The Story of Toḇiyah for the second day of Shavuot
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❧The story of Toviah (Tobit) in Hebrew translation, in an abridged version arranged for public reading on the second day of Shavuot. . . .
בִּרְכַּת נְטִילַת יָדָֽיִם | Blessing on preparing one’s hands for wakefulness and other holy activities (translation by Aharon Varady)
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❧The blessing upon preparing one’s hands for attaining a state of ritual purity before a sacred activity. . . .
שירת הים | Shirat haYam, recitation for a day with a circumcision according to Seder Avodat Yisrael (1868)
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❧According to Isaac Seligman Baer’s famed Seder Avodat Yisrael, one of the first scholarly siddurim critical editions ever published, there was a custom that on the day of a circumcision, the P’sukei d-Zimra reading of Shirat haYam along with a portion of its introduction would be recited aloud as a call and response by the mohel (circumcizer) and sandaḳ (godfather). Baer’s division of the verses (from Seder Avodat Yisrael, pp. 72-74) is included here, along with a new translation. . . .
תהלים א׳ בלשון לאדינו | Psalms 1 in Ladino (Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit, ca. 1852/3)
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❧To the best of my ability, this is a faithful transcription of Psalms 1 from תהילים או לוס סאלמוס ; טריסלאד’אד’וס דיל לשון הקדש אין לה לינגואה ספרדית (Tehillim, or the Psalms, translated from the Holy language [Hebrew] into the Sephardic language, Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit 1852/3) from a digital copy made available by the Sephardic Studies Collection at the University of Washington. Please join me in making a complete transcription of this Ladino translation of Psalms. –Aharon N. Varady . . .
תהלים א׳ בלשון ספרדית | Psalms 1 in Spanish (trans. Rabbi Yahakob Yehuda, Leon Hebréo 1671)
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❧Autor ninguno se halla, que declare el tiempo en que David compuso este Psalmo; ni la causa de haverlo introduzido por primero: mas amiver, es, que conociendo David que la razon de haver Dios rebotado de su gracia a Saul, y haverlo elegido ael en su lugar, havia sido por transgredir su mandado en la guerra de Ha-malek, por las persuasiones, y confejos de los inicos de su pueblo; como el mismo confessó al Propheta Semuel: por esso, quiso David dar’principio àfu Libro, con un loor que sirviesse de dotrina, y de advertimiento dela felicidad que alcançan los fieles siervos de Dios, que andan con toda integridad en fus carreras de virtud, y las adversdades, y castigo que estáparalos infieles, y los inicos aparejado, por los justos juyzios de Dios, del modo que sucedió a Saul, que fue desposseido de su Reyno, el, y sus hijos, y todos sus defendientes parasiempre, por los consejos de que el, se dexó persuadir, donde Dios le declaró su castigo. . . .
תהלים ב׳ בלשון ספרדית | Psalms 2 in Spanish (trans. Rabbi Yahakob Yehuda, Leon Hebréo 1671)
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❧Este Psalmo, es el segundo en numero, por haverlo David en el principio de su Reyno, quando por oir las naciones circunvezinas, que lo havian ungido por Rey sobre Israël, vinieron todos juntos al desafio contra el, en compañia de los Philisteos sus capitales enemigos, y por esso comiença el Psalmo: Paraque se juntan las gentesy, etc. De suerte que assi como el Psalmo precedente, fue el primero por la donacion del Reyno, que Dios le hizo, assi este segundo fue adjunto a el, por la possession del Reyno que entonces tomava, suyetando con la divina assistencia las naciones, pues le embiava de los Cielos, su favor por medio de los Angeles sus ministros, como consta de Semuel Segundo, 5:24. . . .
תהלים ב׳ בלשון ײִדיש | Psalms 2 in Yiddish (translated by Yehoyesh Shloyme Blumgarten ca. 1920s)
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❧This is a faithful transcription by the Yehoyesh Project of the Yiddish translation of Psalms 2 made by Yehoyesh Shloyme (Yehoash Solomon) Blumgarten (1870-1927) published in Torah, Neviʼim, u-Khetuvim vol. 2 (New York: Yehoʼash Farlag Gezelshaft, 1941). The complete transcription of Torah, Neviʼim, u-Khetuvim by the Yehoyesh Project in copy/pasteable and searchable plaintext may be found here. . . .
תהלים ב׳ בלשון לאדינו | Psalms 2 in Ladino (Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit, ca. 1852/3)
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❧To the best of my ability, this is a faithful transcription of Psalms 2 from תהילים או לוס סאלמוס ; טריסלאד’אד’וס דיל לשון הקדש אין לה לינגואה ספרדית (Tehillim, or the Psalms, translated from the Holy language [Hebrew] into the Sephardic language, Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit 1852/3) from a digital copy made available by the Sephardic Studies Collection at the University of Washington. Please join me in making a complete transcription of this Ladino translation of Psalms. –Aharon N. Varady . . .
תהלים י׳ בלשון לאדינו | Psalms 10 in Ladino (Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit, ca. 1852/3)
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❧Psalms 10:16 is parts of the eighth and ninth verses of the prayer, Yehi Kavod in Pesukei Dezimra, part of Baruch Hashem L’Olam in Maariv, and part of the Bedtime Shema. Psalms 10 is considered part of Psalms 9 in the Septuagint, the Greek targum (translation) of the Tanakh. . . .
תהלים כ״ט | Psalms 29, translation by Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman and Efrat Rotem
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❧Psalms 29, in Hebrew with English translation. . . .