אֵין כֵּאלֹהֵֽינוּ | Neniu Estas (נעניו עסטאַס) — an Esperanto translation of “Ein k’Eloheinu” by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
This is an original Esperanto translation of Ein K’Eloheinu, with a transcription using my own original Hebraization schema. . . .
קדיש דרבנן (נוסח ארץ ישראל) | Ḳaddish d’Rabanan variant from the Cairo Geniza (nusaḥ Erets Yisrael, ca. 11th c.)
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A unique Nusaḥ Erets Yisrael variant of the Qaddish found in the Cairo Geniza, most well known for including the names of the leading rabbis of the community in its text. . . .
קדיש שלם | Ḳaddish Shalem (extended), according to the nusaḥ of the Cochin Jews
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
A traditional Cochin Ḳaddish Shalem, based on siddurim published for the Cochin Jewish community by the Props brothers of Amsterdam. . . .
💬 פרקי אבות פרק א׳ | Pirqei Avot: Chapter One, cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Chapter 1 of Pirqei Avot (Fundamental Principles [of Rabbinic Judaism]) with cantillation and English translation. . . .
💬 פרקי אבות פרק ב׳ | Pirqei Avot: Chapter Two, cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Chapter 2 of Pirqei Avot (Fundamental Principles [of Rabbinic Judaism]) with cantillation and English translation. . . .
💬 פרקי אבות פרק ג׳ | Pirqei Avot: Chapter Three, cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Chapter 3 of Pirqei Avot (Fundamental Principles [of Rabbinic Judaism]) with cantillation and English translation. . . .
💬 פרקי אבות פרק ד׳ | Pirqei Avot: Chapter Four, cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Chapter 4 of Pirqei Avot (Fundamental Principles [of Rabbinic Judaism]) with cantillation and English translation. . . .
💬 פרקי אבות פרק ה׳ | Pirqei Avot: Chapter Five, cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Chapter 5 of Pirqei Avot (Fundamental Principles [of Rabbinic Judaism]) with cantillation and English translation. . . .
💬 פרקי אבות פרק ו׳ | Pirqei Avot: Chapter Six, cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Chapter 6 of Pirqei Avot (Fundamental Principles [of Rabbinic Judaism]) with cantillation and English translation. . . .
💬 מַעֲשֶׂה חֲנֻכָּה א׳ | Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah “alef,” a tale of the people’s resistance to the Seleucid Greek occupation
Contributed by: Anat Hochberg (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
This digital edition of Midrash Ma’aseh Ḥanukkah was transcribed from the print edition published in Otzar Hamidrashim (I. D. Eisenstein, New York: Eisenstein Press, 5675/1915, p.189-190). With much gratitude to Anat Hochberg, this is the first translation of this midrash into English. . . .
💬 מְגִילַּת אַנטְיוּכַס | Megilat Antiokhos — in the original Aramaic, cantillated according to the British Library manuscript Or 5866
Contributed by: Tsvi Hirsch Filipowski (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Unknown
This is a direct transcription, including cantillation and non-standard vocalizations, of the cantillated Megilat Antiokhos found in the British Library manuscript Or 5866, folios 105v-110r. . . .
💬 מגילת אנטיוכס עם טעמי מקרא | Megillat Antiokhus, with a novel cantillation by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation by Tsvi Filipowski, 1851)
Contributed by: Tsvi Hirsch Filipowski (translation), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Perhaps Megillat Antiokhus could be read a la Esther on Purim (the holiday with the most similarities), going to Eicha trope in the upsetting parts. A few notes: on the final mention of Bagris the Wicked I included a karnei-farah in the manner of the karnei-farah in Esther. I also included a merkha kefulah in the concluding section, which (according to David Weisberg’s “The Rare Accents of the Twenty-Eight Books”) represents aggadic midrash material. It also serves as a connection to the Chanukah haftarah, which is famously the only one that has a merkha kefulah. –Isaac Mayer . . .
הכרזת פסח לפי נוסח איטלייני | the Announcement of Pesaḥ on Shabbat haGadol according to the Italian rite
Contributed by: Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
Jews all over the world announce the new month on the Shabbat before it with a text known as “birkat ha-ḥodesh” or blessing the month. In many rites, such as the Western Sephardic and Moroccan rites, the fast days 17 Tammuz and 10 Tevet are also announced on the Shabbat before them with a text known as “hazkarat tsomot” or announcing fasts. But to my knowledge, only the Italian rite (and possibly the ancient Eretz Yisrael rite from which much of it derives) have a custom of announcing Pesaḥ on the Shabbat before it. This passage, the Announcement of Pesaḥ (Azcaràd Pesah in Italian traditional pronunciation) is recited on the Shabbat before Pesaḥ, commonly known as Shabbat haGadol (Sciabbàd Aggadòl), after the reading from the Torah. Citing the mystical hekhalot literature, it celebrates the sages who established the rules of the calendar. . . .
סֵפֶר פְּטִירָת מֹשֶׁה | ሞተ ፡ ሙሴ | Motä Musē (the Book of the Passing of Mosheh), in Ge’ez with Hebrew and English translation
Contributed by: Jacques Faïtlovitch (translation), Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
The text of the Betä ʾƎsəraʾel legend of the death of Moses, translated to Hebrew by Jacques Faïtlovitch, and vocalized, cantillated, and translated into English by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer. . . .
🗐 The Martyrdom of Isaiah — additional sources for the Jewish core of the work compiled by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
Additional early rabbinic and other sources supplementing the story of the Martyrdom of Isaiah, with attention to Isaiah being granted sanctuary in a tree. . . .
[בחודש אייר בראשון] | [On the 1st of Iyyar] — the first psalm of the “Additional Psalms” from the Cairo Geniza, MS RNL Antonin 798
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
This is the first of four apocryphal psalms from the Cairo Geniza, MS RNL Antonin 798, vocalized and cantillated per Masoretic norms, and translated anew. The origin of these psalms (found in a few pages of an incomplete manuscript) is unclear, with earlier scholars suggesting a medieval pious forgery and more recent scholars suggesting an origin in or contemporaneous with the Qumran community. (In any case, no sign of them has been found in the Qumran scrolls, although some aspects of the Hebrew may suggest a relationship there.) The first psalm found in this partial manuscript is an acrostic psalm. It is incomplete at the beginning, missing the letters alef and bet. It also shows evidence of the Galilean dialect in the confusion between hei and ḥet, a guttural merger also found in Qumran texts and in Samaritan Hebrew. It largely focuses on the covenant with David and his rule. . . .
בְּחֹדֶשׁ אִיָּר בִּשְׁנַיִם | On the 2nd of Iyyar — the second psalm of the “Additional Psalms” from the Cairo Geniza, MS RNL Antonin 798
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
This is the second of four apocryphal psalms from the Cairo Geniza, MS RNL Antonin 798, vocalized and cantillated per Masoretic norms, and translated anew. The origin of these psalms (found in a few pages of an incomplete manuscript) is unclear, with earlier scholars suggesting a medieval pious forgery and more recent scholars suggesting an origin in or contemporaneous with the Qumran community. (In any case, no sign of them has been found in the Qumran scrolls, although some aspects of the Hebrew may suggest a relationship there.) The second psalm found in this partial manuscript is preserved in its entirety and preserves an introductory schema found for the rest of the psalms here and likely missing from the first. Perhaps the text originally included psalms for each day in Iyyar! This psalm begins by invoking martyrdom, with the powerful image of a shephard killing his own flock. It then transitions into universalist-messianic language reminiscent of texts such as the second paragraph of Aleinu and the Rosh haShanah piyyut Va-ye’etayu, then discussing the beauty of the Torah before ending with a catena of blessings. . . .
Σουσαννα | שׁוֹשַׁנָּה וְהַזְּקֵנִים | Shoshanah & the Elders, according to Theodotion translated and cantillated in Masoretic Hebrew by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Theodotion (translation/Greek), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
The story of Shoshanah & the Elders, according to the text of Theodotion translated into Biblical Hebrew. . . .
בִּשְׁלֹשָׁה בְּחֹדֶשׁ אִיָּר | On the 3rd of Iyyar — the third psalm of the “Additional Psalms” from the Cairo Geniza, MS RNL Antonin 798
Contributed by: Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Unknown
This is the third of four apocryphal psalms from the Cairo Geniza, MS RNL Antonin 798, vocalized and cantillated per Masoretic norms, and translated anew. The origin of these psalms (found in a few pages of an incomplete manuscript) is unclear, with some suggesting a medieval pious forgery and others suggesting an origin in the Qumran community. (In any case, no sign of them has been found in the Qumran scrolls, although some aspects of the Hebrew may suggest a relationship there.) Preserved in its entirety, the third psalms in Antonin 798 largely focuses on reversal of fortune. It also appears to invoke the memory of Moshe, but not by name. . . .
Βηλ Και Δρακων | בֵּל וְהַתַּנִּין | Bel & the Dragon, according to Theodotion translated and cantillated in Masoretic Hebrew by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
Contributed by: Theodotion (translation/Greek), Unknown, Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)
The story of Bel and the Dragon according to the text of Theodotion, translated into biblical Hebrew. . . .