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Art & Craft

This is an archive of original art shared through the project, templates for traditional letter art, as well as several examples of craft and how-to instructions for crafting siddur related works.

☞ Have you made some art you’d like to share for others to copy and redistribute through their assemblage of resources? Have you produced a mizraḥ, shiviti, or birth amulet, or other work that others can use to derive one for themselves or a friend? Upload it here.

Resources filtered by LANGUAGE: “English”” (clear filter)

Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first?

בִּרְכַּת הַקֶּשֶׁת | the Blessing upon observing a Rainbow (with art by Ilene Winn-Lederer)

The prescribed rabbinic blessing upon observing the meteorological phenomena of a rainbow, together with exceptional art inspired by early rabbinic midrash. . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, Yom haQeshet (Day of the Rainbow, 27 Iyyar), Meteorological and Astronomical Observations

Tags: blessings, כבוד kavod, נח Noaḥ, Noaḥide covenant, Rainbow Day, שכינה Shekhinah, the Rainbow

Contributor(s): Ilene Winn-Lederer, Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady

The twelve hued rainbow above the Sea of Reeds during the miracle of its division into twelve channels of liberation

A medieval manuscript illustration of the aggadah that the Yam Suf was split in 12 discrete channels, one for each tribe, as reflected above by a 12-color rainbow . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, Parashat b'Shalaḥ, Shirat ha-Yam, 7th Day of Pesaḥ

Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., אז ישיר Az Yashir, קריעת ים סוף qriyat yam suf, safe passage, פרשת בשלח parashat B'shalaḥ, שבת שירה shabbat shirah, שירת הים Shirat haYam, Song of the Sea, the Rainbow

Contributor(s): Moshe ben Maimon and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

שמע | An illustrated meditation on the unification of imagination and awareness through empathy

When works are printed bearing shemot, any one of the ten divine names sacred to Judaism, they are cared for with love. If a page or bound work bearing shemot falls to the ground it’s a Jewish custom to draw up the page or book and kiss it. Just as loved ones are cared for after they’ve fallen and passed away, when the binding fails and leaves fall from siddurim and other seforim they are collected in boxes and bins and brought for burial, where their holy words can decompose back into the earth from which their constituent elements once grew, and were once harvested to become paper and books, and ink, string, glue. While teaching at the Teva Learning Center last Fall 2010, I collected all our shemot that we had intentionally or unintentionally made on our copy machine, or which we had collected from the itinerant teachers who pass through the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center on so many beautiful weekend shabbatonim. While leafing through the pages, I found one and kept it from the darkness of the genizah. . . .

Categories: Art & Craft

Tags: meditation, שמע shemaŋ, technique, טבע Teva, xerography, יחוד yiḥud

Contributor(s): Aharon N. Varady

הנני ☞ Hineni: Here I Am, a bookmark for your Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur maḥzor by Lieba B. Ruth

Lauren Deutsch designed a High Holy Days greeting card that is a yad (pointer) for all readers to use in their siddurim during services. It also functions as a place holder when one wishes to take a rest from following along. . . .

Categories: Art & Craft

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., bookmarks, breadcrumbs, Finding Aids, Maḥzor supplements, North America, ימים נוראים yamim noraim

Contributor(s): Lieba B. Ruth

Isles Of The Forsaken, an illustration of the plight of Agunot by Ilene Winn-Lederer (2002)

Isles Of The Forsaken (ink drawing, 2002) is intended to address the tragic situation of many Jewish women, who, abused, abandoned and wishing a divorce, are refused a get (bill of divorcement) by their husbands who may use their wives’ need for this document as a threat for ransom in obtaining custody of their children. . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, 🌐 Agunah Day (Adar 13)

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., agunot

Contributor(s): Ilene Winn-Lederer

Logo for the Open Siddur Project, by Aharon Varady (2009)

The logo of the Open Siddur Project, as derived from the “color wheel” of the Bauhaus artist Johannes Itten (1961). . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, Development

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., arts & craft movement, Keter, ofanim, סנדלפון Sandalfon, Wheel

Contributor(s): Aharon N. Varady

שִׁוִּיתִי | Shiviti: perceiving the world as an expression of divine Oneness

Given that the Torah forbids impressing our imaginations with illustrations of the divine, some other method is necessary to perceive divine Oneness. One method is found in the verse in Psalms 16:8, “I have set YHVH before me at all times.” . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, Birkhot haTorah, Shiviti

Tags: meditation, Openers, שויתי shiviti

Contributor(s): Andrew Meit and Aharon N. Varady

סדר אושפיזין / אושפיזתא | Seder Ushpizin and Ushpizata: Inviting the Avot and Imahot into your Sukkah by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)

The essential idea of the liturgy of Ushpizin is to invoke the energies of the seven lower Sefirot in the proper order, so that Shefa, blessing and sustenance, can be drawn down into the world. This is the essence of Kabbalistic liturgy, and a liturgy of the imahot would only make sense if it were to follow that pattern. That means we have the playfully serious task of finding a stable order for the imahot where no clear order exists. . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, Sukkot

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Ancestors, archetypes, Avot and Imahot, ecoḥasid, in the merit of our ancestors, North America, Prayers inside sukkot, קבלה ḳabbalah, ספירות sefirot, spirits, אושפיזתא Ushpizata, אושפיזין ushpizin

Contributor(s): David Seidenberg, Neohasid·org and Noam Sienna

האותיות של האבג״ד בעברית | A Periodic Table of the Hebrew Aleph Bet Emphasizing Phonetic Grouping, Symbolic Association, and Diversity of Letter Form

Basic Hebrew letter and vowel lists adorn the opening pages of a number of siddurim published a century ago — evidence of the centrality of the Jewish prayer book as a common curricular resource. But the Hebrew letters are not only essential to fluency in Hebrew language, they are also the atomic elements composing the world of the rabbinic Jewish imagination. This is especially so for those who conceive in their devotional literary practices an implicit theurgical capability in modifying and adapting the world of language though interpretation, translation, and innovative composition. To create a world with speech relies on thought and this creative ability is only limited by the facility of the creator to derive meaning from a language’s underlying structure. This, therefore, is a table of the Hebrew letters arranged in order of their numerical value, in rows 1-9, 10-90, and 100-900, so that elements with similar numerical structure, (but dissimilar phonetic amd symbolic attributes) appear in vertical columns. Attention has been given to the literal meaning of the letter names and the earliest glyph forms known for each letter in the Hebrew abgad. . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, Additional Preparatory Prayers, Theurgy

Tags: Aleph-Bet, gematria, otiyot

Contributor(s): Aharon N. Varady

אֵל בָּרוּךְ | El Barukh, an alphabetic acrostic piyyut together with the lyrics to Aleph Bass by Darshan

A song by Darshan including the alphabetic acrostic piyyut, El Barukh, part of the morning Yotser Ohr blessing made prior to the Shema at the official beginning of the Shaḥarit service. . . .

Categories: Yotser Or, Art & Craft

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Aleph-Bet, Alphabetic Acrostic, animation, אל ברוך El Barukh, English piyyutim, hip hop, otiyot, Prayers as poems, rap, ספר יצירה Sefer Yetsirah, יוצר אור yotser ohr

Contributor(s): Paltiel Birnbaum (translation), Eden Pearlstein, Shir Yaakov Feinstein-Feit and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Shiviti (scalable vector graphic) art, by Yaakov Love

A shiviti rendered in scalable vector graphic format (SVG) with each textual source linked. . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, Shiviti

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., meditation, Psalms 16, Psalms 67, שויתי shiviti

Contributor(s): Ya'akov Love

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=97

Associated Image:

A still frame showing a masked graffiti artist painting a letter ת from the animated video for "Aleph Bass" by Darshan

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

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Additional Notes:

The views expressed on this page and in these shared works represents the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

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