Yom ha-Ém (30 Shəvat) • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

This is an archive of prayers composed for, or relevant to, יוֹם הָאֵם Yom ha-Ém (“Mothers’ Day”). The unofficial civic day was originally set on the yahrẓeit of Henrietta Szold (21 December 1860 – 13 February 1945). Although Szold had no biological children, Szold championed children’s rights and her organization Youth Aliyah rescued many Jewish children from Nazi Germany and provided for them. For this, she is remembered as the “mother” of all those children. Over the last seventy years, Yom ha-Ém developed into a celebration of familial affection, more often simply called יוֹם הַמִשְּפָּחָה (Yom ha-Mishpaḥah, Family Day) and celebrated on the 13th of Shevat. This day is mainly observed in preschools and kindergartens with a program or activity to which parents are invited.
☞ If you have composed a prayer for Mothers’ Day, please share it.
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For prayers offered composed for, or relevant to, Mother’s Day in the United States, go here.
For prayers composed for, or relevant to, International Women’s Day, go here.

שֵׁשׁ אִמָּהוֹת | Shesh Imahot (Six Matriarchs) — Sarah, Rivqah, Raḥel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah, as found in rabbinic sources

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady

I find it important to remind myself, when there is an opportunity to do so in Jewish liturgy, that there are six matriarchs of the children of Israel recognized together as the “shesh imahot” in rabbinic sources: Sarah, Rivqah, Leah, Raḥel, Bilhah, and Zilpah. This is important to me because it is important to recognize that while the Jewish people are famously endogamous, we must also remain open, honest, and respectful of our ancestors who connected to our people through exogamous relationships. . . .

תפילה למעמד המשותף | أغنية الحياة والسلام | Prayer of Mothers for Life and Peace, by Sheikha Ibtisam Maḥameed & Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum

Contributor(s):

Amichai Lau-Lavie (translation), Tamar Elad-Appelbaum and Sheikha Ibtisam Maḥameed

A prayer in Hebrew and Arabic (with translations in English and German) of solidarity of mothers for there to be peace in the world for the sake of their children. . . .

א תְּחִנָה פאר א שׂטיףּ מוטער | A Tkhine for a Stepmother (from Shas Tkhine Ḥadashah, 1922)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Unknown Author(s)

This is a faithful transcription of the א תְּחִנָה פאר א שטיף מוטער (“A Tkhine for a Stepmother”) which first appeared in ש״ס תחנה חדשה (Shas Tkhine Ḥadasha), a collection of tkhines published by Ben-Zion Alfes in Vilna, 1922. . . .

For All Mothers, a prayer by Rev. Walter Rauschenbusch adapted by Rabbi Morris Lazaron (1918)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Morris Samuel Lazaron and Walter Rauschenbusch

“For the Mothers,” a variation of the prayer by Rev. Walter Rauschenbusch, is found adapted (without Christian god-language) by Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron in his World War Ⅰ era prayerbook, Side Arms: Readings, Prayers and Meditations for Soldiers and Sailors (1918), on page 26. The original version of the prayer was first published in For God and the People: Prayers of the Social Awakening (Walter Rauschenbusch 1910), pp. 85-86. . . .

Andachtsübung einer Mutter | Devotional exercise of a mother, a teḥinah by Yehoshua Heshil Miro (1829)

Contributor(s):

Andreas Rusterholz (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation) and Yehoshua Heshil Miro

“Andachtsübung einer Mutter” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №73 on pp. 107-110. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №74 on pp. 130-133. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №77 on pp.135-138. . . .

Gebet einer Stiefmutter | Prayer of a stepmother, a teḥinah by Yehoshua Heshil Miro (1829)

Contributor(s):

Andreas Rusterholz (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation) and Yehoshua Heshil Miro

“Gebet einer Stiefmutter” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №82 on pp. 129-131. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №82 on pp. 151-154. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №85 on pp. 156-159. . . .

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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