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Imminent Communal Danger & Distress

This is an archive of prayers composed in response to, or anxious anticipation of, imminent communal danger and distress.

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and translation of a historical prayer.

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תהלים ע״ט | Psalms 79, translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

A translation of Psalms 79 in response to the hostage taking at Beth Elohim in Colleyville, Texas. . . .

Categories: Tehilim Book 3 (Psalms 73–89), Imminent Communal Danger & Distress

Tags: Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis, Psalms 79, Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim (Colleyville Texas)

Contributor(s): the Masoretic Text, Asaph ben Berechiah and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

אֱלֹהִים בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל | Elohim b’Yisrael :: A piyyut containing the 42 Letter Name, recorded in Sefer haPeliah

The earliest recorded prayer or piyyut providing an acrostic for the 42 letter divine name. . . .

Categories: Dying, Imminent Communal Danger & Distress

Tags: 14th century C.E., 42 letter divine name, 52nd century A.M., acrostic, apotropaic prayers of protection, Byzantium, Divine name acrostic, פיוטים piyyutim, Prayers of redress, protection, ספר הפליאה Sefer haPeliah

Contributor(s): Nir Krakauer (translation), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

ליקוטי תפילות ב:נג | Prayer of Peace from War, for Rainfall, and for Excellence in Torah Study (Liqutei Tefilot Ⅱ:53), by Reb Noson of Nemyriv adapted from the teachings of Rebbe Naḥman (ca. 1820s)

Often, when people refer to “Rebbe Naḥman’s Prayer for Peace,” they are referring to a more recent prayer combining portions of a number of prayers of Reb Noson of Nemyriv, including this one Liqutei Tefilot Ⅱ:53. In addition to a prayer for peace and the eradication of war, the prayer requests rain in its due time, excellence in Torah study, and protection from unworthy students of Torah. Reb Noson of Nemirov adapted his teḥinot from the teachings of Rebbe Naḥman of Bratslav in Liqutei Moharan Ⅱ:60. . . .

Categories: Imminent Communal Danger & Distress, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Pogroms & Genocide, War

Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., חסידי ברצלב Ḥasidei Bratslav (Breslov)

Contributor(s): Noson Sternhartz of Nemyriv and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילה לשלום באירופה | Prayer for Peace in Europe during the Italian War of Independence (ca. 19th c.)

This is a transcription, vocalization, and translation of a manuscript of a prayer for peace in Europe held in the collection of the Columbia University Library. The prayer is undated but the language of the prayer and the use of Italian indicate to me that this was a prayer made by an Italian Jewish community during either the first Italian War of Independence 1848-9, or one of the two succeeding wars in 1860 and 1870. . . .

Categories: Imminent Communal Danger & Distress, War

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Italian Jewry, Italian vernacular prayer, Italian War of Independence

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Dans un temps de calamité publique | [Prayer] in a time of public calamity, by Jonas Ennery & Rabbi Arnaud Aron (1852)

A prayer during an event of immanent communal danger and distress. . . .

Categories: Imminent Communal Danger & Distress

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., French Jewry, French vernacular prayer, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Jonas Ennery, Arnaud Aron and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

תפלה לכל תענית צבור ועל כל צרה (שלא תבא על הציבור!) | Amidah for Any Communal Fast and On Account of Troubles (Nusaḥ Italki)

The Italian rite, unique among Jewish rites, has preserved up until very recently the custom recorded in the Talmud, Masekhet Tagnanith, for communally declared fast days. In this rite, sometimes referred to as the Twenty-Four Blessings, six more blessings are added to the liturgy — the Zikhronot and Shofrot portions more commonly recited on Rosh haShanah, and four different psalms, all interspaced with a poetic litany on behalf of the ancestors’ merit and shofar blasts. It’s a fascinatng service! . . .

Categories: Imminent Communal Danger & Distress, Additional Fast Days

Tags: acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, ascetic practice, fasting, Italian Jewry, Nusaḥ Italḳi, Public Amidah, Roman minhag

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=3466

Associated Image:

Still frame from image of video taken by ABC7 of the hostage crisis at Beth Elohim (Colleyville, Texas)

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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

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