Imminent Communal Danger & Distress • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

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.
Looking for something else?
For prayers offered in the event of a pogrom or other genocidal atrocity, go here.
For prayers offered in the event of hateful intolerance, prejudice, and bigotry, go here.
For prayers offered in the event of attack intended to invoke communal terror, go here.
For prayers offered in response to conflicts over sovereignty and dispossession, go here.
For prayers composed for social justice, peace, and liberty, go here.

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

Contributor(s):

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

Categories:

Imminent Communal Danger & Distress

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

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

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

Contributor(s):

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

Categories:

Imminent Communal Danger & Distress, War

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

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. . . .

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)

Contributor(s):

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

Categories:

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

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

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. . . .