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 and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

🆕 תפילה לתענית | The Six Additional Blessings for a 24-Blessing ‘Amidah for Declared Fast Days, according to Vat. Ross. 499 fol. 57v–62r (1446)

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. I had previously transcribed the version of this liturgy as found in the Goldschmidt Mahzor Roma. But this version below is different, including a more complex variation in the ancestors’ merit passages, as well as relevant Biblical passages for each one. It is found in Vat. Ross. 499, a 1446 manuscript of the Italian rite with a lot of very interesting liturgical content in it.

Categories:

Imminent Communal Danger & Distress, Additional Fast Days

Tags:

15th century C.E., 53rd century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, ascetic practice, fasting, in the merit of our ancestors, Italian Jewry, Nusaḥ Italḳi, Public Amidah, שופר shofar, shofar blowing

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Unknown