🡄 (Previous category) :: 📁 Slavery & Captivity

📁 War :: (Next Category) 🡆

Terror

This is an archive of prayers composed in response to or in anxious anticipation of an attack intended to invoke communal terror and distress.

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

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

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

דָּם זְכַרְיָה מְבַכֶּה | The blood of Zekhariah cries out, a qinah by Aryeh Baruch

As I was in NYC, I first heard the news of the pogrom with which Hamas opened the war between Hallel and the Torah reading on Shemini Atseret. The beginnings of what is now the final stanza of this… I am unsure whether to refer to it as a qinah or a piyut first stirred in my soul during Tefillat Geshem, and the refrain of that stanza during Hakafot that evening. Prayer and song, no matter how joyous, has taken on a somber, cutting, desperate edge for me in this new world where the safety I had once taken for granted was revealed to be an illusion, which is reflected in taking from the phrases taken from the liturgy of the Yomim Nora’im. . . .

Categories:

Terror, War

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Hebrew translation, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

Aryeh Baruch

אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים לְנִשְׁמוֹת תּוֹשָׁבֵי מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל מֶהַיִשּׁוּבֵי עוֹטֵף עַזָּה | El Malé Raḥamim for the residents of the State of Israel from the communities on the Gaza Border, by Cantor Amnon Seelig

This is an El Malé Raḥamim prayer by Cantor Amnon Seelig for the victims of the invasion of HAMA”S from Gaza on Shemini Atseret 5784, with an English translation by Rabbi Oren Steinitz. . . .

Categories:

After the Aliyot, Mourning, Terror

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אל מלא רחמים El Malé Raḥamim

Contributor(s):

Oren Steinitz and Amnon Seelig

Prayer [after the massacres on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed

This prayer was offered by Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed in the days following the attacks of Ḥamas and its allies from Gaza on southern Israel beginning Shemini Atseret 5784 (7 October 2023). The English translation was made Rabbi Zac Kamenetz and Rabbi Marc Margolius. . . .

Categories:

Terror, War

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Contributor(s):

Zac Kamenetz (translation), Marc Margolius (translation) and Melila Hellner-Eshed

Upon My Heart, a prayer-poem by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

“Upon My Heart” was offered by Rabbi Menachem Creditor and shared via the Open Siddur Project discussion group on 20 November 2023. The added hashtag “#bringthemhomenow” helps to contextualize the prayer-poem, as written to express the yearning for the return of the captives taken hostage during the 7 October massacres by HAMA”S and its allies. . . .

Categories:

Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., captives, English vernacular prayer, North American Jewry, Prayers as poems

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה לְךָ חָמָאס | Remember That Which Hamas Did, an adaptation on the liturgical reminder to obliterate Amaleq by Aryeh Barukh (2024)

A riff on the mitsvah to obliterate Amaleq in Parashat Zakhor, adapted to the horrors committed by HAMA”S and its allies on 7 October 2023. . . .

Categories:

Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., addenda, vengeance, זכירות zekhirot

Contributor(s):

Aryeh Baruch

קינה על מאורעות חרבות ברזל | Qinah al Me’or’ot Ḥarvot Barzel, by Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon (World Mizrachi Movement)

This qinah for the horrors of October 7th was written by Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, president of World Mizrachi and first published to their website for the Nine Days (Rosh Ḥodesh Av to Tishah b’Av). . . .

Categories:

Pogroms & Genocide, Terror

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., קינות Ḳinōt, religious Zionist prayers

Contributor(s):

Yosef Zvi Rimon

אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָּדָד | Eikhah Yashvah Badad (O How She Sat Alone), a qinah by Nurit Hirschfeld-Skupinsky

The author of this qinah is a survivor of the slaughter in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The qinah was first published in an article by Tamar Biala appearing in The Times of Israel, “O how she sat alone: New laments for a beloved land” on 4 August 2024, appended with the note: “These Lamentations will appear in Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash Vol. 2.” . . .

Categories:

Tishah b'Av, Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers after acts of terrible violence, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

Yehudah Mirsky (translation) and Nurit Hirschfeld-Skupinsky

קִינָה לְאֶרֶץ אֲהוּבָה | Qinah l’Erets Ahuvah (Lamentation for a Beloved Land), by Liora Eilon

The author of this qinah is a survivor of the slaughter in Kibbutz Kfar Azza. The qinah was first published in an article by Tamar Biala appearing in The Times of Israel, “O how she sat alone: New laments for a beloved land” on 4 August 2024, appended with the note: “These Lamentations will appear in Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash Vol. 2.” . . .

Categories:

Tishah b'Av, Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers after acts of terrible violence, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

Yehudah Mirsky (translation) and Liora Eilon

אֵלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָה | These I Remember, a seliḥah before the anniversary of October 7th by Ze’ev Kainan

A selïhah piyyut for the massacres of 7 October prepared for Seliḥot services in advance of the first anniversary of 7 October. . . .

Categories:

Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation, סליחות səliḥot

Contributor(s):

Ze'ev Kainan

יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָּנֶיךָ | Prayer for an End to Injustice on Earth

This “Prayer for an end to injustice on Earth” by an anonymous author, was first published in בצרור החיים: A Yizkor Supplement for Palestinian Life (Halachic Left 2024), pages 34-35. . . .

Categories:

Pogroms & Genocide, Terror, War

Tags:

2023-2024 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-predatory, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Needing Translation (into Arabic), Universal Peace

Contributor(s):

Justin Kerber (translation), Anonymous and Halachic Left

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=777

Associated Image:

"Paris rally in support of the victims of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting, 11 January 2015." A sign in the background saying "Jews, Muslims, atheists, Christians united... Everyone united for liberty/freedom" (credit: sébastien amiet;l, license: CC BY)

(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:

Properly attribute any information in the description of this archive page to the Open Siddur Project (<https://opensiddur.org>).
Clearly indicate the date you accessed this page and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this archive: <https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=777>.
Indicate that the original page was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this page in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the CC BY-SA license.)

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

Pocket Reddit Facebook Bluesky Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email