This is an archive of prayers public readings selected for Shiv’ah Asar b’Tamuz שִׁבְעָה עָשָׂר בְּתַמּוּז, the 17th day in the month of Tamuz in the Jewish calendar. The day commemorates the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple, among other calamities. The day also marks the beginning of the three-week mourning period leading up to Tishah b’Av. Click here to contribute a prayer you have composed, or transcribed and translated, for Shivah Asar b’Tamuz. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category
A new translation of Psalms 79 for the 17th of Tamuz fast day of mourning. . . .
The works of the great paytan Yannai were, with the exception of a small handful of poems, almost completely lost until their rediscovery in the Cairo Geniza. This poem, an acrostic comparison of the days of Moses and Jeremiah, was written by Yannai to serve as part of the Musaf Ḳedushah on the first Shabbat after 17 Tammuz, on which the opening section of Jeremiah is recited. It bears structural and linguistic similarities to the later famous ḳinah Esh Tuqad. In its liturgical context, it was intended to introduce the final few verses of the Ḳedushah . Nowadays the custom of poetic inserts into the ḳedushah is nearly extinct, but the poem stands as a moving and powerful work nonetheless. . . .
Tags: 43rd century A.M., 6th century C.E., Acrostic translation, alphabetic mesostic, Cairo Geniza, First Shabbat of Admonition, חורבן Ḥurban, Mourning this Broken World, פיוטים piyyutim, קינות Ḳinōt, Shabbatot of Admonition, Siege of Jerusalem (597 BCE), Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), Three Weeks of Mourning, יציאת מצרים Yetsiat Mitsrayim
A penitential piyyut for the fast of the 17th of Tammuz. . . .
“Brich aus in lauten Klagen” by Heinrich Heine was preserved in a letter he wrote to his friend Moses Moser dated 25 October 1824. The poem is included in Heinrich Heine’s Letters on The Rabbi of Bacharach, the manuscript of which only survived in a fragment, the rest having been lost, according to Heine, in a fire. The English translation here by Nina Salaman was transcribed from her anthology, Apples & Honey (1921) where it appears under the title of “Martyr-Song,” published at an earlier date in The Jewish Chronicle. . . .
“Am Fasttage des vierten Monats” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaicher Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaicher Religion as teḥinah №28 on pp. 36-37. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №28 on pp. 42-43. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №30 on pp. 45-46. . . .
An untitled prayer on behalf of German Jewry under Nazi oppression disseminated in Bombay, likely after Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938). . . .
This untitled prayer written by Isaac Bashevis Singer on the back of a receipt (dated 1 March 1952) was discovered by David Stromberg in 2014 in the archives at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, and published online by Tablet (1, 2) with permission of the Susan Schulman Literary Agency. . . .
The “Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem” by the late chief rabbi of Ḥaifa, Eliyahu Yosef She’ar Yashuv Cohen zt”l (1927-2016), is often included in programs praying for peace in Jerusalem in periods of conflict. . . .
An Al Hanissim supplement for Sheva Asar b’Tamuz that acknowledges the fast day in light of the apparent achievements of the State of Israel, post-1948. . . .
Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., על הנסים al hanissim, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, Gratitude, מודים Modim, Needing Vocalization, געולה ge'ulah (redemption), Religious Zionism, Three Weeks of Mourning, ישראל Yisrael, Y'mei Bein haMitsrim
This prayer for those who must eat on Jewish fast days, was shared by Sarah Osborne for A Mitzvah to Eat on Facebook. The Hebrew translation of the prayer was offered by Rabba Dr. Anat Sharbat. . . .
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