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Khaf Sivan

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אֱמוּנֵי שְׁלוּמֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל | Emunei Shlumei Yisrael — a seliḥah witnessing the Blois incident of 1171 by Hillel ben Yaaqov of Bonn

Some Jewish communities, especially those in the region of the Four Lands, have a custom of fasting on the 20th of Sivan. This day has a full seliḥot service, commemorating a series of horrors that occurred on that day, most prominently the Chmielnicki (Khmielnetsky) massacres of 1648-49. But this poem was written for another horrific occurrence on 20 Sivan, the blood libel of Blois in 1171. This was the first time the accusation of ritual murder was ever made against the Jews of France, but it wasn’t the last. This seliḥah poem, written by Hillel ben Jacob of Bonn, starts with the dramatic accusation that God has abandoned the people Israel, continuing by listing those who died in myriad horrid ways, and ending with several citations from the apocalyptic final chapter of the book of Joel. . . .

Categories: Khaf Sivan, Tishah b'Av

Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Blois Incident of 1171, קינות Ḳinōt, סליחות səliḥot

Contributor(s): Hillel ben Yaaqov of Bonn and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

אֱלֹהִים בְּעָלֽוּנוּ | Elohim B’alunu — a seliḥah on the York massacre of 1190 by Joseph ben Asher of Chartres (trans. Isaac Gantwerk Mayer)

This seliḥah poem, written by R. Joseph of Chartres, commemorates the martyrdom of approximately 150 Jews in Clifford’s Tower, York, England, in the year 1190. A summary of the events of 1190, sometimes referred to as “the English Masada,” can be found here. Like many medieval Jewish poems about massacres, Elohim B’alunu carefully treads the line between assuming guilt and declaring innocence. This poem, interestingly enough, directly calls out the person seen by R. Joseph of Chartres as ultimately responsible — the crusader King Richard Ⅰ. Beloved in Christian memory, this radical zealot of a king has a much darker, more horrific reputation among Jewish and Muslim groups. . . .

Categories: Khaf Sivan, Tishah b'Av

Tags: 12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, British Jewry, King Richard I, קינות Ḳinōt, סליחות səliḥot, York Massacre of 1190

Contributor(s): Yosef ben Asher (of Chartres), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

שַׁאֲלִי שְׂרוּפָה בָּאֵשׁ | Sha’ali Serufah ba-Esh (Question, Burnt in the Fire), a Ḳinah for Tishah b’Av, translated by Gershom Scholem

A translation in German and English of the ḳinnah “Sha’ali Serufah ba-Esh.” . . .

Categories: Khaf Sivan, Tishah b'Av

Tags: 13th century C.E., 51st century A.M., Disputation of Paris, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s): Paula Schwebel (translation), Gershom Scholem (translation), Meir ben Barukh of Rothenburg and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut)

אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים | El Malé Raḥamim for the victims of the Chmielnicki massacre (1648-1649), composed in memory of Yəḥiel Mikhel ben Eliezer, the Martyr of Nemyriv (ca. late 17th c.)

One of the most prominent martyrs in the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648–1649 was the kabbalist and sage Yəḥiel Mikhel ben Eliezer ha-Kohen, known to posterity as the Martyr of Nemiryv. This unique poetic El Malei Raḥamim was said in his honor, and communities that fast on 20 Sivan still recite it to this day. . . .

Categories: Khaf Sivan

Tags: 17th century C.E., 55th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Chmielnicki massacres of 1648–1649, אל מלא רחמים El Malé Raḥamim, סליחות səliḥot

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

על אלה אני בוכיה | Ḳinah for the Chmielnicki Massacres of 1648–1649, by Yaaqov Ḳoppel ben Tsvi Margoliyot (1658)

A kinah/elegy for those massacred in the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648–1649 composed by a possible eyewitness to the tragedy. . . .

Categories: Khaf Sivan

Tags: 17th century C.E., 55th century A.M., Chmielnicki massacres of 1648–1649, Needing Vocalization, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s): Jacob Chatinover (translation), Yaaqov Ḳoppel ben Tsvi Margoliyot and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילה למי שצריך לאכול בימי צום | Prayer for those who need to eat on fast days (A Mitzvah to Eat, 2022)

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. . . .

Categories: Fasting, Khaf Sivan, Shiv'ah Asar b'Tamuz, Tishah b'Av, Tsom Gedalyah, Asarah b'Tevet, Shiv'ah b'Adar, Ta'anit Esther

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, fasting, עינוי Innui (self-affliction), Needing Vocalization, פיקוח נפש piqoaḥ nefesh, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Anat Sharbat (translation), Sarah Osborne and A Mitzvah to Eat

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=4480

Associated Image:

A detail of a 17th-century painting in the Pszonka chapel of the Lublin Dominican cloister. It depicts the retreat of Bohdan Chmielnicki’s troops from the vicinity of Lublin.

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

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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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