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🖖︎ Prayers & Praxes // 🌔︎ Prayers for the Moon, Month, and Festival Calendar // Commemorative Festivals & Fasts // Fast Days // Ta'anit Esther
Ta’anit Esther
תפלה לכל תענית צבור ועל כל צרה (שלא תבא על הציבור!) | Amidah for Any Communal Fast and On Account of Troubles (Nusaḥ Italki)![]() ![]() ![]() 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. It’s a fascinatng service! . . . 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. . . . אֵל שְׁמֹר הַמַּלְכָּה | God Save the Queen (adapted from the Hebrew translation of Hyman Hurwitz 1831)![]() ![]() ![]() “God Save the Queen” is an adaptation of “God Save the King,” a work by an unknown author, first circulated in three stanzas during the reign of Britain’s King George Ⅱ, circa 1745. This Hebrew translation was published in a pamphlet circulated by New Road (Whitechapel) Synagogue in 1892 “on the 73rd Birthday of Her Majesty Queen Victoria,” an event attended by then chief rabbi of the British Empire, Rabbi Dr. Hermann Adler. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() “An einem Fasttage” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №22 on pp. 24-25. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №22 on pp. 30-33. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №22 on pp. 33-36. . . . Am Fasttage vor dem Purimfeste (תענית אסתר) | On the fast day before the Festival of Purim (Ta’anit Esther), a teḥinah by Yehoshua Heshil Miro (1829)![]() ![]() ![]() “Am Fasttage vor dem Purimfeste” 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 №56 on pp. 82-83. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №58 pp. 104-106. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №61 on p. 109-111. . . . בִּמְתֵי מִסְפָּר | BiM’tei Mispar, a seliḥah for Taanit Esther by Meshullam ben Ḳalonymus (11th c.)![]() ![]() ![]() A reverse alphabetic acrostic seliḥah piyyut for Taanit Esther in Hebrew with English translation . . . אָדָם בְּקוּם עָלֵֽינוּ | Adam B’qum ‘Alenu, a seliḥah for Taanit Esther by Menaḥem ben Makhir (ca. 11th c.)![]() ![]() ![]() An alphabetic acrostic seliḥah piyyut for Taanit Esther in Hebrew with English translation . . . אַתָּה הָאֵל עוֹשֵׂה פְלָאוֹת | Atah ha-El Oseh Fela’ot, a seliḥah for Taanit Esther by Shimon bar Isaac (ca. 10th c.)![]() ![]() ![]() An alphabetic acrostic seliḥah piyyut for Taanit Esther in Hebrew with English translation . . . קרובות לתענית אסתר | Ḳerovot for Taanit Esther by Yosef ibn Abitur (ca. 10th c.) with other seliḥot arranged by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer![]() ![]() ![]() The poetic genre known as qerovot, brief poems woven throughout the repetition of the weekday Amidah, is nowadays most closely associated with Elazar haḲalir’s Purim “Ḳrovetz“, a majestically interwoven piece of piyyut if ever there was one. But there are many other ḳerovot that have historically been recited, many of which were discovered in the Cairo Geniza. This set of ḳerovot, composed by the prolific Spanish paytan Yosef ibn Abitur, is meant to be included within the Shaḥarit amidah for Ta’anit Esther, the fast day before Purim. Consequently, it only goes up to the sixth blessing (the blessing for forgiveness) and concludes by leading directly into Seliḥot, which (before R. Yosef Karo’s standardization of the liturgy, and even now among some Western Ashkenazim) were inserted into the aforementioned blessing. In order to demonstrate this structure on a large scale, the editor here has compiled a full Shaḥarit repetition, nusaḥ Ashkenaz, incorporating the qerovot of Yosef ibn Abitur as well as the three seliḥot piyyutim of the Ashkenazi rite. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() A Ladino translation of Psalms 22 first published in mid-19th century Izmir. . . . |