This is an archive of prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for the festival of חֲנֻכָּה (Ḥanukkah), commemorating the crucial victory of the Jewish people in retaining its culture, lifeways, and Temple vis-à-vis the oppressive hegemony of the Seleucid Greek kingdom around 164 BCE. Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and/or translation of a historic Ḥanukkah prayer or song in any language, familiar or obscure. Filter resources by Collaborator Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
This is the “Prière Pour la Fête de Hanouka” as found in אמרי לב Prières D’un Cœur Israélite, a collection of paraliturgical prayers and teḥinot in French by Jonas Ennery & Rabbi Arnaud Aron (Consistoire central israélite de France 1848/53). In the 1848 edition, the prayer can be found on pages 158-160. In the 1852 edition, on pages 401-403. . . . A prayer for festival of Ḥanukkah. . . . This is “Gebet am Lichtfeste” by Fanny Neuda from her collection of teḥinot, Stunden der Andacht (1855/58). In the 1855 edition, it can be found on pages 68-69. In the Judeo-German (vaybertaytsh/mashkit) edition (1864), on pages 88-89. . . . “Arise! let the souls of the Hebrews rejoice,” by Cordelia Moïse Cohen (1809-1869), appears under the subject “Feast of Dedication” as Hymn 194 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), p. 189. . . . “God dwells in light!,” by Rabbi Moritz Mayer, published in 1856, appears under the subject “Feast of Dedication” (i.e. Ḥanukkah) as Hymn 193 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), pp. 188-189. . . . This Thanksgiving Day Prayer for 28 November 1861 was reprinted in The Jewish Messenger (vol. 10, no. 12, p. 91), on 13 December 1861. It was preserved by Rabbi Morais in his ledger (page 22, clipping 023), an archive of newsclippings recording material he contributed to the press, among other announcements. (Many thanks to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania for helping to make this resource accessible.) Unfortunately, that bit of clipping containing the prayer had disintegrated enough to make much of the prayer illegible. But thankfully, a microfilm copy of the The Jewish Messenger for the date of printing was available at the HUC-JIR Klau Library, Cincinnati. . . . “Feast of Lights,” from Poems of Emma Lazarus, vol. II (1888), pp. 18. . . . A poem on the meaning of the menorah. . . . “דיא חנוכה ליכט” by Morris Rosenfeld (1862-1923) p.132-134. It was translated from the Yiddish into English by Rose Pastor Stokes & Helena Frank and published under the title, “The Feast of Lights” in Songs of Labor and Other Poems (1914), p. 65-66. Another translation, by Helena Frank alone was published in Apples & Honey (ed. Nina Salaman 1921), p. 242-244. The German translation by Berthold Feiwel was published in Lieder des Ghetto (1902), p. 81-83, and illustrated by Efraim Moses Lilian. . . . A popular song for Ḥanukkah in Yiddish with English translation. . . . This rhyming paraphrase and translation of the blessing over the lighting of the Ḥanukkiah was written by Jessie Ethel Sampter and published in her Around the Year in Rhymes for the Jewish Child (1920), p. 31. . . . “Tsaar Balei Ḥayyim” ([It is forbidden to cause] suffering to a living creature), source unknown. Many thanks to Tiferet Zimmern-Kahan for recording the niggun for the song and to Naftali Ejdelman and The Jewish Daily Forward for providing the lyrics. . . . Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., animal protection, animal welfare, ba'alei ḥayyim, בהמות behemot, ḥayot, Needing Attribution, Needing Source Images, Pedagogical songs, צער באלי חיים tsa'ar baalei ḥayyim, Yiddish songs This prayer for “The Feast of Light and Dedication” by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is found in his, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 37-39. . . . Did you know that the great songwriter and activist Woody Guthrie wrote Ḥanukkah music? It’s true. Though Guthrie himself was not Jewish, Marjorie Greenblatt, his second wife and their children were, and he would write Ḥanukkah songs for the kids in his neighborhood in the 1940s. Two of these songs were recorded by Moses Asch, head of Folkways Records, in 1949 — a kid’s song called “Hanuka Dance,” and a twenty-verse ballad retelling the story of Ḥanukkah called “The Many and the Few.” Below is an original Hebrew translation of “The Many and the Few,” preserving the meter of the original. With a simple melody and a lot of historical research, it could certainly be sung at a Ḥanukkah event. . . . |
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