This is an archive of prayers written for, or relevant to, the Fast of Esther on the day preceding the festival of Purim.
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🖖︎ Prayers & Praxes —⟶ 🌔︎ Prayers for the Moon, Month, and Festival Calendar —⟶ Commemorative Festivals & Fasts —⟶ Days of Mourning —⟶ Ta'anit Esther 🡄 (Previous category) :: 📁 Shiv'ah b'Adar 📁 Additional Fast Days :: (Next Category) 🡆 Ta’anit EstherThis is an archive of prayers written for, or relevant to, the Fast of Esther on the day preceding the festival of Purim. Click here to contribute a prayer you have written for Ta’anit Esther. Filter resources by Collaborator Name Shimon bar Isaac | Menaḥem ben Makhir | David ben Yishai (traditional attribution) | Meshullam ben Ḳalonymus | Diwan Ashira Project | Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit | Hyman Hurwitz | Yosef ibn Abitur | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) | the Mesorah (TaNaKh) | Yehoshua Heshil Miro | A Mitzvah to Eat | Sarah Osborne | Andreas Rusterholz (transcription) | Anat Sharbat (translation) | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (translation) | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Adrienne Varady (translation) Filter resources by Tag acrostic | Acrostic signature | phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation | Alphabetic Acrostic | עמידה amidah | British Commonwealth | British Jewry | British Monarchy | Cairo Geniza | Constitutional Monarchy | אל שמר El Shemor | English vernacular prayer | Esther | תענית אסתר Fast of Esther | fasting | German Jewry | German vernacular prayer | Great Britain | עינוי Innui (self-affliction) | Izmir | Jewish Women's Prayers | קרובות ḳerovot | Ladino Translation | למנציח Lamnatse'aḥ | משתה Mishteh | מזמור Mizmor | national anthems | Needing Attribution | Needing Vocalization | Ottoman Empire | Ottoman Jewry | פיקוח נפש piqoaḥ nefesh | פיוטים piyyuṭim | תהלים Psalms | Public Amidah | Queen Victoria | Queens | self-sacrifice | סליחות səliḥot | תחינות teḥinot | זמירות zemirot | Psalms 22 | 10th century C.E. | 11th century C.E. | 19th century C.E. | 21st century C.E. | 48th century A.M. | 49th century A.M. | 56th century A.M. | 57th century A.M. | 58th century A.M. Filter resources by Category Asarah b'Tevet | Tehilim Book 1 (Psalms 1–41) | Fasting | Purim | Shiv'ah Asar b'Tamuz | Shiv'ah b'Adar | Tishah b'Av | Tsom Gedalyah | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | Khaf Sivan Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range Looking for something else? For public readings selected for Taanit Esther, visit here. PrayersReadings Resources filtered by LANGUAGE: “English”” (clear filter) Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? 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 . . . Categories: Ta'anit Esther קרובות לתענית אסתר | Ḳerovot for Taanit Esther by Yosef ibn Abitur (ca. 10th c.) with other seliḥot arranged by Isaac Gantwerk MayerThe 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. . . . Categories: Ta'anit Esther 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 . . . Categories: Ta'anit Esther 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 . . . Categories: Ta'anit Esther 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. . . . Categories: Ta'anit Esther Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., German Jewry, German vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, self-sacrifice, תחינות teḥinot Contributor(s): Andreas Rusterholz (transcription), Yehoshua Heshil Miro and Aharon N. Varady (translation) אֵל שְׁמֹר הַמַּלְכָּה | God Save the Queen, an adaptation of Hyman Hurwitz’s Hebrew translation of “God Save the King” for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Celebration (1887)“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. . . . 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 עֵת שַׁעֲרֵי אַרְמוֹן – תפילה לאסתר המלכה | ‘Et Sha’are Armon – Prayer of Queen Esther, a piyyut for Purim by the Diwan Ashira ProjectThis piyyut envisions Queen Esther’s prayer as she enters King Ahasuerus’ palace unbidden. In Tractate Megilla 15b, the sages associate verses from Psalm 22 with Esther in these pivotal moments. Written in the first person, this poem weaves together verses from Psalms and the Book of Esther, along with interpretations and commentaries of Talmudic Sages, to evoke Esther’s prayer at this crucial moment. Its structure mirrors the Rosh Hashanah piyyut “‘Et Sha‘are Ratson”, which recounts the binding of Isaac through the perspectives of its protagonists. Like Isaac, Esther is headed to a sacrifice, but she goes with full awareness and intent for the sake of her people. . . .
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Queen Shalom Tsiyon (Salome) Alexandra, from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553) (This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)
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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
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