This is an archive of prayers written for, or relevant to, the Fast of תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב (Tishah b'Av, the 9th of the month of Av) in the Jewish calendar, commemorating the destruction of the first and second Temple in Jerusalem, among other catastrophes. Click here to contribute a prayer you have written for Tishah b'Av. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range “Heikhal [Hashem]” is the reshut offered before the Qaddish preceding Barkhu and the Shaḥarit blessings before the Shema. It is the seventh reshut among the reshuyot in the Old Sefaradi Tiqun for Shabbat Ḥazon — the final shabbat before 9 Av. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
“Nilah l’Heilil” is the fourth reshut offered before Nishmat at the outset of the Zemirot (preceding Shaḥarit). It is the sixth reshut among the reshuyot in the Old Sefaradi Tiqun for Shabbat Ḥazon — the final shabbat before 9 Av. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
“Halanofelim Tequmah” is the second reshut offered before Nishmat at the outset of Shaḥarit (concluding the Zemirot). It is the fourth reshut among the reshuyot in the Old Sefaradi Tiqun for Shabbat Ḥazon — the final shabbat before 9 Av. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
This translation of the poem “Éshet Neürim” by Elḥanan ben Yitsḥaq of Dampierre (d. 1184) was made by Israel Zangwill and first published in his collection of poetry, Blind Children: Poems (1903), under the title, “Israel as Bride and as Beggar” on page 118. (An earlier translation in German was made by Leopold Zunz in Die synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters (1855), p. 249.) Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
“Nishmat Emunim” is the third reshut offered before Nishmat at the outset of the Zemirot (preceding Shaḥarit). It is the fifth reshut among the reshuyot in the Old Sefaradi Tiqun for Shabbat Ḥazon — the final shabbat before 9 Av. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
“Yom Nilḥamu Vi” is the reshut offered before the Barkhu preceding the Shaḥarit blessings before the Shema. It is the eighth reshut among the reshuyot in the Old Sefaradi Tiqun for Shabbat Ḥazon — the final shabbat before 9 Av. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
“Oy Meh Haya Lanu” is a ḳinah traditionally recited on the night of Tisha b’Av directly after the reading of Eikha. According to the Koren Mesorat HaRav Kinot, it is number 1 of 50. The title is the refrain of the poem, a reflective lament. This ḳinah is based on the fifth and final chapter of Eikha, taking the opening phrase of each line of the megillah as the first line of each couplet and poetically expanding the description for the second. This translation is an attempt to convey the vulgarity and horror of the paytan’s depiction of the destroyed Jerusalem in vernacular English. The ḳinah ends just as the megillah ends, with the four verses of pleas for redemption. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
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: Tags: Contributor(s):
Aish Tukad is a ḳinah for Tishah b’Av, usually recited towards the conclusion of the set of dirges for the morning service (in Goldshmidt’s numbering, it is number 32 of our 46 Kinot). According to Goldshmidt’s introduction, the structure of this Piyyut is based on a Midrash in Eicha Zuta 19, where Moses’ praises for God and Israel are seen as parallel to Jeremiah’s laments, thus creating the concept of a comparison between the joy of the Exodus and the pain of the Temple’s destruction. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
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: Tags: Contributor(s):
“Af Oraḥ Mishpatekha” is an ofan, a type of piyyut recited as a part of the Ḳedushah d-Yotzer liturgy as an introduction to Ezekiel 3:12. Specifically, it is an ofan written by the Rokeaḥ, R. El’azar ben R. Yehuda of Worms, for the morning liturgy on Shabbat Ḥazon, the Shabbat before Tishah b’Av. It is here included along with an original translation and with cited verses marked. Also included is a series of images from a 1714 maḥzor printed in Frankfurt au Main that includes the piyyut. To note, the text included above is not exactly the same as that of the 1714 maḥzor, having been edited in accordance with Isaac Meiseles’s 1993 critical edition of the Rokeaḥ’s work. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
A translation in German and English of the ḳinnah “Sha’ali Serufah ba-Esh.” Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
“Bore ‘Ad Anah” is a ḳinah recited in a number of Sephardic communities on Tishah b’Av (or in some cases on Shabbat Hazon, the Shabbat preceding Tishah b’Av), particularly in the Spanish-Portuguese and North African traditions. The author is unknown, but his name is likely Binyamin based on the acrostic made up of the first letters of the verses. In the kinah, the Children of Israel are compared to a wandering dove caught in a trap by predators, crying out its father, God. The ḳinah was likely written as a poignant response to the Spanish Inquisition, appropriate to Tishah b’Av since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain occurred on the 9th of Av in the year 1492. The version presented here was likely censored, as many manuscripts have the fifth verse presented in the following manner directly calling out their Catholic oppressors,” יועצים עליה עצות היא אנושה זרים העובדים אלילים שלושה אם ובן ורוח כי אין להם בושה גדול ממכאובי.” “They counsel against her and she languishes, the strangers who worship three idols, father, son and spirit, for they have no shame and great is my suffering.” Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
“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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
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“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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s):
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