the Open Siddur Project ✍︎ פְּרוֹיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ
a community-grown, libre and open-source archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources
This project is sustained through reciprocity for those sharing prayers and crafting their own prayerbooks.
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עד דלא ידע | Sources and Meditation Instructions for Not-knowing on Purim, by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein (Applied Jewish Spirituality 2021)![]() ![]() Sources and meditation instructions excerpted from a larger source sheet on Not-knowing, Joy and Purim, from the Applied Jewish Spirituality “Kabbalah Through the Calendar” course. . . . ![]() ![]() The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 27 February 2018. . . . Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the Massachusetts State Senate: Rabbi Joseph Rudavsky on 24 March 1959![]() ![]() ![]() The opening prayer of the Massachusetts State Senate on 24 March 1959, added to the record of the U.S. House of Representatives. . . . 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. . . . שיר מזמור לפורים | Shir Mizmor l’Purim, an anti-Prohibition drinking song for Purim by Rabbi Sabato Morais (1889)![]() ![]() ![]() This “Shir Mizmor l’Purim” by Rabbi Sabato Morais (we think) was first published in The Jewish Exponent on 15 March 1889. It was preserved by Rabbi Sabato Morais in his ledger, an archive of newsclippings recording material he contributed to the press, among other announcements. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() A prayer for a woman celebrating Purim. . . . O God! Today Our Joyful Song of Praise – a hymn for Purim by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1856)![]() ![]() ![]() “O God! To-day our joyful song of praise,” by Rabbi Moritz Mayer, published in 1856, appears under the subject “Feast of Esther” as Hymn 196 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), pp. 191-192. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() “Prayer for the Feast of Purim (פורים)” by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau was first published in his תחנות בנות ישראל Devotions for the Daughters of Israel (1852), p. 46-48. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() “Almighty God! Thy special grace,” by Penina Moïse, published in 1842, appears under the subject “Feast of Esther (Pureem)” as Hymn 67 in Hymns Written for the Service of the Hebrew Congregation Beth Elohim, South Carolina (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1842), pp. 70-71. . . . ברכת המזון לפורים | Poetic Birkat haMazon for Purim, according to the Cairo Geniza fragment T-S H6.37 vocalized and translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer![]() ![]() This is a reconstruction of a liturgy for a Birkat haMazon for Purim witnessed in the Cairo Geniza fragment T-S H6.37 (page 1, recto and verso). . . . 💬 התפילות של מרדכי ואסתר | the Prayers of Mordekhai and Esther, from Divrei haYamim l’Yeraḥmiel (ca. 11-12th c.)![]() ![]() The dream and prayer of Mordecai, and the prayer of Esther, as copied in the medieval pseudo-historical Chronicle of Yeraḥmiel. . . . מִי כָמֽוֹךָ וְאֵין כָּמֽוֹךָ | Mi Khamokha v’Ein Kamokha, a retelling of Megillat Esther in a piyyut for Shabbat Zakhor by Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi (ca. 11th c.)![]() ![]() ![]() The poem Mi Khamokha v-Ein Khamokha, an epic retelling of the book of Esther in verse, was written for Shabbat Zakhor, the Shabbat before Purim, by the great paytan Yehuda ben Shmuel haLevi. It was originally written as a “geulah,” meant to be inserted into the prayer after the Shema in place of the verse beginning with “A new song…” But later Sephardic poskim ruled that it was forbidden to insert piyyutim into the Shema blessings, so in the communities that recite it today it is generally either read after the Full Kaddish as an introduction to the Torah service, or (for instance, in most Spanish and Portuguese communities) within the verse “Kol atzmotai tomarna” in the Nishmat prayer. Wherever you include it in your service, it’s a beautiful and intricately rhymed piyyut, and surprisingly easy to understand at that. It is presented here in a gender-neutral translation with all the Biblical verses cited, alongside a new translation that preserves the fourfold acrostic, two alphabetical and two authorial. –Isaac Gantwerk Mayer . . . אֲשֶׁר הֵנִיא | Asher Heni, a piyyut recited after the reading of Megillat Esther and its concluding blessing![]() ![]() An alphabetical acrostic piyyut celebrating the victory of Esther and Mordekhai over the forces of Haman. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() A Ladino translation of Psalms 22 first published in mid-19th century Izmir. . . . |