Exact matches only
//  Main  //  Menu

 

This is an archive of prayers and song written for the festival of Purim.

Purim is named after the word pur in Megillat Esther, the method of divination by lot used to determine the proper date for the Jews under the dominion of the Persian empire (circa 5th century BCE) to be murdered en masse (Esther 3:7). The lot is cast on the 13th of Nisan for the 13th of Adar and the decree to destroy the Jews is relayed posthaste (Esther 3:12). (Significantly, the 13th of Nisan is the eve of Pesaḥ when, according to Leviticus 23:5-6, the slaughter and consumption of the paschal lamb is indicated — a very auspicious date indeed.) Hijinx ensue.

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, translated, or transcribed for Purim.


Looking for something else?

For public readings selected for Purim, visit here.

For public readings selected for Purim Qatan, go here.

For prayers and songs composed for Purim Qatan, visit here.

For public readings selected for a Purim Sheni, visit here.

For prayers composed for Taanit Esther, go here.


עד דלא ידע | Sources and Meditation Instructions for Not-knowing on Purim, by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein (Applied Jewish Spirituality 2021)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Seth H. Frisch on 27 February 2018

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the Massachusetts State Senate: Rabbi Joseph Rudavsky on 24 March 1959

אֵל שְׁמֹר הַמַּלְכָּה | God Save the Queen (adapted from the Hebrew translation of Hyman Hurwitz 1831)

שיר מזמור לפורים | Shir Mizmor l’Purim, an anti-Prohibition drinking song for Purim by Rabbi Sabato Morais (1889)

Prayer for the Feast of Purim, by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (1866)

O God! Today Our Joyful Song of Praise – a hymn for Purim by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1856)

Prayer for the Feast of Purim (פורים), by Marcus Heinrich Bresslau (1852)

Almighty God! Thy Special Grace – a hymn for Purim by Penina Moïse (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1842)

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

💬 התפילות של מרדכי ואסתר | the Prayers of Mordekhai and Esther, from Divrei haYamim l’Yeraḥmiel (ca. 11-12th c.)

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.)

אֲשֶׁר הֵנִיא | Asher Heni, a piyyut recited after the reading of Megillat Esther and its concluding blessing

תהלים כ״ב בלשון לאדינו | Psalms 22 by David in Ladino (Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit, ca. 1852/3)