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. Filter resources by Collaborator Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
Resources filtered by COLLABORATOR: “Unknown Author(s)” (clear filter)This Aramaic poem, written in the early Byzantine era by an unknown author, can be found in its entirety within the Targum Sheni for Esther 7:9. It features an argument between an assortment of trees over which one is required to bear the great dishonor of having to be the one to hold Haman. It’s also chock-full of anti-Christian polemic and references to Toledot Yeshu. . . .
Tags: acrostic, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aramaic, combating anti-Jewish oppression, Jewish-Christian relations, mid-first millennium CE, particularism and universalism, פיוטים piyyuṭim, polemic, Trees
An alphabetical acrostic piyyut celebrating the victory of Esther and Mordekhai over the forces of Haman. . . .
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). . . .
A Byzantine-era Aramaic piyyut for Purim, perhaps written as an introduction to the Megillah reading. It tells the narrative of the Jewish people from Abraham to the final redemption, focusing on the foes who sought to destroy us and their inevitable failure to do so. Uniquely among early-medieval poems, this one actively mentions the Romans (read: Christians) and Saracens (read: Muslims) and prays for their downfall in non-coded language. This translation loosely preserves the couplet rhyme scheme, as well as the alphabetical acrostic — perhaps with a phonetic punning reference to the name “Shlomo” at the end. . . .
This Purim song, popular among the Sephardic and Italki communities of Livorno, can be sung to the melody of “Akh, Zeh Hayom Kiviti.” Like a lot of Italian Purim content, a large portion of it is listing different desserts. . . .
This somewhat crude Purim song is sung in many variants in the Moroccan and Gibraltar Sephardic communities, often to the tune of the popular Purim hymn “Akh Ze Hayom Kiviti.” . . .
“Purim Kirtan” is a traditional Purim song of the Bene Israel community of Mumbai, India. Many thanks to our friends at the Jewish Language Project and to their team member Jacob Kohn for recording, transcribing, and translating the song as sung by Rivkah Moshe. . . .
“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. . . .
Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., British Commonwealth, British Jewry, British Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy, אל שמר El Shemor, Great Britain, national anthems, Needing Attribution, Queen Victoria, Queens
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