This is an archive of prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for Yom haKippurim (the Day of Expiation), the second of the three Yamim Nora'im (Days of Awe). Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription or translation of a historical work by someone else. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
“Between the Fires: A Prayer for lighting Candles of Commitment” was composed by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, drawing on traditional midrash about the danger of a Flood of Fire, and the passage from Malachi. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Judy Gumbo co-authored this Al Ḥeit with her partner Stew Albert, ז״ל, before his passing in 2006. This Al Ḥeit was most recently used as part of Yom Kippur Kol Nidre services across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street 5772. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A supplement to the Al Ḥet of the Yom Kippur vidui. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “A Prayer for Difficult People (in two parts)” was first offered on Yom Kippur 5772 (2011) at Pleasantville Community Synagogue (Pleasantville, NY), and has since appeared in congregational newsletters, blogs, and on the website “Restless Pilgrim.” The prayer (in two parts) begins with a focus on the difficult people in our lives, then shifts and becomes a prayer that we ourselves not be difficult people in the lives of others. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Please God
Let me light
More than flame tonight. More than wax and wick
and sliver stick of wood.
More than shallow stream of words
recited from a pocket book. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., candle lighting, English poetry, English vernacular prayer, entering, fire, כוונות kavvanot, kindling, Light, potential, Prayers as poems, welcoming Contributor(s): One small request to accompany the seliḥot service. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The words of Avinu Malkeinu are a little different from the standard translation. It doesn’t say in Hebrew, “we have no good deeds” (ein lanu ma’asim tovim), but rather, “there are no deeds in us” (ein banu ma’asim). The p’shat (literal meaning) implies that whatever we have done in the past does not have to live inside of us — we can release our deeds and be released from them, fully, to start over, like a newborn, to become whoever we need to become. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): An alternate Vidui for Yom Kipur, including an alphabetical list of the things we’ve done wrong in the past year, and also an alphabetical list of the things we can do right in the new year. Includes the words to “Ani v’Ata”, the song of optimism and commitment to improve the world. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “Ashamnu” was written by the author in response to the conflict in Gaza on 30 December 2023 and first published on 1 October 2024 on their Substack account. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): |
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“Avinu Malkeinu,” dvar tefillah by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid·org)
The words of Avinu Malkeinu are a little different from the standard translation. It doesn’t say in Hebrew, “we have no good deeds” (ein lanu ma’asim tovim), but rather, “there are no deeds in us” (ein banu ma’asim). The p’shat (literal meaning) implies that whatever we have done in the past does not have to live inside of us — we can release our deeds and be released from them, fully, to start over, like a newborn, to become whoever we need to become.