
A meditation which can be used to prepare for Pesaḥ, or for sharing at the Seder, to deepen the experience of liberation for yourself and others. . . .
|
||||||||
☞ Erev Pesaḥ
![]() Shared on ז׳ בניסן ה׳תשע״ט (2019-04-12) — under the following terms: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Categories: ![]() Tags: ![]() ![]() Shared on א׳ בניסן ה׳תשפ״א (2021-03-14) — under the following terms: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Categories: ![]() Tags: ![]() ![]() This letter, written in Imperial Aramaic in 419 BCE, is among the vast number of papyrus letters found in Elephantine, also known as Yeb. The Jewish (or more accurately, Judean) community of Yeb is a fascinating bit of history — a group of Judean mercenaries who settled in Egypt and built their own smaller temple! Although their origin was clearly Judean, and they referred to themselves as the ḥeila yehudaya = Judean garrison, their form of worship featured no Deuteronomic centralization, no discussion of the patriarchs, and questionable monotheism! Although the primary deity was YHW (note the difference in spelling), multiple other deities or hypostatized aspects of divinity were worshipped, and verbs for the word “God” are conjugated in the plural rather than the singular. This text is one of a series of letters written between the brothers Yedaniah and Ḥananiah. In this case, it is giving instructions for keeping the holiday of Pesaḥ. These instructions are interesting in their own right — the prohibition on beer could alternatively be read as a prohibition on any alcoholic drink, which would align with Karaite practice rather than rabbinic. But what’s even more interesting is what isn’t mentioned — the instructions given mention nothing whatsoever about the exodus from Egypt, or even God! The diktat to observe the holiday is accredited not to God or Moses, but to Darius, king of the Achaemenid Empire! This passage is a fascinating taste of a part of Judaism that we know very little about. Vocalization according to Tiberian norms and translation into English by the translator. . . . ![]() Shared on י״ז באייר ה׳תשע״ח (2018-05-02) — under the following terms: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Categories: ![]() Tags: ![]() ![]() Shared on י״א בטבת ה׳תשע״ב (2012-01-05) — under the following terms: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Categories: ![]() Tags: ![]() ![]() Shared on י״ג בניסן ה׳תשע״ג (2013-03-24) — under the following terms: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license Categories: ![]() Tags: ![]() ![]() May it be Your will Hashem that we remember that just as we do not own this ḥametz, we do not own this earth. May we once again recall that Adam, the human, is made of afar, soil, dirt, and that God’s promise Abraham that his progeny will become “like the dirt of the earth,” in Aramaic, afra d’ar’a, means that we must live to nourish all Life. . . . |
||||||||
All creators and copyright stewards have graciously shared their work under one of the following Open Content licenses until the term of their copyright expires and their work enters the Public Domain. Unless otherwise indicated, the license under which all content is shared on this site is the Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International license. Please consult the table below for the specific Open Content license under which the creator (or copyright steward) has chosen to share their work.
Some images are shared with the now-deprecated CC BY 2.0 (עברית | English) license. The Open Siddur is supported by recurring donations via Patreon. One-time tax-deductible donations may be made through Jewish Creativity International, a 501(3)c registered non-profit organization acting as our fiscal sponsor. The views expressed in contributed works represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of contributors, or Jewish Creativity International. TERMS OF USE | COPYLEFT POLICY | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTRIBUTE WORK | BECOME A PATRON OR MAKE A DONATION | CONTACT Font Resize
Contrast
|