This is an archive of prayers written for Shavuot, the festival of first fruit offerings. Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a historic prayer you have transcribed and translated for Shavuot. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category
Psalms 67 is a priestly blessing for all the peoples of the earth to be sustained by the earth’s harvest (yevulah), and it is a petition that all humanity recognize the divine nature (Elohim) illuminating the world. Composed of seven verses, the psalm is often visually depicted as a seven branched menorah. There are 49 words in the entire psalm, and in the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l there is one word for each day of the Sefirat haOmer. Similarly, the fifth verse has 49 letters and each letter can be used as a focal point for meditating on the meaning of the day in its week in the journey to Shavuot, the festival of weeks (the culmination of the barley harvest), and the festival of oaths (shevuot) in celebration of receiving the Torah. Many of the themes of Psalms 67 are repeated in the prayer Ana b’Koaḥ, which also has 49 words, and which are also used to focus on the meaning of each day on the cyclical and labyrinthine journey towards Shavuot. . . . Tags: 42 letter divine name, a red ribbon, acrostic, אנא בכח Ana b'Khoaḥ, anxiety, barley, captives, cyclical, Divine name acrostic, first fruits, labyrinth, Psalms 67, Raḥav, shalmah, walled cities, wheat The piyyut read as an introduction to the Decalogue during the Torah reading on Shavuot. . . . Tags: 11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., Acrostic signature, Acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, אקדמות Aqdamut, Aramaic, בהמות behemot, Decalogue, פיוטים piyyutim, תרגום targum A Birkat haMazon for Shavuot presenting an alphabetic acrostic from a manuscript preserved in the Cairo Geniza. . . . “Elimelekh G’la” is a Byzantine-era Western Aramaic poetic retelling of the Book of Ruth. It was probably originally used as part of the liturgy for Shavuot, perhaps as a poetic addition to the recitation of a Targumic interpretation of the Book of Ruth. (The verses from Ruth and Psalms appended to the coda of the piyyuṭ would suggest such a Sitz im Leben.) But in any case, it has a great acrostic structure and rhyme scheme, and ought to be preserved! Here is included a vocalized text, largely based on the unvocalized text compiled in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity (ed. Yahalom and Sakaloff, 1999) where it’s the tenth poem recorded. ‘ve added a rhyming poetic translation that preserves the Hebrew acrostic. Credit to Laura Suzanne Lieber’s literal translations of these poems (in Jewish Aramaic Poetry from Late Antiquity: Translations and Commentaries, 2018), which have served as a very helpful resource for the project. . . . An Aramaic piyyut composed as an introduction to the reading of the Targum for the Torah reading on Shavuot. . . . A “bikkur” piyyut traditionally added at the end of Hashkivenu for Shavˁuot in the Old French (and Maḥzor Vitry) and Romaniote rites. From the acrostic we know the author was named Yosef ben Yaˁakov. Other than that we know very little about this poem’s origin and age, although its structure fits with the early Ashkenazi piyyut oeuvre. . . . The maaravot-cycle of piyyutim for the first night of Shavuot, by Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils. In normative maaravot fashion, it is one extended cycle with an overarching structure (the first words of each of the Ten Commandments) throughout the whole of the kriat shema, with additional piyyutim incorporated into the first blessing after the shema. . . . A poetic introduction to the Azharot of Solomon ibn Gabirol read in the afternoon of Shavuot by Sefaradim. . . . Tags: 12th century C.E., 49th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Azharot, Decalogue, Har Sinai, Nusaḥ Sefaradi, פיוטים piyyutim, התורה the Torah, theophany In many eastern Sephardic and Mizraḥi communities, there is a custom that a poetic “ketubah,” or marriage-contract, is recited before the Torah service on Shavuot. This custom, based on the midrashic idea that the Torah is the ketubah for the marriage between the bride Israel and the groom God, is beloved by the ḳabbalists. By far the most commonly used Shavuot ketubah is that of the great paytan and meḳubal Yisrael ben Moshe Najara, who wrote the following some time in the sixteenth century. This is a new translation of Najara’s poem. . . . Ana is a poem for the first commandment, that discusses all that God did for the ancestors. . . . “Ar’a Raqda,” a piyyut read directly before the Ten Commandments in the Targum, uses wedding imagery and language from the Shir haShirim to paint Sinai as a ḥuppah. . . . This piyyut is signed “Elyaqim Ḥazaq.” Alas, we do not know who this Elyaqim was or even whether he was a rabbinic or Karaite Jew. The piyyut has been preserved for us in the Karaite cycle (Vilna printing press, 1852, Vol. IV, p. 135.) and there are several other piyyutim signed with his name. . . . A popular piyyut for Simḥat Torah (4th hakkafah) originally composed as a piyyut for Shavuot and often referred to by its incipit, “Mipi El.” . . . A piyyut in Judeo-Greek for introducing the Decalogue. . . . “Tkhine of the Matriarchs for Yizkor on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Yamim Tovim” by Rebbetsin Seril Rappaport is a faithful transcription of her tkhine included in “תחנה אמהות מן ראש חודש אלול” (Tkhine of the Matriarchs for the New Moon of Elul) published in Vilna, 1874, as re-published in The Merit of Our Mothers בזכות אמהות A Bilingual Anthology of Jewish Women’s Prayers, compiled by Rabbi Tracy Guren Klirs, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992. shgiyot mi yavin, ministarot nakeni. . . . “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” is a translation by Rabbi Morrison David Bial of a portion of Reb Nosson of Nemyriv’s Liqutei Tefilot I:7.1, as adapted from the teachings of Rebbe Naḥman of Bratslav in Liqutei Moharan I:7.1. The translation was first published in his anthology, An Offering of Prayer (1962), p. 76, from where the English was transcribed. I have set this translation side-by-side with the Hebrew noting some elisions in Rabbi Bial’s adaptation. –Aharon Varady . . . “Desselben Inhalts [Für das Wochenfest (ver. 2)]” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaicher Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaicher Religion as teḥinah №27 on pp. 35-36. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №27 on pp. 40-42. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №29 on pp. 43-45. . . . “Für das Wochenfest [ver. 1]” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №26 on pp. 33-35. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №26 on pp. 39-40. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №28 on pp. 42-43. . . . “Andachtsübung über das Verhältniß der Kinder zu ihren Eltern,” a paraliturigcal Yizkor prayer for those with living parents, was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №74 on pp. 110-112. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №75 on pp. 134-136. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №78 on pp. 139-141. . . . “An den Hauptfesten, wenn man Behufs der üblichen Vorlesungen die Gesetzrolle aus der heiligen Lade nimmt” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №18 on pp. 22-23. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №18 on pp. 26-27. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №20 on pp. 29-31. . . . A prayer for those martyred in the First Crusade and Rhineland Massacres, and by extension, all subsequent pogroms up until and including the Holocaust. . . . “Preis der Gotteslehre” is a hymn translated by Felix Adler from one found in Gebete und Gesänge zu dem von der Genossenschaft für Reform im Judenthum zu Berlin eingerichteten Gottesdienst für die Zeit zwischen dem Schewuoth- und Roschhaschanah-Fest des Weltjahres 5606/7, hymn №23, pp. 19-20 (1846) and published in Hymns, for Divine Service in the Temple Emanu-El (1871), hymn №3, pp. 6-7. We have tentatively dated this translation to 1868, since another hymn by Adler (“School-hymn, no. 36”) can be found appended from another unattributed work in A Guide to Instruction in the Israelitsh Religion (Samuel Adler, trans. M. Mayer, Temple Emanu-El, 1864, 4th printing 1868). The original hymn in German has three stanzas. . . . This tekhina (supplication) upon candlelighting for Shavuot in Hebrew and Yiddish appears in the Maḥzor for Shavuot Rav Peninim (Vilna 1911) although we are uncertain whether it first appeared here. We welcome your help in correctly attributing and translating it. . . . “Rejoice in God, our mighty Rock,” by Rabbi Moritz Mayer, published in 1856, appears under the subject “Pentecost” as Hymn 203 in Hymns Written for the Use of Hebrew Congregations (Penina Moïse et al., Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim, 1856), pp. 200-201. . . . A piyyut in honor of the Torah. . . . “Tsaar Balei Ḥayyim” ([It is forbidden to cause] suffering to a living creature), source unknown. Many thanks to Tiferet Zimmern-Kahan for recording the niggun for the song and to Naftali Ejdelman and The Jewish Daily Forward for providing the lyrics. . . . Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., animal protection, animal welfare, ba'alei ḥayyim, בהמות behemot, ḥayot, Needing Attribution, Needing Source Images, Pedagogical songs, צער באלי חיים tsa'ar baalei ḥayyim, Yiddish songs “Hymn for Shaḇuoth (Father, See Thy Children)” is based on “Confirmation (Father, see thy suppliant children)” an original hymn by Felix Adler published in Hymns, for Divine Service in the Temple Emanu-El (1871), hymn 34, p. 68. The last four lines of the hymn have been amended and replaced with “Till our lives shall bud and blossom…” by Angie Irma Cohon, for use on Shavuot. This version was published in her תפלת ישראל (Tefilat Yisrael) A Brief Jewish Ritual (Women of Miẓpah 1921), p. 19. . . . The poem “Shebuoth” by Miriam del Banco (1858-1931) was included in her posthumously published anthology, Poetry and Prose (1932), p. 37-38. . . . “[Prayer] For Knowledge and Understanding” by Rabbi Louis M. Epstein was published in Rabbi Morrison David Bial’s anthology, An Offering of Prayer (1962), p. 18, from where this prayer was transcribed. When exactly this prayer was first written is not known to us, but it had to be before Rabbi Epstein’s death in 1949. If you know more, please leave a comment or contact us. . . . 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. . . . 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 “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. . . . A piyyuṭ sung by the Jews of Algiers on Shavu’ot and Simḥat Torah (and by some Moroccans for baqashot on Parashat Toldot). Yayin Tov Ratov is a love song from the perspective of God that uses a lot of language from Song of Songs. Wine and song, in this case, are both metaphors for the Torah. Of unknown origin, the acrostic spells out the name יצחק, although I can confirm that it wasn’t me who wrote it. . . . |
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