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Shavuot

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.

Resources filtered by COLLABORATOR: “Unknown Author(s)” (clear filter)

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📄 Scaling the Walls of the Labyrinth: Psalms 67 and Ana b’Khoaḥ

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

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady

אֵלִימֶֽלֶךְ גְּלָה | Elimelekh G’la — a Byzantine-Era Piyyuṭ Retelling the Book of Ruth

“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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: acrostic, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aramaic, Late Antiquity, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Ruth, תרגום targum, Western Aramaic

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

אָב הָרַחֲמִים שׁוֹכֵן מְרוֹמִים | Av haRaḥamim Shokhein Meromim, a prayer for the martyred during the First Crusade & Rhineland massacres

A prayer for those martyred in the First Crusade and Rhineland Massacres, and by extension, all subsequent pogroms up until and including the Holocaust. . . .

Categories: Shavuot, After the Aliyot, Tishah b'Av, Pogroms & Genocide

Tags: 11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., First Crusade, People's Crusade, prayers following pogroms, Rhineland Massacres

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

יוֹם הַבִּכּוּרִים | Yom ha-Bikkurim, the bikkur piyyut for the first day of Shavˁuot in the Old French and Romaniote Rites

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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: acrostic, bikkurim, מערבות maaravot, Nusaḥ Romaniote, פיוטים piyyuṭim

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

יַֽיִן טוֹב | Yayin Tov Ratov (Good Fresh Wine) — a love-song piyyut for Shavu’ot in nusaḥ Algiers

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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: Acrostic signature, Algiers, בקשות Baqashot, love, Maghrebi Jewry, פיוטים piyyuṭim, פרשת תולדת parashat Toldot, Wine

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

ἕνας ὁ κύριος | Hénas ho Kýrios, a piyyut in Judeo-Greek for Shavuot (ca. 16th-17th c.)

A piyyut in Judeo-Greek for introducing the Decalogue. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 16th century C.E., 55th century A.M., Decalogue, Judeo-Greek, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum

Contributor(s): Johannes Niehoff-Panagiotidis (translation), Elisabeth Hollender (translation) and Unknown Author(s)

אַדִּיר לֹא יָנוּם | Adir Lo Yanum — a Sefaradi piyyut for weddings and Torah-reading days

According to Joseph Judah Chorny’s On the Caucasian Jews, this acrostic piyyuṭ was customarily used as an epithalion before a wedding. He writes, “Before morning light, the bride is led to the groom’s house accompanied by many women and men, all carrying lit wax candles in their hands, and singing this song along the way.” Variants of this piyyut are found throughout the greater Sephardic world, generally in an abbreviated and slightly altered form. In Syria it is sung during the haqafot for Simḥat Torah, while in Livorno Sephardic practice (and subsequently in most Eastern Sephardic maḥzorim) it is a Shavu’ot piyyut. . . .

Categories: Shavuot, Engagements & Weddings, Shemini Atseret (and Simḥat Torah), Parashat Yitro

Tags: phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, anti-soporific, epithalamion, Kavkazi Jewry, פיוטים piyyuṭim, stimulant, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Unknown Author(s)

אֵין אַדִּיר כַּיְיָ (מִפִּי אֵל)‏ | Ayn Adir kAdonai (Mipi El) :: There is none like YHVH

A popular piyyut for Simḥat Torah (4th hakkafah) originally composed as a piyyut for Shavuot and often referred to by its incipit, “Mipi El.” . . .

Categories: Shavuot, Se'udat Leil Shabbat, Shemini Atseret (and Simḥat Torah)

Tags: אין אדיר Ayn Adir, 17th century C.E., 54th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, הקפה ד׳ fourth haḳafah, פיוטים piyyuṭim, via negativa, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Akiva Sanders (translation), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Preis der Gotteslehre, a hymn translated by Felix Adler (1868) adapted from a songbook of the Cooperative for Reform Judaism in Berlin (1846)

“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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English Translation, German Reform Movement, German vernacular prayer, hymns

Contributor(s): Felix Adler, Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תְּחִינָה לִשָּׁבוּעוֺת נאָך ליכט צינדן | Tkhine upon Candlelighting at the Onset of Shavuot

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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., candle lighting, Jewish Women's Prayers, kindling, Needing Attribution, תחינות teḥinot, תחינות tkhines, Torah as intercessor, Yiddish vernacular prayer

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s), Jonah S. Boyarin (translation) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

צער בעלי־חיים | Tsaar Baalei Ḥayyim [It is forbidden to cause] suffering to a living creature, a song in Yiddish

“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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot, Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, Ḥanukkah

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

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

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