🡄 (Previous category) :: 📁 Pesaḥ

📁 Sukkot :: (Next Category) 🡆

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 LANGUAGE: “Hebrew”” (clear filter)

Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first?

📄 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

רָנּוּ שָׁמַֽיִם | Ronnu shamayim, a piyyut celebrating the Decalogue by Elyaqim

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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: Acrostic signature, Decalogue, פיוטים piyyuṭim, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Stephen Belsky, Anonymous (translation), Elyaqim haPayyetan, Ḳaraite Jews of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

ברכת המזון לשבועות ‬| Birkat haMazon for Shavuot, according to the Cairo Geniza fragment ‫T-S H6.37 vocalized and translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

A Birkat haMazon for Shavuot presenting an alphabetic acrostic from a manuscript preserved in the Cairo Geniza. . . .

Categories: Shavuot, Blessings After Eating

Tags: acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, Cairo Geniza

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

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)

אַקְדָמוּת מִילִין | Aḳdamut Milin, a preface to the Targum for the Shavuot Torah Reading, attributed to Meir ben Isaac Nehorai of Orléans (ca. 11th c.)

An Aramaic piyyut composed as an introduction to the reading of the Targum for the Torah reading on Shavuot. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, אקדמות Aqdamut, Aramaic, בהמות behemot, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum

Contributor(s): Cantor Hinda Labovitz, Meir ben Isaac Nehorai of Orléans and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

אַקְדָמּוּת מִלִּין | The Aḳdamut, a piyyut for introducing the Decalogue by Meir ben Yitsḥaq Nehorai of Orléans (acrostic translation by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer)

The piyyut read as an introduction to the Decalogue during the Torah reading on Shavuot. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., Acrostic signature, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, אקדמות Aqdamut, Aramaic, בהמות behemot, Decalogue, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum

Contributor(s): Meir ben Isaac Nehorai of Orléans 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)

Maaravot for the first night of Shavuot, by Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils

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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, מערבות maaravot, פיוטים piyyuṭim

Contributor(s): Joseph ben Samuel Bonfils, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

אִמְרוֹת הָאֵל טְהוֹרוֹת | Imrot ha-El Ṭ’horot — a meorah piyyut for days on which the Decalogue is recited, by Yehuda ben Shmuel haLevi

A meorah — a piyyuṭ to be inserted before the ḥatima of the first blessing of the Shema’ — by the great payṭan Yehuda haLevi. This piyyuṭ was traditionally recited in eastern Ashkenazi communities on Shabbat Yitro and VaEtḥanan, the two Shabbatot where the Ten Commandments are read. Some also included it on the first day of Shavuot for the same reason. . . .

Categories: Shavuot, Parashat va'Etḥanan, Parashat Yitro

Tags: 12th century C.E., 49th century A.M., Acrostic signature, Decalogue, Light, מאורה meorah, פיוטים piyyuṭim

Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi

אָמוֹן יוֹם זֶה | Amon Yom Zeh, an introduction to the Azharot of ibn Gabirol by David ben Elazar ibn Paquda (ca. 12th c.)

A poetic introduction to the Azharot of Solomon ibn Gabirol read in the afternoon of Shavuot by Sefaradim. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 12th century C.E., 49th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Azharot, Decalogue, Har Sinai, Nusaḥ Sefaradi, פיוטים piyyuṭim, התורה the Torah, theophany

Contributor(s): Moses Gaster, David ben Elazar ibn Paquda and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

אַרְעָא רַקְדָא | Ar’a Raqda (And the Earth Danced), a piyyut in Aramaic for introducing the Decalogue as read in the Targum

“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. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 13th century C.E., 51st century A.M., acrostic, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aramaic, Decalogue, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum

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

אֲנָא אַתְקֵינִית | Ana Atqenit (I am the one), a piyyut in Aramaic for introducing the first commandment as read in the Targum

Ana is a poem for the first commandment, that discusses all that God did for the ancestors. . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 13th century C.E., 51st century A.M., acrostic, phonetic alphabetic acrostic translation, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aramaic, Decalogue, פיוטים piyyuṭim, תרגום targum

Contributor(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)

כתובה לחג השבועות | Ketubah for Shavuot, by Yisrael Najara (ca. 16th c.)

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. . . .

Categories: Before the Aliyot, Shavuot

Tags: 16th century C.E., 54th century A.M., Har Sinai, כתובה ketubbah, Mizraḥi Jewry, פיוטים piyyuṭim, הוצאת ספר תורה Removal of the Torah from the Ark, theophany, wedding

Contributor(s): Yisrael Najara, 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)

הֲלֹא אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת הָאָרֶץ אֲנִי מָלֵא | Do not I fill heaven and earth? (Liqutei Tefilot I:7 part 1) by Reb Noson Sternhartz of Nemyriv (ca. 1820s), translated by Rabbi Morrison David Bial (1962)

“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 . . .

Categories: Shavuot

Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, English Translation, חסידי ברצלב Ḥasidei Bratslav (Breslov), Prayers for Praying

Contributor(s): Morrison David Bial, Noson Sternhartz of Nemyriv 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)

אֲשׁוֹרֵר שִׁירָה | Ashorer Shirah, a piyyut in honor of the Torah by Ḥakham Raphael Baruch Toledano (ca. 20th c.)

A piyyut in honor of the Torah. . . .

Categories: Shavuot, Shemini Atseret (and Simḥat Torah)

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Needing Source Images, התורה the Torah, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Honi Sanders (translation), Raphael Barukh Toledano and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

A Prayer before Candle-lighting, by Chaya Kaplan-Lester

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: Erev Shabbat, Shavuot, Erev Pesaḥ, Sukkot, Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Yom Kippur, 7th Day of Pesaḥ

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): Chaya Kaplan-Lester

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=400

Associated Image:

Sifrei Torah (Yossi Rosenstein)

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute any information in the description of this archive page to the Open Siddur Project (<https://opensiddur.org>).
Clearly indicate the date you accessed this page and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this archive: <https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=400>.
Indicate that the original page was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this page in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the CC BY-SA license.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed on this page and in these shared works represents the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

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

Pocket Reddit Facebook Bluesky Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email