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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.

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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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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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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