This is an archive of prayers written for שָׁבוּעוֹת Shavuōt (a/k/a Pentecost), the festival upon which twin loaves of processed grain loaves were elevated/waved as offerings in the Temple, expressing gratitude for the first produce of the barley/wheat harvest of the spring season in the Land of Israel. The first work to make the connection between the festival and the granting of the Torah is in the parabilblical work from the Second Temple Period, Sefer ha-Yovelim (the Book of Jubilees), chapter 6:15-22 —
"And [Hashem] gave a sign to Noaḥ and his children that there should not again be a flood upon the earth. [Hashem] set his [rain]bow in the clouds for a sign of the covenant which is forever, that the water of the Flood should therefore not be upon the earth to destroy it all of the days of the earth. Therefore, it is ordained and written in the heavenly tablets that [the children of Yisrael] should observe the feast of Shevuot in this month, once per year, in order to renew the covenant in all (respects), year by year. And all of this feast was celebrated in heaven from the day of creation until the days of Noaḥ, twenty-six jubilees and five weeks of years. And Noaḥ and his children kept it for seven jubilees and one week of years until the day of the death of Noaḥ. And from the day of the death of Noaḥ, his sons corrupted it until the days of Avraham, and they ate blood. But Avraham alone kept it. And Yitsḥaq and Yaaqov and his sons kept it until your days, but in your days the children of Yisrael forgot it until you renewed it for them on this mountain. And you, command the children of Israel so that they might keep this feast in all of their generations as a commandment to them. One day per year in this month they shall celebrate the feast, for it is the feast of Shevuot [oaths] and it is the feast of the first fruits. This feast is twofold and of two natures. Just as it is written and engraved concerning it, observe it. This is because I have written it in the book of the first law, which I wrote for you, so that you might observe it in each of its appointed times, one day per year. And I have told you its sacrificial offering so that the children of Israel might remember them and observe them in their generations in this month one day each year." (translation after the surviving Ge'ez text by O.S. Wintermute, from J. Charlesworth’s O.T. Pseudepigrapha) 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 Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range This ahavah piyyut, likely by the paytan Yitsḥaq ben Reuven Albargeloni (the acrostic signature is ambiguous), is a longing love song between Israel, the “amazing one,” and God, the “Mighty One.” As an ahavah, it is recited prior to the final line of the guf and the ḥatima of the Ahavah Rabba blessing. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): 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: Tags: Contributor(s): A poetic introduction to the Azharot of Solomon ibn Gabirol read in the afternoon of Shavuot by Sefaradim. Categories: Tags: 12th century C.E., 49th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, אזהרות azharot, Decalogue, Har Sinai, Nusaḥ Sefaradi, פיוטים piyyuṭim, התורה the Torah, theophany Contributor(s): This zulat piyyut, by R. Shmuel bar Yehuda (fl. 12th c.), is a keening cry in response to the traumatic First Crusade Rhineland massacres, known as the Gzerot TaTN”O in Hebrew, specifically focusing on the 3 Sivan massacre and martyrdoms in Mainz. The massacres of the Gzerot TaTN”O were so traumatic to Ashkenazi Jewry that to this day, the Av haRaḥamim prayer for martyrs, usually elided on Shabbat Mevorkhim, is not elided on Shabbat Mevorkhim Iyar or Sivan. As a zulat, it is recited at the end of the “Emet v-Emuna” paragraph. Generally the second half of the paragraph is altered slightly when a zulat is inserted. In this case, the alteration, according to the old Nusaḥ Polin, is included. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This geulah piyyut, by R. Yehuda heḤasid, is, similar to the prior zulat, a response to the massacres of the First Crusade. It specifically focuses, in the way only a maverick like heḤasid could, on holding God to account for breach of covenant, and calls out both Christians and — on a much rarer theme — Muslims for their slaughter of Jews during the Crusades. As a geulah, it is recited right before concluding berakha of the Emet blessing and the Amidah. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This meorah, by R. Avraham bar Shmuel of Speyer (the elder brother of R. Yehuda heḤasid and a great scholar in his own right) is recited on Shabbat Naso. This is usually after Shavuot, but sometimes (in 2025, for instance) it is before. This meorah is a poetic interpretation of the Priestly Blessing, and a plea for vengeance against the antisemitic nations. As a meorah, it is recited prior to the final line of the guf and the ḥatima of the Yotser Or blessing. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “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: Tags: Contributor(s): Ana is a poem for the first commandment, that discusses all that God did for the ancestors. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is the piyyut “Eyumah Nikhtrah (Lo, the Mighty Nation…)” by Isaac ben Meshulam for maariv (after the shema) on the second night of Shavuot, was first published in Adler and Davis’s Maḥzor for Shavuot, Avodat Ḥag ha-Shavuot (1909), pp. 178-179. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): 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: Tags: Contributor(s): 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: Tags: Contributor(s): While the most famous ketubah-poem for Shavuot, still recited in Sephardic communities the world over, is by R. Yisrael Najara, many others have been written over the years. This one was written in the 16th century by Saadia ben Yosef ha-Levi. It is a marriage contract between the groom (Israel) and the bride (Torah). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A piyyut in Judeo-Greek for introducing the Decalogue. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): 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: Tags: Contributor(s): This is a variation of Mipi El in Hebrew with a Judeo-Arabic translation found in the Seder al-Tawḥid for Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan, compiled by Mosheh Asher ibn Shmuel in 1887 in Alexandria. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): 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: Tags: Contributor(s): “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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “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: Tags: Contributor(s): “A Prayer for Pentecost” by the Reformed Society of Israelites is found in The Sabbath service and miscellaneous prayers, adopted by the Reformed Society of Israelites, founded in Charleston, S. C., November 21, 1825 (1830), as reprinted by Barnett A. Elzas in The Sabbath Service and Miscellaneous Prayers (1916), pp. 51-52. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): |
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