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 Collaborator Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
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): 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): “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): 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: Tags: Contributor(s): A piyyut in honor of the Torah. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): 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: 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): This piyyut tells the story of Naomi and Ruth through an imagined dialogue. Naomi, aged and alone, is taken aback by Ruth’s unwavering attachment. Ruth explains that it is with Naomi—and her faith—that she finds the truth and authenticity she longs for. It can also be read as an allegorical dialogue between the Torah and the people of Israel, you insist on remaining loyal to her. פתרונו כפול: פשוטו על נעמי ורות ורומז לתורה עם כנסת ישראל. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): |
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