This is an archive of prayers, prayer-poems, and songs for the festival of שְׁמִינִי עֲצֶרֶת Shemini Atseret. On Shemini Atseret, the Tefilat Geshem (prayer for rain) is offered for the fertility of all life on Earth and the resulting health of all peoples. (On the other side of the Jewish calendar, the Prayer for Dew is offered on Pesaḥ before the dry season in the northern hemisphere and Erets Yisrael.) Literally, Shemini Atseret means the "Eighth [day] of Assembly", but given that both Shemini Atseret and the seventh final day of Pesaḥ are described as atseret in the Torah, the name is taken to mean "the closing festival" at the conclusion of each of these week long festivals. The origin of Ḥanukkah underscores the significance of these festivals. During the Seleucid Greek occupation of Jerusalem in the 160s BCE, Sukkot and Shemini Atseret could not properly be celebrated in the second Temple. As a result, when the Temple was retaken by the Maccabees after the rainy season had already begun, the festival of Ḥanukkah was born with many of Sukkot and Shemini Atseret's rain-oriented ritual symbolism transformed to that of light. Co-incident with Shemini Atseret is the festival of the completion of the Torah, Simḥat Torah. In the Diaspora, Shemin Atseret is a two day festival and, outside the bounds of the historic land of Israel, Simḥat Torah is celebrated on the second day of the yom tov for Shemini Atseret. Click here to contribute a prayer or transcription or translation of a historic prayer. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
To the best of my ability, this is a faithful transcription of Psalms 8 from תהילים או לוס סאלמוס ; טריסלאד’אד’וס דיל לשון הקדש אין לה לינגואה ספרדית (Tehillim, or the Psalms, translated from the Holy language [Hebrew] into the Sephardic language, Estampado por Ǧ. Griffit 1852/3) from a digital copy made available by the collection of Sephardic Studies at the University of Washington. Please join me in making a complete transcription of this Ladino translation of Psalms. –Aharon N. Varady Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “Andachtsübung über das Verhältniß der Kinder zu ihren Eltern,” a paraliturigcal Yizkor prayer for those with living parents, was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №74 on pp. 110-112. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №75 on pp. 134-136. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №78 on pp. 139-141. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “An den Hauptfesten, wenn man Behufs der üblichen Vorlesungen die Gesetzrolle aus der heiligen Lade nimmt” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №18 on pp. 22-23. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №18 on pp. 26-27. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №20 on pp. 29-31. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “Am Schlußfeste (Schemini aẓeress)” 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 №52 on pp. 74-75. In the 1835 edition, it appears (misnumbered) as teḥinah №53 pp. 92-94. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №56 on pp. 97-99. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is a paraliturgical prayer for rain during the wet season, read during the festival of Sukkot, following in the tradition of Yiddish tkhines, albeit written in French. The prayer was included by Rabbi Arnaud Aron and Jonas Ennery in their opus, אמרי לב Prières d’un Coeur Israelite (first edition) published in 1848 by the Société Consistoriale de Bons Livres. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A prayer for a woman celebrating Shmini Atseret. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “Thanksgiving” is a hymn written by Felix Adler and published in Hymns, for Divine Service in the Temple Emanu-El (1871), hymn №35, p. 69. We have tentatively dated this hymn 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). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This is Rabbi Max Landsberg’s public repetition of the shaḥarit festival amidah for Shemini Atseret as found in his Ritual for Jewish Prayer (1884), pp. 21-28 with a unique prayer for Shemini Atseret found on pp. 50-52. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): |
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