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
The reshut for the prayer for rain and dew on Shemini Atseret and Pesaḥ, in Hebrew with English translation. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The time of Sukkot is a time of fullness and generosity, but also a time to pray for the coming season. Shemini Atzeret, the festival when we pray for rain, is an expression of our need for water, which in the Jewish tradition symbolizes life, renewal, and deliverance. Tefillat Geshem, a graceful fixture of the Ashkenazic liturgy, invokes the patriarchs as exemplars of holiness and model recipients of God’s love. This prayer uses water as a metaphor for devotion and faith, asking that God grant us life-sustaining rain. While its authorship is unknown, it is sometimes attributed to Elazar Kallir, the great liturgist who lived sometime during the first millenium. Each year, we are reminded of our people’s connection to the patriarchs and to the rhythms of water, spiritual and physical sources of life, through this medieval piyyut. While we know that rain is a natural process, formal thanksgiving for water as a source of life, energy, and beauty reminds us that our Creator is the source of our physical world and its many wonders. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This prayer for rain by Lior bar-Ami, including the matriarchs, was first offered in German and English in 2020. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): On Shemini Atseret, one is supposed to begin mentioning rain in the second blessing of their Amidah prayers (Ta’anit 2a). In many communities, this is liturgically marked by a poetic introduction in the repetition of the Amidah, called Geshem, specifically with the piyyut “Zekhor Av” written by Rabbi Eleezer BeRabbi Kalir, which alludes to the references of our forefathers’ relations to water. One feature of this poem is that it utilizes an alef-bet-ical acrostic, and while there are various modern adaptations that include biblical women, those break the acrostic. This is my attempt to compose a version including stanzas for our foremothers, while maintaining the acrostic by writing the women’s stanzas as a backwards acrostic (i.e. starting from tav and going to alef). This backwards acrostic containing the foremothers is then interspersed with Kalir’s original. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, גשם geshem, אמהות Imahot, Matriarchs, Needing Translation (into English), North America, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Prayers for Precipitation, Rain, water, water cycle Contributor(s): An original Aramaic-language “meturgeman piyyut” for Simḥat Torah. I’m working on creating a seder meturgeman liturgy, akin to those for day 7 of Pesaḥ and for Shavuot, to be recited on Simḥat Torah. Mostly incorporating older Aramaic poems, I’ve also decided to write some originals myself. This piyyut, written in the structure of the famous Aqdamut Milin reshut still recited on Shavuot, is meant to be inserted before the translation of the first verse of the first aliyah on Simḥat Torah. It discusses the halakhic status and history of Shmini Atzeret, as well as the final blessing and death of Moses. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): |
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