תְּפִלַּת גֶּשֶׁם | Tefilat Geshem, according to the Maḥzor Aram Ṣoba (1560)

The Geshem prayer for Shmini Atzeret in the Maḥzor Aram Ṣoba has some things in common with other Geshem texts, but its most unique facets are twofold. First and most obviously, the extensive catena of verses from Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim that falls between the introductory announcement and the piyyutim themselves. And second, several Aramaic passages relatively rare in other texts, which seem to reflect an archaic form predating the adoption of Arabic as the spoken language of the Aleppo Jews. (These Aramaic passages are marked in green in the transcription.) As standard in Eastern practice, especially in the Maḥzor Aram Ṣoba (which shows a surprisingly modern reticence to interrupt the ‘amidah), this prayer is placed after the Torah service and before musaf begins. . . .

Categories:

Shemini Atseret, the Wet Season (Fall & Winter)

Tags:

Aramaic, centos, גשם geshem, Minhag Aleppo Musta'arabi, Prayers for Precipitation, Rain, rainfall

Contributor(s):

Unknown, Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

לְשׁוֹנִי כּוֹנַנְתָּ | Leshoni Konanta (My tongue you have fashioned), a reshut attributed to Shlomo ibn Gabirol (ca. 11th c.) translated by Sara Lapidot

The reshut for the prayer for rain and dew on Shemini Atseret and Pesaḥ, in Hebrew with English translation. . . .

Categories:

Pesaḥ Yamei Ḥag, Shemini Atseret

Tags:

11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., Needing Source Images, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Prayers for Precipitation, רשות reshut

Contributor(s):

Sara Lapidot (translation) and Shlomo ibn Gabirol

Actions de graces pour la récolte et Prière pour demander un bon hiver | Thanksgiving for the Harvest and a Prayer for a Favorable Winter, a paraliturgical prayer for rain by Jonas Ennery & Rabbi Arnaud Aron (1848)

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:

Shemini Atseret, the Wet Season (Fall & Winter)

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., French Jewry, French vernacular prayer, גשם geshem, hazon et hakol, paraliturgical tefilat geshem, Prayers for Precipitation, Rain, water is life

Contributor(s):

Jonas Ennery, Arnaud Aron and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Geschem, a prayer for rain in the onset of winter by Lise Tarlau (1907)

“Geschem” by Lise Tarlau can be found in Rabbi Max Grunwald’s anthology of Jewish women’s prayer, Beruria: Gebet- und Andachtsbuch für jüdische Frauen und Mädchen (1907), pages 363-365. . . .

Categories:

Shemini Atseret, the Wet Season (Fall & Winter)

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., German vernacular prayer, גשם geshem, Jewish Women's Prayers, paraliturgical tefilat geshem, Prayers for Precipitation, winter

Contributor(s):

Lise Tarlau and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילת גשם בזכות האמהות | Prayer for Rain in the Merit of the Matriarchs by Rabbi Jill Hammer

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:

Shemini Atseret, the Wet Season (Fall & Winter)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., גשם geshem, אמהות Imahot, Matriarchs, North America, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Prayers for Precipitation, Rain

Contributor(s):

Rabbi Jill Hammer, Ph.D.

Tefillat Geshem, a paraliturgical prayer for rain on Shemini Atseret by Rabbi Louis Polisson

A paraliturgical prayer for rain on Shemini Atseret. . . .

Categories:

Shemini Atseret, the Wet Season (Fall & Winter)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, גשם geshem, interpretive translation, paraliturgical tefilat geshem, Prayers for Precipitation, Rain, rainfall, water cycle, water is life

Contributor(s):

Louis Polisson

תפילת גשם כולל אמהות | Tefillat Geshem including the matriarchs with stanzas in a backwards acrostic, an adaptation by Eliran Sobel

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:

Shemini Atseret

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):

Eliran Sobel and Elazar ben Killir