ברכה לפני קריאת תהלים | Blessing before the Recitation of Psalms (nusaḥ Erets Yisrael)

A blessing before the recitation of psalms, used in the old Eretz Yisrael rite as found in the Cairo Geniza. Since its structure is similar to the blessing before the haftara which is often cantillated, I have taken the liberty of adding psalmodic cantillation to the text. . . .

Categories: Birkhot haTorah

Tags: blessings, Cairo Geniza, Nusaḥ Erets Yisrael, תהלים Psalms

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

Prayer before reading the Bible, by Grace Aguilar (ca. 1830s)

“Prayer before reading the Bible” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 155-156. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on page 166. . . .

Categories: Birkhot haTorah

Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, family prayers, paraliturgical birkhot haTorah, teḥinot in English, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

ברכות התורה | Blessing for Torah Study, interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

This English translation of the blessing for Torah study by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l, was first published in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). Versification according to the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l by Aharon Varady. . . .

Categories: Birkhot haTorah, Torah Study

Tags: Amoraic prayers, Antiquity, devotional interpretation, ecoḥasid, English Translation, interpretive translation, Jewish Renewal, Late Antiquity, North America, Prayers before Torah Study, talmud torah, Tannaitic prayers

Contributor(s): Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (translation) and Unknown Author(s)

שִׁוִּיתִי | Shiviti: perceiving the world as an expression of divine Oneness

Given that the Torah forbids impressing our imaginations with illustrations of the divine, some other method is necessary to perceive divine Oneness. One method is found in the verse in Psalms 16:8, “I have set YHVH before me at all times.” . . .

Categories: Art & Craft, Birkhot haTorah, Shiviti

Tags: meditation, Openers, שויתי shiviti

Contributor(s): Andrew Meit and Aharon N. Varady

בִּרְכוֹת הַתּוֹרָה | Birkhot haTorah, paraliturgical reflections by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman

A paraliturgical reflection on the blessings over learning Torah, the Birkhot haTorah, for a shame resilience practice. . . .

Categories: Birkhot haTorah, Torah Study

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., ברכות התורה birkhot haTorah, English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical birkhot haTorah, shame resilience

Contributor(s): Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

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