a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources
— for those crafting their own prayerbooks and sharing the content of their practice
TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.
Hallelu-Yah!
Sing a brand new song to Yah.
This, is how he is celebrated
Among the Ḥassidim.
Yisrael, is happy
Knowing his Maker.
Tsiyyon’s children,
Delight in their King.
Dancing, they chant his Name,
Making rhythm,
With drums and strings.
Yah, loves his people.
The self-effacing,
Can count on him for help.
Ḥassidim, savor
His awesome Presence.
Even on their bed, they hum his praises.
They exalt God, in inner speech.
Such praise is a potent weapon,
Repelling antagonists,
Scolding bigots,
To immobilize their commanders,
And arrest their agitators.
All this, because God’s Ḥassidim
Gives honor to him in splendor. Hallelu-Yah!
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l, included his translation of Psalms 149 in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). To the best of my ability, I have set his English translation side-by-side with the Hebrew verses comprising Psalms 149. I have replaced some anglicizations and removed capitalization for divine pronouns. –Aharon N. Varady
Rabbi Dr. Zalman Meshullam Schachter-Shalomi, affectionately known as "Reb Zalman" (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014) was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement. Born in Żółkiew, Poland (now Ukraine) and raised in Vienna, he was interned in detention camps under the Vichy Regime but managed to flee the Nazi advance, emigrating to the United States in 1941. He was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi in 1947 within the ḤaBaD Hasidic movement while under the leadership of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, and served ḤaBaD communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He subsequently earned an M.A. in psychology of religion at Boston University, and a doctorate from the Hebrew Union College. He was initially sent out to speak on college campuses by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but in the early 1960s, after experimenting with "the sacramental value of lysergic acid", the main ingredient in LSD, leadership within ḤaBaD circles cut ties with him. He continued teaching the Torah of Ḥassidut until the end of his life to creative, free and open-minded Jewish thinkers with humility and kindness and established warm ecumenical ties as well. In September 2009, he became the first contributor of a siddur to the Open Siddur Project database of Jewish liturgy and related work. Reb Zalman supported the Open Siddur Project telling its founder, "this is what I've been looking forward to!" and sharing among many additional works of liturgy, an interview he had with Havurah magazine in the early to mid-1980s detailing his vision of "Database Davenen." The Open Siddur Project is proud to be realizing one of Reb Zalman's long held dreams.
Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.
The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Tanakh for Karaite and Rabbinic Judaism. It was primarily copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries CE. The Masoretic Text defines the Jewish canon and its precise letter-text, with its vocalization and accentuation known as the Masorah.
Comments, Corrections, and Queries