It is somewhat well known that in the Italian rite, there are alternative texts for the first and third blessings of the evening Shemaˁ liturgy on Shabbat, texts which were rejected by Ashkenazi practice out of fear the community could become confused and recite them on weekdays. But these Shabbat-specific blessings, derived from the old Erets Yisrael rite and preserved in the siddur of Rav Saˁadia Gaon (RaSaG), are not alone! All the blessings of the Shabbat evening Shemaˁ service — as well as all the blessings of the Saturday night Motsaei Shabbat Shemaˁ service! — have unique poetic forms in RaSaG’s siddur. This part, the Saturday night rite, is part two of a two-part series posting these liturgical texts found in the siddur of — and approved of by — the gaon.

Categories:

Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

Geonic prayers, Nusaḥ Erets Yisrael, Nusaḥ Italḳi

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) and Saadiah ben Yosef Gaon

הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחֹל | Hamavdil Bein Ḳodesh l’Ḥol (abridged), a piyyuṭ attributed to Yitsḥak ben Yehudah Ibn Ghayyāth HaLevi (ca. 11th c.)

The short form of the piyyut for motsei shabbat, with English translation.

Categories:

Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Angelic Protection, המבדיל בין קדש לחל Hamavdil Bein Ḳodesh l'Ḥol, הבדלות havdalot, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s):

Akiva Sanders (translation) and Yitsḥak ben Yehudah Ibn Ghayyāth HaLevi

הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחֹל | Hamavdil Bein Ḳodesh l’Ḥol, a piyyuṭ attributed to Yitsḥaq ben Yehudah ibn Ghayyat (rhymed translation by Alice Lucas, 1894)

A rhymed translation of the piyyut sung following the Havdallah ritual.

Categories:

Yom Kippur, Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., Acrostic signature, המבדיל בין קדש לחל Hamavdil Bein Ḳodesh l'Ḥol, הבדלות havdalot, נעילה‎ neilah, פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Alice Montefiore Lucas (translation) and Yitsḥak ben Yehudah Ibn Ghayyāth HaLevi

הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחֹל | Hamavdil Ben Ḳodesh l’Ḥol, a piyyuṭ attributed to Yitsḥaq ben Yehudah ibn Ghayyat (German translation by Franz Rosenzweig 1921)

The text of the piyyut, “HaMavdil,” with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig.

Categories:

Yom Kippur, Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

11th century C.E., 49th century A.M., Acrostic signature, German translation, המבדיל בין קדש לחל Hamavdil Bein Ḳodesh l'Ḥol, paraliturgical havdalah, פיוטים piyyuṭim, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s):

Franz Rosenzweig (translation), Yitsḥak ben Yehudah Ibn Ghayyāth HaLevi and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

יָהּ, אָנָה אֶמְצָאֶךָּ | Yah, Where shall I find you?, a piyyuṭ by Yehudah haLevi (ca. early 12th c.)

A piyyut that expresses the paradox of a divinity that is both “Beyond” and “Present.”

Categories:

Purim Qatan, Motsaei Shabbat, 🤦︎ Taḥanun (Nefilat Apayim)

Tags:

12th century C.E., 49th century A.M., alienation, אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, dveykut

Contributor(s):

Nina Davis Salaman (translation), the Ben Yehuda Project (transcription), Yehudah ben Shmuel haLevi and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

אֱלֹהִים יִסְעָדֵנוּ | Elohim Yisadenu, a piyyuṭ by Avraham ibn Ezra (trans. Rabbi David Aaron de Sola, 1857)

This translation by Rabbi David Aaron de Sola of “Elohim Yisadenu” by a paytan named Avraham (possibly Avraham ibn Ezra) was first published in his Ancient Melodies of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews (1857).

Categories:

Se'udah haShlishit, Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

12th century C.E., 50th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, פיוטים piyyuṭim, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s):

David de Aaron de Sola (translation), Avraham ibn Ezra and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

איל דייו אלטו | El Dio Alto — a Ladino pizmon for Havdalah, Motsei Shabbat (transcribed and translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer)

There are many different versions of this beloved Ladino pizmon for Havdalah. This one is found in Tefilat Imanuel, published in Vienna in 1924.

Categories:

Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

Angelic Protection, הבדלות havdalot, Ladino vernacular prayer, paraliturgical havdalah, פזמונים pizmonim, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s):

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

אוֹחִיל יוֹם יוֹם | Oḥil Yom Yom (As Every Day I Hope) — a poem to honor the holy city of Tiberias on 7 Elul by David bar Aharon ben Ḥassin

A piyyut of the 18th century by R. David Ḥassin, one of the greatest composers of Morocco. In this piyyut, dedicated to the city of Tiberias and recounting its praises, we tour Tiberias and the graves of the tannaim and amoraim there, and come to the place of Maimonides’ burial according to tradition. From the dead, the composer moves on to tell the prose of the living – R. Ḥayyim Abulˁafia, who renewed Jewish settlement in Tiberias to where he had moved with his students in the year 5500 [1740], doing much to revitalize the Jewish settlement and build the city, for which R. David Ḥassin praises and blesses him at the conclusion of the poem. This poem was very beloved and merited widespread circulation, and is found in poetry books of many different Mizraḥi communities. This poem has also merited a number of imitations and adaptations, testifying to its great popularity. The most well-known imitation is a poem by the Israeli diaspora-emissary R. Eliyahu Ḥazzan, who arrived at Morocco, came across this song, and composed an imitation, also called “As Every Day I Hope” — except R. Eliyahu Ḥazzan’s song is dedicated to Jerusalem and tours around it.

Categories:

Purim Sheni, Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, הבדלות havdalot, Maghrebi Jewry, Meknes, Morocco, Old Yishuv, פיוטים piyyuṭim, פזמונים pizmonim

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and David ben Aharon ibn Ḥassin

א דוּדעלע (אַיֵּה אֶמְצָאֶךָּ)‏ | A Dudele (Where shall I seek you?), by Rabbi Levi Yitsḥaq of Berditchev (ca. 18th c.)

A profound song invoking divine presence.

Categories:

Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Yom Kippur, Purim Qatan, Motsaei Shabbat, 🤦︎ Taḥanun (Nefilat Apayim)

Tags:

18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, creator within creation, חסידות Ḥasidut, הבדלות havdalot, Hebrew translation, non-dual theology, panentheism, תשובה teshuvah, Yiddish songs, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s):

Levi Yitsḥaq Derbarmdiger Rosakov of Berditchev and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

גאָט פון אַבְרָהָם | Tkhine before Havdalah and Bakashe for the End of Shabbat (Got fin Avrum)

Master of all realms! You hear from all worlds. You look with love and grace upon all of your creations for whose sake you created Your world. Seize and fulfill the pure request from Your servant who comes before You after a full week, having shown her heart is full and her mood somber. The beloved Shabbes koidesh is already going away, and with our Shabbes, our rest has also disappeared. A new week comes up to meet us, against us, Master of the universe. We are people who know, just like You know, the heavy and difficult life of Your people Yisruel: their bitter mood, how difficulty and bitterly each Jew acquires his meager piece of bread through worry and heartache, the fear and hardship with which each Jew scrapes together his seemingly hopeless living.

Categories:

Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

gut vokh, Needing Source Images, תחינות tkhines, Yiddish vernacular prayer

Contributor(s):

Unknown, Yudis Retig (translation), Yocheved Retig (translation) and Levi Yitsḥaq Derbarmdiger Rosakov of Berditchev

[Prayer for] Saturday night, by Grace Aguilar (24 December 1836)

“Saturday night, Dec. 24, 1836” (17th of Tevet, 5597) by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 192-195. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 110-112.

Categories:

Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, תחינות teḥinot, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

[Prayer for] Saturday night [on New Year’s Eve], by Grace Aguilar (31 December 1836)

“Saturday night, Dec. 31, 1836” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 196-199. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 112-115.

Categories:

🌐 Gregorian New Year's Day (January 1st), Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, תחינות teḥinot, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

[Prayer for] Saturday night, by Grace Aguilar (14 January 1837)

“Meditations—Saturday night, Jan. 14, 1837” by Grace Aguilar was published posthumously by her mother Sarah Aguilar in Essays and Miscellanies (1853), in the section “Sacred Communings,” pp. 200-202. In the UK edition of Sacred Communings (1853) the prayer appears with small variations of spelling and punctuation on pages 123-124.

Categories:

Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, תחינות teḥinot, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Grace Aguilar and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for the Close of the Sabbath, by Rabbi Moritz Mayer (1866)

“Prayer for the Close of the Sabbath” is one of thirty prayers appearing in Rabbi Moritz Mayer’s collection of tehinot, Hours of Devotion (1866), of uncertain provenance and which he may have written.

Categories:

Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

Moritz Mayer and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Haḇdalah, a paraliturgical prayer by Jessie Ethel Sampter (1919)

This paraliturgical prayer for the end of Shabbat havdalah was made by Jessie Ethel Sampter and published in her Around the Year in Rhymes for the Jewish Child (1920), p. 64.

Categories:

Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., children's prayers, paraliturgical havdalah, rhyming translation

Contributor(s):

Jessie Ethel Sampter and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

אָכֵן ה׳ | Akhen Hashem, a baqashah of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (ca. 1920s)

This is a prayer offered by the Piacezna Rebbe, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (1889-1943) and likely written down sometime in the 1920s before it was printed among other letters and writings in his sefer Derekh haMelekh (1931). The prayer, vocalized from the 2011 Feldheim edition and translated into English, was circulated online via the Lost Princess Initiative of Rabbi Yaakov Klein (Eilecha) beginning 25 May 2023.

Categories:

Purim Qatan, Motsaei Shabbat, 🤦︎ Taḥanun (Nefilat Apayim)

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, בקשות Baqashot, חסידות Ḥasidut, panentheism

Contributor(s):

Yaakov Klein (translation), Kalonymus Kalman Shapira and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

The Presence of God (CCAR 1923)

“The Presence of God” is the thirty-seventh prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 124-126.

Categories:

Purim Qatan, Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., alienation, אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, dveykut, English vernacular prayer, integrity, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

הִנֵּה שָׁם אֶמְצָאֶךָּ | Where We Can Find Yah, a prayer-poem inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali (Song Offerings, 1912) by Eugene Kohn (1945)

“Where We Can Find God,” a prayer-poem inspired by passages appearing in David Frishman’s Hebrew translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali.

Categories:

Purim Qatan, Motsaei Shabbat, 🤦︎ Taḥanun (Nefilat Apayim)

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, cosmic religion, is it Sikh or Hassidic?, Prayers as poems, universalist prayers

Contributor(s):

Eugene Kohn, David Frischmann (translation), Rabindranath Tagore and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Hashem is Everywhere! — a song by Rabbi Yosef Goldstein (1972)

The pedagogical song “Hashem is Everywhere!” by Rabbi Yosef Goldstein (1928-2013) can be found in the context of his story, “Where is Hashem?,” the second track on his album מדות טובות Jewish Ethics Through Story and Song (Menorah Records 1972). In the instructions to reciting the lyrics, the singer points first to the six cardinal directions and lastly, by pointing inward towards one’s self. In so doing, one explicitly affirms the idea of the divine within ourselves and implicitly, in each other.

Categories:

🇺🇸 National Brotherhood Week, Purim Qatan, 🤦︎ Taḥanun (Nefilat Apayim), Motsaei Shabbat

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., affirmations, אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, children's education, circle drawing, English vernacular prayer, חבּ״ד ḤaBaD Lubavitch, panentheism, Pedagogical songs, Yiddish translation, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s):

Yosef Goldstein and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=1506

Associated Image:

An illustration of Seraḥ later titled (on postcards) "Shirat bat Tsiyon," originally published at the beginning of the chapter "Lieder des Lebens" (Songs of Life) in Lieder des Ghetto (1902) by Ephraim Moses Lilien

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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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