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Alphabetic Acrostic —⟶ tag: Alphabetic Acrostic Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? 💬 איכה פרק ו׳ | Lamentations “chapter 6” in cantilized English, a supplement to public readings of Eikhah by HIAS (2018)As we prepare to observe Tishah b’Av and commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem that led to the exile of the Jewish people for centuries to come, we are acutely aware that we find ourselves in the midst of the worst refugee crisis in recorded history, with more than 68 million people displaced worldwide. Given these extraordinary numbers, the continued attacks on asylum and the refugee resettlement program in the United States over the last eighteen months are even more inhumane. Of course, we know that the proverbial 10th of Av will come, and we will rise up from our mourning with renewed resolve to support refugees and asylum seekers. First, though, we take time to dwell fully in the mourning demanded by the 9th of Av. We fervently lament the many cruel actions this administration has taken to limit the ability of refugees and asylum seekers to seek safety in our country, and we mourn for lives destroyed and lives lost. . . . The Al Cheyt (literally meaning “For the sin…”) is a confessional litany recited on Yom Kippur. It is an alphabetical acrostic; each one of its verses starting with a successive letter of the aleph-beit, to represent not only the moral failings that are specifically enumerated there, but the fullness of every way in which we missed the mark in the previous year. . . . Categories: Yom Kippur אדיר הוא | Awesome One: an Alphabetical English Interpretation of the piyyut Adir Hu, by Isaac Gantwerk MayerAdir Hu, a classic Pesaḥ song if ever there was one, is a part of Seder tables all over the planet. Its alphabetical list of God’s attributes, combined with its repeated pleas for a return to Jerusalem, make it a classic, to the point where the traditional German farewell greeting for Passover was not “chag sameach” or “gut yontef” but “bau gut” – build well. This interpretation, while not a direct translation by any means, has the same rhythmic pattern and alphabetical structure, giving a sense of the greatness of God. . . . Categories: Nirtsah אֱלִי צִיּוֹן וְעָרֶיהָ | Eli Tsiyon v’Arehah — Coronavirus, by Daniel Olson & Rabbi Benjamin Goldberg (2020)An adaptation of the kinnah, “Eli Tsiyon v’Ar’eha,” Composed for Tisha B’Av 5780 in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. . . . הושענא להושענא רבא תשפ״א | Save Us! A Hosha-na Prayer, by Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier for Hoshana Rabba 2020A Hoshana prayer supplement for Hoshana Rabbah during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in 2020. . . . ברכת המזון לסעודה מפסקת ערב תשעה בעב | Birkat haMazon for the Seudah Mafseqet (Pre-Fast Meal) of Tishah b’Av, by Isaac Gantwerk MayerA Birkat haMazon with additions for the pre-Fast meal of Tisha b’Av . . . ברכת המזון לראש השנה לבהמה | Birkat haMazon Supplement for Rosh haShanah la-Behemah, by Isaac Gantwerk MayerThis is a poetic text for Birkat haMazon, signed with an alphabetical acrostic and the name of the author, to be recited on the first of Elul. It celebrates the variety of God’s creation as exemplified by the natural diversity of species, as well as alluding to the livestock tithes traditionally assigned on the first of Elul. . . . ברכת המזון לסעודה מפסקת לפני יום הכפורים | Birkat haMazon for the Pre-Fast Meal for Yom Kippur, by Isaac Gantwerk MayerThis acrostic poetic form of Birkat haMazon was written for the se’udah mafseqet (pre-fast meal) before Yom Kippur, in the manner of the poetic Birkat haMazon variants recorded in the Cairo Geniza. . . . Categories: Yom Kippur This is a poetic Birkat haMazon, similar to those found in the Cairo Geniza, intended for this specific break-fast meal. The editor has included the text in Hebrew, English, and an attempted Liturgical Ge’ez translation. . . . אֶפְתַּח פִּי לְךָ אָדוֹן | Eftaḥ Pi L’kha Adōn, a seliḥah for Kristallnacht by Isaac Gantwerk MayerThere’s a lot of controversy over Yom haShoah as a date. One of the key issues is this: traditionally, the ways Jews mourn communal tragedies is through establishing a fast day. It’s forbidden to fast during the month of Nisan. It’s hard to pick any specific date to commemorate a tragedy as enormous as the Shoah, but one which seems appropriate to me would be 16 Marḥeshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom. This piyyut is a seliḥah for Kristallnacht, to be recited on 16 Marḥeshvan (or 15 Marḥeshvan on years like 5782 where the sixteenth falls on a Thursday). . . . Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust After a brit milah meal, there are several poetic additions traditionally included in the Birkat haMazon. But for young daughters a brit milah isn’t going to happen. So this is a poetic Birkat haMazon to be recited after a Zeved haBat ceremony. . . . Categories: Blessings After Eating תפילת גשם כולל אמהות | Tefillat Geshem including the matriarchs with stanzas in a backwards acrostic, an adaptation by Eliran SobelOn 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 (and Simḥat Torah) Qedushta Additions for the Public Repetition of the Amidah on Sigd, adapted from the original liturgical texts by Isaac Gantwerk MayerThis is a Hebrew adaptation of the poems traditionally recited by the Beta Israel community for the festival of Sigd, altered and adapted to fit the traditional qedushta form of poetic Amidah additions. The texts of the first few prayers were rewritten substantially and combined with relevant verses so as to fit in the strict form of the magen, mehaye, meshalesh, and El Na. After this, the qiqlar is slightly edited to fit a couplet rhyme scheme, while the silluq (the freest of the genres of qedusha piyyut) is almost entirely preserved — the only change being several verses whose placement is postponed so as to better lead into the qedusha as a silluq should. Regarding translations, the silluq largely uses my original translation with slight alterations (replacing the clunky use of ‘God’ as a pronoun with a gender-neutral THEIR, translating the Agaw passages into Latin rather than English to preserve general comprehensibility while clarifying that this is a different language), while the rest of the poems are different enough for their translation to largely be from scratch. These would be recited with the Ark open for all the piyyutim, as one would on the Yamim Noraim, ideally using melodies from the Sigd liturgy. . . . Categories: Sigd Festival Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, Beta Esrael, Ethiopian Jewry, קרובות ḳerovot, פיוטים piyyutim, Public Amidah Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) “Ashamnu” was written by the author in response to the conflict in Gaza on 30 December 2023 and first published on 1 October 2024 on their Substack account. . . . Categories: Yom Kippur A yotser for Pesaḥ Sheni. Each stanza is written with a threefold acrostic — the first two lines in atbash, the third spelling “Yitsḥaq Har’el Ḥazaq,” and the fourth a verse from Numbers 9. . . . Categories: Pesaḥ Sheni אַהֲבָה תְּלַבְלֵב כְּמוֹ־פֶֽרַח | Ahava T’lavlev K’mo Peraḥ (Love blossoms like a flower) — a yotser for Tu b’Av by Isaac Gantwerk MayerA yotser for Tu b’Av, the first part of an intended cycle of yotsrot. A retelling of the list of reasons for Tu b’Av given in the Talmud, with repeated refrains from Psalm 45 for the alphabetical verses and the rest of the Tanakh for the name-acrostic choruses. Written in honor of my friend Eliran’s wedding. . . . Categories: Tu b'Av Yotsrot for Yom Simḥat Kohen/Yom Shem ha-El (11 Tishrei) in a Cairo Geniza weekday yotsrot style by Isaac Gantwerk MayerA new and original cycle of yotsrot in the style of the weekday yotsrot of the Cairo Geniza, for the day after Yom Kippur, referred to either as Yom Simḥat Kohen or Yom Shem ha-El depending on the custom. . . . Categories: Yom Simḥat Kohen A plea for the manifestation of righteous civic virtues on Election Day in the shadow of Hoshana Rabba. . . . מחזור קדושתאות ליום המתורגמן (ח׳ בטבת) | Qedushtaot Cycle for Yom Meturgeman (Translator’s Day) on 8 TevetThis is an original ḳedushtaot cycle for Yom Meturgeman, the eighth of Tevet, to be inserted into the ‘amidah. . . . Categories: Yom Meturgeman According to Joseph Judah Chorny’s On the Caucasian Jews, this acrostic piyyuṭ was customarily used as an epithalion before a wedding. He writes, “Before morning light, the bride is led to the groom’s house accompanied by many women and men, all carrying lit wax candles in their hands, and singing this song along the way.” Variants of this piyyut are found throughout the greater Sephardic world, generally in an abbreviated and slightly altered form. In Syria it is sung during the haqafot for Simḥat Torah, while in Livorno Sephardic practice (and subsequently in most Eastern Sephardic maḥzorim) it is a Shavu’ot piyyut. . . . | ||
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