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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
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Alphabetic Acrostic —⟶ tag: Alphabetic Acrostic Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? A complementary (positive vidui) to supplement the harsh communal and personal vidu’im (confessions) being offered during the Zman Teshuvah. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acknowledgment, acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aseret Yemei Tshuvah, complementary vidui, confession, Maale Gilboa, positive self-recognition, supplemental vidui, וידוי vidui, ישראל Yisrael, זמן תשובה Zman teshuvah Contributor(s): A song by Darshan including the alphabetic acrostic piyyut, El Barukh, part of the morning Yotser Ohr blessing made prior to the Shema at the official beginning of the Shaḥarit service. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Aleph-Bet, Alphabetic Acrostic, animation, אל ברוך El Barukh, English piyyutim, hip hop, otiyot, Prayers as poems, rap, ספר יצירה Sefer Yetsirah, יוצר אור yotser ohr Contributor(s): A supplemental hoshana (prayer for salvation) for healing and consolation for the sake of true love, needed blessings, rainfall in a timely fashion, paths and their repair, mountains and their crossing, goals and objectives, lasting memories, good dreams, cosmic goodness, etc. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, הקפות haḳafot, Hoshana Rabbah, הושענות hoshanot, ישראל Yisrael Contributor(s): Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez writes, “Rav Avi spoke to us a few times as he was working through [composing] this [vidui] and I am truly moved by it. Let us not only remember and confess our wrong doings, but also what we did right this year.” . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, complementary vidui, confession, New York, North America, Open Orthodoxy, positive self-recognition, supplemental vidui, וידוי vidui, זמן תשובה Zman teshuvah Contributor(s): Vidui means acknowledgment. It is not about self-flagellation or blame, but about honesty, coming into contact with our lives, our patterns and experiences, and ultimately about teshuva and learning. In contacting the pain and suffering which our modes of being have given rise to, our regret can help us to willfully divest ourselves of them and awaken the yearning for those modes of being which are life-affirming, supportive of wholeness, connection, integrity, and flourishing. With each one we tap on our heart, touching the pain and closed-heartedness we have caused, and simultaneously knocking on the door that it may open again. . . . Categories: Days of Judgement & New Year Days, Rosh haShanah (l’Maaseh Bereshit), Yom Kippur, Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation, Self-Reflection Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acknowledgment, acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, אשמנו Ashamnu, integrity, paraliturgical vidui, repentance, וידוי vidui Contributor(s): A paraliturgical reflection of Ashrei for a shame resilience practice. . . . 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: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, על חטא Al Ḥeyt, Alphabetic Acrostic, communal confession, confession, paraliturgical Al Ḥet, paraliturgical vidui, וידוי vidui Contributor(s): Adir 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: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אדיר הוא Adir Hu, Alphabetic Acrostic, English piyyutim, English vernacular prayer, פיוטים piyyuṭim Contributor(s): An adaptation of the kinnah, “Eli Tsiyon v’Ar’eha,” Composed for Tisha B’Av 5780 in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. . . . A Hoshana prayer supplement for Hoshana Rabbah during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in 2020. . . . A Birkat haMazon with additions for the pre-Fast meal of Tisha b’Av . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, סעודה המפסקת seudah hamafseket Contributor(s): This 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. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This 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: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, סעודה המפסקת seudah hamafseket Contributor(s): 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. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Beta Esrael, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, Break Fasts, Ethiopian Jewry Contributor(s): There’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 Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acronym, Alphabetic Acrostic, פיוטים piyyuṭim, קינות Ḳinōt, השואה the Shoah, Third Reich Contributor(s): 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: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, baby daughters, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, infants, שמחת בת simḥat bat Contributor(s): 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: 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): This 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. . . . “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: Tags: 2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Alphabetic Acrostic, אשמנו Ashamnu, English vernacular prayer, Prayers as poems, סליחות səliḥot, supplemental vidui, וידוי vidui Contributor(s): | ||
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