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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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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? 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: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust (28-29 April) 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): 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: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, אתבש atbash, פיוטים piyyuṭim, יוצר אור yotser ohr, יוצרות yotsrot Contributor(s): A 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: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, אתבש atbash, פיוטים piyyuṭim, יוצר אור yotser ohr, יוצרות yotsrot Contributor(s): A 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: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, פיוטים piyyuṭim, יוצרות yotsrot Contributor(s): A plea for the manifestation of righteous civic virtues on Election Day in the shadow of Hoshana Rabba. This is an original ḳedushtaot cycle for Yom Meturgeman, the eighth of Tevet, to be inserted into the ‘amidah. Categories: Tags: acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, עמידה amidah, אתבש atbash, קרובות ḳerovot, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Public Amidah, קדושתאות ḳedushtaot Contributor(s): This is an original qinah written in response to the attack of October 7. Since the attack occurred on Simḥat Torah, this text is designed to follow the structure of the haqafot recited on Simḥat Torah. But it’s meant to be read on Tisha b’Av, or at least on another fast day. Purim in walled cities (meaning, practically, in Jerusalem) occurs on the day after it does outside of them. This means that when Purim falls on a Friday, it falls on Shabbat in Jerusalem. This unique occurrence is called Purim Meshulash, “Threefold Purim,” because the practices for the day are divided into three. The megillah is read and gifts are given to the poor on Friday, the Torah reading is on Shabbat, and the festive meal and gifts to friends on Sunday. Since this practice of Shabbat Purim is unique to Jerusalem, and for much of Ashkenazi poetic history the Jewish community in Jerusalem was negligible, there are very few liturgical texts designed for Shabbat Purim Meshulash. This is, in the author’s opinion, a shame, because all the other special shabbatot surrounding it have a plethora of special piyyuṭim to insert into their cycles. This cycle of a shiv’ata (sevenfold piyyut) and an eloheikhem (Qedushah insertion) is meant to fill that void. Categories: Tags: acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, קרובות ḳerovot, פיוטי אלהיכם piyyuṭei eloheikhem, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Public Amidah, שבעתא shiv'ata, Shushan Purim Contributor(s): An original set of weekday yotsrot, in the style of those found in the Cairo Geniza (and compiled at Weekday Yotzrot, thanks to the work of Dr. Avi Shmidman), for Yom ha-Atsma’ut. The weekday yotsrot of the Cairo Geniza have a structure quite different from normative Ashkenazi festival yotsrot, and much closer to that of Ashkenazi maaravot. There are no yotser or ofan piyyutim — each blessing has a stanza of an extended, unified poem before its ḥatimah, and the only stanzas inserted into the guf ha-berakha are in the final blessing, surrounding the Mi Khamokha. They’re also generally much shorter and more user-friendly than the complex and intricate mysticism of Ashkenazi festival yotsrot. This cycle is written in an alphabetical acrostic, followed by the author tag “Yitzḥaq Harel son of Avraham the Kohen and Ya’el, be strong and courageous, amen.” Each stanza begins with a different word from Isaiah 47:4, and ends with a citation of a different relevant verse. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, פיוטים piyyuṭim, יוצרות yotsrot Contributor(s): A qinah for 7 October and the hostages, to be recited as part of the Tishah b’Av liturgy. Categories: Tags: 2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Alphabetic Acrostic, פיוטים piyyuṭim, קינות Ḳinōt Contributor(s): An original Aramaic-language “meturgeman piyyut” for Simḥat Torah and the reading of v-Zot haBerakha. I’m working on creating a seder meturgeman liturgy, akin to those for day 7 of Pesaḥ and for Shavuot, to be recited on Simḥat Torah. Mostly incorporating older Aramaic poems, I’ve also decided to write some originals myself. This is one of them, in praise of Moshe, to be recited after Deut. 34:10. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A pizmon for calling up a (male) Jew-by-choice for his first aliyah to the Torah after completing his conversion process. (Pizmonim for female and non-binary Jews-by-choice forthcoming!) To be recited before the blessing, led by the gabbai with the community responding with the refrain. Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Aliyah, Alphabetic Acrostic, conversion, גרות gerut, פיוטים piyyuṭim, פזמונים pizmonim Contributor(s): An original Aramaic-language “meturgeman piyyut” for Simḥat Torah and the reading of Bereshit. I’m working on creating a seder meturgeman liturgy, akin to those for day 7 of Pesaḥ and for Shavuot, to be recited on Simḥat Torah. Mostly incorporating older Aramaic poems, I’ve also decided to write some originals myself. This is one of them, a reverse acrostic woven into the recitation of Genesis 1. Categories: Tags: acrostic, Alphabetic Acrostic, Aramaic, hymns of creation, פיוטים piyyuṭim, פרשת בראשית parashat Bereshit, תרגום targum Contributor(s): While Gevurot Geshem is recited on Shmini Atseret, Baqashat Geshem as an addition to the birkat ha-shanim is recited later — from the seventh of Marḥeshvan in Israel, from sixty days after the Julian-calendar autumn equinox in the diaspora. This passage is added starting in the evening, but since there is no repetition at night there is no special custom for announcing its insertion. I think that’s a shame, so I wrote a series of ma’aravot (piyyuṭim to be inserted into the ma’ariv service) to be recited on the day where we begin to request rain. A full qedushta cycle, in the Qallirian style, for the Shabbat between Yom haShoah and Yom ha-Atsma’ut, referred to in the recently published Israeli Reform siddur Tefilat haAdam as “Shabbat Tequmah” (the sabbath of renewal). Partially based on the structure of the qedushta for Shabbat haGadol, the culmination of this qedushta is an azhara, a poetic retelling of the entire Megilat ha-Atsma’ut. Categories: Tags: acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, עמידה amidah, אזהרות azharot, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, קרובות ḳerovot, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, פיוטים piyyuṭim, Public Amidah, religious Zionist prayers, shabbat tequmah Contributor(s): A shiv’ata is a sevenfold blessing inserted into the Musaf service on Shabbat. This shiv’ata was written for use at a bar mitsvah. Each stanza begins with an example of thirteen as used in our tradition, followed by an alphabetical acrostic. This piyyuṭ is for a bar mitsvah, where a boy turns thirteen. | ||
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