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Contributor(s): |
Brant Rosen
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Blessings After Eating
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21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, doikayt, diaspora, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon
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“A New Birkat haMazon/Blessing After the Meal” was first published by Rabbi Brant Rosen via his liturgy blog, Yedid Nefesh (8 March 2021). He writes, “In composing this new Birkat Hamazon/Blessing After the Meal, I maintained the essential structure of the traditional prayer, which consists of four basic spiritual themes or categories. As with the other new liturgies that I’ve written, I seek here to compose Jewish prayers that express a Diasporist ethic; that is to say, liturgy that views the entire world as our “homeland” and resists the influence of modern political Zionism, which has become so thoroughly enmeshed in contemporary Jewish liturgy.” . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Unknown Author(s)
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Blessings After Eating
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21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers after meals, cantillized liturgy, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon
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The full Birkat haMazon (or Grace after Meals) according to Nusach Ashkenaz with optional additions for egalitarian rites, fully marked with ta’amei miqra (also known as cantillation marks or trope). Ta’amei miqra originally marked grammar and divisions in any Hebrew sentences, and older Hebrew manuscripts such as those from the Cairo Geniza often show ta’amei miqra on all sorts of texts, not just the Biblical texts we associate them with today. This text includes the full tradition for Birkat haMazon, including texts for weekdays, Shabbatot, and festivals, as well as additions for a wedding meal, a circumcision meal, and a meal in a mourner’s house. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady
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Blessings After Eating
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al hamichyah, borei nefashot, בענטשן bentshn, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, eco-conscious
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Unlike most plant and bacterial life, we human beings cannot process our own food from the sun, soil, water, and air. And so, as with the other kingdoms of life on Earth, we are dependent on vegetation to live, either directly by consuming plants, or indirectly by predating on other creatures that consume vegetation. Being nourished and seeking nourishment is so basic to us, that our practical desperation for survival undergirds most of our ethics relating to non-human life. But Judaism demands that our human propensity towards predation be circumscribed. Indeed, it is my understanding that the ultimate goal of Torah is to circumscribe and temper our our predatory appetites, and to limit and discipline our predatory behavior. In this way, our predatory instinct may be redeemed as a force for goodness in the world, and we might become a living example to others in how to live in peace and with kindness towards the other lifeforms we share this planet with. In 2010, while working with Nili Simhai and the other Jewish environmental educators at the Teva Learning Center, I began working on a Birkon containing a translation of the birkat hamazon that emphasized the deep ecological wisdom contained within the Rabbinic Jewish tradition. I continued working on it over the next several years adding two additional sections of source texts to illuminate the concept of ḥesronan (lit. absence or lacking) and the mitsvah of lo tashḥit (bal tashḥit). I invite you to include these works into your birkon along with other work that I’ve helped to share through the Open Siddur — especially Perek Shirah and other prayers that express delight in the created world and our role in it, l’ovdah u’lshomrah — to cultivate and preserve this living and magnificent Earth. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Unknown Author(s)
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Blessings After Eating
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interpretive translation, Jewish Renewal, ecoḥasid, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon
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The style by which Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l translated Jewish liturgy in English was neither literal nor idiomatic, but highly interpretive and interspersed with his own ḥiddushim (innovations). Showing Reb Zalman’s translation side-by-side with the Jewish liturgy helps to illuminate his understanding of the liturgy — it’s deeper meaning as well as how it might be communicated to a contemporary audience. In the version I have prepared below, I have set the interpretive translation of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, z”l side-by-side with the liturgical Hebrew that may have inspired it. In several places, Reb Zalman’s formulation departs from the traditional Ashkenazi nusaḥ. Where there is no Hebrew, we can more easily observe where Reb Zalman has expanded upon the blessing. Still, my work was not exhaustive and I appreciate any corrections to the nusaḥ (liturgical custom) of the Hebrew that may have inspired Reb Zalman’s interpretation in English. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation) and Arnold Kiss
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Blessings After Eating
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Jewish Women's Prayers, paraliturgical birkat hamazon, Hungarian Jewry, Magyar vernacular prayer, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M.
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This paraliturgical Birkat haMazon by Rabbi Arnold Kiss, “Étkezés utáni ima” (Magyar, 1897) and “Gebet nach dem Speisen” (German, 1907), was first published in his anthology of prayers for Jewish women, Mirjam on p.200-202 of the original Magyar edition and p.354-357 of the subsequent German edition. I’ve set separate English translations side-by-side with the Magyar and German in order to highlight the subtle differences between the two. –Aharon Varady . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Franz Rosenzweig (translation), the Masoretic Text and Unknown Author(s)
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Se'udat Leil Shabbat, Tehilim Book 5 (Psalms 107–150), Se'udat Yom Shabbat, Se'udah Shlishit
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57th century A.M., German translation, שיר Shir, German Jewry, 20th century C.E., ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, זמירות zemirot, Psalms 126
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Psalms 126 in Masoretic Hebrew, with a German translation by Franz Rosenzweig. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
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Blessings After Eating, Sigd Festival Prayers
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21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Alphabetic Acrostic, Break Fasts, Beta Esrael, Ethiopian Jewry, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, acrostic
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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. . . . |
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Contributor(s): |
Andreas Rusterholz (transcription), Aharon N. Varady (translation) and Yehoshua Heshil Miro
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Addenda, Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah
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parnasah, תחינות teḥinot, 56th century A.M., Jewish Women's Prayers, German vernacular prayer, German Jewry, ברכת המזון birkat hamazon, 19th century C.E.
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“Gebet eines Menschen der sich durch den Handel nährt” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №63 on pp. 90-91. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №65 on pp. 113-114. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №68 on pp. 118-119. The prayer is thematically closely related to the Birkat haMazon. . . . |
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