tagged: captives • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

תְּפִלָּה לַהֲשָׁבַת הַחֲטוּפִים | Prayer for the Return of the Captives, by Rabbi David Lau (Office of the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel 2024)

Contributor(s):

David Lau and Shimshon Nadel (translation)

This prayer for the well-being of the captives taken hostage by ḤAMA”S and its allies on 7 October 2023 was written by the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the State of Israel, David Lau, and shared by his office in the month preceding Pesaḥ 2024. The prayer is intended to be read at the Passover seder in the Maggid section before והיא שעמדה (v’hi she’amda). . . .

Upon My Heart, a prayer-poem by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

“Upon My Heart” was offered by Rabbi Menachem Creditor and shared via the Open Siddur Project discussion group on 20 November 2023. The added hashtag “#bringthemhomenow” helps to contextualize the prayer-poem, as written to express the yearning for the return of the captives taken hostage during the 7 October massacres by HAMA”S and its allies. . . .

תפילה לשלומם ולחזרתם של הנעדרים והשבויים בין אחינו ואחיותינו | Prayer for the Welfare and the Return of Israel’s Captured and Missing from Among our Sisters and Brothers (Masorti Movement in Israel 2023)

Contributor(s):

Ehud Bandel, Masorti Movement in Israel and Knesset haRabanim b'Yisrael

This prayer for the captives was prepared for the Masorti Movement in Israel by the Knesset haRabanim b’Yisrael and disseminated in Hebrew, English, French, and Spanish. These were published online for the Masorti Solidarity Shabbat (27-28 October 2023). . . .

תְּפִלָּה לְפִדְיוֹן שְׁבוּיִם | Prayer for the Redemption of Israelis Taken Captive [during the war begun on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Rabbi Ofer Sabath Beit Halachmi (2023)

Contributor(s):

Rabbi Ofer Sabath Beit-Halachmi and Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, Ph.D.

This prayer for the liberation of abducted Israeli citizens and military personnel was offered by Rabbi Ofer Sabath Beit Halachmi in response to the war initiated by Hamas from Gaza on Shemini Atseret 5784. The English translation was prepared by Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit Halachmi. . . .

מי שברך לשבויים | Mi sheBerakh for the Captives, after Kristallnacht (Hamburg, November 1938)

Contributor(s):

Elie Kaunfer and Unknown Author(s)

This is a prayer for captives, written in November 1938 in Hamburg, following Kristallnacht (my translation following the Hebrew). “May each and every one of them return to their family…who are worrying about them.” . . .

💬 דָּנִיֵּאל וְהַתַּנִּין | Daniel vs. the Dragon, according to the Judeo-Aramaic text found in Divrei Yeraḥmiel, vocalized and cantillated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Moses Gaster, Yeraḥmiel ben Shlomo and Unknown Author(s)

Daniel’s battle with the Dragon, one of the apocryphal Additions to Daniel, is affixed to the end of the book in the Septuagint. The editor has here included a new vocalized and cantillated edition of the Aramaic text preserved in the 12th century Divrei Yeraḥmiel (Oxford Bodleian Heb d.11 transcribed by Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster). The language of this passage is an odd synthesis of Targumic, pseudo-Biblical Aramaic, and even some Syriac forms, so the editor’s vocalization is aiming for a happy medium of all the possibilities. (In several locations Divrei Yeraḥmiel uses incorrect Hebrew-specific forms, probably due to scribal error. These are here marked as a qere-ketiv split.) . . .

דָּנִיֵּאל וְהַתַּנִּין | Daniel vs. the Dragon, according to the Aramaic text of Divrei Yeraḥmiel (ca. 12th c.)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Moses Gaster, Yeraḥmiel ben Shlomo and Unknown Author(s)

The story of Daniel and the dragon held captive by the neo-Babylonians found in Aramaic in the Divrei Yeraḥmiel (the Chronicles of Jeraḥmeel, Oxford Bodleian Heb d.11). . . .

אַחֵֽינוּ | Aḥeinu (Our siblings)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Anonymous (translation) and Unknown Author(s)

“Aḥeinu” is the final prayer in a set of supplications recited on Mondays and Thursdays as the Torah scroll is being prepared to be returned to the Aron. The prayer is first found with variations in wording in the surviving manuscripts of the Seder Rav Amram Gaon (ca. 9th c.). . . .

💬 Βηλ Και Δρακων | בֵּל וְהַתַּנִּין | Bel & the Dragon, according to Theodotion translated and cantillated in Masoretic Hebrew by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Theodotion (translation/Greek) and Unknown Author(s)

The story of Bel and the Dragon according to the text of Theodotion, translated into biblical Hebrew. . . .

📄 Scaling the Walls of the Labyrinth: Psalms 67 and Ana b’Khoaḥ

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady and Unknown Author(s)

Psalms 67 is a priestly blessing for all the peoples of the earth to be sustained by the earth’s harvest (yevulah), and it is a petition that all humanity recognize the divine nature (Elohim) illuminating the world. Composed of seven verses, the psalm is often visually depicted as a seven branched menorah. There are 49 words in the entire psalm, and in the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l there is one word for each day of the Sefirat haOmer. Similarly, the fifth verse has 49 letters and each letter can be used as a focal point for meditating on the meaning of the day in its week in the journey to Shavuot, the festival of weeks (the culmination of the barley harvest), and the festival of oaths (shevuot) in celebration of receiving the Torah. Many of the themes of Psalms 67 are repeated in the prayer Ana b’Koaḥ, which also has 49 words, and which are also used to focus on the meaning of each day on the cyclical and labyrinthine journey towards Shavuot. . . .