the Open Siddur Project ✍︎ פְּרוֹיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ
a community-grown, libre and open-source archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources
This project is sustained through reciprocity for those sharing prayers and crafting their own prayerbooks.
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A prayer for a country poised between demise and rebirth, by Rabbi Daniel Raphael Silverstein (Applied Jewish Spirituality 2023)![]() ![]() Written on 6 Nisan 5783, 27 March 2023 (after nightfall), in response to the Israeli people’s spontaneous demonstrations against the government’s attempts to amass virtually unchecked power. . . . A Prayer for Democracies Everywhere with the Welfare of Ukraine Foremost in Mind, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org, 2022)![]() A prayer for democracy everywhere, with Ukraine foremost in mind. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() A private prayer for fulfilling your civic duty and voting, whether in a voting booth or by mail. The concluding partial berakhah (without its full preamble, so as to avoid a berakhah levatala) is traditionally stated upon seeing a king of a nation, so in a democratic regime it seems appropriate to adopt for the voters. . . . תפילה להצבעה | A Prayer for Voting with a Pledge to Help Repair the World, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org 2008/2020)![]() ![]() ![]() This prayer is broadly speaking a prayer that we learn to work together to create a better future, and it incorporates a pledge to do one thing for healing the world, for tikkun olam, that will make this future a reality. It’s not a prayer about winning or getting other people to see things our way, like some of the others I’ve seen. Whomever we support, we need to pray for strength for the next president, and for the whole country, to face what will be challenging times. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() 2020 coronavirus outbreak in the United States, pluralism, 2020 coronavirus pandemic, United States, United States General Election 2020, democracy, civic responsibility, Donald Trump, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, civic prayers, American Jewry of the United States A prayer for the United States, its leaders and government and its citizens — a personal response to things that were troubling me in the months before November’s election – in particular the level of divisiveness in our country, and what seemed to me to be a growing sense that it isn’t important to respect people we disagree with, and an ever more prevalent belief that we are entitled to decide for ourselves which rules to follow, and all that matters are own rights and our beliefs, not our responsibilities to one another. Inspired by the events of 2020 . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() An invocation by Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah, offered at the opening dinner of the Council on Foreign Relations annual Religion and Foreign Policy Workshop, June 2019. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() On Tuesday, we go to the polls in a momentous election that for many of us has generated a combination of anxiety, excitement, fear, and confusion. We offer you this prayer, which you can recite this Shabbat, before you vote, or while you are waiting for returns. . . . ![]() ![]() A prayer for the electorate to be recited together with the Prayer for Government on the Shabbat before an election (federal, state, or local). . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() Prayer delivered by Rabbi Uri Miller, President of the Synagogue Council of America, at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963 . . . 💬 Iwo Jima Memorial Address at Fifth Marine Division Cemetery, by Rabbi Chaplain Roland B. Gittelsohn (21 March 1945)![]() ![]() ![]() A chaplain’s eulogy over the fallen soldiers of Iwo Jima (also known under the title, “The Highest and Purest Democracy”) . . . Man Is Here for the Sake of Others, by Albert Einstein (1930) as excerpted by Rabbi Morrison David Bial![]() ![]() ![]() “Man Is Here for the Sake of Others,” a short excerpt from a longer essay by Albert Einstein, was included by Rabbi Morrison David Bial in his collection of supplemental prayers and texts for personal prayer and synagogue services: An Offering of Prayer (Temple Sinai of Summit, New Jersey, 1962). The full text of Einstein’s essay appeared under the title “What I Believe” in Forum and Century 84 (October 1930), no. 4, p. 193-194. David E. Rowe and Robert Schulman (in Einstein on Politics 2007, p. 226) note, “The text was reproduced several times under the title ‘The World as I See It,’ most notably in Mein Weltbild and Ideas and Opinions, and in 1932 the German League of Human Rights released a phonograph recording of Einstein reading a slightly variant version entitled ‘Confession of Belief.'” . . . 💬 What I Believe | Wie ich die Welt sehe (How I see the World), an essay by Albert Einstein (in English and German, 1930/1934)![]() ![]() ![]() This is Albert Einstein’s essay in English, “What I Believe” as published in Forum and Century 84 (October 1930), no. 4, 193–194, set next to his essay in German, “Wie ich die Welt sehe” (How I see the World) as published in Mein Weltbild (1934). The German version includes some thoughts elided in the English which I hope are elucidated in my translation into English of the German version. David E. Rowe and Robert Schulman (in Einstein on Politics 2007, p. 226) note, “The text was reproduced several times under the title ‘The World as I See It,’ most notably in Mein Weltbild and Ideas and Opinions, and in 1932 the German League of Human Rights released a phonograph recording of Einstein reading a slightly variant version entitled “Confession of Belief.” [It]…differs significantly from that in [published in Ideas and opinions: based on Mein Weltbild by] Einstein (in) 1954.” . . . |