![the Open Siddur Project [logo]](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2016.svg){kind=logo} the Open Siddur Project ✍︎ פְּרוֹיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ
a community-grown, libre Open Access 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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 Contributor(s):“[Prayer] For Knowledge and Understanding” by Rabbi Louis M. Epstein was published in Rabbi Morrison David Bial’s anthology, An Offering of Prayer (1962), p. 18, from where this prayer was transcribed. When exactly this prayer was first written is not known to us, but it had to be before Rabbi Epstein’s death in 1949. If you know more, please leave a comment or contact us. . . . “Ein Mensch ist ein räumlich und zeitlich beschränktes” (A human being is…limited in time and space) — a letter of consolation by Albert Einstein (1950) Contributor(s):In a poignant reflection on human limitation and the role of religion, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) consoled two rabbis each grieving the painful loss of their children. The first letter dated 12 February 1950, drafted in German before its translation into English, was written for Rabbi Robert S. Marcus after the death of the rabbi’s eleven-year-old son, Jay, from polio in September 1949. The second letter, dated 4 March 1950, was written for Rabbi Norman Salit after the death of Salit’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Miriam. Einstein’s letter to Rabbi Salit borrowed from and expanded upon the composition of his letter to Rabbi Marcus. In a few short lines, the letter expresses Einstein’s opinion on the prison-like delusion of consciousness — and the work of “true” religion to escape this prison through the intentional expansion of compassion beyond one’s self. . . . Contributor(s):The poem “Wormicide” (1931) by Rabbi Alter Abelson. . . . 💬 What I Believe | Wie ich die Welt sehe (How I see the World), an essay by Albert Einstein (in English and German, 1930/1934) Contributor(s):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.” . . . Contributor(s):Titled, “I Seek,” this prayer from Rabbi Abraham Cronbach concludes his collection of prayer, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on page 128. . . . Contributor(s):A paraliturgical prayer for cultivating humility modeled after the morning prayer, Ribon haOlamim. . . . |
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