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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אֵל לִבִּי פְּתַח | El Libbi Păthaḥ — a Prayer of Yemenite Jewish Children Before Study, translated by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer![]() ![]() ![]() In Yemenite Jewish children’s schools, this prayer of unknown authorship is said before the lesson in unison. The teacher conducts and the children sing together to a melody. The prayer is printed in tajjim (Yemenite trilingual Pentateuch codices) before the book of Leviticus, traditionally the starting point for a child’s education. The first twenty-two lines of the prayer are an alphabetical acrostic wherein each line spells out the entire letter in which it starts. For instance, the first line spells out Alef, Lamed, and Pe, which spells out the full name of the letter Alef. This is followed by three Biblical verses all starting with the word “Good,” a brief poem in Hebrew, and a concluding passage largely in Judeo-Arabic. Here the editor has included the original text, along with a non-gendered English translation and a transcription of the Judeo-Arabic text into Arabic script. . . . הַאגְּדָה עוֹוָאִידְנָא | هاگدة عوّدنا | Agda ŋowaidna (Such is our custom), a Moroccan Jewish song for the conclusion of Ḥanukkah![]() ![]() ![]() This is a transcription and translation of the song הַאגְּדָה עוֹוָאִידְנָא (Agda Ŋowaidna) as presented on Twitter, 6 December 2021 by Josh Calvo (@joshuac220), writing “In Meknes, Morocco, on the day after Ḥanukkah (which is today, alas) the Jewish community would come together to a light a bonfire from the leftover wax and oil of the holiday, singing this song (in Arabic) while watching the blaze.” . . . ![]() ![]() The project page for the transcription and translation of the Seder al-Tawḥid for Rosh Ḥodesh Nissan. . . . ואחד ג’די | أغنية لعيد الفصح اليهودي | חַד גַּדְיָא | Waaḥid Jady :: Ḥad Gadya in Arabic translation (Syrian Damascus variation)![]() ![]() ![]() An Arabic translation of Ḥad Gadya in its Syrian Jewish Damascus variation. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() A Judeo-Arabic translation of the popular Passover song, Ḥad Gadya. . . . 📄 וּתְקוֹל | U-tqol of Djerba — a Midrashic Addition to the Haggadah relating the story of Avraham & Nimrod’s Furnace in Judeo-Tunisian Arabic![]() ![]() ![]() The ancient Jewish community of Djerba, an island off the coast of southern Tunisia, has many unique customs and practices. Among them is that during the Maggid, after the citation of Joshua 24:2-4 and before the paragraph beginning “Praise the One who keep faith with the people Israel,” an extensive work in Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is recited, telling the well-known story of Abraham’s realization of divine unity and his ordeal in the oven of fire. Here is a transcript of that text, vocalized according to the original manuscripts, transcribed, and translated into English and modern Hebrew. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() The mantra-like piyyut “Ēin k-Ēlohēinu,” a praise of God’s attributes and uniqueness featuring incremental repetition, is found in siddurim as far back as the siddur of Rav Amram, and may date back to the Hekhalot literature. Many versions of it have been compiled in different languages, most famously Flory Jagoda (zç”l)’s Judezmo variant “Non como muestro Dyo.” Here the editor has compiled traditional Yiddish and Ladino translations, as well as developed new Aramaic and Arabic translations for this piyyut. The post-piyyut verses used in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic rites have been included. . . . ![]() ![]() ![]() In the communities of Morocco and Mumbai, the day after Yom Kippur was a holiday for priests known as Yom Simḥat Kohen. The origins of this practice can be found in Mishnah Yoma 7:4, where the high priest makes a festival for his loved ones after successfully completing the Yom Kippur rituals. In Mumbai, the practice (as recorded in Joseph Ezekiel Rajpurkar’s bilingual Hebrew/Marathi siddur) was to recite Psalms 85 on Yom Simḥat Kohen. The editor has included the text of Psalms 85, Rajpurkar’s Marathi translation, a new English translation, and a vocalized version of the Arabic tafsir of Rav Saadiah Gaon. . . . |