tagged: physical labor • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

“Coal Miners’ Prayer,” by the Central Conference of American Rabbis (1924)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown Author(s) and Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR)

Categories:

Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, International Workers' Day (May 1st), Labor Day (1st Monday of September)

Tags:

English vernacular prayer, physical labor, 20th century C.E., Gratitude, 57th century A.M.

This prayer by an unknown author is first found in Evening Service for the Sabbath from the Union Prayer Book (Newly Revised) (1924), p. 45. (It also appears on the same page of the 1940 edition of the “newly revised” UPB.) The prayer is included as a third variation of a Reform synagogue’s Shabbat evening service, in the Amidah before the silent meditation. Rabbi Michael Satz of Temple B’nai Or (Morristown, New Jersey) affectionately refers to it as the “Coal Miner’s Prayer.” . . .

בִּרְכַּת עָם (תֶחֱזַקְנָה)‏ | The People’s Blessing (a/k/a Teḥezaqnah), by Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik (1894)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Eugene Kohn, the Ben Yehuda Project (transcription) and Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik

Categories:

Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar)

Tags:

Early Religious Zionist, Labor Zionism, physical labor, תחזקנה Teḥezaqnah, national anthems, 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Prayers as poems

Before HaTikvah was chosen, Ḥayyim Naḥman Bialik’s “People’s Blessing” (בִּרְכַּת עָם, also known by its incipit תֶחֱזַֽקְנָה Teḥezaqnah) was once considered for the State of Israel’s national anthem. Bialik was 21 years old when he composed the work in 1894. It later was chosen as the anthem of the Labor Zionist movement. We hereby present the first ever complete English translation of this poem. . . .