⤷ You are here:
קינות Ḳinōt —⟶ tag: קינות Ḳinōt Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? A translation in German and English of the ḳinnah “Sha’ali Serufah ba-Esh.” . . . “Bore ‘Ad Anah” is a ḳinah recited in a number of Sephardic communities on Tishah b’Av (or in some cases on Shabbat Hazon, the Shabbat preceding Tishah b’Av), particularly in the Spanish-Portuguese and North African traditions. The author is unknown, but his name is likely Binyamin based on the acrostic made up of the first letters of the verses. In the kinah, the Children of Israel are compared to a wandering dove caught in a trap by predators, crying out its father, God. The ḳinah was likely written as a poignant response to the Spanish Inquisition, appropriate to Tishah b’Av since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain occurred on the 9th of Av in the year 1492. The version presented here was likely censored, as many manuscripts have the fifth verse presented in the following manner directly calling out their Catholic oppressors,” יועצים עליה עצות היא אנושה זרים העובדים אלילים שלושה אם ובן ורוח כי אין להם בושה גדול ממכאובי.” “They counsel against her and she languishes, the strangers who worship three idols, father, son and spirit, for they have no shame and great is my suffering.” . . . A kinah/elegy for those massacred in the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648–1649 composed by a possible eyewitness to the tragedy. . . . This qinah, a variation of Maaseh Metz, was written by an unknown author and copied by Glikl into her memoirs. The text appearing here was made from that transcribed and published in Chava Turniansky’s critical edition, Glikl: Memoirs (1691-1719) (Shazar 2006), pp. 596-597, and Sara Friedman’s English translation of that edition, edited by Turniansky (Brandeis University Press 2019), pp. 306-307. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “Brich aus in lauten Klagen” by Heinrich Heine was preserved in a letter he wrote to his friend Moses Moser dated 25 October 1824. The poem is included in Heinrich Heine’s Letters on The Rabbi of Bacharach, the manuscript of which only survived in a fragment, the rest having been lost, according to Heine, in a fire. The English translation here by Nina Salaman was transcribed from her anthology, Apples & Honey (1921) where it appears under the title of “Martyr-Song,” published at an earlier date in The Jewish Chronicle. . . . Exalted are you Lincoln. Who is like you! You were highly respected among Kings and Princes. All that you accomplished you did with a humble spirit. You are singular and cannot be compared to anyone else. Who among the great are like Lincoln? Who can be praised like you? . . . Categories: Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Abraham Lincoln, acrostic, Slaveholders' Rebellion (1861-1865), American Jewry of the United States, assassination, Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, civil rights, elegies, Emancipation, Memorial prayers, Prayers for leaders, Presidents Day, קינות Ḳinōt, United States Contributor(s): “baShanah haBa’ah” (Next Year) by Ehud Manor written in 1968 in memory of his brother Yehudah. . . . A ḳinnah composed by a concentration camp survivor. . . . “Kinah Lekhurban Gan Eden” was written by Richard Kaplan and first published as the fourth track to his album Life of the Worlds: Journeys in Jewish Sacred Music (2003). This work is under the copyright stewardship of the estate of Richard Kaplan and was republished here at the request of Barak Gale who made a recording of the song with the permission of Richard Kaplan while he was alive. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, English vernacular prayer, lamentation, קינות Ḳinōt Contributor(s): “A Memory’s fire burns within me still” was adapted by Andrew Meit from Gabriel Seed’s translation of the kinah, Aish Tukad b’kirbi (“A Fire Shall Burn Within Me”). . . . A ḳinah (lamentation) for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzḥak Rabin, assassinated on 4 November 1995, the yahrzeit of which is י״א בְּמַרחֶשְׁוָן (11 Marḥeshvan). . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., assassination, Assassination of Yitsḥaq Rabin, elegies, English vernacular prayer, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, Prayers for leaders, prime minister, קינות Ḳinōt, ישראל Yisrael, Yitsḥaq Rabin Contributor(s): I wrote this a few days after the Boston Marathon bombing. It arose out of a meditation service which I led at my synagogue. The doors to our sanctuary were open, so we had the sounds of the nearby wetland in our ears, and I invited the meditators to join me in cultivating compassion and sending it toward Boston. The line “My heart is in the east and I am in the west” is adapted from the medieval Spanish poet Judah haLevi. . . . Categories: Tags: 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Boston, elegy, English vernacular prayer, Massachusetts, Prayers as poems, קינות Ḳinōt, United States Contributor(s): A ḳinnah composed in response to the agonizing and cruel United States immigration policy implemented under the presidency of Donald Trump. . . . A ḳinah for the martyrs of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Boston in 2018. . . . Categories: Tags: 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., martyrdom, mass murder inside a synagogue, Prayers after acts of terrible violence, קינות Ḳinōt Contributor(s): An adaptation of the kinnah, “Eli Tsiyon v’Ar’eha,” Composed for Tisha B’Av 5780 in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. . . . A ḳinnah for humanity’s willful, negligent, and callous destruction of habitat and species known and unknown. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, English vernacular prayer, קינות Ḳinōt Contributor(s): There’s a lot of controversy over Yom haShoah as a date. One of the key issues is this: traditionally, the ways Jews mourn communal tragedies is through establishing a fast day. It’s forbidden to fast during the month of Nisan. It’s hard to pick any specific date to commemorate a tragedy as enormous as the Shoah, but one which seems appropriate to me would be 16 Marḥeshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom. This piyyut is a seliḥah for Kristallnacht, to be recited on 16 Marḥeshvan (or 15 Marḥeshvan on years like 5782 where the sixteenth falls on a Thursday). . . . Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acronym, Alphabetic Acrostic, פיוטים piyyuṭim, קינות Ḳinōt, השואה the Shoah, Third Reich Contributor(s): Jews around the world fast on the day after Rosh haShanah to commemorate the murder of Gedalyahu son of Aḥiqam, the officer appointed over Judah who sought to make peace and rebuild before being murdered by a religious extremist and officially bringing an end to the first commonwealth era. The tragedy of Gedalyahu is not just that he was assassinated, but that he was assassinated by a Jew who was using religion (specifically his claim to the line of David) as an excuse. This narrative bears striking similarities to the murder of Prime Minister Yitzḥaq Rabin on 12 Marḥeshvan 5756. On account of this, some Jews have taken it upon themselves to memorialize Rabin on Tzom Gedalyahu as well. This piyyut could be added to the seliḥot for Tzom Gedalyahu, or part of a new seliḥot service for 12 Marḥeshvan. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., assassination, Assassination of Yitsḥaq Rabin, elegies, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, Memorial prayers, Prayers for leaders, prime minister, קינות Ḳinōt, סליחות səliḥot, ישראל Yisrael, Yitsḥaq Rabin Contributor(s): This qinah purposely follows the structure of, and borrows phrases from, the text of Ma’oz Tsur. It was inspired by, of all things, a “Ruin a song by changing the first three words” Facebook post – someone had responded to it with “Ma’oz Tsarot…” and the rest all but wrote it itself. . . . Categories: Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., lamentation, מעוז צור Maoz Tsur, nine days, קינות Ḳinōt, Three Weeks of Mourning Contributor(s): As I was in NYC, I first heard the news of the pogrom with which Hamas opened the war between Hallel and the Torah reading on Shemini Atseret. The beginnings of what is now the final stanza of this… I am unsure whether to refer to it as a qinah or a piyut first stirred in my soul during Tefillat Geshem, and the refrain of that stanza during Hakafot that evening. Prayer and song, no matter how joyous, has taken on a somber, cutting, desperate edge for me in this new world where the safety I had once taken for granted was revealed to be an illusion, which is reflected in taking from the phrases taken from the liturgy of the Yomim Nora’im. . . . Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): | ||
Sign up for a summary of new resources shared by contributors each week
![]() ![]() |