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 Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Frederick de Sola Mendes (translation) and Mordecai ben Yitsḥok ha-Levi
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Ḥanukkah
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Spanish-Portuguese, 13th century C.E., 51st century A.M., Acrostic signature, מעוז צור Maoz Tsur, פיוטים piyyutim
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A singable translation of Maoz Tsur by the great ḥakham Frederick de Sola Mendes, here transcribed from the Union Hymnal (CCAR 1914), hymn 190. The translation largely reflects the Hebrew, omitting two verses — the final (and according to some, last added) verse, and the fourth verse about Purim and Haman. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (translation), Joshua de Sola Mendes (transcription), David Lévi Alvarès and Unknown Author(s)
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Blessings After Eating
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זמירות zemirot, Spanish-Portuguese, 56th century A.M., 18th Century C.E., Western Sepharadim, paraliturgical birkat hamazon, Bendigamos
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Bénissons is the French version of the well-known Bendigamos, a prayer and melody of the Spanish & Portuguese Jewish communities, most probably originating in Bordeaux, France. . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Leopold Stein (translation) and Mordecai ben Yitsḥok ha-Levi
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| Categories: |
Ḥanukkah
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Acrostic signature, מעוז צור Maoz Tsur, German Reform Movement, German-speaking Jewry, German language, פיוטים piyyutim, Spanish-Portuguese, German vernacular prayer, 13th century C.E., 51st century A.M.
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A German translation of Maoz Tsur, by the early Reform rabbi Leopold Stein. This singable German translation was cited as an inspiration for Gustav Gottheil and Marcus Jastrow’s well-known English edition. In some communities in the German Empire, for instance the community of Beuthen (now Bytom, Poland), it was recited during the morning service on Ḥanukkah. It poetically translates the first five verses in their entirety, avoiding the controversial sixth verse (said by some to have been added post-facto, and rejected by the early Reform movement). . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Isaac Gantwerk Mayer
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Modern Miscellany, Thanksgiving Day Readings, Purim Sheni Readings
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Newport, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Spanish-Portuguese, Revolutionary War, 56th century A.M., 18th Century C.E., Western Sepharadim, George Washington, American Jewry of the United States
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In many Jewish communities around the world, there have been traditional scrolls read for “local Purims,” celebrating redemptions for a specific community. Here in America, we don’t really have an equivalent to that. But we do have Thanksgiving, a day heavily inspired by Biblical traditions of celebration, and one long associated with all that is good about America. Some Jewish communities have a tradition on Thanksgiving of reading Washington’s letter to the Jews of Newport, where he vows to support freedom of religion, famously writing that the United States “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance” – thus rephrasing words originally written in a prior letter by Moses Seixas (say-shas), the sexton of the Touro Synagogue in Newport. This text includes the original English of both Moses Seixas’ letter to Washington and Washington’s return, as well as a somewhat simplified version of the story of Washington’s visit to Newport. Inspired largely by the style of the Book of Esther, it could be read on Thanksgiving morning during the service, using Esther melodies (or going on detours as per personal choice). . . . |
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| Contributor(s): |
Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Lyons Collection Committee (translation) and Hendla Jochanan van Oettingen
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Government & Country, Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), United States of America
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K.K. Shearith Israel, Sepharadi Diaspora, American War of Independence, Western Sepharadim, American Jewry of the United States, United States, Presidents Day, Spanish-Portuguese, 56th century A.M., 18th Century C.E.
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Prayers recited on special occasions and thus not part of the fixed liturgy offered America’s foremost Jewish congregation far greater latitude for originality in prayer. At such services, particularly when the prayers were delivered in English and written with the knowledge that non-Jews would hear them, leaders of Shearith Israel often dispensed with the traditional prayer for the government and substituted revealing new compositions appropriate to the concerns of the day. A prayer composed in 1784 (in this case in Hebrew) by the otherwise unknown Rabbi (Cantor?) Hendla Jochanan van Oettingen, for example, thanked God who “in His goodness prospered our warfare.” Mentioning by name both Governor George Clinton and General George Washington, the rabbi prayed for peace and offered a restorationist Jewish twist on the popular idea of America as “redeemer nation”: “As Thou hast granted to these thirteen states of America everlasting freedom,” he declared, “so mayst Thou bring us forth once again from bondage into freedom and mayst Thou sound the great horn for our freedom.” . . . |
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