#siddurim

[thejewitches]

A siddur from 1937, in accordance with the German & Polish tradition. Sold via Instagram.

[todaysjewishholiday]

14 Sivan 5784 (19-20 June 2024)

The 14th of Sivan 5270 saw a celebration among Ashkenazi Jews over the reversal of a decree nearly as horrible as the decree proposed to Ahaverosch by Haman in the Book of Esther, for though this was not a decree for the destruction of Jewish lives, it struck at something almost as dear to our hearts— the sacred books of Judaism.

Ashkenazi Jews had endured a precarious existence from the first settlements of Jews in the newly Christianized lands of Central Europe. By 5269, Ashkenazi communities had experienced centuries of violence inspired by the crusades and other forms of religious persecution. Maximilian I, who claimed the title of Holy Roman Emperor, had expanded his own treasuries for much of his reign by permitting cities to pay him for the right to expel their Jewish populations, then allowing those Jews to resettle in other territories under his control. Unlike his contemporaries in the Iberian Peninsula his aim was not to force Jews to convert but simply to capitalize on antisemitism for his own enrichment. In 5269, however, he was provoked to issue a decree calling for the seizure and destruction of Jewish religious texts including the Talmud and siddurim by a Jewish apostate and antisemitic agitator who claimed these books attacked Christianity and ought to be destroyed by the Christian ruler. Maximilian’s decree was immediately met with outrage not only by the Jews of the empire but by scholars, nobles, and priests who understood their importance, including the Catholic archbishop of Mainz. Eventually the pleas of these advocates and impassioned defenses of the Talmud by Christian Hebraists including Johannes Reuchlin persuaded the emperor to reverse his decree on the 14th of Sivan, and books which had been confiscated were returned to their Jewish owners. While Jewish life in Christian lands remained precarious, one disaster had been averted.

[nonstandardrepertoire]

OVO WHAT'S THIS

Siddur Davar Ḥadash is an attempt to imagine one form that a de-gendered, de-stigmatized, Diasporist liturgy might take. All the prayers are fully transliterated and translated with all-new translations, all of which are released into the public domain to use and edit without restriction

And now!!! You can get your very own hard copy! Wow!!!

(And if you'd like to read some more personal thoughts about this project and what's ahead, I just put out a little newsletter with that very information! Neat!)

[germiyahu]

For background: my synagogue is nondenominational, but the Shabbat service is quite traditional. There is a prayer book provided to everyone for the service but I can't remember what it was called off the top of my head. It had Hebrew, English, transliteration and some commentary.

I need to practice קבע prayer at home, and I love the thrill of buying books so I'm too impatient to ask for my Rabbi's advice lol (she'd probably advise me to pick whichever one I felt the most affinity toward anyway). I know these four correspond to Movements, and I have some vague idea of which Movement speaks the most to me, but obviously I don't know enough, and I'm part of a congregation that doesn't put much stock in Movements to begin with.

Also, to those of you who own any of these, feel free to tell me how good the translations and commentary are, advocate for your favorite siddur. Oh and they all cost around the same for a "Weekend and Holiday" edition hard cover/flexicover, so that's not an issue.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I forgot hebrew is written right to left and was very confused when the text was aligned like that when I was about to use the search bar in your blog

Made me chuckle, so I felt like sharing

Do u have any idea how long it took me to start picking up Hebrew-language books the correct way?

Now, of course, I frequently try to pick up English-language books as if they're right to left also, so problem solved 👍

[shalom-iamcominghome]

All the people who own their own siddur have all these tabs in theirs and I completely understand why - I'm going to load this up with my own. Like this siddur has so much in it, I love ArtScroll but come on 😭😭

Every order should come with a set of 150 tabs or something. I'm trying to have a whole color system so g-d willing I can actually adhere to and remember it. And I have a shabbos one coming in soon so I'm going to need to start doing this to that one

[transmascpetewentz]

girl help i was asked by the guy who does education at my shul to buy a siddur but they r $55+... how am i going to even do this

[roboromantic]

What I went into the thrift store for:

a small hall tree and/or a bookshelf, maybe some clothes and/or shoes too

What I actually left the thrift store with:

A copy of Psalms based on st called the Grail translation? I’d never heard of that version iirc but after looking at the intro, this particular book’s apparently an “inclusive-language” version from 1993, by which they mean they did the equivalent of going through and changing all instances of “firemen” to “firefighters and not much else afaik

1997 copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Somehow a  second copy of the exact same version of the Good News Bible that I already had because I’ve uh. lost track of what versions and translations I have.      

First edition copy of the Anchor Bible version of the Wisdom of Solomon, complete with an errata sheet. woulda been cool to have the whole set, but that woulda been a Lot to carry around and find somewhere to store

Book copy of The Chosen to go with the DVD I already have. It’s also got highlights and a notecard from the previous owner with a few of their notes on chapter 16, so that’s neat

The first canto of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, another book where I wish I’d found the entire series 😔

The Animation Book by Kit Laybourne bc I keep thinking maybe one day I’ll actually commit to learning how to do 3d animations

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand Learn to Program with Minecraft: Transform Your World with the Power of Python.        this came out in 2016 and “requires Minecraft 1.8 or 1.9″

[fromgoy2joy]

Let's write about Jewish characters in dynamic ways- that make it clear "Yes this is us. Yes, we are living our lives with this happiness and ritual, and we love it. "

Like it's so easy to write about, to have casual observances of Judaism and cultural practices be in the background of stories. I'll write of the few examples I can think of in my frame of reference as a college student-

there's a mezuza in the doorway of a college kid's apartment. Whenever his friends come over, it's a reach for some of them to touch it because both he and the rabbi who installed it are 6 foot three. The others feel like a middle school boy slapping the ceiling as they try and reach for the damn thing.

Characters rush on public transport to get to a rabbi's house on shabbat. The train is due. There's a flurry of regrouping, then trying to call a missing friend to get there, and then the process of methodically hiding Magen davids and jewish objects because getting to shabbat dinner without a situation was an order from college Hillel staff.

A character is half-drunk at 2 AM at the convenience store but has to scan the list of ingredients on their chemically disgusting snack for gelatin.

Said character is prevented by her friends from only sustaining herself on 7/11 slushees "even though it's all kosher!"

There are references to the Purim incident constantly- it is never clarified what happened on Purim.

the hypothetical gang of characters are in the middle of nowhere on a grand magical adventure. The main character notices a mezuza on a door of a cabin, knocks on it, and has an in-depth conversation with the resident. Then, he waves his friends over. "Hey, guys! We have a place to stay tonight!" Because through the magic of Jewish geography, it was discovered that the grumpy old Jewish man in the woods is the grand uncle of one of his Jewish Day school teachers

A character who eats cheesy bacon bagels regularly on passover has a deep respect for jewish ritual items. He kisses the siddurim as they're handed back into a pile, he always kisses his kippah that he wears for ritual purposes of shabbats and minions. He's very careful with these objects and keeps on claiming dropping something He is observant, and he cares so much, but not in the "typical" way. Just... please show the nuance in practice.

The big "going out night" for our fearless college student isn't Friday but saturday night because of shabbat.

The stain on the rabbi's couch is not to be mentioned

A character keeps on mentioning the stain anyway.

Jewish goodbyes after any event take a minimum of two hours and that's why the gang is delayed on their journey to save the world .

I want more representation than characters in novels saying "haha I'm jewish but eat bacon and love Christmas!" in such flat ways. Please feel free to add more hypothetical ways of representation in the comments !!! About or inspired by your own life and experiences ! Let's make this post vibrant!

[evilwickedme]

I vote we stop everybody from using the word "Ashkenazi" until they can prove they know what it means by picking an Ashkenazi siddur from a pile of siddurim

[rotzaprachim]

some smaller bookstores, presses, and museum shops to browse and know about! Most support smaller presses, diverse authors and authors in translation, or fund museums and arts research)

(disclaimer: the only three I’ve personally used are the Yiddish book center, native books, and izzun books! Reccomend all three. Also roughly *U.S. centric & anglophone if people have others from around the world please feel free to add on

birchbark books - Louise Erdrich’s book shop, many indigenous and First Nations books of a wide variety of genres including children’s books, literature, nonfiction, sustainability and foodways, language revitalization, Great Lakes area focus (https://birchbarkbooks.com/)

American Swedish institute museum store - range of Scandinavian and Scandinavian-American/midwestern literature, including modern literature in translation, historical documents, knitters guides, cookbooks, children’s books https://shop.asimn.org/collections/books-1

Native books - Hawai’i based bookstore with a focus on native Hawaiian literature, scholarly works about Hawai’i, the pacific, and decolonial theory, ‘ōlelo Hawai’i, and children’s books Collections | Native Books (nativebookshawaii.org)

the Yiddish book center - sales arm of the national Yiddish book center, books on Yiddish learning, books translated from Yiddish, as well as broader selection of books on Jewish history, literature, culture, and coooking https://shop.yiddishbookcenter.org/

ayin press - independent press with a small but growing selection of modern judaica https://shop.ayinpress.org/collections/all?_gl=1kkj2oo_gaMTk4NDI3Mzc1Mi4xNzE1Mzk5ODk3_ga_VSERRBBT6X*MTcxNTM5OTg5Ny4xLjEuMTcxNTM5OTk0NC4wLjAuMA..

Izzun books - printers of modern progressive AND masorti/trad-egal leaning siddurim including a gorgeous egalitarian Sephardic siddur with full Hebrew, English translation, and transliteration

tenement center museum -https://shop.tenement.org/product-category/books/page/11/ range of books on a dizzying range of subjects mostly united by New York City, including the history literature cookbooks and cultures of Black, Jewish, Italian, Puerto Rican, First Nations, and Irish communities

restless books - nonprofit, independent small press focused on books on translation, inter and multicultural exchange, and books by immigrant writers from around the world. Particularly excellent range of translated Latin American literature https://restlessbooks.org/

olniansky press - modern Yiddish language press based in Sweden, translators and publishers esp of modern Yiddish children’s literature https://www.etsy.com/shop/OlnianskyBooks

https://yiddishchildrensbooks.com/ - kinder lokshen, Yiddish children’s books (not so many at the moment but a very cute one about a puffin from faroese!)

inhabit books - Inuit-owned publishing company in Nunavut with an “aim to preserve and promote the stories, knowledge, and talent of Inuit and Northern Canada.” Particularly gorgeous range of children’s books, many available in Inuktitut, English, French, or bilingual editions https://inhabitbooks.com/collections/inhabit-media-books-1

rust belt books - for your Midwest and rust belt bookish needs! Leaning towards academic and progressive political tomes but there are some cookbooks devoted to the art of the Midwest cookie table as well https://beltpublishing.com/

[ravenssunshine]

ok more on observantly jewish ford pines!

• the new jersey pineses are totally conservative jews who go to shul only a few times a year but they did shabbat every friday. at their bar mitzvah, stan and ford were given pocket sized siddurim (a secret tool that will help us later!)

• i doubt ford was observant in the years after he moved to gravity falls. he was too obsessed with his research and really into a certain idol. he probably wouldn’t have felt good about praying if it had crossed his mind

• he keeps the siddur in the pocket of his coat at all times, so he has it when he was launched into the portal

• he starts saying prayers every morning and night to keep track of the days. and he did a small shabbat every 7 days to keep track of the weeks. he definitely lost track of the days at some point but the ritual kept him going

• i imagine that after he and stan finish traveling the world and come home to gravity falls, ford starts observing shabbat in an attempt to curb his workaholic tendencies. he and stan go on picnics and stuff. he is happy :)

[kosherplasmid]

Bochur fell asleep on his siddurim during shiur :,((

[germiyahu]

So I haven't received it yet cuz shipping, but I ordered this one from Congregation Sha'ar Zahav because it was highly recommended!

https://shaarzahav.org/our-siddur/

I also discovered that Artscroll is currently giving away siddurim, including non-Ashki ones!

https://hashemlovesyou.net/

I also have and love Mishkan T'filah, and am currently waiting for my travel version to be delivered 😊

Thanks! I'll have to pass on the Sha'ar Zahav for now, it's awfully expensive and I just did a payment plan on my credit card for the Lev Shalem and the Mahzor Lev Shalem together. But I'd be interested to check that one out someday!

But I will take advantage of a free Siddur, if it's not inappropriate, I asked for a Nusach Edot haMizrach, because I would also like to have a Sfaradi perspective even if I'm 90% sure my congregation is Ashkenazi?

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

So here's the current awful thing my brain did to me:

(Genuinely unsettled by this thought and other Jews may be also, just FYI, read at your own risk; idk how to trigger warn for this or I'd be more specific sorry)

So you know how sometimes you wonder how people would eulogize you at your funeral?

It occurred to me to begin wondering how people will talk about American Jews once if we are expelled and/or killed and our music, our siddurim, our blend of English and Hebrew, and our unique denominational movements/minhagim are preserved by the remaining survivors, wherever they end up, or worst case scenario in the books and academic articles they write about us.

Like hopefully maybe that will be a very long time from now? But I can't shake the feeling of inevitability that it will happen someday.

[jewish-microwave-laser]

it was honestly surreal to be able to wear my tallis in shul today. more than a year and a half ago, i made my tallis as part of an adult education class at my shul, the first shul event i ever went to. since then, i made a bag for it, my chumash, and my siddurim, and i've carried my tallis with me to and from shul over and over and over again. i've stimmed with my roommate's tzitzis, untangling the ends and wrapping and unwrapping them around my finger. today i did that with my own tallis. i've touched my siddur to the torah scrolls and kissed it a million and one times, and today i did it with the corner of my own tallis. for my first ever aliyah i touched my tallis to the sefer hatorah and i chanted the blessings

shavuot is already the perfect time to convert, but to make it even better, my atarah is from ruth—עמך עמי—your people shall be (or "are") my people. now they truly are my people, and i couldn't be more happy