Siddur (prayer book)

Siddurs

Siddur (Siddur, Hebrew - סידור) - a prayer book in Judaism .

The origin of the word “siddur” (סדור) is associated with the word “seder” (סדר) (see Passover ) - “order” (order, sequence of prayers - daily and in different cases of life).

Siddurs differ in traditions ( Nusakhs ): Sephardic , Ashkenazi , Mountain , Hasidic , etc., as well as by purpose:

For each day (with special, holiday, inserts) special siddurs (" Makhzors ") for the period of the Great Holidays (the period from the first day of Rosh Hashanah to the end of Yom Kippur ).

In modern siddurs published in the diaspora or for the diaspora, two or three parallel texts are often printed: the original prayer in Hebrew or Aramaic , a translation into the Hebrew language, widespread in the region ( English , Russian , etc.), and sometimes a transcription of the original text of prayers letters of this language.

For some types of siddur, which simultaneously contain translation, transcription and vowels, you can learn the pronunciation of syllables and begin to learn to read in Hebrew. It should be remembered that the language of the Siddur is often not identical to modern Hebrew . Of particular value is the online siddur with the ability to listen to prayers.

The oldest known instance of Siddur is about 1200 years old (approximately a prayer book was compiled at the beginning or middle of the 9th century). It consists of 50 parchment pages in the original binding and contains about 40 thousand sacred texts in Hebrew. Researchers believe that it was written during the activities of the Gaons in Babylon , which at that time was the center of Jewish life ^[1] .