Jewish prayers: translation and transliteration from Hebrew to English by Pam Coyle

his is your book. You choose the contents, as little or as much of it as you want, on your own timetable. These are .pdf files, which can be printed with or without downloading to your harddrive, whether you have a Mac or a PC. Make a looseleaf notebook, have them bound at a copy store, whatever. The name of Hashem is not in them, so they don’t have to be disposed of in a special way. I will continue to add to this site from time to time, and I welcome any request for a specific translation, question, or comment: email, pam@kakatuv.com

About the translator: I converted to Judaism in 1997, after my husband found out he was adopted, and had a Jewish grandfather. We converted together. I like languages and became very interested in learning the meaning of the Hebrew. It was very frustrating to say words I did not understand. This work is the result of that frustration. It could not have been done without the help of my teachers, whom I want to thank here: Talia Arnon, my teacher of modern Hebrew at the College of Charleston; Rabbi David J. Radinsky, of Brith Sholom Beth Israel Synagogue in Charleston, South Carolina. I am so grateful for the hours spent going over many of the translations. If errors remain, I am sure they are mine. Thanks also to Rabbi Chezi Zionce, of Synagogue Emanu-El in Charleston, for his encouraging support of this work.

I also want to thank Janis Joseph, of Atartec for designing and building the beautiful web site, and Orly Ganor, of Ulpanor, from whom I am continuing to learn Hebrew with her wonderful workbooks and CD’s.

Final note: While I was compiling the initial batch of translations for the web site, I was pleased to observe how similar the Hebrew is that all three groups use. All in all, there are relatively few differences, which means that maybe we are much closer together than is sometimes thought, and that we are good stewards of the treasure that has been given to us through the ages.

-- Pam Coyle

Illustrated panel on left from decorated page in the Pesaro Siddur. Pesaro, 1480. Letchworth, Sassoon Collection, ms. 23, page 759