Welcome to Kakatuv: Jewish prayers with translation and transliteration by Pam Coyle

hese are email messages which have been so rewarding, actually they are "gemilut chasadim", kind payments, or rewards, from people who have connected with this avocation of mine. If you are inspired to write, please let me know if you are comfortable having your comments on this page (no email addresses posted or sold).

Dear Pam,
Yashar koach to you! Your site offers a great way to learn Hebrew and the davvening at the same time. I have wished for something like this many times – and in fact have created my own small versions of it on paper. For you to share this with everyone who is interested is a great blessing. I will definitely recommend it to my students and congregants.
Rabbi David Mivasair
Ahavat Olam Synagogue
Vancouver, BC

Shalom,
I am so glad that I've found you site on Maven. I am doing an online course, and your hebrew & Prayers are PERFECT! www.shaynabracha.com
holistic art by shayna bracha farber
I teach art with prayer and then we paint or do an art project.
blessings,
shayna

Dear Pam,
A friend sent me a link to your site - kol hakavod! - I wanted to thank you for making it. It's a wonderful idea and beautifully done (although I sometimes have trouble getting into all the pages).

I have recently begun studying the psalms. While I am fluent in modern Hebrew and sometimes do translations from Hebrew into English, Biblical Hebrew is often nearly incomprehensible to me. I have been looking for a word by word translation such as you have done. I have sometimes compared the Artscroll, JPS, and Jerusalem Bible translations and still remain puzzled by many words/phrases. How, that is, basedon what, did you decide on your translations? For example, "la-ha-vot esh" (psalm 29) is translated by you as 'swords/blades of fire'. True, 'lahav' is a blade, but 'lehavah' is a flame. Wouldn't 'flames of fire' make more sense? I won't include any more of my questions here because I don't know if you are interested in having a dialog/discussion about this. If you are, I would love to correspond with you. If not, know that your efforts/site is appreciated.
All the best,
Yehudit Lahav, Israel
Note from Pam: We did (and do) correspond, and actually met in November 2005 when I was in Israel.

Pam,
I’m the incoming ritual vice president of a conservative synagogue in San Diego (Tifereth Israel). I came across your site tonight for the first time. It’s obvious you put a huge amount of time in to preparing the content and designing the site so elegantly. Thanks!

I am considering using a few of your works as handouts during our Shabbat morning service but I’d really prefer to have them in a brochure form, double sided, to conserve paper and printing costs. I’m wondering if you’ve done this for anyone before and if you’ve figured out a fair compensation for your time and effort in providing a reformatted version of your PDFs. If so, please let me know.
Norman Katz, California

Thank you for Kakatuv on line. I am studying with a Read Hebrew America group, and your transliterations are most appreciated. However, I could not find Yigdal on the menu of prayers. Is it included in another listing? Please advise.
Thank you again,
Marilyn P. Robinson
Note from Pam: I did Yigdal for her, and sent it by email.

Thank you for your wonderful site. I have spent hours on it and love the way you have done it. It has made learning fun and easy.

I came across your web site. I love it! I noticed that in the Orthodox section, you only have the Shmoneh Esrei for Shabbat. Would you have the weekday one as well? Or would it be possible to make the weekday one for us? (For a fee of course)
Please would you let me know if you can help me with this.
Thanks
Michoel Rotenberg
Wolfson Hillel Primary School
London UK
Note from Pam: I did the weekday Shemoneh Esrei for him, and learned a lot from him about pronunciation of the “sh’va”, which I was transliterating by ear, and often not exactly correctly ?

Thank you for your web site. Extremely helpful format and presentation for the prayers and blessings. I am currently taking Hebrew and this is making my learning so much easier.
Michelle Finton
Senior Software Engineer
Digital Insight Corp., Sacramento
Office: 916.561.3569

Pam:
I was looking your website, its really wonderfull. I wish, if you want, to translate the site to spanish speakers. My name is Yair Ben Avraham, I live in Argentina.
Thanks and Shabbat Shalom

Hi Pam,
Just checked out your website for the first time. Very well done. Hope to see you in Israel soon.
Simcha Reiser
Honest Reporting
Hasbara Fellowships

I want to tell you how pleased I was to find your wonderful website as I searched for a good transliteration of the prayerbook that we use, Sim Shalom. What a mitzvah you have done! There are many members of my synagogue who would like to read the Hebrew but who feel that, as adults, they would find it too hard. While I do not agree with that opinion, I felt that we should make it possible for them to join in the singing and the prayers.
I learned to read Hebrew as a fifteen year old whose Temple used the old Union Prayer book as I tried to give a sound to each letter while I following the cantor in his singing. It would have been easier if I had had the transliterated version and used it to learn the Hebrew at the same time. This is what I hope those who use your pages will do.
Again, yasher koach for your accomplishment. May you go from strength to strength.
Francine Weistrop
Milton,MA

Thanks for your work .
Your site has assisted my son in his preparation for his barmitzvah
Kind regards
Leonard Breger (New Zealand)

An excellent site and certainly will be useful to educators and students alike. All blessings.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Note from Pam: this is a reply to me after I emailed Rabbi Wein from his website and asked him to have a look at mine)

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