Sunday, September 23, 2007

Original Tefillah Zakah

The Chayei Adam's Tefillah Zakah, a long prayer to be recited just before Kol Nidre, claims to originate in the allegedly Sabbatean Chemdas haYamim. R' Danzig (the author of the Chayei Adam) cites the Chayei Adam, then says that he brings a prayer in simpler language, for those not steeped in kabbalah (as kabbalah was, by his time, being removed from the Ashkenazic non-Chassidic yeshiva curriculum), from unspecified "early works."

Here is the original prayer from the Chemdas haYamim, thanks to the Digital Book Repository at the Jewish National and University Library. It shows some similarity, but it's far from identical, even aside from the kabbalistic content. The ideas expressed in the two prayers bear further study.

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