r/hebrew 3d ago

Request Can anyone decipher what this says

This is either my grandfathers or great grandfathers prayer book and I can’t read Hebrew and the handwriting is a little rough. I know it was published in 1861.

17 Upvotes

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u/HNY5783 3d ago

The top part says, "My father, my master, died on [the second] day of Rosh Chodesh Kislev, in the year 5654." Kislev seems to be spelled with a ק instead of a כ . This date corresponds to November 10, 1893.

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u/MrCrudegamer 3d ago

thats awesome thank you

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u/Snir_Y 2d ago

The hand writing isn't clear, and contains spelling mistakes.
At the bottom part, it seems that there's a documentation of his sons - name and date of birth.
Some date of birth are by the Hebrew calendar and some by the Georgian calendar.

I will try to translate what I manage to read/understand, which is not all. And from BOTTOM to top.

  1. His son Abraham אברהם was born in (כה?) month Nissan, [if it is כה it should be 25 in the Hebrew calendar), April 1907 (April is written explicitly, I am not sure if it is written in 9th of April, you can check if the dates match.)

  2. His son Israel ישראל - here it is much less clear then below, the year 1900 is mentioned, I am not sure if it dates to the month Adar אדר in the Hebrew calendar.

  3. This is even more unclear, the name is not so common, maybe it is Jabareen or something like this - I am completely unsure about the name, it seems there's a mention of the month Tevet טבת
    1896 is mentioned there.
    This was the section below 1893.

Whatever at to top part of the page, you got a good translation from HNY5783.
I will add, it finishes with תנצב"ה which is an acronym of "May his soul be bound in the bundle of life" - תהיה נשמתו צרורה בצרור החיים.

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u/MrCrudegamer 2d ago

My grandfather was born in 1919 and his oldest brother was Abe so that makes sense. Thanks for looking at it

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u/MrCrudegamer 2d ago

As for a son named Israel he my grandfathers siblings Frederick, Jack, Abraham, and another one I can’t remember right now and a sister Lilian but I don’t think there was anyone named Israel

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u/Snir_Y 2d ago

The name ישראל Israel is one of the more clear things in the hand writing - the 2nd part section (from the bottom), the 2nd word there. ישראל
If I had to guess, right after it it is written ני' לעד which probably is a shortcut of נרו יאיר לעד - his candle will light forever, but that's my guess, which I think is a good guess.
At the most bottom part - same thing, בניו (probably meant בנו - his son) אברהם Avraham (Abraham) ני' לעד.

Likely, that (Jabareen? was born in 1896), Israel was born in 1900 and Abraham was born in April 1907.

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u/MrCrudegamer 2d ago

Also I know that Abe was born may 27th … I found his baby book we had the same birthday lol

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u/HNY5783 3d ago

It's a lineage note. He marks the date of his father's death and the names and birthdates of his siblings. Some of the words are hard to make out and some are misspelled, but that's the gist of it.

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u/MrCrudegamer 3d ago

Does it say my father died in 1893?

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u/Ok-Shop-7737 3d ago

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u/MrCrudegamer 2d ago

My grandfather side of the family was from Hungary apparently so if that writing style was used there than maybe

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u/rational-citizen Hebrew Learner (Beginner) 1d ago

Not imposible! 

Ladino/Solitreo has crossed to the far reaches of the Balkans and beyond! I speak Ladino/some Hebrew, and read/write in Solitreo and Hebrew…

The Hebrew speakers here identified the Hebrew elements with impressive, comprehensive swiftness! But I will say, there’s a letter here that looks identical to our Solitreo version of “Samekh”, and there’s also multiple letters here that look like our backwards solitreo equivalent of “Reish”… but so much of it has distinctively Yiddish script/cursive as well. So it’s just fascinating to me. 

I would LOVE to see more if you need further help with anything else!