Texts from their published editions. Guidance on what this tradition does at this moment is on the occasion page, and background on the tradition is at /traditions/jewish.
Texts from their published editions
Each text below was transcribed from the edition named under it and checked twice, independently, against that edition. Where the two transcriptions disagreed by even one character, the text is not shown here. That is a claim about wording only: these are not selected or endorsed for any particular situation, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed them. Older spelling is kept as the edition prints it.
Psalm 121 (JPS 1917)
One of the Songs of Ascents, a short psalm of protection for one setting out or in danger. Used in Jewish practice at times of travel, illness and childbirth, and included in some funeral and memorial orders. Often paired with Psalm 130 in visits to the sick.
English · The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text (JPS), 1917
I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains:
From whence shall my help come?
My help cometh from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved;
He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, He that keepeth Israel
Doth neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is thy keeper;
The LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The LORD shall keep thee from all evil;
He shall keep thy soul.
The LORD shall guard thy going out and thy coming in,
From this time forth and for ever.
Jewish Publication Society of America, 1917. Published 1917, before 1929, US public domain. Source
The Shema, first paragraph (JPS 1917)
The Shema, first paragraph (JPS 1917), as it appears in the edition cited below.
English · The Holy Scriptures According to the Masoretic Text (JPS), 1917
HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart;
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.
Jewish Publication Society of America, 1917. Published 1917, before 1929, US public domain. Source
Wording and scope vary between editions and between communities, so this entry is tied to one named edition and makes no claim about which form is right in a given setting.
Nothing here has been signed by a reviewer credentialed in this tradition. When that happens, reviewed prayers appear above these, and these stay where they are, as an anthology. How that works.