Aleinu is a Jewish prayer recited at the end of daily services and found in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy. Through 2015 the opening said some have suggested that this act of martyrdom inspired the adoption of Aleinu into the daily liturgy. Today the opening carries none of this, though the word survives twice elsewhere in the article. A reader arriving now learns when and how often the prayer is recited, and not that its adoption has been linked to an act of Jewish martyrdom.
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Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “martyr” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 2.
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The opening as it read in 2015
Aleinu ( Hebrew : עָלֵינוּ , "it is our duty") or Aleinu leshabei'ach ("[it is] our duty to praise [ God ]"), meaning "it is upon us or it is our obligation or duty to praise God," is a Jewish prayer found in the siddur , the classical Jewish prayerbook. It is recited at the end of each of the three daily Jewish services .1It is also recited following the New Moon blessing and after a circumcision is performed.2 It is second only to the Kaddish (counting all its forms) as the most frequently recited prayer in current synagogue liturgy. A folkloric tradition attributes this prayer to the biblical Joshua at the time of his conquest of Jericho. This might have been inspired by the fact that the first letters of the first four verses spell, in reverse, Hoshea , which was the childhood name of Joshua (Numbers 13:16). Another attribution is to the Men of the Great Assembly, during the period of the Second Temple. An early—that is, pre-Christian—origin of the prayer is evidenced by its explicit mention of bowing and kneeling—practices associated with the Temple, and its non-mention of exile or a desire to restore Israel or the Temple. On the other hand, it has been argued that the phrase: "lirot meherah be-tiferet uzechah" (to speedily see your tiferet and oz ) is in fact a request for the speedy rebuilding of the Temple. The allusion is based on Psalms 78:61 and 96:6. If so, at least the second paragraph of Aleinu was written after the destruction in 70 CE (perhaps around the time of Rav). Its first appearance is the manuscript of the Rosh Hashana liturgy by the Talmudic sage Rav ( Rabbi Abba Arikha , died 247), who lived in Babylonia (Persia). He included it in the Rosh Hashana mussaf service as a prologue to the Kingship portion of the Amidah . In Blois , France, in 1171, it is alleged that a number of Jews—reportedly 34 men and 17 women—were burned at the stake for refusing to renounce their faith. They are said to have gone to their deaths bravely singing Aleinu to a "soul-stirring" melody, which astonished their executioners. Some have suggested that this act of martyrdom inspired the adoption of Aleinu into the daily liturgy. But Aleinu is already found at the end of the daily shacharit in Mahzor Vitry in the early 12th century, well before 1171. Among the authorities supporting the attribution to Joshua was Rav Hai Gaon (died 1038), Eleazar of Worms (died 1230), Rabbi Nathan ben Rabbi Yehuda (13th century), and Kol Bo (publ. 16th century). This attribution was supported by Manasseh ben Israel (died 1657).3
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 657241011.
The opening as it stood in 2005
Aleinu is a Jewish prayer found in the siddur , the classical Jewish prayerbook. Traditional Jews recite it at the end of each of the three daily Jewish prayers sessions. According to tradition, this prayer was created and proclaimed by Joshua after leading the children of Israel into Israel, upon the death of Moses. The Aleinu praises God for allowing the Jewish people to serve him, and expresses their hope that the whole world will recognize God and abandon idolatry .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 16031964.
The opening as it stood in 2010 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Aleinu ( Hebrew : , "ours" here to be understood as: "it is upon us, it is our obligation or duty") is a Jewish prayer found in the siddur , the classical Jewish prayerbook.It is recited at the end of each of the three daily Jewish services .It is also recited following the New Moon blessing and after a circumcision is performed.The traditional view of its composition, based on a geonic account, is that this prayer was created and proclaimed by Joshua in biblical times.However, the modern scholarly view is that the prayer was composed in Talmudic times for the mussaf liturgy on Rosh Hashanah . The Aleinu praises God for allowing the Jewish people to serve him, and expresses their hope that the whole world will recognize God and abandon idolatry .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 348493449.
The opening as it stood in 2020 15 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Jewish prayer Aleinu ( Hebrew : עָלֵינוּ , "it is our duty") or Aleinu leshabei'ach ("[it is] our duty to praise [ God ]"), meaning "it is upon us" or "it is our obligation or duty" to "praise God," is a Jewish prayer found in the siddur , the classical Jewish prayerbook. It is recited at the end of each of the three daily Jewish services . It is also recited following Kiddush levana and after a circumcision is performed. It is second only to the Kaddish (counting all its forms) as the most frequently recited prayer in current synagogue liturgy.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 961685631.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Jewish prayer Aleinu ( Hebrew : עָלֵינוּ , lit. "upon us", meaning "[it is] our duty") or Aleinu leshabei'ach ( Hebrew : עָלֵינוּ לְשַׁבֵּחַ "[it is] our duty to praise [ God ]"), meaning "it is upon us" or "it is our obligation or duty" to "praise God," is a Jewish prayer found in the siddur , the classical Jewish prayerbook. It is recited in most communities at the end of each of the three daily Jewish services and in the middle of the Rosh Hashanah mussaf .It is also recited in many communities following Kiddush levana and after a circumcision is performed. It is second only to the Kaddish (counting all its forms) as the most frequently recited prayer in current synagogue liturgy.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1175737824.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Jewish prayer Aleinu ( Hebrew : עָלֵינוּ , lit. "upon us", meaning "[it is] our duty") or Aleinu leshabei'ach ( Hebrew : עָלֵינוּ לְשַׁבֵּחַ "[it is] our duty to praise [ God ]"), meaning "it is upon us" or "it is our obligation or duty [to praise God]", is a Jewish prayer found in the siddur , the classical Jewish prayerbook. It is recited in most communities at the end of each of the three daily Jewish services and in the middle of the Rosh Hashanah mussaf . It is also recited in many communities following Kiddush Levana and after a circumcision is performed. It is second only to the Kaddish (counting all its forms) as the most frequently recited prayer in the current synagogue liturgy.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296262742. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“martyr” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 2. Read the current article and compare.
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martyr
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What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2005 and 2020.
Then
jewish prayer found in the siddur
Now
our duty") or aleinu leshabei'ach
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
