Amidora · Library
How can Hebrew and English be read when their paragraphs do not line up?
When Hebrew and English segments do not match, Amidora shows the English as one block after the Hebrew; 10 Ashkenaz, 8 Sefard and 15 Edot HaMizrach leaves work this way.
How Amidora pairs the two languages
Each reading in Amidora is a leaf of the siddur outline, made of segments. Where the source edition divides Hebrew and English the same way, each segment carries both texts and the app shows them together, either stacked or side by side. Where the two editions break the passage differently, the app does not force a line-by-line match. It shows the Hebrew segments in order and places the whole English text as a separate block at the end of the leaf.
In the bundled texts this happens in 10 of the 423 Ashkenaz leaves, 8 of the 101 Sefard leaves and 15 of the 82 Edot HaMizrach leaves. Everywhere else, a Hebrew line and the English beside it come from the same segment.
Reading an unaligned leaf
- Open the section by its heading and check which nusach is selected.
- Read the Hebrew segments through to the end of the leaf.
- Read the English block that follows as one continuous text, not as notes on the last Hebrew line.
- Use the side-by-side or stacked display for aligned leaves; for an unaligned leaf both modes show the same separate block.
- If you need a precise correspondence, open the edition on Sefaria from the Texts and sources screen.
Examples from the bundled texts
The difference in segment counts shows why a row-by-row pairing would mislead. In the Ashkenaz Shabbat evening zemirot, Tzamah Nafshi has 28 Hebrew segments against 32 English ones. Psalm 34 in the Ashkenaz Shabbat morning service has a single Hebrew segment and 12 English ones. In the Edot HaMizrach weekday morning service, the Incense Offering has 35 Hebrew segments and 18 English.
- Tzamah Nafshi · Ashkenaz
- 28 Hebrew · 32 English
- Psalm 34 · Ashkenaz
- 1 Hebrew · 12 English
- Bedtime Shema · Sefard
- 27 Hebrew · 36 English
- Incense Offering · Edot HaMizrach
- 35 Hebrew · 18 English
Mistakes to avoid
- Treating the first English paragraph as the translation of the first Hebrew line.
- Deleting English paragraphs that have no visible Hebrew counterpart.
- Assuming a stacked view means the source aligned the texts.
- Copying only the Hebrew of an unaligned leaf and losing the English block at its end.
What the layout does not establish
The block layout reflects how the two editions were segmented on Sefaria, the source listed below. It says nothing about which wording a community uses; that question belongs to its prayer book and guidance.