מִימִינִי מִיכָאֵל | “Mikhael is on my right,” the angelic invocation for divine protection from the Ḳriyat Shema al haMitah

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Unknown Author(s)

Shared on:

16 May 2020 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Bedtime Shema

Tags:

danger, night, sleep, Angels, Before Sleep, Angelic Protection, שכינה Shekhinah, apotropaic prayers of protection

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Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
בְּשֵׁם יְיָ אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מִימִינִי מִיכָאֵל וּמִשְּׂמֹֽאלִי גַּבְרִיאֵל וּמִלְּפָנַי אֽוּרִיאֵל וּמֵאָחוֹרַי רְפָאֵל וְעַל רֹאשִׁי שְׁכִֽינַת אֵל׃	In the name of YHVH Elohei Yisrael – May Mikhael be at my right, and Gavriel at my left, before me, Uriel, and behind me, Refael, and above my head, the Shekhinah of El.

That almost every organism on Earth must sleep and is thereby vulnerable to danger from predators in their resting state is a reality known deep inside us. In this prayer, whose lineage dates back through our oldest siddurim (Seder Rav Amram Gaon and Maḥzor Vitry) and into the age of amulet bowls and still further, numinous forces are invoked to protect us on our journey through sleep and back into wakefulness. The image is one of a traveler, their path illuminated, their safety secured by powerful guardians, and their progress blessed by divine grace. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“מִימִינִי מִיכָאֵל | “Mikhael is on my right,” the angelic invocation for divine protection from the Ḳriyat Shema al haMitah” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Unknown Author(s)

Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.

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Works of related interest:

sanoi, sansanoi, and semangelof (cropped image from an unknown source)

מימיני מיכאל | “Mikhael is on my right,” an apotropaic invocation of angelic protection in the Bedtime Shema from the Maḥzor Vitry (ca. 11th c.)

A detail from page 60 of the Codex Sulzberger manuscript of the Seder Rav Amram Gaon (collection of the Jewish Theological Society of America)

כשיוצא אדם בלילה | When a person goes out at night: an apotropaic invocation of angelic protection in the Seder Rav Amram Gaon (ca. 9th c.)

Aramaic incantation bowl SD12 (from the collection of Samir DeHays)

גבריאל מימינהון | “Gavriel is on the right,” an apotropaic invocation of angelic protection in the amulet bowl SD12 (ca. mid-first millennium C.E.)

Nachtgebet eines Kindes (Lise Tarlau 1907) - cropped

Nachtgebet eines Kindes | Night prayer of a child [for the Bedtime Shema], by Lise Tarlau (1907)

ריבונו של עולם הריני מוחל | Prayer of Forgiveness from the Bedtime Shema, by Rabbi Yitsḥak Luria z”l (translation by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi)

(2,3,7): the sum of interior angles is π−π/42 (via "42" by John Baez)

אַדִירְיַרוֹן בַהִירְיַרוֹן | Adiryaron Ḅahiryaron, a litany of angelic names associated with the 42 letter name, recorded in Sefer haPeliah

אַדִירְיַרוֹן בַהִירְיַרוֹן | Adiryaron Ḅahiryaron, a litany of angelic names associated with the 42 letter name, recorded in Sefer haQanah

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Additional Notes:

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We strongly advise against printing sacred texts and art containing divine names as these copies must be regarded with reverence, complicating their casual treatment and disposal.
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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17