While looking for prayers of yore written for Flag Day in the United States, I came across this prayer, entitled “Tefilah b’Laḥash” (Whispered prayer), by Tsvi Hirsch Robinson is found near the beginning of his anthology of writings in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English, שער אמעריקאן פלעג (The American Flag, 1909). The line “Keep me… from the self-righteous who know nothing” spoke to me. Other lines, concerning the danger of filth and foul smelling air were more difficult to understand but reflected the Miasma Theory of disease common at that time. I was aided by an essay Robinson had written in an earlier compilation, Tsohar (1902), “A Memorial to Our Lamented President [William McKinley]” in which he offered the following assessment of the United States in light of Isaiah 11:5-9.

The logical meaning of these verses is as follows: When man will wear the girdles of “Righteousness” and “Faithfulness,” then he who possessed the ferocious nature of the ravenous wolf as it seeks to rend the innocent lamb (because she made his water turbid) will be transformed; he will lose his ferocious nature and will live friendly with all. He who possessed the character or nature of the venomous reptile that seeks to cast its venom upon the human race (on account of the sin which was committed by its great-great serpentine ancestor in human form, who wished to confer such a boon upon humanity to make all men Godlike, and, instead, only ruined himself because of Eve’s sin) will lose his venom, and he who is as weak as a child will play on its “hole.”

All who resembled lions, tigers, and bears will become friendly amongst themselves, and live in peace and tranquility with all, so that even the little schoolboy will know how to attend them all. All this may come to pass when all will be filled with a true understanding, which will permeate everything as the waters cover the sea. Without flattery we may truly say that in the United States of America, which was founded as a free republic according to its best principles, this prophecy is already in a great measure fulfilled; yet it behooves us to be very careful.

We must be ever vigilant; we must stand on guard, as it were, and closely scrutinize our surroundings with a powerful telescope. We must make a minute microscopical examination of the immense groups of bacilli that float around from the cesspools of impurity and make the air pestilential wherever they go. And what better microscope or greater telescope have we than the Press, which is imbued with the true spirit of American liberality of thought, and does its utmost for the welfare of the people?

By the power of the Press we can observe everything. By its power we can penetrate the most distant recesses; and by its power, through the aid of the great officers of the United States, we can discover the necessary means to make us progress ever to a higher degree of material and moral worth, so that we may serve as an example to others and be paragons and guides to all, — to annihilate impurity, to dry up the miasmatic swamps to destroy the bacilli. It is then that the holy prophecy will be fulfilled, and the eternal happiness of the entire human race will be assured.

Much gratitude to Rabbi Oren Steinitz who prepared a draft translation from which the translation presented here was derived. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Tefilah b’laḥash (Tsvi Hirsch Robinson 1909)

“תפלה בלחש | A Whispered Prayer (for protection from noxious air and people), by Tsvi Hirsch Robinson (1909)” 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.)

Oren Steinitz

Rabbi Dr. Oren Z. Steinitz is the spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Ami in Elmira, NY. He was ordained in 2014 at the Mesifta Adas Wolkowisk Rabbinical Academy, and is a member of OHALAH Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal. The same year he completed his doctorate at the University of Calgary‘s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (Religious Studies, Communications and Israel Studies), researching the attitude towards the “Other” in Jewish and Islamic legal websites. Rabbi Oren holds BA and MA degrees from the Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel). His fields of expertise include the history of Jewish-Muslim relations; modern Jewish fundamentalism; Jewish and Islamic Law; and the religious online world.Before assuming his current position, Rabbi Oren served for five years as the University of Calgary’s Jewish Chaplain, taught at Mount Royal University in Calgary, and worked for the Masorti Movement in Israel.

Tsvi Hirsch Robinson

Tsvi Hirsch (or Hersh) Robinson (1850-1913), originally from Radin, Lithuania (now Belarus) was a merchant, Torah scholar and writer. In his adolescence, he studied in Valozhyn and Vilna under the tutelage of Rabbi Shmuel Strashun. A lumber merchant in Europe, he emigrated to the United States in 1891, settling in Springfeld, Massachusetts as a grocer.

Works of related interest:

 

📖 תפלות ישראל (אשכנז)‏ | Tefilot Yisrael, a bilingual Hebrew-English prayerbook translated and arranged by Tsvi Hirsch Filipowski (1862/1872)

מענטשן־פרעסער | Mentshn-Fresser (“People Devourer”), a Pandemic Ballad by Shlomo Shmulevitsh (1916)

God of the Earth, the Air, the Sea – a hymn for Pesaḥ by Penina Moïse (Ḳ.Ḳ. Beth Elohim 1842)

💬 A New Declaration of Independence, by Emma Goldman (1909)

📖 מַחֲזוֹר עֲבֹדַת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד: עֲבֹדַת חַג הַמַּצּוֹת (אשכנז)‏ | Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Ḥag haMatsot, arranged and translated by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1909)

📖 מַחֲזוֹר עֲבֹדַת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד: עֲבֹדַת חַג הַשָּׁבֻעוֹת (אשכנז)‏ | Maḥzor Avodat Ohel Moed: Avodat Ḥag haShavuot, arranged and translated by Arthur Davis & Herbert Adler (1909)

A Prayer for Protection from Oppression and Persecution (CCAR 1924)

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