תפילה לבוחר טרם הבחירות | A Prayer for Voters Before the Israeli Election, by Rabbi Esteban Gottfried

Contributor(s):

Esteban Gottfried, Aharon N. Varady (translation) and Josh Soref (translation)

Shared on:

17 January 2013 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Elections & Voting, Yom Habḥirut

Tags:

2013 Israeli legislative election, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, Beit Tefillah Yisraeli, Parliamentary Election, democratic process, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Needing Proofreading

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Source (Hebrew)	Contribute a translation
רִבּוֹן כָּל הַמַעֲשִׂים, אַתָּה חוֹנֵן לְאָדָם דֲּעַת וּמְלַמֵּד לֶאֶנוֹשׁ בִּינָה. חָנֵּנוּ מֵאִתְּךָ חָכְמָה, בִּינָה וְהַשְׂכֵּל בְּעֵת מִילוּי זְכוּתֵנוּ וְחוֹבַתֵנוּ הַאֶזְרַחִית לִבְחֹר אֶת מַנְהִיגֵינוּ.‏	Master of Creation, You favor humanity with perception and teach people understanding. Grant us from your wisdom, understanding, and discernment. At this time, we merit the right and civic duty to elect our leaders.
חֲזֵק לִבֵּנוּ וּמַחַשַּׁבְתֵּנוּ. הַדְרִיכֵנוּ, שֶׁנוּכַל לַחֲשֹׁב וּלְהַעֲרִיךְ, לִשְׁקוֹל וּלְהַחְלִיט בִּתְבוּנָה וּבְאֲחְרָיוּת. תֵּן לַנוּ לֵב טָהוֹר וּמַחֲשָׁבָה טְהוֹרָה בִּבְחִירָתֵינוּ לִמְלִיאַת כְּנֶסֵת יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמֶמְשַׁלְתּוֹ, שֶׁנִבְחַר שְׁלִיחֵי צִבּוּר נֶאֱמָנִים וּרְאוּיִים לְהַנְהִיג אוֹתָנוּ. חֲזְקֵנוּ וְאַמְצֵנוּ, שֶׁלֹּא נִכָּשֵׁל בִּבְחִירַתֵנוּ וּבְמַתָן אֱמוּנֵנוּ, וְלֹא יִכָּשְׁלוּ אֲחֵרִים בַּנוּ.	Give us strength in our hearts and minds. Guide us, to be able to think and evaluate, to consider and decide wisely and responsibly. Grant us a pure heart and a pure mind in our choice to fill Israel’s Knesset and its cabinet, to choose leaders, faithful and reverent, to govern us. That we should be strong and of good courage, not to stumble in our election and our trust, nor to fail one another.
אָנָּא ה׳ אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, הַעֲרֵה רוּחֲךָ עַל כָּל תּוֹשְׁבֵי אַרְצֵנוּ וְטַע בְּלִבָּם אַהֲבָה וְאַחֲוָה וְשָׁלוֹם וְרֵעּוּת וְעַקֹר מִלִּבָּם כׇּל שִׂנְאָה וְאֵיבָה, קִנְאָה וְתַחֲרוּת, וְתֵן בָּנוּ הָכֹּחַ, לְקַבֵּל אֶת תּוֹצָאוֹת הָבְחִירוֹת בְּהַבַנָה, בְּרוּחַ טוֹבָה וּבְתִקְוָה.	Please YHVH, elo’ah of Israel, Focus your spirit upon all the inhabitants of our Land And plant in their hearts love and fraternity, peace and companionship And displace from their hearts all hatred and hostility, grudges and strife And give to us the strength to welcome the results of the Election with understanding, with a good spirit and with hope.
וּלְאַחֲר הַבְחִירוֹת, שְׁלַח אוֹרְךָ וְאֲמִיתְּךָ לְראֹשֶׁיהָ, נִבְחַרֶיהָ, מָנְהִגַיהָ וּלְכׇל הַעוֹסְקִים בְּצָרְכֵּי צִיבּוּר בֶּאֱמוּנָה חַזְקָם וְאַמֱצָם. וְתַקְנֵם בְּעֵצָה טוֹבָה מִלְפַנֶיךָ, לְמַעַן יֵלְכוּ בַּדֶּרֶךְ הַצֶדֶק, הַחוֹפֵשׁ וְהַיֹּשֶׁר. לְבִלְתִּי רוּם־לְבָבוֹ מֵאֶחָיו, וּלְבִלְתִּי סוּר מִן־הַמִּצְוָה יָמִין וּשְׂמֹאול לְמַעַן יַאֲרִיךְ יָמִים עַל־מַמְלַכְתּוֹ (דברים יז:כ חלק) כַּכַּתוּב ”כִּי־אָז תַּצְלִיחַ אֶת־דְּרָכֶךָ, וְאָז תַּשְׂכִּיל“ (יהושע א:ח חלק).‏	And after the Election, send your light and truth to the Prime Minister, their MKs, and their advisers in all their dealings as faithful representatives with strength and courage. And establish them with good counsel before you, for the sake of justice, freedom and integrity. “That their heart be not lifted up above their fellows, and that they turn not aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left: to the end that they may prolong their days in their kingdom,…”^[1] Deuteronomy 17:20 part. as it is written, “Only then will you prosper in your undertakings and only then will you be successful.”^[2] Joshua 1:8 part.
בָּרֵךְ נָא אֶת מְדִינָת יִשְׂרָאֵל רֵאשִׁית צְמִיחַת גְּאֻלָּתֵנוּ וְקַיֵּם בִּמְהֵרָה חֲזוֹן נְבִיאֶךָ, ”לֹא־יִשָּׂא גוֹי אֶל־גּוֹי חֶרֶב וְלֹא־יִלְמְדוּ עוֹד מִלְחָמָה“ (ישעיהו ב:ד חלק). וִיהִי נֹעַם אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהֵינוּ עָלֵינוּ וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדֵינוּ כּוֹנְנָה עָלֵינוּ (תהלים צ:יז חלק). וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן.‏	Please bless the State of Israel, the beginning of the flowering of our redemption,^[3] Cf. the Prayer for the State of Israel by Yitsḥak haLevi Hertzog and Shmuel Yosef Agnon. And quickly bring about the vision of your prophet, “Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war.”^[4] Isaiah 2:4 part. May the pleasantness of Adonai our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us.^[5] Psalms 90:17 part. And let us say, Amen.

This prayer upon voting by Rabbi Esteban Gottfried of Beit Tefilah Israeli Tel Aviv was written before the 2013 Israeli legislative election and disseminated over the Internet and social media via the image below. A translation was prepared by Aharon Varady and Josh Soref prior to the 2019 Israeli legislative election, along with corrections to the niqqud found in the original. If you find any additional errors requiring a fix, please comment or contact us. –Aharon N. Varady

Source

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Deuteronomy 17:20 part.
2	Joshua 1:8 part.
3	Cf. the Prayer for the State of Israel by Yitsḥak haLevi Hertzog and Shmuel Yosef Agnon.
4	Isaiah 2:4 part.
5	Psalms 90:17 part.

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“תפילה לבוחר טרם הבחירות | A Prayer for Voters Before the Israeli Election, by Rabbi Esteban Gottfried” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Esteban Gottfried

Rabbi Esteban Gottfried is a Director, Playwright and actor and is the leader of Beit Tefilah Israeli (The Israeli House of Prayer) in Tel Aviv, which he founded with Rani Jaeger, and other friends.

Aharon N. Varady (translation)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer translator for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his translations, 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 transcribes prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes for the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Josh Soref (translation)

Josh Soref is a long-time participant of the National Havurah Committee, a Toronto-based DevOps Engineer, and a contributor to open-source projects (including the Open Siddur Project).

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105 years old man votes in 1955 Israeli elections, Ashdod (Credit: Fritz Cohen, 1955, Public Domain)

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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