תפילה להצבעה | A Prayer on Voting, by Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson (T’ruah 2016)

Contributor(s): T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and Lev Meirowitz Nelson

Shared on: 7 November 2016 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories: 🇺🇸 Election Day (1st Tuesday after November 1st), Elections & Voting

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., civic prayers, democracy, United States, United States General Election 2016, voting

TOGGLE COLUMNS (on/off):

ADJUST COLUMN POSITIONS: select the column header cell and drag it where you want. show me!

COPY INDIVIDUAL COLUMN(S): use CopyTables, a browser extension.

TABLE HELP

Hebrew	English
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ, בָּעֵת הַזֹּאת זְמַן בְּחִירוֹתֵינוּ, שֶׁתָּדְרִיכֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם.	May it be Your will, at this season of our election, to guide us towards peace.
בְּהַצְבָּעָתֵנוּ, אָנוּ מִתְחַיְּבִים לֶהֱיוֹתֵנוּ בְּנֵי הָאֲגוּדָּה, לְקַבָּלַת עוֹל אַחֲרָיוּתֵנוּ לְטוֹבַת הַצִּיבּוּר.	By voting, we commit to being full members of society, to accepting our individual responsibility for the good of the whole.
שׁוֹפְטִים וְשׁוֹטְרִים נִתֵן לָנוּ בְּכָל שְׁעָרֵינוּ… וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת הָעָם מִשְׁפָּט צֵדֶק, (דברים טז:יח) וְנִזְכֶּה לְהִמָּנוֹת בְּתוֹךְ “כָּל מֵי שֶׁעוֹסְקִים בְּצָרְכֵי צִיבּוּר בֶּאֱמוּנָה.”	May we place over ourselves officials in all our gates… who will judge the people with righteousness,^[1] Deuteronomy 16:18. and may we all merit to be counted among all those who work faithfully for the public good.
פְּקַח עֵינֵינוּ לִרְאוֹת כָּל מָעֳמָד וְמָעֳמָד וְכָל שַׂר וְיוֹעֶצֶת כִּי הֵם נִבְרְאוּ בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים, וּפְקַח עֵינֵיהֶם שֶׁיַּרְאוּ שֶׁכָּל יוֹשְׁבַי תֵּבֵל נִבְרְאוּ גַּם הֵם בַּצֶּלֶם.	Open our eyes to see in all candidates and elected officials, the image of God and may they see in all citizens of the earth, the image of God
אָמֵץ אֶת לְבָבֵינוּ לִשְׁמוֹר מִצְוַת “וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ”, (ויקרא יט:יח) וְתֵן בּלִבֵּינוּ לְהָבִין אֶת אֵלּוּ הַחוֹלְקִים עָלִינוּ.	Grant us the courage to fulfill the mitsvah of loving our neighbors as ourselves, (Leviticus 19:18) and place in our hearts the wisdom to understand those who do not share our views.
כַּכָּתוּב בִּתְפִילַּת יוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן, “וְיַעֲשׂוּ כּוּלָּם אֲגוּדָּה אַחַת לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם,”	As we pray on the High Holidays, “May we become a united society,^[2] Cf. Pesikta D’Rav Kahanna.27.9. fulfilling the divine purpose with a whole heart.”^[3] Cf. Sotah 40a.11 and Berakhot 17a:2. ^[4] From the Modim (thanksgiving) liturgy of the Rosh haShanah Amidah.
וְכָּכָּתוב עַל יְדֵי דָּוִד עַבְדְּךָ, “יְהִי שָׁלוֹם בְּחֵילֵךְ, שַׁלְוָה בְּאַרְמְנוֹתָיִךְ. לְמַעַן אַחַי וְרֵעָי אֲדַבְּרָה נָּא שָׁלוֹם בָּךְ.” (תהלים קכב:ז-ח)	And as the Psalmist sang, “May there be shalom within your walls, peace in your strongholds. For the sake of my brothers and sisters and friends, I will speak peace to you.”^[5] Psalms 122:7-8.

T’ruah’s “Meditation on Voting” was composed by their director of education, Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson, with input from Rabbi Jill Jacobs and Itamar Haritan. It was first published and distributed via email.

Rabbi Nelson writes,

On Tuesday, we go to the polls in a momentous election that for many of us has generated a combination of anxiety, excitement, fear, and confusion. We offer you this prayer, which you can recite this Shabbat, before you vote, or while you are waiting for returns. The text of the prayer is below, and you can download a printable version here.
Wishing you all a peaceful Shabbat. Thank you for your partnership in building a more loving and just country and world.
Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson
Director of Education, T’ruah

Source

Click to access A-Meditation-on-Voting-Truah-2016-CC-BY-SA.pdf

Notes[+]

Notes
1	Deuteronomy 16:18.
2	Cf. Pesikta D’Rav Kahanna.27.9.
3	Cf. Sotah 40a.11 and Berakhot 17a:2.
4	From the Modim (thanksgiving) liturgy of the Rosh haShanah Amidah.
5	Psalms 122:7-8.

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“תפילה להצבעה | A Prayer on Voting, by Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson (T’ruah 2016)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

Founded 2002, T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, (formerly Rabbis for Human Rights - North America) is a multi-denominational rabbinical organization dedicated to giving voice to the tradition of human rights in Judaism.

Lev Meirowitz Nelson

Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson is the Director of Rabbinic Training for T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. Lev was ordained in 2013 from Hebrew College, where he was a Wexner Graduate Fellow. In 2017, Lev was honored by the Covenant Foundation with a Pomegranate Prize, which recognizes early-career Jewish educators. Before attending rabbinical school, Lev taught fifth grade at the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan for three years and worked for many summers at URJ Eisner Camp. He holds an AB in Geology from Brown University and spent a post-baccalaureate semester at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, where conservation and sustainable development are approached in the context of Arab-Israeli peace efforts.

Pocket Pinterest Reddit 𝕏 Facebook Telegram WhatsApp SMS Email

Works of related interest:

Stemmen op stembiljet met rood potlood (credit:J.M. Luijt, license: CC BY)

תפילה להצבעה | A Prayer for Voting with a Pledge to Help Repair the World, by Rabbi David Seidenberg (neohasid.org 2008/2020)

"I voted today" (credit: Steve Rainwater, license: CC BY-SA)

תפילה פרטית לשם הצבעה | Private Prayer for Voting, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (2020)

Early voting at Bauer Drive Community Recreation Center (credit: Ben Schumin, license: CC BY-SA)

תפילה למצביעי המדינה | Prayer for the Electorate, by David Zvi Kalman (2016)

"Voting in Israel" – Josef Tal is helped by his granddaughter (2003 polls). Photographed in a Jerusalem school. (credit: Etan J. Tal, license: CC BY)

תפילה (ישראלית) לפני הכניסה לקלפי (למאמין וללא מאמין)‏ | Prayer before entering the voting booth in Israel (for believers and non-believers)

Benediction by Rabbi Julie Schonfeld at the Democratic National Convention (2016)

תפילה בין השריפות (קצרה) | Abridged Prayer Between the Fires for Lev and Lag ba-Omer (neohasid.org)

Inauguration Day Benediction for President John F. Kennedy by Rabbi Dr. Nelson Glueck (1961)

prev next

1 comment to תפילה להצבעה | A Prayer on Voting, by Rabbi Lev Meirowitz Nelson (T’ruah 2016)

Dede
2016-11-08 at 11:29 am · Reply.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful and inspiring prayer. May we all go from strength to strength

Comments, Corrections, and QueriesCancel reply

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=14653

Associated Image:

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in category pages and in shared links on social media.)

Source Data: XML | JSON

Re-formatted: HTML | ODT

Terms of Use: Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:

Properly attribute the work to T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and Lev Meirowitz Nelson.
Clearly indicate the date you accessed the work and in what ways, if any, you modified it. (If you have adapted the work, let us know so that the contributor might consider endorsing your revision.)
Provide the stable link to this resource: <https://opensiddur.org/?p=14653>.
Indicate that the original work was shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license. (To redistribute or remix this work in any format, modified or unmodified, you must refer to the terms of the license under which the work is shared.)

Additional Notes:

The views expressed in this work represent the views of their creator(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the Open Siddur Project's developers, its diverse community of volunteer contributors, or its institutional partners.
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.
If you must dispose of a printed sacred text (one containing Divine Names), please locate the closest genizah (often established by a synagogue) and contact its custodians for further instructions. We also recommend using Morah Yehudis Fishman's Prayer for Adding a Work to the Genizah.

Support this work: The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.

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