![the Open Siddur Project [logo]](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2016.svg){kind=logo}
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.
| Source (Hebrew) | Transliteration (Romanized Hebrew) | Translation (English) |
|---|---|---|
אֵל עֶלְיוֹן, רָם עַל כָּל גּוֹיִם, אוֹהֵב צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט, חוּס וְהָגֵן עַל אַרְצוֹת הַבְּרִית — אֲנְשֶׁיהָ, שָׂרֶיהָ וְיוֹעֲצֶיהָ — וּשְׁמוֹר נָא עַל שְׁאִיפוֹתֶיהָ וּמוֹסְדוֹתֶיהָ הַחָפְשִיִּים, שֶׁהֵם תְּהִלָּתָהּ וְתִּפְאָרְתָּהּ. מִי יִתֵּן וּתְהֵא לָעֲשׁוּקִים וְלִמְשֻׁעְבָּדִים תִּקְוָה, וּמָנוֹס לְכָל חַסְרֵי קֵן וּטְרוּפֵי סוּפָה, מְגַנָּה שִֹנְאַת חִנָּם וְדוֹחָה כָל רְדִיפָה. |
El Elyon, ram ’al kol goyim, ohev tsedakah umishpat, ḥus v’hagen ’al artsot habrit — ansheiha, sareiha v’yo’atzeiha — ushmor na ’al she’ifoteiha umos’doteiha haḥofshi’im, shehem tehilatah v’tifartah. Mi yiten utehe la’ashukim v’limshubadim tikva, umanos l’khol ḥasrei ken utrufei sufah, m’ganah sinat ḥinam v’doḥah khol redifah. |
El Elyon, God on High, supreme over all nations, who loves righteousness and justice: protect and keep the United States of America — its people, its ministers and its advisers — and safeguard the ideals and free institutions that are its pride and its glory. May it be a beacon of hope for the oppressed and the enslaved and a refuge for the homeless and tempest-tost,[1] Cf. Emma Lazarus’s New Collosus (1883). giving “to bigotry no sanction, and to persecution no assistance.”[2] George Washington’s Letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island (1790). |
רוּחַ חֲדָשָׁה בְּרָא בָּהּ, לְהַשְֹכִּיל עַל כָּל רָשׁ וָדַּל בְּקִרְבָּהּ, הַקְּטַנִּים עִם הַגְּדֹלִים, כְּמָה שֶכָּתוּב בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ: יְיָ ״עֹשֶׂה מִשְׁפַּט יָתוֹם וְאַלְמָנָה, וְאֹהֵב גֵּר לָתֶת לוֹ לֶחֶם וְשִׂמְלָה.״ (דברים י:יח) וְכֵן כָּתוּב: ״וְגֵר לֹא תוֹנֶה וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ …. כָּל אַלְמָנָה וְיָתוֹם לֹא תְעַנּוּן.״ וְכָתוּב: ״אִם עַנֵּה תְעַנֶּה אֹתוֹ, כִּי אִם צָעֹק יִצְעַק אֵלַי — שָׁמֹעַ אֶשְׁמַע צַעֲקָתוֹ״ (שמות כב:כ-כב) וְתָרִיב רִיבוֹ. |
Ruaḥ ḥadasha b’ra bah, lehaskil ’al kol rash vadal bekirbah, haketanim ’im hagedolim, k’mo shekatuv betoratekha: Adonai “oseh mishpat yatom v’almanah, veohev ger latet lo leḥem vesimlah.” Vekhen katuv: “v’ger lo toneh v’lo tilḥatsenu . . . . kol almanah v’yatom lo t’anun.” V’khatuv: “im ’aneh t’aneh oto, ki im tsa’ok yits’ak elai — shamo’a eshma’ tsa’akato” v’tariv rivo. |
May it renew its commitment to protect the vulnerable and the powerless in its midst, the small with the great, as it is written in your Torah: “God does justice to the orphan and the widow, and loves the migrant, feeding and clothing him.”[3] Deuteronomy 10:18. And it is written: “You shall not wrong or oppress the migrant, nor abuse the widow or the orphan — and if you do abuse them, they will cry out to Me, and I shall surely hear their cry”[4] Exodus 22:20-22. and take up their cause. |
אֵל רָחוּם וְחַנּוּן, לַמְּדֵנוּ אוֹרְחוֹת רַחֲמִים וְדַרְכֵי נוֹעָם; שְׁפוֹךְ אֶת רוּחֲךָ עַל הָאָרֶץ, שֶׁכָּל יוֹשְׁבֶיהָ יֵדעוּ שֶׁבָּנִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ, וְאַחִים נוֹצַרְנוּ לְזוּלָתֵנוּ. קַיֵּם בִּמְהֵרָה מִקְרָא שֶׁכָּתוּב, ״כִּי־מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ דֵּעָה אֶת־יְהוָה כַּמַּיִם לַיָּם מְכַסִּים.״ (ישעיה יא:ט) וְנֹאמַר: אָמֵן. |
El raḥum v’ḥanun, lamdenu orḥot raḥamim v’darkhei no’am; shfokh et ruḥakha ’al ha’arets, shekol yoshveiha yed’u shebanim anaḥnu lakh, v’aḥim notsarnu l’zulateinu. Kayyem bimheira mikra shekatuv: “Ki mal’a ha’arets de’ah et Adonai, kamayim l’yam m’khasim.” V’nomar: Amen. |
El, author of mercy and compassion, teach us the ways of compassion; pour out Your spirit upon the land, that all who dwell within it might know that we are all Your children, created as brothers and sisters to one another. May the words of scripture speedily be fulfilled: that “the land be filled with knowledge of You as the waters cover the sea,[5] Isaiah 11:9. and let us say: Amen. |
“A Prayer for the Spiritual Welfare of the United States at a Time of Trial,” by Rabbi Joe Schwartz was first published in a low resolution graphical format at The Forward on 28 June 2019. It is published here as text. For several lines without direct translation in the English, I have added a translation. –Aharon Varady
Notes
| 1 | Cf. Emma Lazarus’s New Collosus (1883). |
|---|---|
| 2 | George Washington’s Letter to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island (1790). |
| 3 | Deuteronomy 10:18. |
| 4 | Exodus 22:20-22. |
| 5 | Isaiah 11:9. |
“תְּפִלָּה לְמַעַן אַרְצוֹת הַבְּרִית בְּעֵת נִסָּיוֹן | A Prayer for the United States at a Time of Trial, by Rabbi Joe Schwartz (2019)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Stable Link:
https://opensiddur.org/?p=25842
Associated Image:
“American Flag” (credit: DWilliams, license: CC0)
(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)
Terms of Use:
Be a mentsch (a conscientious, considerate person) and adhere to the following guidelines:
- Properly attribute the work to Joe Schwartz.
- 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=25842>.
- 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
![Governor Wolf Gives Remarks Regarding Pittsburgh Shooting and Participates in Vigil [for] Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (credit: Governor Tom Wolf, license: CC BY)](https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/1024px-Pittsburgh_synagogue_shooting_Governor_Wolf_Gives_Remarks_Regarding_Pittsburgh_Shooting_and_Participates_in_Vigil_31719813618.jpg)
There is misleading element in the translation to English. “Ger” does not mean migrant. גֵר
A ger is a non-Jew who lives among us in The Land. Ger can mean foreigner, stranger, convert. “Migrant” is much to much of a stretch. Could it be politically motivated?
mi·grant
/ˈmīɡrənt/
noun
1.
a person who moves from one place to another, especially in order to find work or better living conditions.
synonyms: immigrant, emigrant, incomer, newcomer, asylum seeker, settler, expatriate, expat, exile;
I think it is certainly a fair translation for ger.
There is a lot of scholarly discussion over who, exactly, the ger was. For the purposes of the prayer, he or she is invoked as a non-citizen to whom, in any case, a just society influenced by biblical ethics owes a high moral duty. The terms often used to translate the term — stranger, or wayfarer — are either misleading or obscure. “Stranger” today just means anyone you’re not acquainted with; “wayfarer” is antiquated, but essentially means migrant. Interestingly, it was Ben Yehuda who coined the word for migrant in Modern Hebrew, מהגר; the root he invented — ה ג ר — was built off of the word גר. (Ger as convert to Judaism is rabbinic and not the straightforward meaning of the term in the Torah itself.)