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רִבּוֹן הָעוֹלָמִים
Sovereign of the universe,
Send peace to Your people Israel in Your Holy Land,
Who week by week live in fear,
And day by day shed tears of grief —
For the young and old,
Parents and children,
The innocent and uninvolved,
Whom terror has taken as its target,
And violence as its victims.
מֶלֶךְ שֶׁהַשָּׁלוֹם שֶׁלּוֹ
King to Whom peace belongs:
Your people in Your Holy Land,
Seek peace, not war,
The right to live as other nations live,
And to be a blessing to others.
Bring, we pray You, comfort to those who mourn,
Healing to the injured,
And hope where there is despair.
May He who brought His people back to the Land
Grant them safety in the Land,
And may He who makes peace in high places
Teach us and all humanity to make peace on earth.
According to the Rabbi Sacks Legacy Trust (RSLT), “A Prayer for Peace in Israel” was composed by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks following terror attacks in Israel in 2003 (i.e., during the Second Intifada). We do not know exactly where and when this prayer was first published or delivered. Here is his essay in The Times from 26 February 2003 during the Second Intifada: “The Seeds of Peace are Sown through Ordinary Dialogue.” He also expounded on peace in his June “Sir Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture” (16 June 2003). The text of the prayer appearing here was shared by the RSLT via their Facebook page in the context of the 2022 Tel Aviv Shooting.
In Rabbi Sacks’s paraphrase of “Oseh Shalom” in the last line, he includes the wording “and all humanity” to which we have added “וְעַל כׇּל יוֺשְׁבֵי תֵבֶל” in the corresponding liturgical Hebrew — an innovation in renditions of the Ḳaddish found in many progressive Jewish liturgies. –Aharon Varady
“Prayer for Peace in Israel, by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the UK & the Commonwealth, 2003)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication 1.0 Universal license.
Lord Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks MBE (Hebrew: Yaakov Tsvi, יעקב צבי; 8 March 1948 - 7 November 2020) was a British Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, author and politician. He served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. As the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the UK, he was the Chief Rabbi of those Orthodox synagogues, but was not recognized as the religious authority for the Haredi Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations or for the progressive movements such as Masorti, Reform and Liberal Judaism. As Chief Rabbi, Sacks formally carried the title of Av Beit Din (head) of the London Beth Din. He is now known as the Emeritus Chief Rabbi. Since stepping down as Chief Rabbi, in addition to his international travelling and speaking engagements and prolific writing, Sacks has served as the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at New York University and as the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University. He has also been appointed as Professor of Law, Ethics and the Bible at King's College London. He won the Templeton Prize (awarded for spiritual affirmation) in 2016. He was also a Senior Fellow to the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. (via wikipedia)
The Office of the Chief Rabbi is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and is the senior rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations. The present incumbent is Ephraim Mirvis who leads the Office of the Chief Rabbi (OCR).
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 naqeniשְׁגִיאוֹת 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.)
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