[A Prayer for] Justice (CCAR 1923)

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

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16 February 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical seliḥot, teḥinot in English, צדק צדק תרדוף tsedeq tsedeq tirdof, זמן תשובה Zman teshuvah

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	Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. (Psalms 97:2)
	Justice, justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Deuteronomy 16:20)
	Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and as for princes, they shall rule in justice. (Isaiah 32:1)
	Thou shalt not curse the deaf nor place a stumbling block before the blind. (Leviticus 19:14)
	But let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. (Amos 5:24)
	These are the ordinances. God said unto them, Whatever I do is done in justice. Were I to deviate from justice but once the world would cease to exist. (Midrash Tanhuma ed. Buber to Exodus 21:1)
	The world rests upon three things; upon truth, upon justice and upon peace. All these three are really one, for when justice is done, the truth becomes an actuality, peace a reality. (Jerusalem Talmud Taanith 4.2)
	God said unto Israel: Verily, My children, it is when you observe justice that I am most exalted. (Deuteronomy Rabbah 5.7)
	It is not a mere fancy of the human mind to compare justice to the scales of the balance that show the perfect poise. Even as the planets are held in their path by the power of attraction and repulsion perfectly balanced, so is this world of men saved from confusion and collapse by justice that holds in poise the balance of life. Justice defines the true relation of things. It is not the man-made enactment of legislatures; it is the law of God planted in the bosom of nature and rooted in the heart of man.
	To tamper with justice is to create antagonism and strife. Justice is our friend, our ally, in all that makes for human happiness. It makes secure our life and property; it brings to us peace and joy and enlargement of soul. There can be no true happiness, there can be no true usefulness, without justice. All virtues, all graces, wait upon it. Justice is not the antithesis of love; it is love in action. It is truth at work. It is applied honesty. Unlike other virtues, it does not deal with the self; it represents our relation to our kind. Whether it be between man and man, or between men and men; whether it be between individuals or groups of individuals; justice seeks to maintain harmony and peaceful relations. How soon all wars would cease, all strife, all exploitation and oppression disappear, were justice permitted to exercise its divine function, to balance the forces of life!
	Our God and Father, Thou who rulest the world in wisdom and justice, we lift our souls unto Thee in prayer and praise and thanksgiving. We praise Thee for the sense of justice which Thou hast implanted within us, and which ever seeks, though at times haltingly and gropingly, to express itself in the daily relations of life. We thank Thee for the inspired teachers of our people who have taught us that Thou dost maintain the eternal order of the universe and that we are co-workers with Thee in the creation of order and peace in the world of human kind.
	Be with us, O God, as we strive to do Thy will. Teach us to see that the men and women about us are our brothers and sisters, that when we hurt the least of them we disturb the moral order of this world. Fill us with an ardent love for all Thy creatures that we may never be tempted to wrong them, to exploit their labor or services, or to take unfair advantage of anyone’s weakness or want or ignorance. Kindle in us a passion for doing only that which is just and honorable. Grant us the vision to see that only justice can endure, and that only in being just to one another can we make our lives acceptable to Thee. Help us by our thoughts and deeds to hasten the day when wrong and violence shall cease and justice be established in the gate. Amen.

“Justice” is the ninth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 35-37. Unfortunately, we do not yet know of a resource providing clear attribution of authorship for any of the prayers in this volume.

Source(s)

Aharon N. Varady (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.)

Unknown

Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.

Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)

[A Prayer for] Justice (CCAR 1923)

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