🆕 תפילה ליום הכיפורים | Prayer for Yom Kippur by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen

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18 September 2026 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., empathy

This is a prayer for Yom Kippur. It started out as a meditation on Yizkor, hence the אל מלא רחמים form at the beginning. It quickly changed to a prayer for insight and change and the possiblity of tshuvah in this moment.

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
‏אֵל מְלֵאַת רַחֲמִים, שׁוֹכֶנֶת בַּמְּרוֹמִים אֲשֶׁר בָּרָאת עוֹלָם וּמְלוֹאוֹ יֵשׁ מֵאַיִן הַמְצִיאִי בְּנוֹ רַחֲמִים מֵעֵבֶר לַכְּאֵב ‏אֶמְפַּתְיָה מֵעֵבֶר לַפַּחַד ‏הַכָּרָה מֵעֵבֶר לַאֲטִימוּת	God, full of (abundant) mercy, who dwells on high who has created the world and all it contains, and crafted us something from nothing. Mercy beyond the pain empathy beyond the fear knowing beyond the fog
הַפַּח נִשְׁבָּר וַאֲנַחְנוּ נִמְלָטְנוּ הַהֲזָיָה נִשְׁבְּרָה וְהַפַּח הוּא אֲנַחְנוּ יָדֵינוּ דָּמִים מָלְאוּ וְלֹא דָמֵינוּ	The snare broke and we escaped The illusion broke and we were the snare Our hands were bloody and not with our blood
אֵם הָרַחֲמִים וְהַסְּלִיחוֹת הַתְּהִילּוֹת וְהַקִּינוֹת בְּלִי רְשׁוּת בָּאנוּ לְפָנַיִךְ בְּחִיל וּרְעָדָה שִׁלְחִי אֶת עֲווֹנֵנוּ עַל גַּב הַשָּׂעִיר בִּמְקוֹמֵנוּ יָמוּת וַאֲנַחְנוּ נִתְאַבֵּל כִּי חֲטָאֵינוּ כַּשָּׁנִים, הִלְבִּינָם כַּשֶּׁלֶג	Mother of Mercy, prayers of forgiveness, praise and lament We come before you with fear and trembling, without permission Send our sins on the goat’s back That it will die in our stead and we will grieve For our sins are scarlet, bleach them to snow
אָנָּא ה׳ הַשְׁכִּינִי בְּתוֹכֵנוּ כֹּחַ לְהִתְאַבֵּל עַל הָאַחֵר כֹּשֶׁר לְהִסְתַּכֵּל עַל הַהֶרֶס אֹמֶץ לִבְכּוֹת אֶת הָאָדָם בַּאֲשֶׁר הוּא/הִיא אָדָם	God please, help make dwell in us Strength to grieve the other Capacity to look upon the ruin Courage to weep for ha-adam because they are ha-adam

This “Prayer for Yom Kippur” was shared by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen on 18 September 2026. The order of lines in the prayer was revised on 9 October 2026, and the translation modified with input from Maeera Shreiber.

Aryeh Cohen

Aryeh Cohen is a professor, a social justice activist, a rabbi, and a lecturer. He teaches all things Rabbinic Literature (Mishnah, Talmud, midrash) and social justice at the Ziegler School for Rabbinic Studies of the American Jewish University. Prof. Cohen is a founder and member of the Shtibl Minyan, a former chair of the Boards of the Progressive Jewish Alliance, and CLUE. He is the co-convener of the Black Jewish Justice Alliance and is the author of Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism (2012).

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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)

🆕 תפילה ליום הכיפורים | Prayer for Yom Kippur by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen

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