🆕 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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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 mercy, who dwells on high who has created the world and all that is in it out of nothing engineer in us mercy beyond the pain empathy beyond the fear recognition beyond the obtuseness
אָנָּא ה׳ הַשְׁכִּינִי בְּתוֹכֵנוּ כֹּחַ לְהִתְאַבֵּל עַל הָאַחֵר כֹּשֶׁר לְהִסְתַּכֵּל עַל הַהֶרֶס אֹמֶץ לִבְכּוֹת אֶת הָאָדָם בַּאֲשֶׁר הוּא/הִיא אָדָם	Please O God, make dwell in us power to grieve for the other ability to look upon the destruction strength to cry for the human because they are human
הַפַּח נִשְׁבָּר וַאֲנַחְנוּ נִמְלָטְנוּ הַהֲזָיָה נִשְׁבְּרָה וְהַפַּח הוּא אֲנַחְנוּ יָדֵינוּ דָּמִים מָלְאוּ וְלֹא דָמֵינוּ 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	The snare was broken and we escaped The illusion was broken and we were the snare Our hands were bloody not with our blood Mother of mercy, and prayers of forgiveness, praise prayers, and lamentations without permit we have come before you with fear and trembling. Send our sins on the back of the goat that it will die in our place and we will grieve for our sins are as scarlet, make them white as snow.

This “Prayer for Yom Kippur” was shared by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen on 18 September 2026.

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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