עַל הַנִּסִּים בִּימֵי הוֹדָיָה לְאֻמִּיִּים | Al haNissim prayer on Civic Days of Patriotic Gratitude, by Aharon Varady

Opportunities to express gratitude on civic days of patriotic thanksgiving demand acknowledgement of an almost unfathomably deep history of trauma — not only the suffering and striving of my immigrant ancestors, but the sacrifice of all those who endured suffering dealt by their struggle to survive, and often failure to survive, the oppressions dealt by colonization, conquest, hegemony, natural disaster. Only the Earth (from which we, earthlings were born, Bnei Adam from Adamah) has witnessed the constancy of the violent deprivations we inflict upon each other. The privilege I’ve inherited from these sacrifices has come at a cost, and it must be honestly acknowledged, especially on civic days of thanksgiving, independence, and freedom. I insert this prayer after Al Hanissim in the Amidah and in the Birkat Hamazon on national days of independence and thanksgiving.

Categories:

Conflicts over Sovereignty and Dispossession, Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, 🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar), 🇺🇸 Flag Day (June 14), 🇺🇸 Independence Day (July 4th), 🇺🇸 Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acquisition, על הנסים al hanissim, colonization, conquest, eco-conscious, Gratitude, hegemony, immigration, Indigenous Peoples, מודים Modim, Needing Translation (into Hebrew), נודה לך Nodeh L'kha, primordial scream, refugees, sanctuary, settlement, shomrah ul'ovdah, stewardship, subjugation

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady

על הניסים ביום העצמאות | Al haNissim on Yom ha-Atsma’ut, by Rabbi Yehoyada Amir

An al hanissim prayer for the State of Israel’s Day of Independence.

Categories:

🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., על הנסים al hanissim, Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, מודים Modim, Needing Translation (into English), Progressive Zionism

Contributor(s):

Yehoyada Amir

Prayer on the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the State of Israel for North American Jews, by Rabbi Ayelet Cohen (T’ruah 2023)

The “Prayer for North American Jews on the 75th Anniversary of Israel’s Founding” was first published and disseminated from the website of T’ruah, via PDF here.

Categories:

🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar), 🇮🇱 Medinat Yisra'el (the State of Israel)

Tags:

2023 Israeli judicial reform protests, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, North American Jewry, the Occupation

Contributor(s):

Ayelet Cohen, T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

עַל־הַנִּסִּים לְיוֹם הָעַצְמָאוּת | Al haNissim for Yom ha-Atsma’ut, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

This is an original Al haNissim paragraph for Yom ha-Atsma’ut, focusing on the actual reason for Zionism’s necessity — European antisemitism. As I put it when I wrote the first draft of this paragraph, “Zionism was necessary because of the Europeans. The original enemy of Israel’s independence was the European nations who wanted us assimilated or dead. Israel was not declared independent from the Arab world, it was declared independent from Britain, and I think we should remember that on Yom ha-Atsma’ut.”

Categories:

🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., על הנסים al hanissim, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, מודים Modim, Progressive Zionism

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

רִאשׁוֹן אַתָּה | Rishon Atah — yotsrot for Yom ha-Atsma’ut in a Cairo Geniza weekday yotsrot style by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

An original set of weekday yotsrot, in the style of those found in the Cairo Geniza (and compiled at Weekday Yotzrot, thanks to the work of Dr. Avi Shmidman), for Yom ha-Atsma’ut. The weekday yotsrot of the Cairo Geniza have a structure quite different from normative Ashkenazi festival yotsrot, and much closer to that of Ashkenazi maaravot. There are no yotser or ofan piyyutim — each blessing has a stanza of an extended, unified poem before its ḥatimah, and the only stanzas inserted into the guf ha-berakha are in the final blessing, surrounding the Mi Khamokha. They’re also generally much shorter and more user-friendly than the complex and intricate mysticism of Ashkenazi festival yotsrot. This cycle is written in an alphabetical acrostic, followed by the author tag “Yitzḥaq Harel son of Avraham the Kohen and Ya’el, be strong and courageous, amen.” Each stanza begins with a different word from Isaiah 47:4, and ends with a citation of a different relevant verse.

Categories:

🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, Acrostic signature, Alphabetic Acrostic, מדינת ישראל Medinat Yisrael, פיוטים piyyuṭim, יוצרות yotsrot

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma’ut (5 Iyyar)

על הניסים ליום העצמאות | Al haNissim on the State of Israel’s Independence Day, by Josh Weinberg

עַל הַנִּסִּים בִּימֵי הוֹדָיָה לְאֻמִּיִּים | Al haNissim prayer on Civic Days of Patriotic Gratitude, by Aharon Varady

על הניסים ביום העצמאות | Al haNissim on Yom ha-Atsma’ut, by Rabbi Yehoyada Amir

Prayer on the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the State of Israel for North American Jews, by Rabbi Ayelet Cohen (T’ruah 2023)

עַל־הַנִּסִּים לְיוֹם הָעַצְמָאוּת | Al haNissim for Yom ha-Atsma’ut, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

רִאשׁוֹן אַתָּה | Rishon Atah — yotsrot for Yom ha-Atsma’ut in a Cairo Geniza weekday yotsrot style by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

תְּפִלָּה לְיוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן וְיוֹם הָעַצְמָאוּת | A Prayer for Yom haZikaron and Yom ha-Atsma’ut 5785, by Rabbi Tzachi Lehman (Tzohar 2025)

קְדוּשְׁתָּאוֹת לְשַׁבָּת תְּקוּמָה | Qerovot for Shabbat Tequmah (the Sabbath between Yom haShoah and Yom ha-Atsma’ut), by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer