Prayers, Poems, and Piyyutim  ☞  Collective Welfare  ☞  Trouble  ☞  Slavery & Captivity

אָנָּא בְּכֹחַ | Ana b’Khoaḥ, with Spanish translation by Rabbi Isaac ben Shem Tov Cavallero (1552)

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Shared on 2019-03-24 – 17 Adar II 5779.
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An early printing of the 42 divine name letter acrostic piyyut, Ana b’Khoaḥ. . . .

Newly Huddled Tender Masses: A Prayer for Children, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

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Shared on 2018-06-21 – 9 Tammuz 5778.
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A plea to not become numb in the face of overwhelming cruelty. . . .

אָנָּא בְּכֹחַ | Ana b’Khoaḥ, with a singing translation in English by Reb Zalman z”l

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Shared on 2017-10-15 – 25 Tishri 5778.
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The most well-known 42 letter divine name acrostic piyyut. . . .

הגדה לסדר פסח | The Other Side of the Sea: A Haggadah on Fighting Modern-Day Slavery by T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

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Shared on 2015-03-21 – 2 Nisan 5775.
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“The wicked child asks: What does this work mean to you? Mah ha’avodah ha’zot lachem” (Exodus 12:26). I think about this question a great deal as a rabbi whose core work involves fighting modern-day slavery. I think about it when I talk to my children about what I do every day, when I call anti-trafficking activists and say, “What can rabbis do to support you?” or when I stand before Jewish audiences and urge them to put their energy behind this critical human rights issue. The answer must go deeper than simply saying, “We were slaves in Egypt once upon a time.” The memory of bitterness does not necessarily inspire action. What inspires me is not slavery but redemption. God could part the Sea of Reeds, but the Israelites could not truly be free until they had liberated themselves, after 40 years in the desert, from slavery. . . .

תהלים קמ״ב | Psalms 142 and Mi Sheberakh for those in captivity or whose whereabouts are unknown

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Shared on 2014-06-16 – 19 Sivan 5774.
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May the one who blessed our ancestors, Avraham, Yitzḥak, and Yaakov, Yoseph, Moshe, and Aharon, David and Shlomo, Ruth, Sarah, Rivka, Miriam, Devorah, Tamar, and Raḥel, bless and safeguard and preserve the captives… . . .

Prayer for the Abducted Nigerian Schoolgirls, by Rabbi Hillel Lavery-Yisraëli (2014)

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Shared on 2014-05-08 – 9 Iyyar 5774.
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God of all people’s souls: Hasten, we pray, to rescue the hundreds of Nigerian young girls, innocent students who, in horrific cruelty, were abducted from their houses and schools by inhumane criminals intending to sell them into slavery and torture them. . . .

תפילה לעגונות | Prayer for the Liberation of Agunot, by Shelley Frier List (2005)

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Shared on 2013-12-29 – 27 Tevet 5774.
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Creator of heaven and earth, may it be Your will to free the captive wives of Israel when love and sanctity have fled the home, but their husbands bind them in the tatters of their ketubot. Remove the bitter burden from these agunot and soften the hearts of their misguided captors. Liberate Your faithful daughters from their anguish. Enable them to establish new homes and raise up children in peace. Grant wisdom to the judges of Israel; teach them to recognize oppression and rule against it. Infuse our rabbis with the courage to use their power for good alone. Blessed are you, Creator of heaven and earth, who frees the captives. . . .

Scaling the Walls of the Labyrinth: Psalms 67 and Ana b’Khoaḥ

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Shared on 2012-05-14 – 22 Iyyar 5772.
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Psalm 67 is a priestly blessing for all the peoples of the earth to be sustained by the earth’s harvest (yevulah), and it is a petition that all humanity recognize the divine nature (Elohim) illuminating the world. Composed of seven verses, the psalm is often visually depicted as a seven branched menorah. There are 49 words in the entire psalm, and in the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l there is one word for each day of the Sefirat haOmer. Similarly, the fifth verse has 49 letters and each letter can be used as a focal point for meditating on the meaning of the day in its week in the journey to Shavuot, the festival of weeks (the culmination of the barley harvest), and the festival of oaths (shevuot) in celebration of receiving the Torah. Many of the themes of Psalm 67 are repeated in the prayer Ana b’Koaḥ, which also has 49 words, and which are also used to focus on the meaning of each day on the cyclical and labyrinthine journey towards Shavuot. . . .

מִי שֶׁבֵּרַךְ | Mi Sheberakh for Victims of Slavery, by Rabbi Joshua Boettiger (2009)

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Shared on 2011-04-11 – 7 Nisan 5771.

We are grateful to Rabbi Joshua Boettinger and Rabbis for Human Rights–North America (RHR-NA) for sharing the following petitionary prayer, A Misheberakh for Victims of Slavery. Originally published by RHR-NA on their website in 2009, the prayer attends to the desperate need to eradicate all forms of slavery that persist today, especially in advance of the holiday celebrating our Z’man Cheruteinu, the season of our freedom, every Spring, every Pesaḥ. . . .

אַ פּאָלףּ קדיש | A Kaddish by Reb Jules Winnfield (Pulp Fiction, 1994)

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Shared on 2011-01-22 – 17 Shevat 5771.
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Tired of people who can’t tell their kiddish (blessings for the Sabbath) from their kaddish (prayer for the dead)? Well, it sets Samuel L. Jackson off too! But he found a way of making a bracha (blessing) and mourning the dead at the same time. Now I can’t vouch for the origins of his nusaḥ (custom) but it sounds very effective! Most people haven’t noticed, the only real part from the Bible is that last section, the first part is actually his own spiel: . . .


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