תפלה לבני ישראל בעד הצלחת יושבי ארצנו בּמלחמתם עם השׂפּנים | Prayer for the success of the United States in its war with Spain, by Rabbi Joshua Seigel (1898)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=44987

Date: 2022-06-12

Last Updated: 2022-06-16

Categories: War, United States of America

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Concentration camps, Cuban War of Independence, Spanish–American War, United States, William McKinley, Needing Vocalization

Excerpt: A Prayer for American Victory in the Spanish-American War by Rabbi Joshua Seigel (1846-1910), New York: Eliakum Zunser, [1898]. . . .

Content:

Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
תפלה לבני ישראל בעד הצלחת יושבי ארצנו בּמלחמתם עם השפנים.	Prayer of Bnei Yisrael for the victory of the inhabitants of our country in their war with the Spaniards.
אנא ד״ רב חסד ואמת אשר בידך נפש כל חי ורוח כל איש, אתה בראת תבל ומלואה, בצדק יסדתה, ובמשפּט תכנת עמודיה, אבינו מלכנו ראה נא כי קמו עדת עריצים המה השפּנים עם לא ישר, העקובים מדם זה מאות בשנים, ויצאו חוצץ כלם לעוון משפּט ולעקש הישרה, במשלם בּאכזריות חמה על נענים ונדכים המה הקיובּים, ובמעט בלו מתגרת ידי מעניהם, לולי קמו לעזרתם אנשים טובים וצדיקים המה שכניהם בּעלי ארצות הברית אשר באמעריקא, התמימים והישרים, אשר מעולם המה למחסה עוז לכל איש מצוק ומר נפש הניגש ונידה מממשלת זדון, המה יצאו לעזרת ד׳ בגיבורים ללחום מלחמת מצוה למען לקרוא דרור לעם עני ומעונה.	Please Hashem, abounding in kindness and faithfulness[1] Cf. Exodus 34:6.  within whose grasp is the soul of all life and the spirit of every human being you created the world and all it holds founded in justice and built to stand on righteousness Our Father our King please recognize that a group of tyrants (lit. thorns) has arisen They, the Spanish nation, is not upright, the bloodiest in hundreds of years, they went out to attack, to pervert judgement and trample the upright in their ruling, with intense cruelty, the impoverished and downtrodden, namely the Cubans, depriving them of their trade and possessions. Were it not for good and righteous people to step up to help them – they, their neighbors, the United States that are in America, [land of] the earnest and upright that has ever been a refuge of the brave for every desperate and bitter soul expelled by or exiled from malicious governments — they came out, by the help of Hashem, with enormous strength to fight a righteous war for the sake of freedom cried out for a poor and tormented people![2] Cf. Emma Lazarus, “the New Collosus” at the Statue of Liberty.
אנא ד׳ צא נא לישע צבאותיהם בעמדם בּקרב בּרוח צדק ומשפט, הצליח דרכם בכל אשר יפנו להדרך קמם תחתיהם, כי אתה תאיר אליהם אור פּניך, (כמו תהלים יח:כט) ופּניך הולכים בקרב, (שמואל ב׳ יז:יא) והעומדים מחלוצי צבאותנו בּין בים בין ביבשה אתה תלחום להם, כי מי כמוך איש מלחמה עבור האמת והיושר להדוף שונאיהם ולהיות מגן ומחסה לכל הולכי בתמים.	Please Hashem, go forth to save their armies while they stand in battle in the spirit of righteousness and justice make their way successful in trampling whoever stands against them for you, Elohim, shall shine upon them the light of your countenance (Cf. Psalms 18:29) and your face shall go into battle (II Samuel 17:11) and stand at the front lines of our armies whether on sea [or] on land you will fight for them — for who like you is a warrior for Truth and Uprightness? Repel their enemies and be a shield and a refuge for all the innocent civilians.
גם השָׂרִים אשר לְמִשְׁפָּט יָשֹׂרוּ הפרעוידענט והװײס פרעזידענט הסענאט והקאגגרעס	Also the administrators that govern with justice:[3] Cf. Isaiah 32:1.   the President [4] William McKinkley (1843-1901)   and Vice-President,[5] Garret Hobart (1844-1899)   the Senate, and the Congress —
שים נא ד׳ עינך עליהם לטובה וברך כל מעשה ידיהם ויראו פּרי עמלם חיש מהר, והמפקדים בראשי צבאות חננם מאתך דעה בינה והשכל כּערכם מערכה, אשר לא יחטיאו המטרה, ואמץ זרועותם להדבר תחת רגלם את עם חרמם מהרה ישובו ממקום המלחמה המה עם ההולכי לרגלם בזר נצחון על ראשם, לשמחת לב הפּרעזידענט היקר וכל ראשי העם, ולשמחת לב כל אנשי מדינתנו, המצפים לישועה. וחי׳ שלום אמת וְשַׁלְוַת הַשְׁקֵט, לא ישמע עוד קול נוגש והזדון כליל יחלוף, וגם אנחנו בּני בריתך נקח חבל בנעימים בתוך הנושעים, כי תושע יהודה וישראל ישכון לבטח אמן.	Please, Hashem, keep an eye on them. For goodness sake bless all they strive for and they will swiftly see the fruit of their hard work. And grace the commanders at the head of the armies with understanding, wisdom, and intelligence, as much as they need for their battle tactics so that they will not miss the target. And strengthen their limbs in the [struggle]  subdue the depraved nation under their feet. May they soon return from the battlefield marching with wreaths of victory on their heads for the joy of the honorable President and all the leaders of the country and for the joy of our [fellow] citizens who are anticipating [the Cuban people’s] salvation. And [may the Cuban people] live peacefully and faithfully[6] Cf. Esther 9:31.  and [with] untroubled tranquility.[7] Ezekiel 16:49.  The voice of the oppressor shall no longer be heard as for the malicious ones, they will vanish completely[8] Cf. Isaiah 2:18.   and we, the children of the covenant, will take our place among the saviors so that Yehudah and Yisrael will too dwell securely,[9] Cf. Deuteronomy 33:12.  Amen.
יהיו לרצון אמרי פינו והגיון לבנו לפניך ד׳ צורנו וגואלנו.	May the words of our mouth and the prayer of our heart be acceptable to You, Hashem, our rock-fortress and our redeemer. (Cf. Psalms 19:15)
נתחברה מאת הרב הגאון מו״ה ר׳ יהושע סיגל נ׳י רב הכולל דקהלות ישראל בנויארק.
בדפוס ר׳ אליקום צונזער, 171 איסט בראדװײ, נויארק.

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This is a Prayer for American Victory in the Spanish-American War by Rabbi Joshua Seigel (1846-1910), New York: Eliakum Zunser, [1898]. While this prayer will be widely recognized as an expression of Jewish American patriotism, I think it should also be recognized as a prayer on behalf of justice and freedom for the Cuban people. The Cuban War of Independence saw the first use of modern concentration camps as innovated under Spanish rule. This is the use of the medium of prayer for rallying Jewish opinion for the sake of another people and that, I believe, is special, especially in the evolution of the particularly American Jewish conception of Judaism as working for repair of brokenness in our world, tiqun olam. I also read this prayer as providing something of a precedent for the prayers that many of us feel today in regards to Russian aggression in its invasion and the suffering and death they’ve forced upon Ukraine.

We are grateful to Sothebys for sharing an image of this prayer at a high enough resolution sufficient for a relatively straightforward transcription. Thank you to David Selis for informing us of this prayer. Many thanks to the Baruch Thaler for looking over my rough translation and suggesting corrections. Please leave a comment or contact us with any corrections or improvements to this translation — and thank you. –Aharon Varady

Source

Prayer for United States victory in the Spanish-American War (Joshua Seigel 1898), cropped from an image of an item in auction at Sothebys

 

Notes[+]

Notes

1	Cf. Exodus 34:6.
2	Cf. Emma Lazarus, “the New Collosus” at the Statue of Liberty.
3	Cf. Isaiah 32:1.
4	William McKinkley (1843-1901)
5	Garret Hobart (1844-1899)
6	Cf. Esther 9:31.
7	Ezekiel 16:49.
8	Cf. Isaiah 2:18.
9	Cf. Deuteronomy 33:12.

Contributor: Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)
  Bio: 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.)
  Website: https://aharon.varady.net
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady
• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (translation)
  Bio: Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer translator for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his translations, 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 transcribes prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes for the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)
  Website: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-nissen-varady/
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-n-varady
• 
  Name: Joshua Seigel
  Bio: Rabbi Joshua Seigel (1846–1910), rabbi. Born in Kitzburg, Poland, Seigel began his career as a Talmud scholar under the direction of Rabbi Leibel Ḥarif of Plotsk and Rabbi Joshua of Kutna, who gave him semikhah. Seigel received a second semikhah from Rabbi Joseph Kara of Vlatzlovak. He inherited his father's pulpit as rabbi of Sierpc, Poland, but not with unanimous consent from the community. Seigel was not a ḥasid, so many of the ḥasidic members of Sierpc resisted his leadership, despite the intervention of Rabbi Joshua of Kutna. Later known as the "Sherpser Rav," Seigel left Europe in 1884 and immigrated to the United States. In New York, he became rabbi of a poor congregation of families divided between ḥasidic and non-ḥasidic traditions. His Polish ancestry set him apart from the Lithuanian rabbis who came to the United States in the late 19th century. Due to this tension, Seigel declined to join the Agudat Harabbonim, a union of mostly Lithuanian-educated rabbis formed in 1902. Seigel negotiated a position as mashgi'aḥ for several New York slaughterhouses and butcher shops, a good way to earn supplementary income to his modest – inadequate – synagogue-pulpit salary. By 1890 almost twenty Galician congregations relied on Seigel for kashrut guidance, and many Galician butchers remained under his rabbinic supervision. Seigel is perhaps best known for his controversial halakhic treatise, Eruv ve-Hoẓa'ah, an interpretation of Jewish law that allowed Jews to carry things on the East Side of Manhattan on the Sabbath. He believed that the island of Manhattan was surrounded by a natural eruv, a stance rejected by most of his rabbinic peers. In 1908, Seigel went to Palestine in hopes of living in Jerusalem, but the harsh climate prevented him from taking up permanent residence there. A year later, he returned to New York. Seigel left a a posthumous work of responsa titled Oznal Yehoshua. (adapted from the Jewish Virtual Library/Encyclopedia Judaica 2008)
  Website: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/seigel-joshua
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/joshua-seigel

Featured Image:

Title: Theodore-Roosevelt-Rough-Riders-Spanish-American-War-Kurz-1898
Caption: Theodore Roosevelt leading the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, 1898; print created by Kurz & Allison. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-pga-01946)