Prayer for the State of Israel

The Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel is said in many synagogues on Shabbat and Biblical holy days, as well as on Israeli Independence Day. The prayer for Israel requests divine protection for the State of Israel and its leaders. Some versions express the desire to regather God’s people to their Land. The prayer was instituted in 1948 by the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Chief Rabbis of the newly formed State of Israel, respectively Rabbis Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel and Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. Over the years the prayer has been changed and adapted, many times to express the changing values of the community, however, we have included the original prayer and a Messianic addition.

Prayer for the State of Israel (1948):

Our Father in Heaven, Rock and Redeemer of Israel, bless the State of Israel, the first manifestation of the approach of our redemption. Shield it with Your loving kindness, envelop it in Your peace, and bestow Your light and truth upon its leaders, ministers, and advisors, and grace them with Your good counsel. Strengthen the hands of those who defend our holy land, grant them deliverance, and adorn them in a mantle of victory. Ordain peace in the land and grant its inhabitants eternal happiness.

Our brethren, the house of Israel, redeem them from the countries of their residence and lead them, swiftly and upright, to Your city Zion and to Jerusalem, the abode of Your Name, as is written in the Torah of Your servant Moses: “Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, from there He will fetch you. And the Lord your God will bring you to the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will make you more prosperous and more numerous than your fathers.” Draw our hearts together to revere and venerate Your name and to observe all the precepts of Your Torah, and send us quickly the Messiah son of David, agent of Your vindication, to redeem those who await Your deliverance.

Manifest yourself in the splendor of Your boldness before the eyes of all inhabitants of Your world, and may everyone endowed with a soul affirm that the Lord, God of Israel, is king and his dominion is absolute. Amen forevermore.

Messianic addition:

May all Israel come to know the truth of Messiah Yeshua who died to save them from their sin, and rose again to bring them eternal life. Remove the scales, lift the veil, unstop the ears, so that sight may come to the blind and hearing to the deaf. Give those who know You the courage to profess and walk in their faith, in the Name of Yeshua. Amen.