Siddur › Shacharit › The Akedah

TT Siddur · Shacharit

רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם

Ribono Shel Olam

After the Akedah: a request built on Avraham's words, then ten quotes from Tanach.

Daven with it Read it here

Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.

At a glance

When: Said on days Tachanun is said.
Built from: A Midrash, a line of Gemara, and ten quotes from Tanach
The Avraham line: Also in the Rosh Hashanah Musaf, nearly word for word
The request: Close to the words the Gemara gives as God's own prayer

The words

Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.

On a day with no Tachanun (the weekday prayers of pleading), skip this paragraph:
רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּבַשׁ אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ אֶת רַחֲמָיו לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם, כֵּן יִכְבְּשׁוּ רַחֲמֶיךָ אֶת כַּעַסְךָ מֵעָלֵינוּ, וְיָגֹלּוּ רַחֲמֶיךָ עַל מִדּוֹתֶיךָ.
Master of the world, just as Avraham our father held down his compassion to do Your will with a whole heart, so may Your compassion hold down Your anger and lift it from us, and may Your compassion roll over Your other traits.
What it means
The Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah, a classic rabbinic collection on Bereishit) gives these words to Avraham. After the Akedah he says to God: "I held down my compassion to do Your will." So when Yitzchak's children sin, remember this and be filled with compassion. The Talmud Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel) has "my impulse," not "my compassion."
Bereishit Rabbah 56:10; Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanit 2:4
וְתִתְנַהֵג עִמָּנוּ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ בְּמִדַּת הַחֶסֶד וּבְמִדַּת הָרַחֲמִים, וּבְטוּבְךָ הַגָּדוֹל יָשׁוּב חֲרוֹן אַפְּךָ מֵעַמְּךָ וּמֵעִירְךָ וּמֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִנַחֲלָתֶךָ.
Deal with us, Hashem our God, with the trait of kindness and the trait of compassion, and in Your great goodness may Your burning anger turn back from Your people, Your city, Your land and Your inheritance.
What it means
The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) asks what God Himself prays. Its answer: "May My compassion hold down My anger, may My compassion roll over My other traits, and may I deal with My children with the trait of compassion." The end of the last line and the start of this one say those words back to Him.
Berakhot 7a
וְקַיֶּם לָנוּ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ אֶת הַדָּבָר שֶׁהִבְטַחְתָּנוּ בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ, עַל יְדֵי משֶׁה עַבְדֶּךָ כָּאָמוּר.
And keep for us, Hashem our God, the word You promised us in Your Torah through Moshe Your servant, as it is said:
What it means
Much of the prayer up to here is also in the Rosh Hashanah Musaf, where it finishes the sentence Zochreinu began before the Akedah. There one verse follows. Here ten quotes from Tanach follow. The "Remember for us the covenant" passage in Selichot (prayers for forgiveness said on fast days) starts with the same first verse and ends with the same last one.
Machzor Rosh Hashanah Sefard, Musaf; Siddur Sefard, Selichot for fast days
וְזָכַרְתִּי אֶת בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקוֹב וְאַף אֶת בְּרִיתִי יִצְחָק, וְאַף אֶת בְּרִיתִי אַבְרָהָם אֶזְכֹּר וְהָאָרֶץ אֶזְכֹּר.
"I will remember My covenant with Yaakov, and also My covenant with Yitzchak, and also My covenant with Avraham I will remember, and the land I will remember."
What it means
Vayikra 26:42. Rashi (the classic commentator, died 1105) asks why the fathers come in reverse: if Yaakov's merit is not enough, Yitzchak is with him, and then Avraham. And why no "I will remember" for Yitzchak? His ashes are seen before God, heaped on the altar. He was never burned. Rashi's source, the Sifra (an early Midrash on Vayikra), says "as if."
Vayikra 26:42; Rashi there; Sifra, Bechukotai
וְנֶאֱמַר, וְאַף גַּם זֹאת בִּהְיוֹתָם בְּאֶרֶץ אֹיְבֵיהֶם לֹא מְאַסְתִּים וְלֹא גְעַלְתִּים לְכַלּוֹתָם לְהָפֵר בְּרִיתִי אִתָּם כִּי אֲנִי יְיָ אֱלֹהֵיהֶם.
And it is said: "And yet, even with all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them and will not loathe them, to finish them off, to break My covenant with them, for I am Hashem their God."
What it means
Vayikra 26:44. An early teaching in the Gemara reads each phrase as a chapter of history. "Not reject them": the days of the Babylonians, when I gave them Daniel. "Not loathe them": the Greeks, when I gave them the Hasmoneans of the Chanukah story. "To finish them off": Haman, when I gave them Mordechai and Esther. "To break My covenant": the Romans.
Vayikra 26:44; Megillah 11a
וְנֶאֱמַר וְזָכַרְתִּי לָהֶם בְּרִית רִאשֺׁנִים אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִי אֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, לְעֵינֵי הַגּוֹיִם לִהְיוֹת לָהֶם לֵאלֹהִים, אֲנִי יְיָ.
And it is said: "I will remember for them the covenant of the first ones, whom I took out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be their God. I am Hashem."
What it means
Vayikra 26:45. On Rosh Hashanah, this is the verse the Musaf prayer quotes at this point. Who are "the first ones"? Rashi, from the Sifra: the tribes. The Sifra learns from this verse that the covenant was made not only with the three fathers but with the tribes as well.
Vayikra 26:45; Rashi there; Sifra, Bechukotai; Machzor Rosh Hashanah Sefard, Musaf
וְנֶאֱמַר וְשָׁב יְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת שְׁבוּתְךָ וְרִחֲמֶךָ, וְשָׁב וְקִבֶּצְךָ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים, אֲשֶׁר הֱפִיצְךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ שָׁמָּה.
And it is said: "Hashem your God will bring back your captives and have compassion on you. He will gather you again from all the peoples where Hashem your God scattered you.
What it means
Devarim 30:3. The Hebrew does not say God will "bring back" your captives. It says He "will return." In the Gemara, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (a sage of the Mishnah) learns from this how loved Israel is: wherever they were exiled, God's presence went with them. And when they are redeemed, God comes back with them.
Devarim 30:3; Megillah 29a; Rashi on Devarim 30:3
אִם יִהְיֶה נִדַּחֲךָ בִּקְצֵה הַשָּׁמָיִם מִשָּׁם יְקַבֶּצְךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ וּמִשָּׁם יִקָּחֶךָ. וְנֶאֱמַר וֶהֱבִיאֲךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יָרְשׁוּ אֲבֹתֶיךָ וִירִשְׁתָּהּ וְהֵיטִבְךָ וְהִרְבְּךָ מֵאֲבֹתֶיךָ.
Even if your outcasts are at the edge of the sky, from there Hashem your God will gather you, and from there He will take you." And it is said: "Hashem your God will bring you to the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it. He will do good to you and make you more numerous than your ancestors."
What it means
Devarim 30:4-5. Rashi gives a second reason the Torah says God Himself "returns": the day the exiles are gathered is so great and so hard that it is as if He must take each person by the hand, from wherever that person is. His proof is Yeshayahu 27:12: "You will be picked up one by one, children of Israel."
Devarim 30:4-5; Rashi on Devarim 30:3
וְנֶאֱמַר עַל יְדֵי נְבִיאֶךָ, יְיָ חָנֵנוּ, לְךָ קִוִּינוּ הֱיֵה זְרוֹעָם לַבְּקָרִים, אַף יְשׁוּעָתֵנוּ בְּעֵת צָרָה. וְנֶאֱמַר, וְעֵת צָרָה הִיא לְיַעֲקֹב וּמִמֶּנָּה יִוָּשֵׁעַ.
And it is said through Your prophet: "Hashem, be gracious to us. We have hoped for You. Be their arm every morning, and our rescue in a time of trouble." And it is said: "It is a time of trouble for Yaakov, but he will be saved from it."
What it means
Yeshayahu 33:2, then the end of Yirmiyahu 30:7. In the first verse, Rashi reads "every morning" as day after day. Whose arm is "their arm"? Rashi: people in the hands of a robber. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, about 1200) reads it as ours: every single morning, be our arm against the enemy.
Yeshayahu 33:2; Yirmiyahu 30:7; Rashi and Radak on Yeshayahu 33:2
וְנֶאֱמַר בְּכָל צָרָתָם לוֹ צָר וּמַלְאַךְ פָּנָיו הוֹשִׁיעָם, בְּאַהֲבָתוֹ וּבְחֶמְלָתוֹ הוּא גְאָלָם וַיְנַטְּלֵם וַיְנַשְּׂאֵם כָּל יְמֵי עוֹלָם.
And it is said: "In all their trouble, He was troubled, and the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and His compassion He redeemed them. He lifted them and carried them all the days of old."
What it means
Yeshayahu 63:9. One word here is written one way and read another. Read, it is lo with a vav: in all their trouble, it was trouble "to Him." Written, it is lo with an alef: "not." Rashi explains the written form: He did not trouble them as much as their deeds deserved. The Gemara uses this verse to show that lo written with an alef can still mean "to Him."
Yeshayahu 63:9; Rashi there; Sotah 31a
וְנֶאֱמַר, מִי אֵל כָּמוֹךָ נֹשֵׂא עָוֺן וְעֹבֵר עַל פֶּשַׁע, לִשְׁאֵרִית נַחֲלָתוֹ לֹא הֶחֱזִיק לָעַד אַפּוֹ, כִּי חָפֵץ חֶסֶד הוּא.
And it is said: "Who is a God like You, who forgives sin and passes over rebellion for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not hold on to His anger forever, because He delights in kindness.
What it means
Michah 7:18. Rava (a leading sage of the Gemara, about 1,700 years ago) read this verse as a deal. "Whose sin does He forgive? One who passes over a wrong done to him." In Rava's words: whoever lets things go, all his own wrongs are let go.
Michah 7:18; Rosh Hashanah 17a
יָשׁוּב יְרַחְמֵנוּ יִכְבּוֹשׁ עֲוֺנוֹתֵינוּ, וְתַשְׁלִיךְ בִּמְצוּלוֹת יָם כָּל חַטֹּאתָם. תִּתֵּן אֱמֶת לְיַעֲקֹב חֶסֶד לְאַבְרָהָם אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתָּ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ מִימֵי קֶדֶם.
He will again have compassion on us. He will hold down our sins, and You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Yaakov, kindness to Avraham, as You swore to our ancestors in days long ago."
What it means
Michah 7:19-20. You may know these words from Tashlich. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, Poland, 1500s), in his notes on the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law), records the custom: on Rosh Hashanah people go to a river to say the verse "You will throw into the depths of the sea." Tashlich is the verse's verb: "You will throw."
Michah 7:19-20; Rema, Orach Chaim 583:2
וְנֶאֱמַר, וַהֲבִיאוֹתִים אֶל הַר קָדְשִׁי וְשִׂמַּחְתִּים בְּבֵית תְּפִלָּתִי עוֹלוֹתֵיהֶם וְזִבְחֵיהֶם לְרָצוֹן עַל מִזְבְּחִי, כִּי בֵיתִי בֵּית תְּפִלָּה, יִקָּרֵא לְכָל הָעַמִּים.
And it is said: "I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them glad in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples."
What it means
Yeshayahu 56:7. "My house of prayer" is, word for word, "the house of My prayer." The Gemara reads that literally: the verse does not say "their prayer" but "My prayer." From here we learn that God prays. And what does He pray? The words this paragraph began with: "May My compassion hold down My anger."
Yeshayahu 56:7; Berakhot 7a

How to say it

This paragraph closes the Akedah section. This siddur's instruction: on a day when Tachanun (the weekday prayers of pleading after the Amidah) is not said, this paragraph is not said either. The Sefard prayer book for Rosh Hashanah notes that some leave it out on Shabbat and festivals.

Siddur Sefard, instruction before this prayer; Machzor Rosh Hashanah Sefard

The story

This line is God's own prayer

The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) says that God prays, and asks what He says. The answer is given in the name of Rav, who taught in Bavel about 1,800 years ago: "May it be My will that My compassion hold down My anger, that My compassion roll over My other traits, and that I treat My children with compassion." Now read the opening of this prayer. It is nearly that sentence, with "My" changed to "Your." In the Gemara's next lines, Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha says it to God that way.

Berakhot 7a

The last verse

The last verse, from Yeshayahu: "I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them glad in My house of prayer," a house "for all the peoples." "Them" is foreigners who attach themselves to God. Rashi (the classic commentator, France, 1000s): not for Israel alone, but for converts too. And the Hebrew says "the house of My prayer." That wording is the Gemara's proof that God prays. So the paragraph opens with God's prayer and closes with the verse it is learned from. No source we found says that was planned.

Yeshayahu 56:6-7 with Rashi; Berakhot 7a

One verb, three times

The verb kavash means to press something down and hold it there. It comes three times here. Avraham held down his compassion. May Your compassion hold down Your anger. Near the end, from the prophet Michah: God "will hold down our sins." Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) explains that one: like a person who presses something under his feet so it will not be seen. Pirkei Avot (the Mishnah's collection of the sages' sayings) uses the same verb: "Who is strong? One who holds down his impulse."

Michah 7:19 with Radak; Pirkei Avot 4:1

Five from the Torah, five from the prophets

Ten quotes follow the opening request. The first five are from the Torah, "through Moshe Your servant": three from Vayikra 26 and two from Devarim 30. Then come five from the prophets: Yeshayahu, Yirmiyahu and Michah. The Rambam (Maimonides, 12th-century Egypt) quotes the same Devarim verses in his law code to show that the Torah itself, not only the prophets, promises the Mashiach, the king who will gather the exiles. "These words, explicit in the Torah, include everything said by all the prophets."

Vayikra 26:42, 44-45; Devarim 30:3-5; Rambam, Laws of Kings 11:1

One line, three homes

The line about Avraham has at least three homes. On Rosh Hashanah it is in Musaf, in the blessing about remembering, nearly word for word. On fasts called for a drought or other emergency, it is in a prayer the Tur (a code of Jewish law from the 1300s) copies from the prayer order of the Geonim, the heads of the academies in Bavel. And here, before ten quotes from Tanach. By the 1500s Rabbi Yosef Karo (author of the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) lists it after the Akedah in the siddurim he knew.

Rosh Hashanah Musaf, Zichronot; Tur, Orach Chaim 579; Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 46

Hard questions

Does God actually get angry?

This prayer brings up God's anger twice in its first lines. If that bothers you, the Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) is with you. A few lines after the words this prayer is built on, it asks: "Is there anger before the Holy One?"

Its answer is yes, with a limit. It quotes Tehillim: "God is angry every day." For how long? A moment. How long is a moment? One sage says: as long as it takes to say the word. The proof is another verse in Tehillim: "His anger is for a moment. In His favor there is life."

The Rambam (Maimonides, 12th-century Egypt) reads every verse like that another way. In the Mishneh Torah, his law code, he writes that God has no body and does not change. So there is "no anger and no laughter, no joy and no sadness" in Him. Verses that say otherwise are "parable and figure of speech," because "the Torah speaks in human language." His proof is the verse "I, Hashem, have not changed." If God were sometimes angry and sometimes glad, the Rambam says, He would be changing.

Then what does "God's anger" mean? In his Guide for the Perplexed (his book of philosophy) the Rambam says words like these describe what God does, not what God feels. When something happens that, coming from a person, would come from great anger, Tanach uses words of anger for it. It comes from God "according to what those punished deserve, and not from emotion in any way."

He also points to the Sages' own word for these descriptions. It is the word this prayer uses: midah, the ordinary Hebrew word for a trait of character. The meaning, he writes, is not that God has traits. It is that God does things which, coming from us, would come from traits.

The Gemara speaks of God's anger in plain words. The Rambam says words like that describe what God does. The request in this prayer reads the same either way: that God deal with us through kindness and compassion.

Berakhot 7a, on Tehillim 7:12 and 30:6,Rambam, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah 1:11-12,Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed 1:54 (Ibn Tibbon's Hebrew)

Avraham held down his compassion. Why would that change how God treats me?

The prayer hangs on two words: "just as" and "so." Just as Avraham held down his compassion, so may Your compassion hold down Your anger. Why would one lead to the other?

The trade is Avraham's own idea. In the Midrash (early rabbinic teachings), he tells God after the Akedah that he had an argument ready and kept quiet. The Akedah passage before this one tells that part. Then he says what he wants in return.

The Talmud Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel) gives the request an exact shape. Avraham says: I had an answer to give You, and I did not give it. I held down my impulse and did what You wanted. So when Yitzchak's children are in trouble and have no one to speak in their defense, You speak for them. He gave up his own argument and asks God to make the one his children cannot.

Bereishit Rabbah (an early Midrash on Bereishit) words it the way the siddur does: "I held down my compassion to do Your will." When Yitzchak's children fall into sins and bad deeds, remember this binding and be filled with compassion for them.

The Midrash does not quote it, but a rule from the Mishnah (the core text of the Oral Torah) has the same shape: "By the measure a person measures, it is measured out to him." The Mishnah adds that this holds for good too. Miriam waited a short while for her baby brother Moshe. Years later, all Israel waited seven days for her.

Rava, a leading sage of the Gemara, reads a verse this prayer quotes the same way. God "forgives sin and passes over rebellion." Whose sin does He forgive? The sin of one who passes over a wrong done to him. "Whoever lets what is done to him pass, all his own wrongs are let pass." Rashi explains: a person who does not insist on paying back those who hurt him.

Rava's version has no ancestor in it. Zochreinu, before the Akedah, has an essay on whether Avraham's merit can count for you.

Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanit 2:4,Bereishit Rabbah 56:10,Mishnah Sotah 1:7 and 1:9,Rosh Hashanah 17a with Rashi, on Michah 7:18

It says God will never reject us. After everything that happened?

Early in this prayer you quote God's promise about the Jewish people in exile: "I will not reject them and will not loathe them." Anyone who knows Jewish history could fairly ask how.

The rabbis asked it first. The Sifra (an early Midrash on Vayikra) stops at this verse and says: "What was left to them, that they were not loathed and not rejected? Every good gift that was given to them was taken from them. If not for the Torah scroll that was left to them, they would be no different from the nations of the world."

The verse comes at the close of the harshest passage in Vayikra, the list of what will happen if the people abandon the covenant. Rashi reads it this way: even when I bring that punishment on them, I will not reject them to the point of finishing them off and breaking My covenant. The promise was never that nothing bad would happen. It is a promise about where the bad stops.

The Hebrew verbs are in the past form, and the Gemara, like the Sifra itself, reads the verse phrase by phrase, as history. "I did not reject them" in the days of the Babylonians: I gave them Daniel and his three friends. "I did not loathe them" in the days of the Greeks: the Hasmoneans of the Chanukah story. "To finish them off" in the days of Haman: Mordechai and Esther. "To break My covenant" in the days of Rome: the house of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi and the sages of each generation. "I am Hashem their God": the future, when no nation will be able to rule over them.

The Gemara does not say those empires were kind. It says that each time, God "set up for them" people who carried them through.

The prayer does not hide the hard part either. A few lines later it quotes Yirmiyahu: "It is a time of trouble for Yaakov, but he will be saved from it." None of this answers every question about suffering, and the Sifra's question is still a fair one.

Vayikra 26:44 with Rashi,Sifra, Bechukotai, chapter 8,Megillah 11a,Yirmiyahu 30:7

Sparks

Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.

Zohar

A street that stinks

The prayer quotes God's promise in Vayikra: even in the land of their enemies, "I will not reject them and will not loathe them." The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) gives a picture. A man loves a woman who lives on the tanners' street, where the smell is awful. He would never go there. But she lives there, so to him it is like a street of perfume sellers. Exile is that street. God does not loathe them, because the one He loves is there: "the bride," which a classic commentary explains as God's presence, in exile with the Jewish people.

לְבַּר נָשׁ דְּרָחִים אִתְּתָא, וַהֲוַות דַּיְירָא בְּשׁוּקָא דְּבוּרְסָקֵי, אִי לָא הֲוַות הִיא תַּמָּן, לָא עָיֵיל בָּהּ לְעָלְמִין. כֵּיוָן דְּהִיא תַּמָּן, דָּמֵי בְּעֵינוֹי כְּשׁוּקָא דְּרוֹכְלֵי

Zohar, Parashat Bechukotai (3:115b), with the commentary Ohr HaChammah

Kabbalah

The insulted King

Near its end this prayer quotes the prophet Michah: "Who is a God like You." Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (a leading teacher of Kabbalah in Tzfat, who died in 1570) built the first chapter of his book Tomer Devorah on those verses. On these words he writes: no one ever did wrong without God, at that exact moment, supplying the strength that moved his arms and legs. The person spends that strength on the wrong. God could cut it off. He does not. He takes the insult and keeps giving. A person, Rabbi Cordovero says, has to act the same way.

לֹא מִפְּנֵי זֶה מָנַע טוּבוֹ מִן הָאָדָם אֶלָּא סָבַל עֶלְבּוֹן, וְהִשְׁפִּיעַ הַכֹּחַ וְהֵטִיב לְאָדָם טוּבוֹ.

Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, Tomer Devorah, chapter 1

Rav Kook

Held down is not thrown out

The prayer says Avraham "held down his compassion." Was his compassion the problem? Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) says no. Nothing natural in the father was wiped out at the Akedah. Everything in him was alive and in bloom. Compassion for an only son, he writes, has fine moral worth. It had to be held down so that God's will could be done with a whole heart. And by that, the compassion itself gained its highest place, in God's will, where nothing is ever lost.

ובזה הרחמים בעצמם קנו להם את המקום היותר עליון, את מקומם במציאות העליונה, ברצונו של מקום, ששום דבר משם לא יכחד ולא יעדר.

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Ribono Shel Olam

Maharal

God prays these words too

"May Your compassion hold down Your anger": the Gemara (Berakhot 7a) has almost these words as God's own prayer. "May My compassion hold down My anger." The Maharal of Prague (a major Jewish thinker who died in 1609) explains how God can be said to pray. It is not that He needs anything. God already wants compassion to win. What is missing is on our side: the people receiving are not yet at the level where that wish becomes fully real for them. That, he says, is why it is called a prayer. It is wanted, and it is not all here yet.

שאין המקבלים במדריגה שיהיה הרצון אצלם בפעל, רק כך נמצא להם שהוא יתברך רוצה וחפץ שיכבוש כעסו

Maharal, Be'er HaGolah, Well 4, on Berakhot 7a

Chassidut

Why the edge of heaven?

From Devarim: "Even if your outcasts are at the edge of the sky, from there Hashem your God will gather you." In Hebrew, sky is also heaven. The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, a Chassidic leader who died in 1905) asks why not the edge of the earth. He reads it as a hint: the Jewish people's root in heaven goes into exile with them. And "from there" means that inside the exile is a point the rescue grows from. He adds, in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidut: call out from inside the tight place. Do not run from it.

שגם בתוך הגלות יש נקודה שתצמח ממנה הישועה כמ"ש מן המצר קראתי ואיתא בשם הבעש"ט כי צריך להיות הקריאה מתוך המצר עצמו לא לברוח מן המצר.

Sefat Emet, Parashat Nitzavim, 5640 (1880)

Halacha

The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.

Skip it on a day with no Tachanun. Which days are those?

Tachanun is the pleading prayer after the weekday Amidah. It is not said on Shabbat or Yom Tov, and custom drops it on other days too. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law, with the Rema's notes on Ashkenazi practice) lists Rosh Chodesh, Chanukah, Purim, Tu BiShvat, Tu B'Av, Lag BaOmer, the days before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Nisan, Tisha B'Av, Yom Kippur to Sukkot, and the first of Sivan until after Shavuot. The Chabad siddur adds Pesach Sheni, Sivan through the 12th, and the rest of Tishrei.

Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Orach Chaim 131:6-7; Chabad siddur; Siddur Sefard

Why would this prayer be dropped on those days?

The siddur gives no reason, and we found no source that does. A rule about Shabbat may be behind it. Eliyah Rabbah (a law commentary from around 1700) quotes Levush HaOrah (by Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, who died in 1612): what Shabbat and Yom Tov leave out is "pleading that breaks a person's heart." This prayer speaks of God's anger and a time of trouble. Seder HaYom (a guide to the daily prayers, 1599) has it on Shabbat morning too. The Sefard prayer book for Rosh Hashanah says some skip it on Shabbat and Yom Tov.

Eliyah Rabbah, Orach Chaim 1:6, quoting Levush HaOrah; Seder HaYom, Shabbat morning; Machzor Rosh Hashanah Sefard

My friend's siddur ends this prayer much sooner. Who skipped?

Nobody. Nusach Ashkenaz ends at the first verse, "and the land I will remember." The long form is the wording Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote down from his teacher, the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the 1500s Kabbalist of Tzfat): on through Devarim, Yeshayahu and Yirmiyahu, to "in all their trouble." Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) notes that the siddur of Rabbi Shalom Sharabi (Jerusalem, 1700s) adds "Who is a God like You" and "I will bring them to My holy mountain." This siddur has them all.

Sha'ar HaKavanot, Nusach HaTefillah; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 48:1; Siddur Ashkenaz

Why do some people count on their fingers near the end?

The three verses near the end that begin "Who is a God like You" (Michah 7:18-20) hold thirteen attributes of mercy, says the Ben Ish Chai (a law book by Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, 1890s). He quotes a handwritten book, Keter Malchut: count the thirteen on the fingers of your right hand. He agrees. Counting shows that a thing matters and helps wake up the heart, "and that is my practice." In his other law book, Od Yosef Chai, he ties it to this prayer and lists all thirteen. This siddur does not mention it.

Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Miketz 6; Od Yosef Chai, Miketz 3

Is this a fixed text, or can I go on in my own words?

In the siddur it is a fixed text. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900) writes that Ribono Shel Olam "was fixed" after the Akedah, and that its core comes from the Midrash on the Akedah. Seder HaYom (a guide to the daily prayers, 1599) also gives the same request in a looser form. In its order for learning at home before shul, a person reads the Akedah, then prays that as Avraham held down his compassion, God's compassion should hold down His anger, "and he should go on as far as he is able."

Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 1:24; Seder HaYom, order of Shacharit

Sources

Show the 10 sources quoted on this page

Berakhot 7a
אָמַר רַב זוּטְרָא בַּר טוֹבִיָּה, אָמַר רַב: ״יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנַי שֶׁיִּכְבְּשׁוּ רַחֲמַי אֶת כַּעֲסִי, וְיִגּוֹלּוּ רַחֲמַי עַל מִדּוֹתַי, וְאֶתְנַהֵג עִם בָּנַי בְּמִדַּת רַחֲמִים, וְאֶכָּנֵס לָהֶם לִפְנִים מִשּׁוּרַת הַדִּין״.
Rav Zutra bar Toviah said in the name of Rav: "May it be My will that My compassion hold down My anger, that My compassion roll over My other traits, that I treat My children with the trait of compassion, and that for them I go further than the strict law requires."
Berakhot 7a
מִנַּיִן שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מִתְפַּלֵּל? שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וַהֲבִיאוֹתִים אֶל הַר קָדְשִׁי וְשִׂמַּחְתִּים בְּבֵית תְּפִלָּתִי״, ״תְּפִלָּתָם״ לֹא נֶאֱמַר, אֶלָּא ״תְּפִלָּתִי״, מִכָּאן שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מִתְפַּלֵּל.
How do we know that the Holy One prays? Because it says: "I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them glad in the house of My prayer." It does not say "their prayer" but "My prayer." From here we learn that the Holy One prays.
Bereishit Rabbah 56:10
כָּבַשְׁתִּי רַחֲמַי לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ, יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁיִּהְיוּ בָּנָיו שֶׁל יִצְחָק בָּאִים לִידֵי עֲבֵרוֹת וּמַעֲשִׂים רָעִים תְּהֵא נִזְכַּר לָהֶם אוֹתָהּ הָעֲקֵדָה וְתִתְמַלֵּא עֲלֵיהֶם רַחֲמִים.
I held down my compassion to do Your will. May it be Your will, Hashem our God, that when Yitzchak's children fall into sins and bad deeds, You remember that binding for them and are filled with compassion for them.
Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanit 2:4
כָבַשְׁתִּי אֶת יִצְרִי וְעָשִׂיתִי רְצוֹנָךְ. כֵּן יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ... שֶׁבְּשָׁעָה שֶׁיִּהְיוּ בָנָיו שֶׁלְיִצְחָק בְּנִי נִכְנָסִים לִידֵי צָרָה וְאֵין לָהֶם מִי יְלַמֵּד עֲלֵיהֶם סֻנֵיגוֹרִיָּא אַתָּה תְהֵא מְלַמֵּד עֲלֵיהֶם סֻנֵיגוֹרִיָּא.
I held down my impulse and did Your will. So may it be Your will... that when the children of my son Yitzchak come into trouble and have no one to speak in their defense, You will speak in their defense.
Rosh Hashanah Musaf, Zichronot
וְכָבַשׁ רַחֲמָיו לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם, כֵּן יִכְבְּשׁוּ רַחֲמֶיךָ אֶת כַּעַסְךָ מֵעָלֵינוּ, וּבְטוּבְךָ הַגָּדוֹל יָשׁוּב חֲרוֹן אַפְּךָ מֵעַמְּךָ וּמֵעִירְךָ וּמֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִנַּחֲלָתֶךָ.
He held down his compassion to do Your will with a whole heart. So may Your compassion hold down Your anger and lift it from us, and in Your great goodness may Your burning anger turn back from Your people, Your city, Your land and Your inheritance.
Rashi on Vayikra 26:42
לָמָּה נִמְנוּ אֲחוֹרַנִּית? כְּלוֹמַר, כְּדַאי הוּא יַעֲקֹב הַקָּטָן לְכָךְ, וְאִם אֵינוֹ כְדַאי, הֲרֵי יִצְחָק עִמּוֹ, וְאִם אֵינוֹ כְדַאי, הֲרֵי אַבְרָהָם עִמּוֹ שֶׁהוּא כְדַאי, וְלָמָּה לֹא נֶאֶמְרָה זְכִירָה בְיִצְחָק? אֶלָּא אֲפָרוֹ שֶׁל יִצְחָק נִרְאֶה לְפָנַי צָבוּר וּמֻנָּח עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ.
Why are they listed backwards? To say: Yaakov, the youngest, is worthy enough for this. If he is not, Yitzchak is with him. If he is not, Avraham is with him, and he is worthy. And why is "remembering" not said about Yitzchak? Because the ashes of Yitzchak are seen before Me, heaped up and lying on the altar.
Sifra, Bechukotai, chapter 8
וכי מה נשתייר להם שלא נגעלו ולא נמאסו?! והלא כל מתנות טובות שנתנו להם, ניטלו מהם. ואילולי ספר תורה שנשתיירה להם לא היו משנים ... מאומות העולם כלום!
What was left to them, that they were not loathed and not rejected? Every good gift that was given to them was taken from them. If not for the Torah scroll that was left to them, they would be no different from the nations of the world.
Megillah 29a
וְאַף כְּשֶׁהֵן עֲתִידִין לִיגָּאֵל ... שְׁכִינָה עִמָּהֶן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וְשָׁב ה׳ אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת שְׁבוּתְךָ״. ״וְהֵשִׁיב״ לֹא נֶאֱמַר, אֶלָּא ״וְשָׁב״. מְלַמֵּד שֶׁהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא שָׁב עִמָּהֶן מִבֵּין הַגָּלִיּוֹת.
And when they are redeemed in the future, God's presence will be with them, as it says: "Hashem your God will return your captives." It does not say "He will bring back" but "He will come back." This teaches that the Holy One comes back with them from the exiles.
Rambam, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah 1:12
עַל הַכּל אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים דִּבְּרָה תּוֹרָה כִּלְשׁוֹן בְּנֵי אָדָם ... וְאִלּוּ הָיָה פְּעָמִים כּוֹעֵס וּפְעָמִים שָׂמֵחַ הָיָה מִשְׁתַּנֶּה.
About all of these the Sages said: the Torah speaks in human language... If He were sometimes angry and sometimes glad, He would be changing.
Rosh Hashanah 17a
רָבָא אָמַר: כׇּל הַמַּעֲבִיר עַל מִדּוֹתָיו ... מַעֲבִירִין לוֹ עַל כׇּל פְּשָׁעָיו, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״נוֹשֵׂא עָוֹן וְעוֹבֵר עַל פֶּשַׁע״. לְמִי נוֹשֵׂא עָוֹן ... לְמִי שֶׁעוֹבֵר עַל פֶּשַׁע.
Rava said: Whoever lets what is done to him pass, all his own wrongs are let pass, as it says: "who forgives sin and passes over rebellion." Whose sin does He forgive? The sin of one who passes over rebellion.

Every prayer in the siddur