Shomer Yisrael

A title becomes a request

"Guardian of Israel" is a title for God in Tehillim (the book of Psalms): "Look, the One who guards Israel does not doze and does not sleep." The prayer takes that title and turns it into a request. The first two words name God. The next word, shemor, turns the same root into a request: Guardian, guard. In Tehillim 121 that root appears six times in verses 3 to 8.

Who is the "Israel" in the verse?

Ibn Ezra (a Bible commentator who wrote on Tehillim around 1156) suggests that "Israel" in Tehillim 121:4 is the man Yaakov, whose other name was Israel. His proof: God told Yaakov, "I will guard you wherever you go," and Yaakov was asleep. The guardian who never sleeps watched over a man who did. The prayer uses the same words for Yaakov's descendants.

Even in exile, even while we sleep

Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a Bible commentator in Provence, France, around 1200) reads Tehillim 121:4 as a promise about the whole people. God guards Israel at all times, he writes, even in exile, so that we are not wiped out among the nations. God guards us even while we sleep. That is close to what this prayer asks for in its own words: let Israel not perish.

Each verse points to a line you already said

Each verse ends by naming something from davening. The first points to Shema ("Hear, Israel"). The second points to the rest of that verse, "Hashem is our God, Hashem is one" (Devarim 6:4). The third points to "Holy, holy, holy" (Yeshayahu 6:3), the call you say in Kedushah. So the prayer asks God to protect the people who say these words.

What "remnant" means

The Hebrew word, she'erit, comes from the root for "remain." The prophets use it for the part of Israel that is left. Tzefanyah 3:12-13 describes the remnant as a poor, humble people who find shelter in Hashem's Name. In Yirmeyahu 31:7, God tells the people to shout for joy and say: "Hashem, save Your people, the remnant of Israel." Our prayer makes a similar request.

Guard what is left, or guard before the hit?

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (the Rebbe of Piaseczno, a Chassidic leader in Poland who was killed in the Holocaust) quotes this line as a prayer for after the damage: do not let us be lost, and heal the hurt. Our hands and feet, he says, sometimes walk into danger, and we rush to save them only once they hurt. The eye we guard before anything touches it. That is what David asked in Tehillim (Psalms): "Guard me like the pupil of the eye." Now read "remnant" again.

יש שמירה גם אחר שהוכה ח"ו שלא יאבד ולרפאות את הכאב שהוכה, וכמו שמתפללים שומר ישראל שמור שארית ישראל ואל יאבד ישראל

The fish and the open eye

In a passage about God's "eye," the Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) quotes Tehillim (Psalms): "the Guardian of Israel does not slumber and does not sleep." Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the Zohar's main teacher, asks Rabbi Abba what this hints at. Rabbi Abba answers: the fish of the sea. A fish has no lid over its eye, and it does not sleep. The Zohar says that is all the more true of God, who watches over everything. Now read "Shomer" again.

דלית כסותא על עינא, ולית גבינין על עינא, ולא ניימין

Why is "one" followed by "holy"?

This prayer moves from "one nation" to "holy nation." Rabbi Shmuel Bornstein of Sochatchov (a Chassidic leader in Poland, writing in 1924) found the same pair in a midrash that explains the Torah's "holy nation" with the verse "one nation on earth." He asks what one has to do with holy. If people chase physical things, each wants his own piece, and they stay apart. A holy people, set apart, longs for God alone, so everyone can want the same thing: to do God's will, not each to collect a reward. So a nation that is really one must be holy.

כשהוא קדוש ומובדל והתשוקה הוא אלקות לבד אז יתכן שכולם יש להם תשוקה אחת להשלים רצון העליון ולא לקבל פרס כל אחד לעצמו

Who moves first, God or us?

The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib of Ger, a Chassidic leader in Poland who died in 1905) quotes the words "won over by compassion, calmed by pleas" while explaining Elul, the month before Rosh Hashanah. He compares two stretches of forty days Moshe spent on Sinai. The first came from God's own will. In the last, God was won over for us, through Moshe's plea for mercy and the people's turning back. His point: at any time, the Jewish people can wake God's will by turning back.

ואחרונים נתרצה הקב"ה לנו כמ"ש מתרצה ברחמים ומתפייס בתחנונים

On which days do I say it?

On the days that have Tachanun, the pleading prayers after the Amidah. Siddur Sefard says it directly: on Mondays and Thursdays say Vehu Rachum, and on the other days that have Tachanun say Shomer Yisrael. On Mondays and Thursdays Shomer Yisrael comes after the extra prayers. This siddur prints all four paragraphs in the Mincha (afternoon) Tachanun. The Ribono Shel Olam page lists the days that have no Tachanun.

Do I sit or stand, and is it said out loud?

The sources we found describe it seated and aloud. The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) writes that after the face-down prayer everyone lifts their head and pleads a little out loud, sitting. The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of law from around 1900) says this is our Shomer Yisrael, or the line after it. That next line splits: the Shelah (Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz, around 1600), quoted in the Magen Avraham, has "we do not know" said sitting and "what to do" standing.

Does the leader say "Avinu Malkeinu" out loud?

In some places, yes. The last paragraph here begins "Our Father, our King, be gracious to us." The Tur (a major law code from the 1300s) quotes Rav Amram Gaon (a leading rabbi in Babylonia in the 800s): the leader stands and says it. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) writes that in some places the leader says everything from "Avinu Malkeinu" up to "we do not know" out loud, and that it all goes by local custom.

Does every community say it on regular days?

Not every custom does. Maaseh Rav is a book of the personal practices of the Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, a leading rabbi of the 1700s), written by his student. It says one does not say Shomer Yisrael except on a public fast day, a fast the whole community keeps. Siddur Sefard, by contrast, prints it on every day with Tachanun. The Arukh HaShulchan calls it "our custom."

My siddur says a different word in the fourth paragraph. Does it matter?

The line says "mitratzeh berachamim umitpayes betachanunim," won over by compassion and calmed by pleas. The Taz (a main commentary on the Shulchan Aruch by Rabbi David HaLevi Segal, 1600s) says a new printing changed it to "mitpateh," and that this is wrong. He cites the Ramban (a medieval Torah commentator): the root means bending someone's will with a lie. Rabbi Shlomo Kluger (1800s, Chokhmat Shlomo) first questioned this, then agreed: the line praises God, and you cannot praise God with a word for deceit.

Do girls say Shomer Yisrael?

Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) rules that women are exempt from everything men customarily say after the Amidah, and it names Tachanun, Ashrei and others. Shomer Yisrael is part of Tachanun: the Arukh HaShulchan puts it right after falling on the face, and this siddur prints it in Tachanun. Peninei Halakhah's reason: even men have no strict duty to say these, only a custom that became binding. A woman who wants to say them may. The Vehu Rachum page has the same ruling.