הַטֵּה אֱלֹהַי
Part 2 of 4: the end of Daniel's plea, then lines built from other verses. Mondays and Thursdays.
Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
Daniel is a Jewish exile living under a foreign king. He has been reading the prophet Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah), who wrote that Babylon's rule would last seventy years. By Daniel's count, the seventy years are up, and Jerusalem is still in ruins. So he fasts, puts on sackcloth and ashes, and prays for the city and the people. The words at the start of this part are the end of that prayer.
Part 1 stops in the middle of Daniel's prayer, at Daniel 9:17. This part begins with the next verse. In Nusach Sefard it is said only on Mondays and Thursdays, after Nefilat Apayim (the short prayer said with your head resting on your arm). Part 1 has the story of how Vehu Rachum began.
Daniel 9:2-3; Metzudat David on Daniel 9:3; Siddur Sefard, instruction for Monday and ThursdayHebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
Monday and Thursday only. This continues Vehu Rachum, part 1:
הַטֵּה אֱלֺהַי אָזְנְךָ וּשְׁמָע פְּקַח עֵינֶיךָ וּרְאֵה שֹׁמְמוֹתֵינוּ וְהָעִיר אֲשֶׁר נִקְרָא שִׁמְךָ עָלֶיהָ כִּי לֺא עַל צִדְקֹתֵינוּ אֲנַחְנוּ מַפִּילִים תַּחֲנוּנֵינוּ לְפָנֶיךָ כִּי עַל רַחֲמֶיךָ הָרַבִּים.
My God, turn Your ear and listen Open Your eyes and see our ruined places and the city that Your name is called on For not because of our righteous acts are we laying down our pleas before You but because of Your great compassion
My God, turn Your ear and listen. Open Your eyes and see our ruined places, and the city that is called by Your name. We are not laying our pleas before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.
אֲדֹנָי שְׁמָעָה אֲדֹנָי סְלָחָה אֲדֹנָי הַקְשִׁיבָה וַעֲשֵׂה אַל תְּאַחַר.
My Master, hear. My Master, forgive. My Master, listen and act. Do not delay.
Rashi (the classic commentator, France, 1000s) spells out what each word asks for: hear our pleas, forgive our sins, listen closely to our cry, and do what we ask without delay.
Rashi on Daniel 9:19לְמַעַנְךָ אֱלֺהַי כִּי שִׁמְךָ נִקְרָא עַל עִירְךָ וְעַל עַמֶּךָ.
For Your sake, my God, because Your name is called on Your city and on Your people
For Your own sake, my God, because Your name is called on Your city and on Your people.
Metzudat David (an 18th-century commentary on the Prophets and Writings) explains why this is "for Your sake": people speak of the "city of God" and the "God of Israel," so leaving them in the hands of other nations does not honor You.
Metzudat David on Daniel 9:19אָבִינוּ אָב הָרַחֲמָן הַרְאֵנוּ אוֹת לְטוֹבָה וְקַבֵּץ נְפוּצוֹתֵינוּ מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ.
Our Father, merciful Father, show us a sign for good and gather our scattered people from the four corners of the earth
יַכִּירוּ וְיֵדְעוּ כָּל הַגּוֹיִם כִּי אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֺהֵינוּ.
Let them recognize and know, all the nations, that You, Hashem, are our God
Let all the nations recognize and know that You, Hashem, are our God.
וְעַתָּה יְיָ אָבִינוּ אָתָּה אֲנַחְנוּ הַחֹמֶר וְאַתָּה יֹצְרֵנוּ וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדְךָ כֻּלָּנוּ.
And now, Hashem, You are our Father. We are the clay, and You are our Shaper, and the work of Your hand, all of us
And now, Hashem, You are our Father. We are the clay and You are our Shaper, and all of us are the work of Your hand.
From Yeshayahu 64:7. Two verses earlier he says, "All our righteous acts are like a filthy rag." Then comes this: "Now, Hashem, You are our Father, we are the clay."
Yeshayahu 64:5-7הוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ אָבִינוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ צוּרֵנוּ וְגוֹאֲלֵנוּ.
Save us for the sake of Your name, our Father, our King, our Rock, and our Redeemer
"Father" and "Redeemer" also sit together in Yeshayahu 63:16, about ten verses before the clay verse: "You, Hashem, are our Father; our Redeemer from of old is Your name."
Yeshayahu 63:16חוּסָה יְיָ עַל עַמֶּךָ וְאַל תִּתֵּן נַחֲלָתְךָ לְחֶרְפָּה לִמְשָׁל בָּם גּוֹיִם. לָמָּה יֹאמְרוּ בָעַמִּים אַיֵּה אֱלֺהֵיהֶם.
Have pity, Hashem, on Your people and do not give Your inheritance to disgrace, for nations to rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?"
Have pity on Your people, Hashem, and do not give Your inheritance over to disgrace, for nations to rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?"
From Yoel 2:17. Yoel (Joel) was a prophet who called for a fast after locusts stripped the land. "Rule over them" can also mean "be a byword about them." Rashi reads it that way: a saying people use to mock us. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) reads it as foreign rule, since famine drove many to live in other lands.
Yoel 1:4, 1:14, 2:17; Rashi and Radak on Yoel 2:17יָדַעְנוּ יְיָ כִּי חָטָאנוּ וְאֵין מִי יַעֲמֹד בַּעֲדֵנוּ אֶלָּא שִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל יַעֲמָד לָנוּ בְּעֵת צָרָה.
We know, Hashem, that we have sinned, and there is no one who will stand up for us except Your great name, which will stand up for us in a time of trouble
We know, Hashem, that we have sinned, and no one will stand up for us. Only Your great name will stand up for us in a time of trouble.
Machzor Vitry (a prayer book from France, about 1100) has this paragraph's verses in nearly the same order, but not this sentence. After "Where is their God?" it goes straight to "We know that we have no deeds."
Machzor Vitry, Order of Shacharit 93יָדַעְנוּ כִּי אֵין בָּנוּ מַעֲשִׂים צְדָקָה עֲשֵׂה עִמָּנוּ לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ.
We know that we have no deeds. Deal with us in charity for Your name's sake
We know that we have no deeds to show. Deal with us in charity, for the sake of Your name.
כְּרַחֵם אָב עַל בָּנִים כֵּן תְּרַחֵם יְיָ עָלֵינוּ וְהוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ.
As a father has compassion on his children, so have compassion, Hashem, on us, and save us for the sake of Your name
As a father has compassion on his children, so have compassion on us, Hashem, and save us for the sake of Your name.
From Tehillim 103:13: "As a father has compassion on his children, so Hashem has compassion on those who fear Him." The prayer swaps the end for "on us." Its verb can be read "You do" or "may You," and we translate it as a request.
Tehillim 103:13חֲמוֹל עַל עַמֶּךָ רַחֵם עַל נַחֲלָתֶךָ חוּסָה נָּא כְּרוֹב רַחֲמֶיךָ חָנֵּנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ וַעֲנֵנוּ
Take pity on Your people, have compassion on Your inheritance, spare us, please, in keeping with Your great compassion. Be gracious to us, our King, and answer us
Four words for mercy in one line. Two of them have famous uses. Pharaoh's daughter "took pity" (chamol) on a crying baby, Moshe. And God tells Yonah: you "cared" (chus) about a plant you never worked for, so should I not care about the great city of Nineveh?
Shemot 2:6; Yonah 4:10-11כִּי לְךָ יְיָ הַצְּדָקָה עֹשֵׂה נִפְלָאוֹת בְּכָל עֵת.
For righteousness is Yours, Hashem, doing wonders at all times
For righteousness is Yours, Hashem. You do wonders at all times.
This line starts like Daniel 9:7: "To You, my Master, belongs righteousness, and to us, shame of face." The prayer stops before the shame and goes on to "doing wonders at all times."
Daniel 9:7הַבֶּט נָא רַחֶם נָא וְהוֹשִׁיעָה נָא צֹאן מַרְעִיתֶךָ וְאַל יִמְשָׁל בָּנוּ קֶצֶף כִּי לְךָ יְיָ הַיְשׁוּעָה.
Look, please, have compassion, please, and save, please, the flock of Your pasture, and do not let wrath rule over us, for rescue is Yours, Hashem
Look, please. Have compassion, please. Save, please, the flock You shepherd, and do not let wrath rule over us, for rescue belongs to You, Hashem.
"The flock of Your pasture" is a phrase from Tehillim. In Tehillim 100:3, which you said earlier in Mizmor LeTodah, it is joyful: "His people and the flock He shepherds." In Tehillim 74:1 it is a complaint: "Why does Your anger smoke at the flock You tend?"
Tehillim 100:3; 74:1בְּךָ תוֹחַלְתֵּנוּ אֱלוֹהַּ סְלִיחוֹת אָנָּא סְלַח נָא כִּי אֵל טוֹב וְסַלָּח אָתָּה.
In You is our hope, God of forgiveness. Please, forgive, please, for You are a good and forgiving God
In You is our hope, God of forgiveness. Please forgive us, for You are a God who is good and forgiving.
אָנָּא מֶלֶךְ חַנוּן וְרַחוּם זְכוֹר וְהַבֵּט לִבְרִית בֵּין הַבְּתָרִים וְתֵרָאֶה לְפָנֶיךָ עֲקֵדַת יָחִיד וּלְמַעַן יִשְׂרָאֵל אָבִינוּ.
Please, gracious and compassionate King, remember and look at the covenant between the pieces, and let it be seen before You: the binding of the only son, and for the sake of Israel, our father
Please, gracious and compassionate King, remember and look at the covenant between the pieces, and let the binding of the only son be seen before You, and for the sake of Israel, our father.
The line moves through three forefathers: Avraham's covenant, Yitzchak's binding, and "Israel our father," Yaakov. The Gemara (Shabbat 89b, the rabbis' discussions on the Mishnah) pictures a future scene: God tells Avraham, then Yaakov, that their children sinned, and both say "let them be erased." Yitzchak answers: "Are they my children and not Yours?"
Bereishit 15, 22, 32:29; Shabbat 89bאַל תַּעַזְבֵנוּ אָבִינוּ וְאַל תִּטְּשֵׁנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ וְאַל תִּשְׁכָּחֵנוּ יוֹצְרֵנוּ וְאַל תַּעַשׁ עִמָּנוּ כָּלָה בְּגָלוּתֵנוּ כִּי אֵל מֶלֶךְ חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אָתָּה.
Do not abandon us, our Father, and do not cast us off, our King, and do not forget us, our Shaper, and do not make an end of us in our exile, for You are a gracious and compassionate God and King
Do not abandon us, our Father. Do not cast us off, our King. Do not forget us, our Shaper. Do not make an end of us in our exile, for You are a God and King who is gracious and compassionate.
Keep standing, as in part 1. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law, by Rabbi Yosef Karo) rules that Vehu Rachum is said standing.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 134:1Daniel 6 tells how Daniel's upstairs room had windows facing Jerusalem. Three times a day he knelt there and prayed, as he always had. He kept doing it after the king signed a ban on praying to anyone but the king, with a den of lions as the punishment. So "the city that is called by Your name" was a place he faced every day from far away.
Daniel 6:8-11Daniel's words end at "Your city and Your people." The next lines are the siddur's own, built from other verses. "Gather our scattered from the four corners of the earth" echoes Yeshayahu 11:12. "Show us a sign for good" takes "a sign for good" from Tehillim 86:17, where David asks, "Give me a sign for good." The Amidah's blessing for gathering the exiles asks for the same thing, with the same words, "from the four corners of the earth."
Daniel 9:19; Yeshayahu 11:12; Tehillim 86:17; Amidah, blessing for gathering the exiles"God of forgiveness" and "do not make an end of us" echo Nehemiah 9, the long prayer the Levites (the Temple's helpers) led on a fast day. The Vidui section of this siddur tells more about that day. In Nehemiah, God is "a God of forgiveness" (9:17), and "in Your great compassion You did not make an end of them" (9:31). That looks back at what God did. The siddur turns it into a plea: do not make an end of us.
Nehemiah 9:1, 9:17, 9:31Daniel had a date. The prophet Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) had told the exiles that when Babylon's seventy years were over, God would bring them back. Daniel studied those words and counted. Then he did not wait. He fasted, put on sackcloth and ashes, and prayed (Daniel 9:2-3).
The commentators explain it in more than one way. Metzudat David (a classic commentary on the Prophets and Writings) says that by Daniel's count the seventy years were up, yet the full return had not come. Daniel thought sin might be making the end drag on, so he prayed. Rashi (the main medieval Torah commentator) says that when the return did not come, Daniel counted again and decided he had started from the wrong year. Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator, 1100s) reports that the Geonim (the heads of the great Babylonian academies) agreed that Daniel miscounted. So the exact date is not the point.
Here is another answer, and it is in the promise itself. The same passage in Yirmeyahu says: "When you call Me, and come and pray to Me, I will listen to you" (29:12). In this promise, prayer is part of the plan. The Et Tzemach David page asks the same question about the final redemption.
Later in the chapter there is a hint. The angel Gabriel comes "at the time of the evening offering" and says, "A word went out as you began your pleas" (9:21, 9:23). The text does not say the prayer changed the date. It says a word went out the moment he began.
The words "do not delay" in this prayer come from a man in that position. He had the promise, and he asked anyway.
Daniel 9:2-3, 9:21, 9:23,Yirmeyahu 29:10-12,Metzudat David, Rashi and Ibn Ezra on Daniel 9:2-3The line is from Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 64:7: "You are our Father, we are the clay, and You are the potter. We are all the work of Your hand." Clay cannot choose anything. So it can sound as if we are saying we have no control.
Look at the verses around it. The prophet has just said that no one "stirs to take hold of You" (64:6). After the clay line he asks God not to stay angry forever: "Look, please, at Your people, all of us" (64:8). Then he describes Jerusalem and the Temple in ruins (64:9-10). In that setting the clay line reads as his reason for asking for mercy. It is not a lesson about free will.
Ibn Ezra writes that it means: do to us what You want, since we have no strength; we are like clay. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a Bible commentator from southern France who died around 1235) reads it with more hope. You are our Father, he says, and a father does not push away his son even when the son has sinned. A potter keeps his eyes on the clay, and if a vessel does not come out right, he makes it into another one. So, says Radak, if we sinned and became a spoiled vessel, make us again.
That is the picture in Yirmeyahu 18. God sends the prophet to a potter's house. A vessel is spoiled in the potter's hands, and the potter makes another one (18:4). God says: "like clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand" (18:6). Then comes the part that answers your question. If God announces a punishment for a nation, and that nation turns back from its evil, God changes His mind about the punishment (18:7-8). The same works in reverse (18:9-10).
In that scene, the potter responds to what the clay does. The sources do not settle whether Yeshayahu meant it that way or the simpler way Ibn Ezra reads it. The prayer puts two pictures side by side: "You are our Father" and "we are the clay."
Yeshayahu 64:5-10,Ibn Ezra and Radak on Yeshayahu 64:7,Yirmeyahu 18:4-10The line says: "Remember and look at the covenant between the pieces." It points to Bereishit 15. Avram (Avraham, before God changed his name) is told to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a young bird. He cuts the animals in two and lays each half opposite the other, but he does not cut the bird (15:9-10).
Rashi (the main medieval Torah commentator) explains the cutting. That was how people sealed a covenant: they divided an animal and walked between its parts. He points to Yirmeyahu 34, where people who walked between the halves of a calf and then broke their promise were handed to their enemies (34:18-20). Rashi there explains what the cutting said: so shall the one who breaks it be cut and divided.
In Bereishit 15 only a smoking oven and a flaming torch pass between the pieces, in the dark (15:17). Rashi says the fire stands for God's presence. The promise is the land for Avram's children (15:18).
But the same scene announces exile. Avram's children will be strangers in a land not theirs, enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years, and then go free with great wealth (15:13-14). Rashi reads the "great dark dread" that falls on Avram first (15:12) as a hint of "the troubles and darkness of the exiles." He is following Bereishit Rabbah 44:17 (an early collection of rabbinic teachings), which matches each word of that phrase to an empire that would rule over Israel. And Rashi reads the bird that was not cut as a sign that Israel will last forever, while the nations, the animals that were cut, pass away.
That is why the covenant fits a prayer about exile. In one scene it announces the exile and promises the ending. This is one way to read it, not something the prayer says outright. When the prayer asks God to remember the covenant between the pieces and then says "do not make an end of us in our exile," it is asking God to remember the whole promise, including the second half.
Bereishit 15:9-18,Yirmeyahu 34:18-20,Rashi on Bereishit 15:10 and 15:12; Rashi on Yirmeyahu 34:18,Bereishit Rabbah 44:17Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (a Chassidic rebbe in Poland who died in 1866) finds a surprise in "not because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy." He reads it another way: we are full of mercy for You. He means for the Holy One and His Shechinah (God's presence in the world), which is in exile. Heaven shows mercy to whoever shows mercy to people, he says, so all the more to whoever feels it for God, so to speak. This is a Chassidic reading, not the plain meaning.
כי לא על צדקותינו אנחנו מפילים תחנונינו לפניך כי על רחמיך הרבים. היינו שאנו מלאי רחמים על קב"ה ושכינתי'
Tiferet Shlomo, Parashat Miketz and Rosh HashanahWhy ask God to "open Your eyes"? Doesn't God already see? Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (a Chassidic rebbe in Ukraine who died in 1809) turns to Pirkei Avot (a collection of sayings of the early rabbis): "Know what is above you: an eye that sees and an ear that hears." He reads it as: what is above comes from you. In his picture, what a person does below is engraved above. If we used our eyes for bad things, the eye above is closed, so we ask for it to be opened.
דע מה למעלה ממך, כלומר מה שהיא למעלה הכל ממך ממה שאתה עושה למטה כן חקוק למעלה
Kedushat Levi, Parashat Metzora; Pirkei Avot 2:1The word ot means a sign, and it also means a letter. Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk, whom we met above, builds on the idea that each Jew is a letter in the Torah (the Hareini Mekabel prayer tells it). When someone sins, he says, their letter is lacking. That is how he hears "show us an ot for good." He adds that every day a heavenly voice calls from Mount Horev (another name for Sinai): come back, so that no letter is missing.
כשאדם חוטא ח"ו נחסר אות שלו בתורה. וז"פ הראנו אות לטובה
Tiferet Shlomo, ShavuotRabbi Levi Yitzchak tells of a servant of the king who sinned and ran far away. Now he is sorry, but he has forgotten the roads, his clothes are torn, and the guards would stop him at the door. His only plan is to go to the gate and cry out, because he knows the king is "compassionate and gracious and forgives often." The king hears, forgives, and lifts him up to see his face always, because he sees how much the servant loves him and longs to come back. Now read "gracious and compassionate King" again.
הן ידעתי מאז את המלך כי רחום וחנון הוא ומרבה לסלוח
Kedushat Levi, Likutim 161The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
Both customs have a source. Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law), wrote that it is said aloud. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi custom to it) wrote that the custom is quietly, and the Arukh HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900) ties this to the quiet Amidah. The Mishnah Berurah (an early 1900s commentary) and the Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic one) say each community keeps its own custom. The Kaf HaChaim cites an earlier authority: Sephardim say it quietly too.
Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Orach Chaim 134:1; Arukh HaShulchan 134:2; Mishnah Berurah 134:5; Kaf HaChaim 134:2, 134:5The sources ask for the opposite. The Mishnah Berurah says to say Vehu Rachum with focus and without hurry, not at a run. The Kaf HaChaim repeats this. At the same time, Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) says the exact wording of these supplications is not essential, and that someone who said even a little of them has kept the custom.
Mishnah Berurah 134:2; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 134:3; Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 21:6Stop, answer the Kaddish, and go on with the service. Peninei Halakhah says that a person with a longer text who hears the leader begin Kaddish should pause the supplications, answer, and continue to the next part. Anyone who wants to may finish them after the prayers. The Mishnah Berurah also says it is clearly allowed to pause supplications like Vehu Rachum for a holy response such as Kaddish.
Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 21:6; Mishnah Berurah 131:1Both. Peninei Halakhah says that in Nusach Sefard the extra Monday and Thursday supplications come after Nefilat Apayim (the head-down prayer), and in Nusach Ashkenaz they come before it. It adds that Sephardim put more supplications before Vehu Rachum and Ashkenazim put more after it. If you pray in a shul that uses the other text, you may keep your own custom, but you should not make it noticeable.
Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 21:6אדני שמעה אדני סלחה אדני הקשיבה ועשה אל תאחר למענך אלהי כי שמך נקרא על עירך ועל עמך
My Master, hear. My Master, forgive. My Master, listen and act. Do not delay, for Your own sake, my God, because Your name is called on Your city and on Your people.
וכאשר ראיתי שאין גאולה שלמה ממשמשת לבוא שמתי פני כלפי המקום להתפלל על הדבר בחשבי שבעבור העון נתארך הקץ
When I saw that a complete redemption was not about to come, I turned my face toward God to pray about it, thinking that because of sin the end had been drawn out.
וקראתם אתי והלכתם והתפללתם אלי ושמעתי אליכם
You will call Me, and come, and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
ועתה ה׳ אבינו אתה אנחנו החמר ואתה יצרנו ומעשה ידך כלנו
And now, Hashem, You are our Father. We are the clay and You are the one who shapes us, and we are all the work of Your hand.
והיוצר ישנה החומר מכלי לכלי כאשר ישר בעיני היוצר כן אנחנו בידך... ואם חטאנו וקצפת עלינו והנה אנחנו כלי נשחת שוב ועשנו כלי אחר
A potter changes the clay from one vessel to another as he sees fit, and so are we in Your hand... If we sinned and You were angry at us, we are a spoiled vessel. Make us again as another vessel.
הנה כחמר ביד היוצר כן אתם בידי בית ישראל. רגע אדבר על גוי ועל ממלכה לנתוש ולנתוץ ולהאביד. ושב הגוי ההוא מרעתו אשר דברתי עליו ונחמתי על הרעה
Like clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, House of Israel. At one moment I may speak about a nation to uproot and destroy it. But if that nation turns back from its evil, I change My mind about the harm.
ידע תדע כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם ועבדום וענו אתם ארבע מאות שנה... ואחרי כן יצאו ברכש גדול
Know well that your children will be strangers in a land not theirs, and they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years... and afterward they will go out with great wealth.
ונתתי את האנשים העברים את ברתי אשר לא הקימו את דברי הברית אשר כרתו לפני העגל אשר כרתו לשנים ויעברו בין בתריו
I will deal with the people who broke My covenant, who did not keep the words of the covenant they made before Me: the calf they cut in two, and passed between its parts.
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