Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
Mondays and Thursdays with Tachanun, as the Torah is rolled up and before it goes back into the ark. The leader says:
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלִּפְנֵי אָבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם לְכוֹנֵן אֶת בֵּית חַיֵּינוּ וּלְהָשִׁיב אֶת שְׁכִינָתוֹ בְּתוֹכֵנוּ בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵינוּ וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן.
May it be the will of our Father in heaven to set up the house of our lives and bring His Presence back among us quickly, in our days and let us say: Amen
May it be the will of our Father in heaven to set up the house of our lives and bring His Presence back to live among us, soon, in our own days. And let us say: Amen.
One early version of these five requests is in the Machzor Vitry (a prayer book from northern France, about 1100). Its first one says "God of heaven" and ends "bring His Presence back into it," meaning into the house.
Machzor Vitry, Order of Shabbat 199יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלִּפְנֵי אָבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם לְרַחֵם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל פְּלֵטָתֵנוּ וְלִמְנֹעַ מַשְׁחִית וּמַגֵּפָה מֵעָלֵינוּ וּמֵעַל כָּל עַמּוֹ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן.
May it be the will of our Father in heaven to have mercy on us and on our remnant and to keep destruction and plague away from us and from all His people, the house of Israel and let us say: Amen
May it be the will of our Father in heaven to show mercy to us and to what is left of us, and to keep destruction and plague away from us and from all His people, the house of Israel. And let us say: Amen.
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלִּפְנֵי אָבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם לְקַיֵּם בָּנוּ חַכְמֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הֵם וּנְשֵׁיהֶם וּבְנֵיהֶם וּבְנוֹתֵיהֶם וְתַלְמִידֵיהֶם וְתַלְמִידֵי תַלְמִידֵיהֶם בְּכָל מְקוֹמוֹת מֹושְׁבוֹתֵיהֶם וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן.
May it be the will of our Father in heaven to preserve among us the sages of Israel them, and their wives, sons and daughters and their students, and their students' students in every place they live and let us say: Amen
May it be the will of our Father in heaven to preserve the sages of Israel among us: them and their wives, their sons and their daughters, their students and their students' students, in every place where they live. And let us say: Amen.
Wives and daughters are named in this wish, and the list is old. Machzor Vitry (a prayer book from northern France, about 1100) has it nearly word for word: them, their wives, sons and daughters, their students and their students' students, wherever they live.
Machzor Vitry, Order of Shabbat 199יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלִּפְנֵי אָבִינוּ שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם שֶׁנִּשְׁמַע וְנִתְבַּשֵּׂר בְּשׂוֹרוֹת טוֹבוֹת יְשׁוּעוֹת וְנֶחָמוֹת וִיקַבֵּץ נִדָּחֵינוּ מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן.
May it be the will of our Father in heaven that we hear and are told good news: rescue and comfort and may He gather our scattered ones from the four corners of the earth and let us say: Amen
In Machzor Vitry the request is to hear "good news and good reports from the four corners of the whole earth." It has no gathering of the scattered. Our version has rescue and comfort, and it makes the four corners the places the scattered are gathered from.
Machzor Vitry, Order of Shabbat 199אַחֵינוּ כָּל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל הַנְּתוּנִים בַּצָּרָה וּבַשִּׁבְיָה הָעוֹמְדִים בֵּין בַּיָּם וּבֵין בַּיַּבָּשָׁה הַמָּקוֹם יְרַחֵם עֲלֵיהֶם וְיוֹצִיאֵם מִצָּרָה לִרְוָחָה וּמֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹרָה וּמִשִּׁעְבּוּד לִגְאֻלָּה הַשְׁתָּא בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב וְנֹאמַר אָמֵן.
Our brothers, the whole house of Israel who are in distress and captivity whether at sea or on dry land may God have mercy on them and bring them from distress to relief from darkness to light from slavery to redemption now, quickly, and soon and let us say: Amen
Our brothers, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress and in captivity, whether at sea or on dry land: may God have mercy on them. May He bring them out from distress to relief, from darkness to light, from slavery to redemption. Now, quickly, and soon. And let us say: Amen.
Answer Amen after each one. The siddur says people should be reminded to do this, because these are "great requests."
Siddur Sefard, note before the first Yehi RatzonThe Machzor Vitry (a prayer book from northern France, about 1100) has all five of these. In that passage they come at the Shabbat afternoon reading, said while the Torah is rolled up. The wording is a little different. It says "God of heaven" where ours says "our Father in heaven."
Machzor Vitry, Order of Shabbat 199Siddur Edot HaMizrach (the prayer book of communities of the East) has four matching requests, with "God of heaven," on the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh, when the new month is announced. Its note says some people announce the exact time of the molad (the calculated moment of the new moon) while they are read. Its second request is longer: plague, destroyer, sword, famine, captivity and plunder.
Siddur Edot HaMizrach, Shabbat, Birkat HaChodeshThe third request, for the sages, shares wording with Shabbat prayers. "They, their wives, their sons and their daughters" is the same list as in the Shabbat blessing for the congregation (Mi Sheberach). "Their students and their students' students" is in Yekum Purkan, the Aramaic blessing for Torah scholars. Edot HaMizrach has wives and sons but no daughters. Which came first, no source we found says.
Siddur Sefard, Shabbat Morning Services; Siddur Edot HaMizrach, Birkat HaChodeshEach request opens "May it be the will of our Father in heaven." A Mishnah has the same words, in a list of how things fell apart after the Temple was destroyed. Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair says no one inquires, no one seeks, no one asks: "On whom can we lean? On our Father in heaven." The first request here is about the Temple.
Mishnah Sotah 9:15The first request asks God to "set up the house of our lives." The note in the Metsudah siddur (a widely used siddur with English translation) reads this as the Temple. The Shabbat blessing after the Haftarah (the reading from the Prophets) uses the same name for Zion: "Have mercy on Zion, for it is the house of our lives." The Yerushalayim prayer takes up what it means to ask for God's Presence to dwell somewhere.
Siddur Sefard, Haftarah blessing; Siddur Sefard, Torah ReadingIn the second request, both words come from the Torah. "Destroyer" (mashchit) is used on the night of the Exodus: Hashem "will not let the destroyer come into your houses." "Plague" (magefah) is used after Korach's rebellion, when Aharon stood between the dead and the living and "the plague was stopped." The same words, "the plague was stopped," come again in the story of Pinchas. Whether the prayer had any one story in mind, no source we found says.
Shemot 12:23; Bamidbar 17:13; Bamidbar 25:8The last part of this prayer is about captives: "our brothers, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress and in captivity, whether at sea or on dry land." That can feel far from a Monday morning in shul. The sources treat it as close.
The Gemara looks at a verse in Yirmeyahu that lists four fates: death, sword, famine, captivity. Rabbi Yochanan says that in this verse each one is harder than the one before it. The Gemara then goes through them. The sword is harder than death, famine is harder than the sword, and captivity is harder than all of them, since all of them are in it.
The Rambam (Maimonides, the great Jewish thinker and lawmaker, who died in 1204) rules that redeeming captives comes before feeding and clothing the poor, and that no mitzvah is greater. His reason: a captive is hungry, thirsty, unclothed and in danger of death all at once. So the law asks for action, not only a prayer. The prayer is the part you can do from your seat.
The Dubno Maggid (Rabbi Yaakov Kranz, an Eastern European preacher of the late 1700s) used this prayer in a sermon he gave before Kol Nidrei on Yom Kippur. He told his listeners: you sit in a beautiful synagogue, with candles lit and books in front of you, while some of our brothers are scattered in fields, forests, mountains and on the water, waiting to die, unable even to say the prayers a sick person says. Then he asked: can we forget their sorrow and stop praying for them, in the prayer our ancestors set for every Monday and Thursday?
He closes with a promise from the Gemara: whoever asks for mercy for his friend, while needing the same thing himself, is answered first. The Gemara's proof is Iyov (Job), whose own fortunes were restored when he prayed for his friends. So the sermon treats this prayer as mattering twice: for the captives, and for the people saying it.
Bava Batra 8b; Yirmeyahu 15:2,Rambam, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 8:10,Ohel Yaakov (the Dubno Maggid), Acharei Mot,Bava Kamma 92aThe third request is not "bless the sages." It asks God to keep them alive "among us": the sages of Israel, "them, their wives, their sons and their daughters, their students and their students' students, in every place where they live."
A Mishnah shows how the Sages saw such a loss. It lists what ended when great teachers died. When Rabbi Akiva died, "the honor of the Torah ended." When Rabbi (Yehudah HaNasi, who edited the Mishnah) died, humility and fear of sin ended. In that list, losing a teacher is a loss for everyone, not only for his students.
The Torah has a similar thought. After two sons of Aharon died, Moshe told Aharon and his surviving sons not to show mourning, but said: "your brothers, the whole house of Israel, will weep." Rashi (the main commentator on the Torah, in France in the 1000s) learns from this that the troubles of Torah scholars are placed on everyone, to mourn them. Almost the same four words, "our brothers, the whole house of Israel," are how the last part of our prayer begins. The verse says "your brothers"; the prayer says "our brothers."
The word "sages" may be wider than a job title. The Aramaic blessing Yekum Purkan, said on Shabbat after the Haftarah, lists heads of yeshivas and judges, then their students, and ends with "all who occupy themselves with Torah." Our request does not say where the line is drawn.
The sources we checked do not explain why wives and daughters are named, so that part stays open.
Mishnah Sotah 9:15,Rashi on Vayikra 10:6,Siddur Sefard, Yekum Purkan (Shabbat),Siddur Sefard, Mi Sheberach (Shabbat)Four of the five parts open "May it be the will of our Father in heaven." The last one opens "Our brothers," with no "may it be the will." The first four ask for things for "us." The last turns to people far away.
The oldest wording we could open, in the Machzor Vitry, is different in a small way. It says "May God have mercy on you and take you out." It speaks to the captives themselves. Today's siddur says "on them."
Ta'amei HaMinhagim (a book on the reasons behind Jewish customs, in the Lemberg 1928 edition) asks your question: why does the last part not open "may it be the will of our Father in heaven" too? It passes on an answer, sent to its author in writing, in the name of Rabbi Shalom of Belz (a Chassidic leader in Galicia, who died in 1855). If there is unity among Israel, then it is automatically a time of favor. So when the prayer says "our brothers," no "may it be the will" is needed first. That is one explanation. It is not the only way to read the change.
The last words are in Aramaic: hashta ba'agala uvizman kariv, "now, quickly and soon." Ba'agala uvizman kariv is the phrase that ends a line in Kaddish. The Machzor Vitry has those words without hashta, "now." So the word "now" is not in the earliest copy we opened.
Machzor Vitry, Order of Shabbat 199,Ta'amei HaMinhagim 130:2,KaddishShort ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
Rabbi Natan of Breslov (the main student of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, a Chassidic master) explains why the Temple is called "the house of our lives." Out of love for Israel, he writes, God shrank Himself so His Presence could rest inside the Temple. That way people could grasp Him and know Him. And real life, he says, is knowing God. Now read "the house of our lives" again.
מֵאַהֲבָתוֹ אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל צִמְצֵם לְעַצְמוֹ לְהַשְׁרוֹת שְׁכִינָתוֹ בְּתוֹךְ מְחִצּוֹת הַבֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ... כִּי עִקַּר הַחִיּוּת הוּא לֵידַע מִמֶּנּוּ יִתְבָּרַךְ
Likutei Halakhot, Yoreh Deah, Laws of a Torah Scroll 4Rabbi Natan says every act of charity is a kind of freeing captives. It lifts holy sparks out of captivity and, as it were, lifts God's Presence (the Shekhinah) out of exile. When a Jew is actually held captive, he writes, that is the exile of the Shekhinah in the plainest sense. So freeing a captive lifts it the most, and that is why this charity is greater than all the others. Now read the first request and the last one together.
כְּשֶׁיִּשְׂרָאֵל שָׁבוּי הוּא גָּלוּת הַשְּׁכִינָה מַמָּשׁ
Likutei Halakhot, Yoreh Deah, Laws of Charity 2Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the founder of Chabad Chassidut, who died in 1812), in his Likkutei Torah, takes the saying that God's Presence goes into exile along with Israel and applies it to the inside of a person. You can feel you are at your lowest, stuck with things like desire and anger. Even there, he writes, God's Presence is with you and gives you life. So your heart should not fall, and you should not say, "My hope is lost." Now read "among us" again.
לא יפול לבו בקרבו לאמר אבדה תקותי כי האמת אינו כן שאפילו בגלות שכינה עמהם הנותנת לו חיות אלקות
Likkutei Torah, Parashat BechukotaiEvery request here ends with "and let us say Amen." Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (a Chassidic rebbe in Poland who died in 1866) explains the Gemara's teaching that the one who answers Amen is greater than the one who says the blessing. Morning blessings like "who gives sight to the blind" and "who clothes the naked" are each said for yourself. Whoever answers Amen to a friend's blessing is thanking God that his friend can see and has clothes to wear. One blesses for himself, the other for his friend. Now read "let us say Amen" again.
גדול העונה אמן יותר מן המברך. כי זה מברך על עצמו וזה מברך על חבירו
Tiferet Shlomo, on the Festivals, Shaar HaTefillahThe practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
Only on Mondays and Thursdays when Tachanun (the prayer of pleading) is said. That is what this siddur's instruction says. Ta'amei HaMinhagim (a book on the sources of Jewish customs, by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Sperling) cites the Pri Megadim (a major commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law): no Tachanun, no Yehi Ratzon. It also cites a book that found no source for leaving them out. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the law code of the first Chabad Rebbe) says that in his lands they are left out all of Nisan.
Siddur Sefard, weekday Shacharit, Torah reading; Ta'amei HaMinhagim 130:2; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 429:8These prayers come just before the Torah goes back into the ark. The halacha cards for Vayehi Binsoa (said as the Torah is taken out) give the rule for leaving before it is put away. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily law, written around 1900) says that no one should leave before the Kedushah in Uva LeTzion, later in the service, in any case.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 149:1; Mishnah Berurah 149:1The sources split. Ta'amei HaMinhagim (a book on the sources of Jewish customs) quotes Rabbi Yaakov Emden (a German rabbi who died in 1776): the Yehi Ratzon after the reading is said at a brit, because it asks for the life of the baby along with all Israel. It also quotes the Shach (a classic commentary on the Shulchan Aruch), citing a book of customs, that they are not said at a brit. It does not settle between them, so ask which custom your shul follows.
Ta'amei HaMinhagim 130:2The law books treat freeing captives as something to do, not only to pray for. The Shulchan Aruch rules that no mitzvah is greater, and that every moment someone delays, when they could act sooner, is like shedding blood. The Rambam (Maimonides, the great medieval codifier of Jewish law) says that whoever looks away from a captive's rescue breaks several commandments, among them "do not stand by while your neighbor's blood is shed."
Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 252:1 and 252:3; Rambam, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 8:10יהי רצון מלפני אלהי השמים לכונן את בית חיינו ולהשיב שכינתו לתוכו במהרה בימינו ונאמר אמן ... אחינו אחינו כל בית ישראל ... הנתונים בצרה ובשבייה ... המקום ירחם עליכם ויוציאכם מצרה לרווחה ומאפילה לאורה בעגלא ובזמן קריב ואמרו אמן
May it be the will of the God of heaven to set up the house of our lives and to bring His Presence back into it, speedily in our days, and let us say Amen. ... Our brothers, our brothers, the whole house of Israel ... who are in distress and captivity ... may God ("the Place") have mercy on you and take you out from distress to relief and from darkness to light, quickly and soon, and say Amen.
בשני וחמישי כשאומרים תחנון בשעה שהגולל גולל הס"ת ... וראוי ונכון להזהיר לעם שיאמרו אמן אחר כל יהי רצון כי בקשות גדולות הם
On Monday and Thursday, when Tachanun is said, while the one rolling the Torah rolls it ... it is right and proper to warn the people to say Amen after every Yehi Ratzon, because these are great requests.
רבי יוסי אומר גדול העונה אמן יותר מן המברך
Rabbi Yose says: the one who answers Amen is greater than the one who makes the blessing.
ואשר לשבי לשבי ואמר רבי יוחנן כל המאוחר בפסוק זה קשה מחבירו
"...and those meant for captivity, to captivity." Rabbi Yochanan said: in this verse, each one that comes later is harder than the one before it.
פדיון שבויים קודם לפרנסת עניים ולכסותן. ואין לך מצוה גדולה כפדיון שבויים
Redeeming captives comes before feeding and clothing the poor. There is no mitzvah as great as redeeming captives.
היתכן אלינו לשכוח יגונם ועצבונם ונחדול מלהתפלל עליהם בתפלה הסדורה מקדמונינו ז"ל להתפלל עליהם בכל שני וחמישי
Is it right for us to forget their sorrow and pain, and stop praying for them in the prayer our ancestors set up, to pray for them every Monday and Thursday?
כל המבקש רחמים על חבירו והוא צריך לאותו דבר הוא נענה תחילה
Anyone who asks for mercy for his friend, while needing the same thing himself, is answered first.
ואחיכם כל בית ישראל. מכאן שצרתן של תלמידי חכמים מוטלת על הכל להתאבל בה
"But your brothers, the whole house of Israel." From here we learn that the troubles of Torah scholars rest on everyone, to mourn them.
משחרב בית המקדש בושו חברים ובני חורין וחפו ראשם ... ואין דורש ואין מבקש ואין שואל על מי לנו להשען על אבינו שבשמים
Since the Temple was destroyed, the learned and the free-born were ashamed and covered their heads ... no one inquires, no one seeks, no one asks. On whom do we have to lean? On our Father in heaven.
למה א"א גם כאן בסוף בלשון יה"ר מלפני אבינו שבשמים ... כי כיון אם יש אחדות בין ישראל אז ממילא הוא עת רצון
Why do we not say here too, at the end, the wording "may it be the will of our Father in heaven"? ... Because if there is unity among Israel, then it is automatically a time of favor.
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