APRIL 25 • 2024 | 43

Rabbi Sacks’ Prayer for Israel

This prayer was composed by Rabbi Sacks in 2000
(5761) during the Second Intifada and was recited by
communities on Yom Kippur of that year.

Heavenly Father, Rock and Redeemer of Israel
On this holy and awesome day,
We come before You in prayer and supplication
On behalf of our brothers and sisters
In Your Holy Land, the Land of Israel.
You know every secret since the world began,
Nothing is shrouded from You.
All is revealed and known before You
Know how our ancestors in every generation
Prayed to return to Zion in joy.
They never lost hope,
And when, in Your great mercy, it came to pass,
It was like a dream fulfilled.
Therefore, we pray to You, the Merciful,
Have mercy on Your people,
And spread over the inhabitants of Your land,
The tabernacle of Your peace,
As it is written:
“I will grant peace in the land,
When you lie down, no one will make you afraid …
And through that land no sword shall pass.”
Please, King who reigns over all kings
Have mercy on Your people,
You know that we, Your people, love peace,
We have labored for it and not found it.
We have lived too long among those who hate peace.
Therefore, remember, O Lord, the affection of Jerusalem;
Do not forget the love of Zion.
Arise and have compassion on Zion;
For the time has come.
And may we, in our time, be worthy to see
the words of your prophets fulfilled,
when You “will judge among nations,
and arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation shall not raise sword against nation;
No more will they learn to make war.”
May this be Your will and let us say: Amen.

A Lasting Love
W

hy is this Torah
reading cho-
sen for the
intermediate Shabbat of
Pesach? Except for two brief
references at the end, this
portion does not dis-
cuss Egypt, slavery,
matzah, Exodus, etc.
However, a closer look
reveals the profound
connection between
this Torah reading
and the holiday we are
in the midst of.
We begin in the
aftermath of the
Golden Calf story.
Moses is upset,
requesting that God
reveal more of God’s
self to him, summed
up by Moses’ words “Oh, let
me behold Your Presence!”
(Exodus 33:18).
Ironically, the verse prior
to the start of our reading,
implies that Moses already
beholds God’s presence,
stating: “God would speak
to Moses face to face, as one
person speaks to another.”
(Exodus 33:11)
Apparently, Moses wanted,
and needed, more closeness.
The relationship of Moses
and God is not unlike that
of two romantic partners.
Moses’ request reminds me
of the wisdom I once heard
a rabbi share with a couple
under the chuppah: “People
will tell you that today is
the happiest day of your life.
But I hope that the happiest
days of your life are still to
come.” In other words, the
longer you are together, the
more you should want to be
together.
Significantly, on this same

intermediate Shabbat of
Pesach, we read the Bible’s
love poem, the Song of Songs,
which is understood to be an
allegory of the love of God
and Israel for each other.
And, as can be expect-
ed, as we see with
Moses in Exodus 33,
Song of Songs describes
lovers in search of one
another:
“I must rise and roam
the town,
Through the streets
and through the
squares;
I must seek the one
I love.
I sought but found
him not.”
(Song of Songs 3:2)
Pesach celebrates that we
need God, or we would still
be slaves in Egypt, without a
Torah. But Pesach also cele-
brates that God needs us. For
what is the glory of God if
there is not a nation to teach
and treat kindly?
As this Shabbat’s Torah
reading continues, some-
thing truly remarkable
occurs. God calls upon
Moses to make a new set
of tablets (remember that
Moses broke the origi-
nal ones after seeing the
Israelites worshiping the
Golden Calf). The original
tablets were made by God.
This second time around, it
is the partnership of humans
and God - Moses’ tablets
and God’s words - that leads
to a successful future for the
Jewish people.

Elliot Pachter is the Rabbinic Adviser

at Frankel Jewish Academy and the

Rabbi Emeritus at Congregation B’nai

Moshe, both in West Bloomfield.

TORAH PORTION

Rabbi Elliott
Pachter

Parshat Chol

HaMoed

Pesach:

Exodus 33:12-

34:26; Ezekiel

37:1-14.