The Prayer for the Government | Rabbi Anthony Manning

Let's make a start. If I could reiterate the announcement that Rabada just made that next week there there are no shim here. The U is running a special Yamazi Karan program live streaming from which uh as you will know is very connected with on many levels with Yamazi Karan and at 11:00 they have a tech which I think the U are streaming. So our live classes will reconvene in two weeks from now. uh but uh next week there'll be other programming elsewhere. Also, I'd like to thank our sponsors. Hashirin for the whole academic year has sponsored the illishmo branded and zelic ben calman shalom. We're very grateful for that sponsorship. So, I was thinking what to teach over these next few weeks. Uh I will be away a little bit in May for a couple of weeks. I'll give you more notice of that nearer the time. And I like to do something which is connected. And therefore it occurred to me that I I really wanted to do a shir on the state of Israel which I've never prepared a sh on this before which for many of us I think over the last year and a half has become almost like the national anthem in many ways. I'm sure that I you agree with me that we hear that and we say that much more than we sing hatikva. I mean there's nothing wrong with singing hatikva but this is this is a very important uh part of our of our davening at the moment in the war and certainly more important for us I think than the declaration of independence if you I don't if anyone can recite off by heart Bengurian's declaration of independence I know that I can't so I wanted to do ailla a pray a shir rather on the for the state of Israel but then it occurred to me that in order to do that cheer I need a an introductory share on what does it mean to pray for the government and how did that evolve into the forina. So today's sh and we've got a lot to do. I was hoping to do it in three but since we don't have a share next week I'm going to concertina it into two. So you'll forgive me if I uh try and get through all this material. A lot of pictures on today's sheet so don't be overwhelmed. So today I'd like to talk about the prayer for the governments. Most of us in this room grew up in places other than Medinat Israel. Um, I grew up in England and I make no apology for the fact that today's shoe will be very focused on English history uh and English culture. Although I'll throw something in for the Americans as well, don't worry. Um but as a child uh I was a we were big schulgoers on Shabas as a child and in my mind etched which will never be erased and especially since we had very English rabbis back in the day in my mind and I you could wake shake me awake at 4:00 a.m. in the morning and I could recite it. He who giveth salvation unto kings and verminion unto princes whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. May he bless and of course for me it's fixed our sovereign lady queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth the queen mother, Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Charles Prince of Wales and all the royal family. Now that dates me a little bit um because we no longer have most of the people on that list. uh and I later on we'll come to King Charles and the queen queen consort maybe that's another conversation but we I want to look a little bit at the at the evolution of that prayer fascinating uh prayer and how that works in different countries as well so let's have a look at the the sheet we see from the very beginning that there is a an idea maybe even a mitzvah we'll see to give a bra to the mel to the non-Jewish me steps steps forward in Mitim and gives a braha to parro that's very important for us parro was not such a big sadic nevertheless Jacob feels it's important to give a brah we don't know what they said in the first temple period about the kings of Israel sometimes probably not very nice things I imagine depending on who they were rightly so but uh and rightly so for some of them but by the time we hit the galut yumyahu already jumps in with a very important customer let's look number one says says to the Jewish people has already been exiled to Babylon and says, "You now must daven for the peace of the city of the town of the government that I have exiled you to elashem and dav for them." And who was them? Nebu Cadetsza, the person who destroyed our temple, exiled our country, killed our king in the most brutal manner, nevertheless says gav for him to hashem shalom because if they have shalom then right now that's what you've got and you'll have shalom. Now I did bring you in the footnotes that Rau Maggolius understands this in a very different way as being a mitzvah savan for those who are left in Shalaiim which is sort of exiled in a way but that's not how almost all other mafur understand it. They understand there is a mitzvah for even though the redac jumps in number two and says this is as long as you're in because as soon as you can get rid of these people if is actually destroyed so it'll actually be better for you in the long run if necad is destroyed which in the end he was by the Persian Empire and and our and our lot improved. He said, "But right here and right now, notwithstanding the fact that Nebuchadnezzar is a Russia, you are exiled in chains. He is what you've got and dav for the peace of Babylon because if it all goes parakes, then the Jews will be right in the middle of it." And and I I'm reminded we'll see at the end of the Shia um many that we have from Sidurim in the late 19th century daving for the Zar, for the welfare of the Zar, for the peace of the Zar, for the Zarina. Now, these were deeply anti-semitic um oppressive regimes and yet the Jews ded for them and we'll see the the extracts from Curian with good reason because between 1917 and 1920 during the Russian Revolution when the Zar was deposed and then killed, possibly quarter of a million Jews were killed. Not because it was aimed at Jews, but just because of the chaos that ensued between 1917 and 1920, a half a million were displaced. This is just Jews. This is not Russians. Can you think how many millions of Russians were killed? So for a quarter of a million Jews to be killed in that period of time just because of the anarchy in society, nothing else. So we Davin said they were right to Daven for the Zar because the Zar may have been oppressive, but at least there was stability and a bad government is better than no government. Okay. And that's something we have to remember. We're we're moving back into a time. 20 years ago, people were saying, "Oh, Barashem, we all live in countries where the governments are so positive to the Jews and positive to Israel." No longer is that the case. But nevertheless, they're not as bad as Nebuchadnezzar. Okay? And a bad government is better than not. Let's go to the second temple, Ezra. When Ezra writes up the return, the shivion and talks about Koreshik who is called Mashiach Hashem, the king who redeemed us, who destroyed the Babylonians. Look what Korish says. Number three, in the third year of Kingish. So he gave a commandment. You should build a new temple in Jerusalem. A place where you can offer sacrifices for what they there, the Jews there. You Jews, he says, courage should offer to your God, not to my God. You should give toes all the service that you need. and you should daven there for the life of me, the king, and my children, and my family. And that's how the second temple was endowed by Koresh saying, "You can build it, but it's there for you to dab for me. I'm in charge, and I'd like you to do that." Um, and we see all the way through the second temple period, sources that we may not be as familiar with, but let's have a look in Yuma. Yum is talking about um the Samaritans and Alexander the Great after Kohish. So, here's the story. It's a quote from Migillatan. was a second temple book which listed all the special feast days of the Jewish people where it's prohibited to fastim the 25th of which of course now is on is what happened on that day the line of you can't give him it's a feast day it's the day that the Samaritan sloon It's the day that the Samaritans lobbyed Alexander the Great to destroy the second temple. What happened um sorry and he gave it to them. He allowed them. He said yes it can be destroyed. The word got through back to Shimata. What did he do? Quite a famous story. He wore his clothes. Well, that reminds me if I could ask you to turn off your phones. That would be great as well. I usually say that at the beginning. He wore all the coing god clothes and he took the with him and he went to meet Alexander. What did he tell him? So Alexander says to him, "Why are you here?" They replied, "Is it possible that our house, our temple, we all the time for you, Alexander the Great, that you shouldn't be destroyed that the non-Jews have told you to destroy this, you're here because we pray for you all the time." He said to them, "Who are these people? Here is the Samaritans there, the ones who were inciting. And he said to the Jews, okay, do what you need with them. That was a victory. But you see what the Jews said to Alexander, we gather for you all the time in our mdash. Let's move to Pho and someone knows where that phone might be. It's okay. It's okay. There's someone who's probably looking for it. Okay. Okay. Just be patient. I'm sure they found it now. Pho says uh sorry before Pho the book of Makabes the book of Safar Makabim in the Apocrypha talks about um the pharaoh Tommy IV of Egypt who fought a famous battle in Rafa okay in Gaza and that's where he beat the Salucus Antiochus III before the famous Antiochus who was Antio he comes to the bas mikdash and they offer sacrifices in his honor to thank thank thank God for the victory in the battle of Rafia there that he and and the safer makabim records that now let's go to Pho the emperor Augustus the end of the uh the uh the 1st century BCE the beginning of the 1st century CE says Pho about Augustus so religiously did emperor Augustus respect our interests that supported by wellnight his whole household he adorned our temple through the costliness of his dedications and ordered that for all time continuous sacrifice ices of whole burnt offerings that's Olot should be carried out every day at his expense as a tribute to the most high and these sacrifices are maintained to the present day says Pho and will be maintained forever to tell the story of a character truly imperial the Roman emperor now there's a certain posthos because for pho he thought the temple will be there forever but they they didn't they didn't desist in any way he also brings the the emperor's wife Julia Augusta also known as Livia. If anyone ever saw or read IC Claudius, she also sent every day sacrifices to be brought to Akosh Baru in order to to bring Shalom to the king. Number seven, Pho about Caligula. Okay, Caligula is not one of the great heroes of our history or anyone's history. Look what he says. We cried out with one accord, Lord Gas. We are slandered. What had happened here? Caligia had been told by a an anti-Jewish informer that the Jews would not offer sacrifices for him, that the Jews had dual loyalties. They weren't true Romans. And he approached them and he would threatened them. And we cried out in one accord, Lord Gas, we are slandered. We did sacrifice and sacrifice hecatums. Hecatums is hundreds of bulls. Hecatums too. But not just pour the blood on the altar and then take the flesh home to feast and regail ourselves on it as some do. Meaning, yeah, we didn't just bring schlamim offerings so that we could press with all at home. We brought a lot. We got nothing for it, but we gave the victims of the sacred fire to be entirely consumed. We brought a lot for you. And we have done this not once but thrice already. The first time at your assession to the sovereignty. The second when you escaped the severe sickness which all the habitable world suffered with you in plague. And the third is a prayer of hope for your victory in Germany. It's funny, you know, battles in Rafia, victory in Germany. Like you feel like nothing's happened in the last 2,000 years. All the time they say to him, we we we die for you every single day. Number eight, Petronis then quieted them and said to them, "Will you make war against Caesar?" The Caesar wanted to put a an idol in the temple. The Jews said, "What are you talking about? We offer sacrifices twice every day for Caesar and for the Roman people. But if he will place images amongst them, he must first sacrifice the whole Jewish nation. They said, "We're not going to have an idol. But you should know we gather them for you every single day." So this is something built into the DNA of the Jewish nations even in Israel when the non-Jews were in charge of them. Now the famous source, perhaps the most famous source, and I mean there are other sources, I didn't bring you the whole Gomorrah in the story of Barakansa. Remember the story of Barca where they sent a a sacrifice for the emperor and he blemished it, etc. That's a very famous one. But here in Perk Abos you have really the hahik certainly hash maybe even hakum center of it. Number nine scanim. Now who was reban scanim? He lived as you can see scanim in the time of the big dash. He he was there at the time of the he witnessed the societal breakdown the complete anarchy of the end of the second temple period with Jews killing Jews and Jews killing Romans and everyone killing everyone. And he said as follows for the peace of the government. He doesn't say he says because if not for the fear of the government people would eat each other alive. They would swallow each other alive. Now there are two gizars before you turn the page. It either says each person would swallow the other one alive or they would swallow us alive. Meaning is the focus of the prayer for the royal family or for the government that that peace should be in the realm as a whole. Or is it that we we are going to suffer like said if they suffer you'll suffer. So what is the focus? It is on the Jewish community or is on the general community. You seem says very clearly that uh this is essential otherwise there will be total chaos and we'll pick up on this expression people will eat each other alive. What does that mean? We'll see it's it's bringing fromukimak and we'll see where that comes from. He himself was killed as one of the 10 martyrs when we say the putim on tishab and the kin and the putim on yum kipa. He was killed by the Romans in the end, but he understood that the success of the evil Roman government was necessary for the success of the Jewish community. The parallel text over to page three in Avisosen actually specifically focuses if you look in the words in bracket in in in bold says there it's looking after us. They're looking after us. It's not just about peace in the world. It's about the success of the Jewish community. Um but that's clearly there. The Gmorrah in Zor quotes this and gives an understanding of it. Says the Gmorra number 11. Why does it say that people at the end of the day are like fish in the sea? They're like creepy crawies, crustations running around on the ocean bed with nobody in charge. It's just a uh might is right world. What does that mean? Says the why are the people of the world why is humanity compared to fish? So he brings a few answers and one of them it says just like with fish in the sea. You know how it works with fish. It's a fish eat fish world. Yeah. The big fish eat the small fish and the bigger fish eat the big fish. That's how it works. That's how people are deep down. Not so deep even if not for the for the autonomy and the the authority of the kingdom everyone would just destroy everyone else. Perhaps what Raanali Scanagon meant when he said and then he quotes the mission in Pyava meaning it's it's a it's a world of mighty's right that only the government stops that from uh all uh from the wheels coming off the bus if you like. Now just before we get to different ideas as to what the specific focus of this filler is, I just brought you uh in 12 and 13 and 14 um that this became a very strong minhag. First of all in Ashkanaz in 12 in the kbo the sacred kbo in 13th 14th century ashkanas he says here in number 12 on the laws of creator and after morning we say and that's when the peoples there are some communities that bless the king and then bless the the the community according to the min so too In sparadic clans, the Abu Dharm brings pretty much the same idea in Sarad. That is what they did there. They blessed the the government there. And I brought you a lesserk known source, a fat source from 16th century that quotes the same idea, but says second line number 14. And this is not just a minute. This is avatab is not mystical. It means this is in and he quotes. So to not do this, to scrap this is not just oh it's not he says this is actually you're breaking a real an important um which is a mitzvah what he calls a mitzvah okay not everyone's going to understand it in such a way but this has been taken very very seriously we saw the second temple we have fragments in the kairo ganiza of prayers that they made for the Muslim empire just one second we have examples in the gene from worms rather of the prayers that they had and I brought you a few at the bottom there. We have the prayer that the nodu huda wrote for the Hapsburg queen Maria Terza of Austria Hungary. um the qu the prayer of the maram banet for France II the Holy Roman Emperor the last Holy Roman Emperor before Napoleon finished off the Holy Roman emperors and there was not very much holy about them and not very much Roman about them either for that matter but he nevertheless davened for them and the prayer also we have from the Moroccans for the Sultan Hassan the first and to this day by the way the Moroccan Jews are still very close to the king I know personally people who've been to Moroccan Jews who've been to see the king and who know the king etc etc but we have that now you had question. I don't mind who goes first. Just just go. I find it odd this because I learned that we don't add on we do for the community, not for individual needs, but we do when we we we say uh you know we d him every shabas. I'm sure you do as well for the for the IDF, for the soldiers, the when whenever it's a community need we do that and the need of the government is a community need. Yeah. I just wanted to say that there's a problem that one says when you see the king when you see correct okay that's a whole different share which maybe we'll have at some point. I've never met the queen or the king but there's a question as to whether you make a braha. I suspect that the certainly Charles and certainly the last queen was quite used to this. They met so many from Jews that she probably knew not to be mafik in the braha and to say amen and you know she probably we'll get to that there are six at least six rs given for why this prayer is so important I want to just look at them very quickly let's start with page four the first one is like I said to prevent anarchy let's look at the mahar number 15 page four number 15 this is how the world works he says shahar oam Adam every person says I am the center of the world for and I'm the only one who really should be the ultimate survivor and therefore people if you scratch below the surface would kill everybody around them if it was ultimately up to their own survival. That's why it says the king, the government. That's what keeps us all unified. That's what stops us having gangs roaming the streets and protection money and the mafia and the mob and people being terrorized by strong armed attack. The kind the kingdom, no matter how much you don't like them, that is the only thing that's stopping that from happening. The toans number 16 says and it's not about the melik it's about the mal you know even if the king is is an awful individual that's not the point the point is it's the government system so you don't like the president that's not a reason for the government the president is just one person the government is what's keeping everything together and in very frightening way is raised in number 17 says what does it mean bal people will swallow each other why Doesn't he say people will hurt each other? People will kill. No, they'll swallow each other. They prepare to swallow you whole. Others will swallow you [Music] whole without even chewing you up. Meaning they don't even get anything out of it. When you swallow food and you don't chew it, you don't even benefit that much. But they won't care and they won't even be bothered that they do such a disgraceful abomination to their friend. without even getting anything out of it. People will turn into animals worse than animals that it's unbelievable how quickly everything can descend into complete chaos. We've seen this in history many times. And in case you were thinking of it, I brought you Thomas Hobbes in number 18. During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they're in a condition called war. and such a war as is of every man against every man. To this war of every man against every man, this is also inconsequent that nothing can be unjust. Everything is allowed. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have there no place where there where there is no common power. There is no law, where no law, no injustice, force and fraud are in war, the cardinal virtues, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all continual fear and danger of violent death and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. The context of this is he was arguing for the royalist cause in the English civil war. He was arguing for Charles I. Charles I who was a despot who ruled by the divine right of kings who the parliamentarians wanted to get rid of and invent in the end did and in got killed him. You're going to need to learn a little bit of British history today. Says Hobbes he might be a despot but if you get rid of him this is what you're going to get anarchy. And think about it wasn't actually that bad. I mean I wasn't there. I'm sure it was pretty bad in the English civil war in the 1640s, but think of the French Revolution and the reign of terror afterwards and Rob Spier. Think of the Russian Revolution and what came out of that. Uh even the American Revolution uh was an upheaval and it took another 75 80 years till there was a civil war, but there was a civil war. Okay. And Rabbi Sax has a lot to say about the difference between different revolutions and which ones succeeded better than others. But Hobbes is very is very relevant there. I brought you in number 19. I'm not going to read it inside. You can look at it later. A lesser known commentary there on Pyavas which says that really Jews wouldn't really be royalists at all. Why would we think that one man or woman but then those days man would be better than everybody else? But he said it's just the real politique. We need to be in favor of this kind of ruler because that's the only way we're going to keep things going. So that's the first approach to avoid anarchy. But then we go into more positive ideas that Israel then rules in number 20 to say the following. Look at what he says. It doesn't say the king. There are many kingdoms that work without kings or states that work without kings. Just like the the Senate in Rome before the empire came back in the days of the Senate in Rome. Unlike the Swiss, the Swiss who never seem to get excited about anything in particular, but seem to have got their own government worked out, etc. And he says lived in the time of the and he knows how this would work. And he knows that you have to daven for the king, but not just the king, but the governments and everyone who supports the common good. And therefore he says we dav not just for ourselves but we dav for the common good of the country that we live in. We want our fellow countrymen our non-Jewish countrymen to also live a life of peace. Yona goes further. Let's just go a little further. Number says even the non-Jewish nations of the world have got nothing to do with us. The people living in Rwanda where there are no Jews. I'm I'm sure there's a kabad house in Rwanda, but there are no not really much going on there. and balls and balls and balls for who? For the people in Rwanda, for the people in New Zealand, for the people in Colombia, not the university, the the country. Okay. Um and and and why why do we care? We care. We care enough to put a lot of money. This is apart from time and effort. This is real money, the communal funds. Why should we? We do. And says Raenu a very important point on this mission number 22. Shalom. Jews should be dabbling for peace in the whole world. He's not some peace, leftwing, whatever you want to call. We should be bothered that other people are living inside. Even there are even though there are enemies. This is the way that when David talks about his enemies, those who want to kill him, he says, when they're sick, I d for them. These that just want to kill me, I still d for them. I want shalom and the whole world. He says this is very important for all of us at all times, especially now. We okay, we know who are our enemies and we have to kill them. We have to we have to succeed against them. But the fact that there are people who are innocent who are suffering maybe because of other people's terrible policies we have to be upset about that for all people shalom shalom very very important. A fourth reason the says because the king is appointed by God the number 23 and he answers a very interesting question. Look what he asks. Number 23. Why did Morai warn Akash that there was a plot to kill him? Had kidnapped Esther at least his relative maybe Kazal his wife if you understand that Midrash in that way. Surely the losing Akash Vush was in everybody's interest certainly in Morai's interest. Why did he damn for him? No, he did. He was worried about it. He could have got Esther away would have been killed because God runs the world says the Marel 2:23. God appoints the kings and the rulers who are there in order to do that ruling. And that's why it says and then he quotes and he says and that's why Morai didn't want the king to to be killed to be assassinated all the more so we should be dabing for them to be bashalon that's a very interesting point actually someone asked me that question in time why didn't they why did he uh why did he report this this plot and I had I hadn't seen this in my at the time now I've seen it it's a very fascinating idea so even the people that we feel are uh and today we live in world where people ended up elected and appointed who you'd never in a million years expect to be appointed. It's a kind of joke. If you'd have told people in, you know, 15 years ago who's going to be the president of the United States, uh, they'd have been, uh, you know, they just thought you were just out out of your mind. If you'd have told them 15 years ago, then Nat will be in charge of Israel. They said, "Yeah, that makes sense. He's always been in charge of Israel kind of thing." But Trump, not yes. talking about government. We're talking about a stable government in the world going on today always talking about governments have been there for 100%. But you know they're stable and they're stable and there's little levels of instability that we can live with and there's levels of instability where there are mad people craing the streets trying to kill people and that and that could that could happen. Number five, um the uh I wrote this this other parish here number 24 the Mishna that says that if we can have respect for the government that night help us have respect for because sometimes it's easier to respect people than to respect God because people are more tangible. We see this often the the Gammorra says you should try and experience maluts because if you experience human malhoods then you'll know what it's going to be like when Melashia comes. I remember when we were in England when Princess Diana uh died and there was a funeral on Shabbat there was a big question it went through the Jewish neighborhood should we go out to the streets those who were there at the time I can't remember the year should we go out to see the funeral ces come through and some of the rabbon said it's shabas yeah shabas you can't go out and see a funeral on shabas but I remember rabbi kimchi said in the shaw where I was at he says no this gammorra he says you should always see the kashivas of malus how impressive malus is and then you'll know if this is like I said all the more so that it'll be like this when we end up with Melik Mashia. And on the subject of uh kings and queens, I brought you another aspect here which is perhaps the most obvious, which is okay, maybe it's flattery on some level, but we really do mean it. But it can make a difference. Have a look at number 25. This is uh Rabbi Jonathan Roma, who is actually a rabbi in I don't know if he's still a rabbi in the reformed community in in England. He wrote about 10 years ago, 25, Princess Margaret was astonished. She went to visit him in Maiden Head in 1990. She was attending a service marking the 50th anniversary of Maiden Head Reformed Synagogue and was struck by the fact that we read a prayer for the good health and wise council of the Queen, which was her sister, of course. When I explained that the prayer was not a one-off, but recited every Sabbath in every synagogue in Britain, she remarked, and I won't do the accents, "How lovely. They don't do that for us in church. I'll tell my sister. Now, who knows? Who knows what impact that has? Who knows how that affects the monarch even in today's world? But certainly in those days when the monarch could make a difference one way or the other. And today also we have leaders who knows what's going to affect them in their own mind to do one thing or other with the Jewish community. Prince Charles, King Charles now, then Prince Charles number 26. The connection between the crown and our Jewish community is something special and precious. I say this from a particular and personal perspective because I've grown up being deeply touched by the fact that British synagogues have for centuries remembered my family in your weekly prayers. And as you remember my family, so we too remember and celebrate you. I am thinking not just of the most prominent members of our Jewish community who through the ages have literally transformed this country for the better. I am thinking also crucially of those who are not household names but who are the cornerstones of their own local communities and I don't know Prince Charles personally but I think he really means it actually uh he was very close to Rabbi Saxra was very moved when Rabbi Sax died spoke beautifully when Rabbi Sax died and the fact that we dab he knows I mean Princess Margaret was clueless obviously which makes sense as well but but King Charles knows that we dab he's been to Shul many times He's been to Shabas more often than quite a bit of Anglo jewelry honestly. Um and and uh and he knows that we do this going all the way back Rahman Israel. Ra man Israel. We'll come back to him soon. Number 27. He was in the 1640s50s. He campaigned Oliver Cromwell. He lobbied him tirelessly to allow the Jews back into England. We'll get to that soon. Number 27. So the spelling here is from uh the 16th 17th century English and he writes to Oliver Cromwell from the continual and never broken custom of the Jews wherever so they are on the Sabbath day or other solemn feasts at which time all the Jews from all places come together to the synagogue after the benediction of the holy law before the minister of the synagogue blesseth the people of the Jews. With a loud voice he blessth the prince of the country under whom they live that all the Jews may hear it and say amen. And this made an impact on Cromwell. We'll come back to Cromwell soon. Cromwell was very in favor of bringing the Jews back into England for all sorts of his own reasons. We'll see soon. Uh but you see this makes a difference. I brought you somewhat ironically in 28 Rav Kapak Rav Kapak from Yemen who was asked why do the Yemenite Jews not pray for the king for the Arab king of Yemen. And you can read this in yourselves later. He says, "We don't need to pray because the king of Yemen loves the Jews so much and loves the Jewish community so much. They would never do anything against the Jews and the Jewish community. Never say never." Okay, which is very interesting and that's why he says they didn't have it. Now coming back to he who gives salvation unto kings. This is the prayer that Manasha and Israel read to or wrote to us Oliver Cromwell. Where does it come from? That's actually a very interesting debate for at least 400 years. This prayer both in America and in England and in other places has been the basic standard prayer in many communities. Now, obviously we said that praying for the for the king goes back thousands of years and obviously they didn't say this prayer. We'll see in a minute maybe where this prayer originated, but for sure in England and America this is the standard prayer. I brought you in the uh on the left here at the bottom of page six the standard singer sitter prayer. This is the 1962 one I happen to have on my shelf that dates me again a little bit. Um, which is and I brought you the 2009 Corin prayer and I just want you to to look at for the American government. I want you to look at a few differences. So look with me. Let's read it. Let's read them through in parallel a little bit. So they start the same way who gives salvation to kings, the millions of princes. Okay? And that's the s of the Americans as well. May he bless. And in England, it goes into the royal family. But in America, the prayer actually has other words which were the original words in this prayer that the English decided to take out. We'll see why. Let's go to the American side on the right. And because after it says second line of the American prayer, it goes on to add who delivers David his servant from a from the evil sword. Who puts a a road in the sea? Puts a path through the mighty waters. Now that was in the original prayer. It's not that the Americans added that in. The English took it out. We'll see soon why. And then then and then the American one goes on and he gives more words again that the English took out a little bit which is very flowery language and of course in America then it's now let's go to the after the English in the English prayer there and back into so then it continues the king of kings but in his mercy should protect her and that's the queen. Um uh um second is we call which for some reason the the American prayer doesn't have those words in but then the British added in some new wording and let him put into her hearts and into the hearts of oh no it's in the American one too for all counselors sorry um this is where it differs Shalom that the British prayer for pray more for the shalom of the government and the whole country in Israel and to do and emit in Israel. Okay. And then it finishes off very similarly in her days and in our days. H then the American prayer is very Jewent. It says in her days and in their days and in our days let Judah be saved and let the Jews live safely safely. The British scrap that and they put in a new thing. They put here in her days and in ours. May he put a may spread a tabernacle of peace over all the dwellers of earth. Again, not in the American prayer. The British put that in. And then it ends go and let the redeemer come to Zion but Omar slightly different and the one that's been most manipulated is the British one. Okay. And we'll see why maybe in a minute. Go over to page number seven. It's clear that the US and the UK versions are taken from the same but the differences we pointed out a little bit also on this page. Just look down the left hand side. left hand side I brought you the up-to-ate prayer for the royal family for King Charles in case you were missing that I brought you also two other prayers in two other English sidur in the middle on the left there's the 1957 Herz sedur which was an English sitter Rabbi Herz was the chief rabbi of the British Empire um and you'll see that has all the words still in that the United Synagogue which is the Anglo-Jewish sort of main body of synagogues took out which so it's very similar to the American prayer. Similarly, Rabbi Shfeld, I don't know if anyone knew who Rabbi Shawnfeld was. Rabbi Shfeld in England very much responsible for the kinder transport bringing the children out of Germany in the late 30s early 40s. Rabbi Shfeld also has a sitter in which he also uh has the wording as it was originally there before it was if you like fiddled around with by uh by different generations of British Jews. But for those of you who feel I've been a bit British centric so far, I brought you on the right hand side a prayer for President George Washington. Okay. Written in 1789 by Congregation Beth Shalom in Richmond, Virginia. They wrote a special prayer. This is probably the first ever prayer for the uh for the American government. And you'll see they it's not the same prayer. They wrote a special prayer for him. But you'll see in acrostic on in the middle of the prayer they've whether you see in he says in English the president of the United States they've spelled out his name in across vashing bashing. Okay. And if you're interested there are many prayers online. Um they made a special memorial prayer for Abraham Lincoln. If you have Israeli grandchildren that's linken. Okay. Uh where they also put his name in acrostic. this was a a done thing. So there's no question that this was uh across all uh continents and usually was the prahan shuah like we've said now in recent times there's become a movement in sidurim in the more let's quotes some quotes call it the right-wing world to take this out if you look in the arch scroll sitter it doesn't have a prayer for the royal family in England it doesn't have a prayer for the American uh government prayer for the Israel okay that's that's next week's that's That's two weeks from now. Okay, that's two weeks from now. But they don't have a prayer for the government. Uh there is a tiny note in the art scroll sitter that at this point some people include a prayer for the government. The RCA of course in the I think it was the late '9s they approached art to produce an RCA article s the one with the black cover which does have this put back in and has of course the prayer for the state of Israel as well. But the regular article sitter does not. Why not? Also the regular kabad sa the tilas hashem sid does not and this is actually very interesting because these sidur were designed for outreach. These cidurim were designed to reach out to people who were not so familiar with Judaism and the Judaism obviously that they wanted to present to them was a Judaism which you do not pray for the success of the government presumably because they felt that was in some way from a uh more Jewish pride. I don't know. I don't know why. You can sit down with the artal editors and why did they take that out? I just want to mention to you it's not in your sheet because I found it after I'd already had the sheets printed, but the sofa has a piece and I'm just going to read out the first line of it. You haven't got it on your sheet where he says very frighteningly, what has caused Jewish blood to be to be spilled so much in previous times? God didn't do this without justice. Our leaders have caused this shalom because they stopped Jews from davening for the welfare and peace of the non-Jewish government in which they lived. And the has a whole paragraph where he says, "How dare you take that out of the sid service? you are and causing potential either you know oral he's very very against this so uh whatever you call the admission of this prayer I don't think it's the former version okay whatever that means and therefore one has to I think really think about why that happened okay let's go back to manashab in Israel when did he live was in the early 1800s in the Austrohungrian emperor okay let's look at page eight let's go back to manashab in Israel man in Israel rather Ashabin Israel was a fascinating character. He was of course originally from a Morano Spanish family um who made it to Amsterdam. He grew up in Amsterdam. He became a major town of Kam in Amsterdam. One of his young students in Keda when he was teaching in Amsterdam was Benedict Spininoza then Bor Spinosa and he knew Spinoza well and was involved in his whole journey. Not not talking about that more now. Um and Malashrab and Israel became obsessed through the through the 1640s 50s60s that the Jews had to get back to England because the Jews they there was a report that they'd found Jews in Patagonia or somewhere like that which I'm not sure it was true but they found people even they were discovering the new world and therefore he said the the the prophecies the Jews will be scattered to every corner of the earth you see are coming true and there was one place which was also the corner of the Anglier. Anglier means the the edge of the earth, England, where there were no Jews. Why were there were no Jews? Well, actually there were some secret Jews, but we'll get to that in a minute. Because in 1290, uh Edward the second, I think, uh expelled Jews from England. And for those 3400 years, there officially had been no Jews in England. And therefore maneshan Israel felt that in order to bring this this redemptive feel that the world was having in the 1640s50s60s of course this is the time of shit's feet as well we'll get to him in a minute he needed the Jews to get back there at the same time you had a highly evangelical messianic Christian uh government because Oliver Cromwell in England had deposed the king they killed the king and they now had a polit parliamentarian rule in the 16 late 1640s 1650s which was extremely excited about bringing the Jews back in. At least the leaders were, but the commoners weren't. The people down in the street, they didn't want any Jews living down the road, but the leadership did. And therefore, Manashev Israel campaigned for 15, 20 years to get the Jews readmitted. And one of the things he did is he wrote this uh very interesting piece here um to Oliver Croml, his presentation of why the Jews should be readmitted. And I'm not going to read the whole thing, but he one of the chapters there he's called, if you see on page eight, how faithful the nation of the Jews are. And he says basically the same affection affection is confirmed by the inviable custom of all the Jews whereversoever they live on every Sabbath or festival day that everywhere they used to pray for the safety of all the kings, princes, and commonwealths. Da da da. And he quotes Yahu, which I'm sure Oliver Cromwell knew very well. And then he he quotes on the Gammorrah uh that if you don't pray for the king, people will eat each other alive. And then he quotes the wording of the prayer that the Jews say. And what is that prayer in italics? And towards the bottom of that source there on page eight, the words he useth are there are these as in the printed book of the Jews may be seen. He who that giveth salvation unto kings and dominion unto lords, that he delivered his first servant David from the sword of the enemy. He has the words in still before the United Synagogue took them out. Okay. He made a way in the sea and a path in the strange waters. bless and keep, preserve and refu and rescue and exalt and magnify and lift up higher and higher our lord and then he puts in brackets and then he names the pope. Okay, which is interesting. Why you would say that to Oliver Cromman, I'm not entirely sure, but okay. The emperor, the king, the Duke, or any other prince under whom the Jews live and adds, the king of kings defend him in his mercy, making him joyful and free him from all dangers and stri and and distress. The king of kings for his goodness sake rise up and exalt his planetary star. That bit we also dropped about the planetary stars. And basically, Manasha and Israel presents this. Therefore, we have a text from the 1650s with the prayer that we say for the state of for the the government basically intact. Um, the story of Mim Israel is fascinating. I'll just share this with you for a second because in the end his appeal to Oliver Cromwell was unsuccessful. Oliver Cromwell put together a special commission convention in Whiteall to decide whether Jews should or shouldn't be admitted. And there was such violence outside the the from the from the mob from the rabble against this new proposal that Cromwell shut down the convention before it could give a negative uh decision. So it was never decided. What actually happened was that Cromwell when Britain declared war on Spain, Cromwell announced that all Spanish property of any Spaniards living in London would be would be uh taken away by the king, would be forfeited and will belong to the crown and therefore all the Spaniards lost their property. Now there were some Jews living morano Jews as Spaniards in London secretly. They weren't meant to be there as Jews but they were secret Jews. So they put up their hand and they said, "Ah, Mr. Cromwell or whatever they called him, Lord Protector. We're not really Spaniards. We We're against the Spaniards. We're your allies because we hate the Spaniards. We've been forced to live as Jews and pretend that we're really Spaniards. So, please don't take our property away. Um for Oliver Croml, this was a great option because he then didn't need to allow the Jews to come back because they were already there. And he said, "Okay, if you're already here, you know, it's but it's already here." I can't answer questions because I've only got 10 minutes. Sorry. Um, but he let them stay and that's how they stayed and that's how the Jewish community, the Spanish portuguese community was able to establish. Now, and here's the kick and anyone who knows Anglo Jewelry will, especially this week with all the nonsense that's been going on with the board of deputies, um, will will really get this story. For those who don't know Anglo jury, ask someone who does. The Jews were eventually allowed to make a synagogue in London, the Spanish Portuguese community, I think in 1657. And of course then manashim and Israel went to them and said we're so happy bar hashem the success of all our work I will be more than happy to be the rob of your shaw and the community turned around to him and said actually we feel you're a little too confrontational and we don't think you'd be the right person to be our rabb can you imagine what manashab Israel must have thought that he gave decades of his life to achieve this and then what did they do they they appointed the cousin of one of the balabatim who No doubt they felt they could control better to be the rov of the shore. If you think anything's changed, nothing's changed. Okay. So, Manasha Israel died, you know, in with that with that reality. Um, just finally before we leave Britain, um, Samuel Peeps, Samuel Peep's diary, he wrote a diary in 1663. Now, that already King Charles II had been had been restored. Look at this number 29. I brought this to you. Dad's home, he says in his diary for October 14th. After dinner, my wife and I by Mr. Rulings's conduct went to the Jewish synagogue. Now, it's a sim Torah, where the men and boys in their veils and the women behind the lattice out of sight and something stand up, which of course is the spardis Torah, which I believe is their law, in a press to which all coming in do bow, and at the putting on their veils do say something to which the others that hear them cry, "Amen." And the parties do kiss his veil. Their service is all in a singing way and in Hebrew and anom their lawsera. They take out of the press are carried by several men four or five several burdens in all and they do relieve one another meaning they give the safer Torah to each other. This is hacus he's describing hakus right and whether it is that everyone desires to have the carrying of it I cannot tell which of course we know it is everyone wants to carry the safer Torah that thus they carried it around the room while such a service is singing and in the air in the end they had a prayer for the king. He was there with a prayer for Charles II which they pronounced his name in Portugal. I think he means Portuguese. But the prayer like the rest in Hebrew. But Lord, he said, to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God would make a man for swear ever seeing them more. And indeed, I never did see so much or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this. away thence with my mind strongly disturbed by them by coach and set down my wife in Westminster Hall and I to white hall and there to the committee and he goes on in life but that's his experience of simplest terror in Shaw in 1663 two small things and then we'll we'll we'll go to a close there are two texts from 1665 that have been discovered with with this wording but without the final words valid ion goel without calling for the redeemer to come two texts one in London and one another text uh from Turkey um why so here's the theory the text from London there was a model of Solomon's temple made and presented to Charles II when of course the the parliamentarians were thrown out and Charles II was restored and the Jews thought that they would be thrown out again when the king came back because he wasn't exactly a Catholic but he wasn't exactly not a Catholic um And they presented him with this gift together with a pamphlet which said the prayer and this is this this is what we pray for you missing. Why? So Simeon Singer who was the singer fame said that he felt they felt that messianism was just not going to make it with Charles II. That was the parliamentarians. They were the messianic evang evangelical Christians. Charles II was very much not in the mood. singer called him quotes not a man in a hurry for the Messiah. Um and therefore maybe he left that out because he didn't want to upset Charles II. Uh the second cider with this found in actually omits the name of uh the king and inserts instead may he bless our lord and our messiah the anointed of god of Jacob the celestial lion the celestial stag the messiah of righteousness king of kings the sultan shabatite a Turkish s and a sid in Amsterdam and of course they did not then end that prayer goel because he was already here therefore Well, one of them missed out the call for Messiah because they didn't want to talk about it. And the other one missed out the call for Messiah because as far as they were concerned, he'd already arrived. Now, I I wrote in the on page 10 how the text develops in different ways. There is a conspiracy theory. There is a conspiracy theory uh which may indeed be true and I've seen it written in in real places that one of the reasons that the United Synagogue took out some of the psukim about David Hamel being saved and the the being split and you can look in your own time at the bottom of page 10 is if you look at those pukim they sound great about God is powerful and mighty but if you look at the pukim just before them and just after them you'll see he talks about and God will take revenge on the non-Jews who oppress the Jews and throw them out just like he threw out parro and so one theory is that these sukim were meant to they sounded great don't tell king Charles this by the way um but they sounded great but actually everyone who said them knew yeah because this is really talking about the downfall of the non-Jewish countries they said no that's ridiculous that's not the case interestingly it's those that were taken out of the uh the United Synagogue version of the prayer I just want to finish uh with some pictures Um uh page 11. Let's go to page 11. Um what happened when there were desperately oppressive governments? How did the Jews dab for them? So I brought you a piece from the apocryphal book of Borak. And you'll see this is quoted in a minute in a sitter. Uh it says as follows. After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon carried away and the princes etc. Um they sent back we're giving money for burnt offerings etc. a number verse 11 in the middle of 33 and they said pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and for the life life of Belshazza his son that their days may be upon the earth as the days of heaven etc etc if you can pray for Nebuchadnezzar you can pray for anybody and therefore I want to show you in the middle of that page there is a prayer from a Russian sitter for the zar Nikolai Alexandrevich and the Zarina Alexandra Fedorovna and the uh the mother of the of the Zar the Zar Zarina Maria Fedorovna and the son of the Zar Alexi Nicolo all these rabid anti-semmites they dab for them and in a tiny print at the bottom of that sa in rash script there's a little note to the psukim I just brought you from bor from the apocryphal book which basically said and if you can pray for Nebuchadets you can pray for this lot too. Okay. And it got through the sensors because they were really saying in case you think why are we putting in a prayer? Now, of course, the the the official non-Jewish sensor wanted them to have that prayer in, but they managed to slip in that little note. I put you I brought you at the bottom of the page a prayer there for the um for the USSR, which is a very interesting from a 1956 uh Moscow Mos Soviets that are from Moscow. Um, obviously the Soviets were making them print this. Well, you see there's the prayer there for the Sam, which is the CCCP, the Central Communist Party, etc. That was a dabling for them. And on page 12, um, I brought you some German cider. Firstly, I brought you a sitter at the top of page 12 from about the Kaiser when they dav again. You see the prayer and they and they asked to bless um Vilhelm Harisher and it ds it dabs for then exactly how it is and at the top it's actually titled lance which is the prayer for all the people in the country. Okay, the Kaiser Kaiser was not such a friend of the Jews, but the Kaiser was at least not the Nazis, you sham, but even under the Nazis, of course, the Sidurim that were printed from 1933 onwards had a prayer for the German people. U and I brought you a sitter from the Rodelhim Sidda in 1938. Uh you'll see they wrote a different prayer. Exactly where they got this from is very interesting. But if you look on the right hand side, this is the ms the sid and there they dav at the bottom at the top it says gbate fudasand the prayer for the fatherland again maybe the nazis insisted that they wrote it in this way but if you read that prayer it's a very beautiful prayer and it prays for the restoration of the crisis in the country it prays for the people in the country it doesn't mention the government it certainly doesn't mention Hitler Machimo but it mentions the the the the people of Germany who were going through such a crisis and it davs that they should be saved from that crisis. Uh and and of course we know how that ended. And on the final page I brought you, you can read this on your own, a very interesting extract from uh an essay about how the German and then Austrian communities dealt with the Nazi uh governments through the 1930s. How which which ones stopped praying for the government, which was continued in which way? You can read that yourselves. It's actually fascinating. very sad, very appropriate for Yamash to to read how the German community dealt with that conflict and that tension with mess. So this is all by way of introduction. We'll finish here. In two weeks from now, you have to remember everything we said today and bring it. And in two weeks from now, we'll get to and even more intrigue and even more fascination. Next week, no shiry very important. Think about him. In two weeks, we'll see what role he had in the whole thing. Okay, have a great time in the meantime and uh we'll see you guys.