יִהְיוּ לְרָצוֹן אִמְרֵי פִי וְהֶגְיוֹן לִבִּי לְפָנֶיךָ ה’ צוּרִי וְגוֹאֲלִי
אֱלֹהַי נְצוֹר לְשׁוֹנִי מֵרָע וּשְׂפָתַי מִדַּבֵּר מִרְמָה וְלִמְקַלְלַי נַפְשִׁי תִדּוֹם וְנַפְשִׁי כֶּעָפָר לַכֹּל תִּהְיֶה פְּתַח לִבִּי
בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ וְאַחֲרֵי מִצְוֹתֶיךָ תִּרְדּוֹף נַפְשִׁי וְכָל הַקָמִים וְהַחוֹשְׁבִים עָלַי רָעָה מְהֵרָה הָפֵר עֲצָתָם וְקַלְקֵל מַחֲשַׁבְתָּם
עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ, עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן יְמִינֶךָ, עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן תּוֹרָתֶךָ, עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן קְדֻשָּׁתֶךָ. לְמַעַן יֵחָלְצוּן יְדִידֶיךָ הוֹשִׁיעָה יְמִינְךָ וַעֲנֵנִי: יִהְיוּ לְרָצוֹן אִמְרֵי פִי וְהֶגְיוֹן לִבִּי לְפָנֶיךָ ה’ צוּרִי וְגוֹאֲלִי
עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו הוּא יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן
May they be acceptable the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart, before You Hashem, my Rock and my Redeemer.
My God, guard my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking deceitfully. To those who curse me, may my soul be still; and let my soul be like dust to all. Open my heart to Your Torah and let my soul pursue Your commandments. And all who plan evil against me, quickly annul their counsel and frustrate their intention.
Act for the sake of Your Name. Act for the sake of Your right hand. Act for the sake of Your Torah. Act for the sake of Your holiness. In order that Your loved ones be released, deliver with Your right hand and answer me. May they be acceptable the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart before You Hashem, my Rock and my Redeemer.
He Who makes peace in His high heavens – may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel and say – Amen!
History
When the Men of the Great Assembly drafted the Amida, there were several proposed submissions for the concluding prayer. This version was authored by Mar Bar Rav Ashi and was ultimately selected for inclusion.
The other sages had written prayers upon finishing the Amida, but this was chosen as a natural continuation of the last prayer. My lips have been engaged in prayer; please protect me from doing the things that will foul or harm their suitability for prayer.
More than words
We have said what there is to say other than some short closing remarks, but we ask God to see past our words and voice; sometimes, our deepest desires are things we’re not even consciously aware of, things we cannot express or understand.
If I am unworthy of having my prayers answered, that’s on me; at the end of my prayers, I acknowledge that which is why the concluding prayer is personal. Hopefully, at this point in our prayers, there is something more than words to our prayers, and something has stirred in our hearts – וְהֶגְיוֹן לִבִּי.
We ask God to accept our prayer holistically, from our outer words to the innermost thoughts of the heart – אִמְרֵי פִי וְהֶגְיוֹן לִבִּי
Guard my tongue
In a sense, this closing prayer mirrors the opening prayer for God to open our lips for prayer – אֲדֹנָי שְׂפָתַי תִּפְתָּח וּפִי יַגִּיד תְּהִלָּתֶֽךָ.
It also complements the previous prayer for our words to be desirable – יִהְיוּ לְרָצוֹן אִמְרֵי פִי.
On Yom Kippur and Tisha b’Av, we recall the Ten Martyrs, legendary sages executed by the Roman Empire. One of them, Rabbi Hutzpit, was dismembered and dragged through the streets after his murder. Another sage, Elisha ben Avuya, witnessed Rabbi Hutzpit’s tongue rolling on the floor and was horrified; the experience radically undermined his belief that dedication to the Torah would, by definition, be rewarded, exclaiming in shock, “Should a mouth which produced such pearls of Torah, now lick the dust? In a tragic turn, he sadly became a heretic. But his point stands; it is unbecoming to profane our mouths.
R’ Shimon Bar Yochai suggested that since God wanted to give the Torah to humans, God might have created humans with two mouths: one for words of Torah and holiness and one for talking and eating. The implied premise of the question is that perhaps dualism is the correct view, and we ought to protect good from being tainted by evil. Yet we know we only have one mouth for all the good and evil because dualism is the wrong way to look at the world; that’s just not how things work.
Like the boy who cries wolf, when a person erodes and undermines their credibility and integrity, no one believes them even when it’s true. This prayer is a commitment to using your mouth, tongue, and speech for truth and honesty.
All we can do is be careful to guard our tongues and pray for assistance
Unlike every other prayer in the Amida, this prayer takes personal responsibility. The rest of the Amida is in the plural, in the community’s name; there is no hiding in the crowd here. This is about my speech, my tongue, my responsibility – נְצוֹר לְשׁוֹנִי.
There is evil and trickery; evil things are usually true, and trickery is usually not. But I also want to avoid trickery, even if it’s not evil! Fun and jokes can still be problematic when the pranks and tricks are mean or nasty.
I don’t want to lie or say anything deceitful or hurtful – נְצוֹר לְשׁוֹנִי מֵרָע וּשְׂפָתַי מִדַּבֵּר מִרְמָה
וְלִמְקַלְלַי נַפְשִׁי תִדּוֹם
The word in the prayer has two roots: curse and lightness – KAL / MEKALEL. More than a reference to people who openly curse you, it includes those who make you feel light and small, whether it’s others or even things you say to yourself: don’t listen, let my soul be still – וְלִמְקַלְלַי נַפְשִׁי תִדּוֹם
This is a prayer to overcome the feelings of self-doubt and personal incompetence that baselessly hold you back from doing things that could transform your life because you’re not ready to face the reality of your own potential greatness; help me not be moved by my own thoughts – וְלִמְקַלְלַי נַפְשִׁי תִדּוֹם.
The Mishkan’s inauguration was accompanied by a seven-day festival. Right in the middle of the celebrations, Nadav and Avihu, Ahron’s oldest sons, great men who might have been leaders to the next generation, behaved inappropriately and died instantly in mysterious circumstances. When Ahron was informed, he was silent – vayidom ahron CITE.
In the face of disturbance, when people try to rock you, and the world shakes around you, may my soul remain still, silent, unmoved, and unphased – וְלִמְקַלְלַי נַפְשִׁי תִדּוֹם
You’d never entertain the thought that you should never have murdered puppies and pushed over the elderly. Those are easy thoughts to reject because they have no basis in reality. It’s when we’re not sure if they’re true, or worse, when we’re sure they’re true, that we get thrown off balance.
We pray to resist the forces of instability; even if we have done things wrong – here and now, we’re trying to move forward and do better, and we ask for help – וְלִמְקַלְלַי נַפְשִׁי תִדּוֹם
In a world that’s constantly moving, help me maintain balance, equilibrium, and serenity – וְלִמְקַלְלַי נַפְשִׁי תִדּוֹם.
Obsessive thoughts can plague us, wishing that we’d done something different, hoping that we were different, or worse, that we weren’t here at all.
In the face of unrest, with a mind that’s constantly swirling, we pray for stillness, for breath – וְלִמְקַלְלַי נַפְשִׁי תִדּוֹם.
וְנַפְשִׁי כֶּעָפָר לַכֹּל תִּהְיֶה
Haters rarely hate you; far more often, they hate themselves because you’re showing them a reflection of what they wish they could be, and they don’t like feeling inadequate.
When people belittle or put you down, it’s because they think they gain social status by doing so. Far better for them to not be jealous, to think little or nothing of you, or not think of you at all; let them think of you as dirt – וְנַפְשִׁי כֶּעָפָר לַכֹּל תִּהְיֶה.
The Ramban recommends that we take the view that you’re not better than anyone, and anyone can be better than you; get off your high horse and don’t think so highly of yourself, be humble and think of the battles everyone else is fighting – וְנַפְשִׁי כֶּעָפָר לַכֹּל תִּהְיֶה.
Beyond that, dirt isn’t just something low that you step on; it is the source of life that all things grow from, where creatures find their food and is of central importance.
There are times you help people, and they are thankful; other times, they are ungrateful, and others still are angry and resentful. The Shabbos prayers include a blessing for the people who serve the public with faith – chol mi sheoskim btzarchei tzibbur bemunah CITE. Most people who bother wading into communal issues do it on faith and out of a desire to make things better rather than for recognition or honor; there is usually little to be had.
Perhaps this prayer is to be the kind of dirt that things grow from; even if people are ungrateful and tread on me, I want to produce for them – וְנַפְשִׁי כֶּעָפָר לַכֹּל תִּהְיֶה.
This is a natural continuation of the Amida: to keep my tongue clean, let my heart express my innermost desire, let my heart be still, and answer even if I’m unworthy, to help me be helpful to others even when I am unworthy – וְנַפְשִׁי כֶּעָפָר לַכֹּל תִּהְיֶה.
psach libi btorasecha ubmitzvosech tirdof nafshi
The Sfas Emes teaches that the heart is naturally locked; if the heart is the seat of emotion, people are born selfish – the only thing in a locked heart is yourself, incapable of understanding truth. Torah unlocks the heart, opening the full range of feeling and proper sensitivity toward others.
Our sages teach that if the evil inclination is poison, the Torah is the antidote. In the absence of the Torah, chaos has free rein, but as our sages teach, stuck in the grips of the evil inclination, drag yourself to the study hall, and all will be well.
Before wisdom, a person is self-centered, but with wisdom, the heart can be consumed with a love and desire for mitzvos can see past itself – psach libi btorasecha ubmitzvosech tirdof nafshi
One of the things that happens when people visit the the concentration camps of Poland is that it puts problems into perspective, and you learn to see something differently. We pray for the clarity that comes from opening up our hearts – psach libi btorasecha ubmitzvosech tirdof nafshi
toarasecha
We want God’s Torah; there’s a Torah that isn’t. There’s a way of studying that is hollow and empty, a mirror of what you want it to say, finding what you want to believe.
(Shlomo)
Torah is designed to unlock our hearts; most people have experienced learning something that moved them, something real. Our sages encourage us to seek out the kind of learning that speaks to us – libi chefetz CITE
But as ever, prayer must paired with action and effort. You can pray a lifetime for God to open your heart to the Torah; do you have a regular learning schedule? You can wish all you want for your soul to pursue mitzvos; are you pursuing opportunities to help people?
The letters that precede the root of the Hebrew word for effort spell out the word for desire, which is emotive; what comes before effort is desire – SHTADL / RIGSHCA CITE. The letters that follow the word for effort spell out the word for truth – HAEMES.
(this is a big idea and deserves more treatment)
The heart starts locked in untruth, seeing only itself. The desire to see past oneself leads to an attempt for more, a push to do the right thing that, even if unsuccessful, leads to the truth. Desire and effort in the world of the spirit are always successful.
In the journey of our spirit, it is impossible that someone has tried and gotten nowhere because trying is all we can do. In spiritual terms, what sense would it make for God to put someone in a place they cannot understand, try as they might?
Our sages warn against believing someone who says they have searched for answers but found nothing. As the Kotzker put it, the searching is the finding.
We ask God for a little boost, a headstart to give us some momentum and we will try harder from there – psach libi btorasecha ubmitzvosech tirdof nafshi
עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ, עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן יְמִינֶךָ, עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן תּוֹרָתֶךָ, עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן קְדֻשָּׁתֶךָ. לְמַעַן יֵחָלְצוּן יְדִידֶיךָ
The Tur suggests that whoever recites this formulation merits to perceive the Divine Presence. (consider cutting, this adds nothing)
were not instructing god to act
were advocating a good reason
עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ
As we’ve frequently seen, God has many names, each being a different characterization of how God relates to us through varying modes of interaction. Here, we ask God to answer us for the sake of God’s name; not any individual name in particular, but all of them, the very notion of what God’s name represents, God’s reputation, for the sake of people who know there is a name. As the people who know there is a Creator and that there are expectations humanity must rise to meet, give us the things we need and help us do what needs to be done so that people recognize there is a Creator – עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ
There are many ways not to know God
Since the Enlightenment, there has been a long trend of secularisation, which, although bringing many advancements in the scientific, cultural, and intellectual arenas, has also caused some serious harm to the world, with the focus on rationality and empiricism sometimes leading to a dismissal of other ways of knowing and understanding the world, marginalizing the role of faith, morality, and spirituality ought to play in the healthy discourse of public life – עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ
A byproduct of enlightenment thinking is the colonialism and imperialism that has mostly died out, but also the inequality and exclusion that is still prominent in the world today. In a hypercapitalist world, the rich get richer, and society descends into a cutthroat competition of survival of the fittest to get ahead, a vile manifestation of social Darwinism.
In the Exodus story, the Pharoah of Ancient Egypt doesn’t know the God of Moses; he has never heard of Him before. Pharoah doesn’t recognize God’s authority to criticize his tyranny and oppression. He has the power and crown, so he gets to enslave and murder.
Centuries later, Titus, the Roman general who tore down Jerusalem, acknowledged God and openly challenged the Creator.
(Consider Yonah’s story – sailors know God but don’t practice til they are in mortal danger)
There are sadly some major public disgraces and scandals from time to time by people who look and appear to act extremely religious and observant – apart from and until the disgraceful and scandalous thing. That’s true, and it’s always been true. While Jewish organizations are working admirably to put safeguards in place against the kind of patterns that lead to scandals, you can’t fix human nature, and some people are going to drag God’s name through the mud.
So we pray for help balancing that out – עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ
We want so many things; hopefully, we want most of them for the right reasons! But for the ones we don’t, and especially those we do, isn’t it the most incredible sanctification when our prayers are answered? When that child is healed, when the woman gets married when that man gets back on his feet. When you pray for that, and it happens, doesn’t that make God look good? Doesn’t that make everyone feel good?
We want more of that – עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ
When things happen, we have all sorts of different attribution mechanisms. How did he make his money? Real Estate. Where? Office building in Manhattan. How? Interest rates, the lease terms, whatever it is. Substitute the event and the cause, and it’s the same; how did he lose the money? Market crashed. What’s wrong? A breakup, a test, finances, health.
These are all correct but are also misattributions. If there is a Creator with whom we are at the end of a lengthy interaction, it follows that the Creator is in control.
Tie everything back to God; the proximate cause may be whatever you say, but the ultimate cause is the Creator!
Smarts don’t equate to outcomes; confidence doesn’t equate to outcomes. Two hypothetical equal people with equal inputs would still have different outcomes; no given inputs can lead to any given outcomes, which is precisely the point. This is not a religious claim; it’s a statistical fact of mathematics. The difference between an atheist and a religious person is whether they label the deciding factor as chance, luck, and probability, or providence, mazel, and siyata dismaya; these are just different ways of saying the same thing.
We ask for God’s help seeing through all the labels; luck, charisma, charm, brains, confidence – עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן שְׁמֶךָ
עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן יְמִינֶךָ
As we’ve frequently encountered, we talk about parts of God in ways the human imagination can relate to, so God’s right arm is a way of speaking about God’s strength and power. Our sages teach that Jewish People left Egypt with God’s power, almost with a swagger, as if to say, somebody try and stop us!
There are times when God’s characteristics are more manifest or perhaps muted; more kindness or more judgment, other times less.
But there are times when God’s power is suppressed, pulled back, and diminished; this is a prayer to unshackle the right hand, to mute judgment, and for kindness to dominate with power – עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן יְמִינֶךָ.
עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן קְדֻשָּׁתֶךָ
We ask God to answer us for the sake of what is holy, separate, and distinct. In a world where the well-beaten path, the norm, and what is natural are not aligned with God’s vision for the world, answer our prayer.
Help us bring distinction to this world – עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן קְדֻשָּׁתֶךָ
(shlomo)
עֲשֵׂה לְמַעַן תּוֹרָתֶךָ
(shlomo)
When Yakov was on his deathbed, he blessed his sons, and he gave Yosef the land of Shechem, which he says he acquired with his sword and bow, the plain reading of the Genesis story – בְּחַרְבִּי וּבְקַשְׁתִּי. Onkelos translates this as prayers and requests; Yakov’s weapons are his prayers – BAKASHOS. Fascinatingly, the initial letters of the four things for whose sake we ask God to act form the same word – קַשְׁתִּי / קְדֻשָּׁתֶךָ שְׁמֶךָ תּוֹרָתֶךָ יְמִינֶךָ
lmaan yecholatzun yediach hosia yemimncha vaneini
When righteous people die, it atones the sins of a generation. The Yaavetz notes that it is intuitive that righteous people bear the sins of their time because they are in charge, so it’s on them; it’s their fault if people don’t mend their ways.
This line is an acknowledgment of personal responsibility. For the part that’s on me, don’t blame anyone else; release anyone else from fault.
vaaneini
With one of the most important and powerful words, we close the Amida.
And answer me too – vaaneini.
The righteous deserve it, but what about me? What about my voice, my prayer, me with my sins, my mistakes, my flaws?
Please answer my prayer, too – vaaneini
However inadequate, I said my prayers with the Jewish People; this is me on my own, the very last word. Answer me too – vaaneini
Verse with names
Some have a custom of saying verses containing the letters of your name. As Rokeach teaches, praying three times a day parallels three meals daily: soul food and nourishment. The repetition of these verses carves your name into your soul in some way that lingers hereafter and reflects your efforts positively.
יִהְיוּ לְרָצוֹן אִמְרֵי פִי וְהֶגְיוֹן לִבִּי לְפָנֶיךָ ה’ צוּרִי וְגוֹאֲלִי
This verse contains ten words; the tenth letter appears ten times – י x י.
(Shlomo)
something about 10 to the power of 10 I didn’t follow
secret name
42 letters in the verse
many permutations
Three steps back
Our sages teach that early in Nebuchadnezzar’s career, he served as secretary and scribe to the Babylonian emperor. Nebuchadnezzar was out of the office one day, and another of the royal scribes dispatched a letter to Hizkiyahu, the Jewish king. Returning to work and reviewing correspondence, Nebuchadnezzar read the letter: “Greetings to King Hizkiyahu! Greetings to the city of Jerusalem! Greetings to the great God!”
Nebuchadnezzar objected, saying it was insulting to say the great God yet mention Him last and insisted the letter be redrafted. The only trouble was that the letter had been sealed and the messenger had already been dispatched to Jerusalem, so Nebuchadnezzar ran out to call the messenger back and redo the letter, running three steps to catch the messenger before he was restrained by the angel Gabriel because one step further would have granted his merit and ability to inflict harm immeasurably. Our sages credit those three steps for his rise to power.
Taking three steps back at the conclusion of the Amida can be seen as a form of rectification, neutralizing the negative impact of Nebuchadnezzar’s merit, a gesture of undoing or correcting potential spiritual harm, and adapting his method for ourselves.
We open the Amida taking three steps backward in recognition that the momentum in our lives isn’t truly ours; we surrender to the faith that God will lead us where we need to go and that, ultimately, our successes, failures, and outcomes are dictated by external forces.
Having concluded our prayers, we take three steps forward, back into the the profane domain of the real world, coming full circle, right back to where you started, only things are different now. Having stepped back to reflect on our place in the divine scheme, we can now step back into our lives, hopefully with newfound perspective and insight.
Returning to daily life with a new perspective, with new clarity and consciousness, you can face up to your challenges in a new way, and maybe something different will happen this time. Or perhaps next time!
(this is same as hashem sefasai)
By returning to where we were before, perhaps we are acting out what we hope to get from our prayer, seeing that God was right where I was, only I wasn’t where He was. I had to step away for a bit to see God was always there. The Mona Lisa is heralded as the greatest artwork a human has produced; if you stuck your nose to the canvas, you wouldn’t really be able to see the masterpiece for what it is. It’s cordoned off to the optimal vantage point, twenty or so feet away. Sometimes, you need to step back for a moment to gain perspective on where we were.
Prayer Isn’t Enough
The crescendo of the Exodus came with the decisive miracle at the Red Sea. The ocean parted, giving the desperate Jewish People safe passage while simultaneously obliterating their great tormentors in one fell swoop. The Splitting of the Red Sea is one of the most captivating and magical moments in the entire Torah, and prayer plays a prominent role in the build-up:
וּפַרְעֹה הִקְרִיב וַיִּשְׂאוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־עֵינֵיהֶם וְהִנֵּה מִצְרַיִם נֹסֵעַ אַחֲרֵיהֶם וַיִּירְאוּ מְאֹד וַיִּצְעֲקוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־ה – As Pharaoh drew near, the Jewish People caught sight of the Egyptians advancing upon them. Greatly frightened, the Jewish People cried out to the Lord. (14:10)
But surprisingly, and quite unlike how we might expect, this prayer is not well received:
וַיֹּאמֶר ה’ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה מַה־תִּצְעַק אֵלָי דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִסָּעוּ – Then the Lord said to Moshe, “Why are you crying out to Me!? Tell the Jewish People to get going!!” (14:15)
With righteous outrage, we might wonder why God gets annoyed that the people cry out. The Jewish People have made it to the beaches with their children and everything they own. They have no boats and cannot swim to safety; just over the horizon, there is a hostile force in hot pursuit. By any reasonable standards, they are out of time and out of options. They are desperate, so they cry out to God for help; we cannot doubt that their fears and tears are genuine.
If crying to God for help is what you are supposed to do, why did God get annoyed at their prayer?
At the Red Sea, God urges Moshe to have his people quickly get a move on. The Midrash expands this discussion; God rebuked Moshe that it was an inappropriate moment for lengthy prayers – there was danger close, and it was time for decisive action.
They cried out to God as the last resort of their ancestors, a weak effort that betrayed deep fear and insecurity and the cynical despair of helplessness that all was lost. It was an inferior, or at least suboptimal, immature prayer that betrayed a lack of belief, both in God and in themselves, that there was nothing they could do! Only they were wrong to think there was nothing else they could do, and we’d be equally wrong for thinking prayer could ever work in a vacuum.
They should have believed enough in their prayer to stop praying and get moving, but they were frozen and paralyzed.
Maybe that’s what our efforts have to look like to give our prayers a hook to latch on to – even when God promises.
God didn’t want their prayers at the Red Sea because it wasn’t time to pray; it was time to act! But they couldn’t because they had given up and were consumed with fear. Perhaps that lends enduring power to the legacy of Nachson ben Aminadav, whom our sages herald for clambering into the water when he could not yet know what would happen because just maybe there was one last thing to try before giving up, finding room for a ray of hope amid the clouds of despair – a hope that drove action.
The biggest challenge to our faith and belief is time; that we give up prematurely.
By wading into the water, Nachshon showed people who thought they had reached the outer limit of what they could do and revealed that the boundary was just a little further than they’d thought. They’d stopped at the shore, but he boldly and bravely stepped into the impossible and waded up to his neck without waiting for instructions, leading by example in the face of uncertainty, the quality of his tribe, Yehuda. And when he did that, he sparked salvation, upending the natural order, and the ocean split for all.
Perhaps that underpins God’s irritation at why they cry out – they are parked on the beach, crying, but what exactly do they expect God to do with that?! We can almost hear God begging for something to work with – tell them to get up and get going!
Don’t just hope, don’t just pray. Alongside your hopes and prayers, you must live and act with faith.
You won’t get the dream job you don’t apply to. You won’t get healthy if you don’t diet and exercise. You won’t pass the test if you don’t study the material. You won’t get rich if you don’t invest. Your relationship won’t be meaningful if you don’t give your partner attention. That’s the way the world works; if you expect your prayer to change that fundamental reality, you will likely continue to be disappointed.
עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו הוּא יַעֲשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם עָלֵינוּ וְעַל כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן – He Who makes peace in His high heavens – may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel and say – Amen!
וְאִמְרוּ אָמֵן – and say – Amen!
In the silent Amida, who might we be speaking to?
R’ Shimon Schwab suggests that perhaps we are speaking to the angels here, to say Amen to our prayers – כִּי מַלְאָכָיו יְצַוֶּה־לָּךְ לִשְׁמרְךָ בְּכל־דְּרָכֶיךָ.
עֹשֶׂה שָׁלוֹם בִּמְרוֹמָיו – He Who makes peace in His high heavens
The yearning for ultimate and final peace is the last word of Jewish prayers and has been since antiquity; it is a core Jewish value reflecting the profound dreams of the prophets. Love and the pursuit of peace is one of Judaism’s fundamental ideals and is a near-universal characteristic in our pantheon of heroes – בקש שלום ורדפהו.
Avos d’Rabbi Nosson suggests that the mightiest heroism lies not in defeating your foes but in turning enemies into friends. The Midrash says that the world can only persist with peace, and the Gemara teaches that all of Torah exists to further peace – דְּרָכֶיהָ דַרְכֵי-נֹעַם; וְכָל-נְתִיבוֹתֶיהָ שָׁלוֹם. Peace features prominently in the Priestly Blessing, and the visions of peace and prosperity in the Land of Israel – וְנָתַתִּי שָׁלוֹם בָּאָרֶץ / יִשָּׂא ה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ, וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם.
Ralph Waldo Emerson quipped that nobody can bring you peace but yourself. When you feel secure, you’ll have security. It takes benevolence, confidence, and unshakeable strength and power; those come from within. If you do not have peace, you are not yet at peace.
There is an excellent reason that envy figures as one of the most important things God has to say to humans – וְלֹא תַחְמֹד. As our Sages guided us, who is wealthy? One who celebrates and takes joy in what he has – אֵיזֶהוּ עָשִׁיר, הַשָּׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ. One interpretation even inverts the plain reading, from celebrating what you have to celebrate what he has – בְּחֶלְקוֹ. Someone else’s prosperity and success don’t make your own any less likely, so be happy when someone else gets a win because yours is no further away. The Ksav Sofer highlights that this is the Torah’s blessing of peace, an internal peace of being satisfied and living with security, happy for both yourself and for others – וַאֲכַלְתֶּם לַחְמְכֶם לָשֹׂבַע וִישַׁבְתֶּם לָבֶטַח.
If we value and desire peace, we must first regulate and then free ourselves from looking at others with grudges, grievances, and jealousy. As one comedian said, the only time you look in your neighbor’s bowl is to make sure they have enough. When other people’s achievements and success no longer threaten us, we can develop lasting and peaceful co-existence and harmony. The differences are still there, but it’s not the other person that changes at all; it’s how you look at them. Your dream of peace starts with you, and it’s an important step that bridges the world we live in with the ideal world of tomorrow. If you cannot accept others, it’s because you haven’t yet accepted yourself.
What better blessing could there be than to live in balanced harmony with yourself, to be completely secure and at peace? To wholly embrace your differences with your spouse, parents, siblings, relatives, neighbors, community, colleagues, and ultimately, everyone you meet? And if we infused our notion of peace with any momentum, maybe the whole world could experience it, too.
God can make peace between abstract opposites, bringing all the different forces of nature into harmony: light and dark, chaos and order, justice and mercy, life and death. They coexist in their roles as complementary parts of reciprocal interactions.
Peace is possible, and we can achieve it; it is something humans can say Amen to, that what was said is true.
May we live to see the day that it is true, where we can say yes, that happened, that was answered. That sickness is no more, sanctity and purpose are everywhere, and hunger and poverty have been eradicated. That there is abundance for all, that war is a thing of the past, that Mashiach has come, and God will lovingly hold up thousands of years worth of billions of people’s tears and prayers that were answered, and we will all say, Amen!