Prayer for Voting by Rabbi David Seidenberg

A Prayer For Voting

If you can't pray in a voting booth, where can you pray? And where would you need more to pray? Here is the 2008 text of the prayer:

With my vote today I am prepared and intending
to seek peace for this country, as it is written:

“Seek out the peace of the city where I cause you to roam
and pray for her sake to God YHVH*, for in her peace you all will have peace.” (Jer. 29:7)

May it be Your will that votes will be counted faithfully
and may You account my vote as if I had fulfilled this verse with all my power.

May it be good in Your eyes to give a wise heart
to whomever we elect today
and may You raise for us a government whose rule is for good and blessing
to bring justice and peace to all the inhabitants of the world and to Jerusalem,
for rulership is Yours!

Just as I participated in elections today
so may I merit to do good deeds and repair the world with all my actions,
and with the act of...[fill in your pledge]...which I pledge to do today
on behalf of all living creatures and in remembrance of the covenant of Noah’s waters
to protect and to not destroy the earth and her plenitude.

May You give to all the peoples of this country, the strength and will
to pursue righteousness and to seek peace as unified force
in order to cause to flourish, throughout the world, good life and peace
and may You fulfill for us the verse:

“May the pleasure of Adonai* our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands for us, may the work of our hands endure.” (Ps. 90:17)

Download a pdf with interlinear English and Hebrew (with vowels)

You can also download just the English, and both are available above in PDF and editable format. If you distribute a modified version, please keep the name neohasid.org and please keep it non-partisan.

* YHVH and Adonai are Hebrew names for God.
The first is usually translated as "The Lord" and is the source of the name "Jehovah", but it is actually derived from the verb "to be". It means something like "Source of Being". The second means "my Lord", and is the word we traditionally say when we read YHVH, which is considered too holy to pronounce. But Adonai is also a name of God in its own right.