Rabbi Herzog, S. Y. Agnon, and the Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel

Abstract

The Prayer for the Peace of the State of Israel, recited in synagogues in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world, was formulated in 1948 by Chief Rabbis Isaac Herzog and Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel with the participation of the author S.Y. Agnon. For years there has been a debate about Agnon's role in creating the prayer, but only some of the documents related to this matter were available to the scholars. The article discusses a hitherto unexplored typewritten page claimed to be the draft Rabbi Herzog sent to S.Y. Agnon, as a proposal for the composition of the prayer. A comparison of this document with the prayer in Agnon's handwriting makes it possible to determine precisely where Agnon’s contribution lies. The position I express in the article disputes that of Joel Rappel in his book Between Prayer and Politics (Hebrew, 2018).