This prayer was composed by Shlomo ben Yehudah HaBavli

Our God, and God of our Fathers!

May our fervent prayers come before You,

may Your ear be attentive to our supplication,

hear our justification, Adonoy,

and listen to our song,

for You look at our righteous deeds,

and overlook the complaints against us.

We are disgraced, ashamed to raise our heads,

for the sweet aroma of our good name

we have polluted,

we have corrupted righteousness,

and the Written and Oral Torah,

we have misrepresented,

we therefore hide our faces in the ground.

Distress and anguish seize us from all sides,

we are like sheep adrift without shelter,

if we turn to the right,

the axe cuts us down,

to the left, there is dread

lest we fall prey to those who hunt us.

May Your ever-seeing eyes be opened

to behold our affliction and distress

from our prolonged suffering;

may our mourning be turned into exultation,

our chastisement to favour,

turn about our misfortune,

befitting Your ways of uprightness.

We have been subjected

to captivity and plunder,

we, our kings and our priests to disgrace;

from glorious heights and [Your] mighty love,

we have been hurled to the earth

in desolation and scorn.

We did not seek Your Presence—

to offer supplication,

nor did we seek understanding of Your truth,

because of the stench of our iniquity;

we were destined for the same end as Sodom,

for we diminished the sound of Torah,⁴

footnotes: ⁴ Literally “mill”. The study of Torah is likened to the grinding of a mill which operates day and night.

we were almost destroyed, but for Your grace.

You spared the remnant [of the First Temple,]

You established and fenced in [the Second,]

and You gathered us therein;

we were cast away because of the sin⁵

footnotes: ⁵ This refers to שִנֽאַת חִנָם, unwarranted hatred, which was the cause for the destruction of the Second Temple.

which equals the three sins⁶ which You despise;

footnotes: ⁶ The three sins of idolatry, adultery, and murder were the cause for the destruction of the First Temple.

the Temple of Your yearning,

You trampled because of us (our sins).

We have acted corruptly and treacherously,

thus we were driven from one yoke to another;⁷

footnotes: ⁷ From exile to exile.

remember Your promise never to abhor us,

gather Your scattered ones and rule over them.

After all that has befallen us,

we know that Your judgements are righteous,

and we alone caused our disgrace,

for even to this day we have not changed,

and we appear before You with great guilt.

This lowly people,

held in shame and contempt,

pushed about, swept aside,

given as plunder

exile and captivity tested and refined them;

turn about in Your kindness

to pardon and heal them.

Through Your mercy, shown many times,

may we find deliverance in You—

fulfill Your promise of “I will deliver them;”⁸

footnotes: ⁸ Hosea 1:7.

let them come from afar in droves,

some from the north,

and some in ships from Kittim.⁹

footnotes: ⁹ See Numbers 24:24.

They are Yours, Your servants and Your people,

cherish them as in the days of old—

Your sweet ones [Israel],

draw us that we may follow You;

put us among those inscribed in Your Book,

for we all yearn to fear Your Name.

May this small people increase a thousandfold,

O our Beloved,

and may this youth

grow into a mighty nation in our borders;

with all Your ways of righteousness,

have compassion on us,

turn back from Your fierce anger

and comfort us.

Almighty! King!

Who sits on the throne of mercy,

governs with kindness

forgives the iniquities of His people.

He removes their sins one by one,

increasing forgiveness to sinners,

and pardon to transgressors.

Acting righteously

with all who are of flesh and spirit;

not according to their wickedness

does He repay them.

Almighty!

You instructed us to recite

the thirteen Divine attributes;

remember unto us this day

the covenant of thirteen Divine attributes,

as You made them known

to the humble Moses of old,

as it is written,

“And Adonoy descended in the cloud,

and stood with him there,

and proclaimed the Name, Adonoy.

Congregation and Chazzan:

And Adonoy passed before him [Moses];

and proclaimed:

Adonoy, Adonoy,

Almighty, Merciful, Gracious,

Slow to Anger,

and Abundant in Kindness, and Truth.

Keeper of kindness

for thousands of generations,

Endurer of iniquity, and transgression,

and sin;

and Acquitter of those who repent.”

“And pardon our iniquity and our sin,

and take us for Your inheritance.”

Pardon us our Father, for we have sinned,

forgive us our King, for we have transgressed.

“For You, my Master,

are good and forgiving,

and abounding in kindness

to all who call upon You.”