סְלַח לָֽנוּ Forgive us, our Father, for in our great foolishness we have blundered. Pardon us, our King, for our iniquities are many.

אֵל אֶֽרֶךְ You are a God slow to anger, You are called the Master of Compassion, and You have taught the way of repentance. May You remember today and every day the greatness of Your compassion and kindness, for the sake of the descendants of Your beloved ones. Turn toward us in compassion, for You are the Master of Compassion. We come before You in plea and prayer, as You in ancient times showed the humble one [Moses]. Turn from Your fierce anger, as is written in Your Torah. In the shadow of Your wings may we shelter and abide, as on the day when the LORD descended in the cloud. ▸Overlook sin and wipe away guilt, as on the day when “He stood beside him there.” Give ear to our pleading and listen to our speech, as on the day when “he called upon the name of the LORD,” and in that place is said –

And the LORD passed by before him and proclaimed:

יהוה The LORD, the LORD, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and truth, extending loving-kindness to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion and sin, and absolving [the guilty who repent]. Forgive us our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.

סְלַח לָֽנוּ Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned. Pardon us, our King, for we have transgressed. For You, LORD, are good and forgiving, abounding in loving-kindness to all who call on You.

For with the LORD there is loving-kindness, and great is His power to redeem. LORD, save Israel from all its troubles. It is He who will redeem Israel from all its sins. The LORD redeems His servants; those who take refuge in Him shall not be condemned.

כְּרַחֵם As a father has compassion for his children, so, LORD, have compassion for us. Salvation is the LORD’s; on Your people is Your blessing, Selah! The LORD of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold, Selah! LORD of hosts, happy is the one who trusts in You. LORD, save! May the King answer us on the day we call.

▸Forgive, please, this people’s iniquity, in the abundance of Your kindness, and as You have forgiven this people from the time of Egypt until now, and there it is written:

And the LORD said, I have forgiven as you asked.

הַטֵּה Give ear, my God and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolation, and the city that bears Your name, for it is not on the strength of our righteousness that we throw down our pleadings before You, but on the strength of Your great compassion. LORD, hear me; LORD, forgive; LORD, listen and act and do not delay – for Your sake, my God; for Your city and Your people bear Your name.

Our God and God of our fathers:

אֶזְכְּרָה I shall recall the anguish that came to me; He inflicted three blows upon me in this month. He cut me off, He veered me aside, He beat me – but now He has finally drained me out. On the eighth of the month He darkened my right and my left; I marked out all three days for fasting. The king of Greece forced me to write the Torah in his tongue. The ploughmen have ploughed across my back; they made the furrows long. I raged, on the ninth, in shame and disgrace, my mantle of glory and my wreath were taken from me. The man who gave us the words of Heaven was torn from us on that day – that was Ezra the Scribe. On the tenth, Ezekiel the Seer, son of Buzi was commanded, “Write this happening in the scroll, for the remembrance of a people melted away and disgraced; write this very day.” The tenth was listed last among the fasts to show the order of the months. My own mouth gapes open with weeping and wailing, and this chronicle of troubles burns within my heart – as the fugitive came to me and said, “The city is crushed.” For these things I have scattered dust upon my face. I have spoken now of all four – would that I could shoot an arrow through my heart. For these great torments, I have dug my own grave. “The LORD is righteous; I have rebelled against His word.” I have called out Your name as I grieve my troubles. Witness my oppression and hear my voice in its entreaty. Hear my pleading, please, hasten my salvation. Do not block Your ears to my sighing, to my cry. ▸In the month of Tevet I was stricken sorely. The world changed its course, from where I stand. I was stubborn, I sinned – yet may He reveal His goodness to me; the One who told the ocean, “Only thus far, come.”

אֵל מֶֽלֶךְ God, King who sits upon a throne of compassion, who acts with loving-kindness, who pardons the iniquities of His people, passing them before Him in order; who forgives sinners and pardons transgressors; who performs righteousness with all flesh and spirit, do not repay their bad actions in kind. ▸God, You taught us to speak thirteen attributes: recall for us today the covenant of the thirteen attributes, as You in ancient times showed the humble one [Moses], as is written: The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed in the name of the LORD:

And the LORD passed by before him and proclaimed:

יהוה The LORD, the LORD, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and truth, extending loving-kindness to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion and sin, and absolving [the guilty who repent]. Forgive us our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.

סְלַח לָֽנוּ Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned. Pardon us, our King, for we have transgressed. For You, LORD, are good and forgiving, abounding in loving-kindness to all who call on You.

God, nations came into Your inheritance, they made Your holy Sanctuary impure, they reduced Jerusalem to ruins. God, wanton people came up against us and a gang of oppressors sought out our lives, and did not place You before them.

כְּרַחֵם As a father has compassion for his children, so, LORD, have compassion for us. Salvation is the LORD’s; on Your people is Your blessing, Selah! The LORD of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold, Selah! LORD of hosts, happy is the one who trusts in You. LORD, save! May the King answer us on the day we call.

Our God and God of our fathers:

אֶֽבֶן הָרֹאשָׁהThe Temple, Top Stone, is laid to ruin and ploughed over, and the Torah’s heirs, Israel, a derision among nations. Within me an aching heart, sickened and pained – we are left as if fatherless, become like orphans. Israel, delicate and refined, fenced by lilies of the Law, has now become mournful, given over to assailants. The faithful city has become like a widow, the countless descendants of Jacob have been sold for no price. Refined and delicate, worthy of royalty, they have been ploughed across in long furrows over many years and days. The house of Jacob is given over to plunder, to jeering and slander, and the joyous city to plantations of vines. Doused in poison by lawless ones, is the people once desired like offerings, like fragrant incense. They have despised and neglected the Torah of Moses Avi-Zanoaḥ, they can find no rest by night or by day. Awesome, highest God, may the desire arise in You to bring a year of recompense for Israel’s strife. Renew our days as of old, Dwelling Place who is our God of old. And wash our red guilt white as wool; our stains as snow. ▸Strengthen us in awe of You, and in the keeping of Your Law. And come to us, in Your salvation, God who is full of compassion.

אֵל מֶֽלֶךְ God, King who sits upon a throne of compassion, who acts with loving-kindness, who pardons the iniquities of His people, passing them before Him in order; who forgives sinners and pardons transgressors; who performs righteousness with all flesh and spirit, do not repay their bad actions in kind. ▸God, You taught us to speak thirteen attributes: recall for us today the covenant of the thirteen attributes, as You in ancient times showed the humble one [Moses], as is written: The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed in the name of the LORD:

And the LORD passed by before him and proclaimed:

יהוה The LORD, the LORD, compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving-kindness and truth, extending loving-kindness to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion and sin, and absolving [the guilty who repent]. Forgive us our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.

סְלַח לָֽנוּ Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned. Pardon us, our King, for we have transgressed. For You, LORD, are good and forgiving, abounding in loving-kindness to all who call on You.

אֲבוֹתַי When my forebears trusted in the name of God, my Rock, they grew and were successful and also gave forth fruit. And from the time when they were drawn away to walk with Him in enmity, they diminished and diminished until the tenth month.

On the tenth, the king of Babylon laid siege on the city, and beleaguered it. The chief of the army arrived, and I was yielded to be trampled, was tormented in fetters, and from month to month my harp turned to grief.

Once like the first figs of a new tree, they were the very first to be destroyed. They spoke the names of others, and sin closed their destiny. They did not recognize God’s face and were swept off by the flood – agony like that of a first childbirth, soars up as high as Heaven.

God brought us a day of evil and siege, ordered enemies about me to harvest my last fruits. The day my heart was quelled, no strength to resist, and He said to the prophet, “Preach this to the rebellious house.”

He took the cloak of authority from the judges at the gate. His rage burned like fire and He raised the crown away, and He cast down the splendor of the Temple, Forest of Lebanon, and rushing wind and storm make my flesh bristle and shiver.

Once you were called most beautiful; now you are darkened, for you have stumbled over iniquity and your heart has turned back. You have been attacked from behind, have been weakened, once, then twice, and even the slightest dressing or balm not offered you.

The Righteous One, perfect Rock, who forgives iniquity almost too great to bear, flew from the cherubs to the threshold, and from there to a corner of the roof, because of the iniquity marked out; the scream of it rose up, their evil as abundant as a fruit-tree’s crop.

The One who weighs the actions of people, strengthened all my attackers, for my days had been filled with malignant deeds, and in the shamefulness of my youth I forgot the good granted me, and the One who gives me my bread and water, my flax and my wool.

My attackers opened wide their mouths and swallowed up my legacy. They overcame me utterly, drank my blood and gulped it down. Strangers became my enemies, they injured my brothers – strangers who called out, “Destroy, destroy!” Descendants of Seir the Horite.

They said, “Come, let us finish them off, and put an end to their memory.” Jealous, vengeful God, grant retribution; let them load the burden of their own ruin. Pay them back for their actions and have their hopes disgrace them, like the baker who dreamt his dream of three baskets of white bread.

My wound was not softened, my bruise enough to kill me, and my eyes have grown dim with watching for my bright-faced Love. Is His anger even now not forever forgotten? Why has He done this; why this burning rage?

This God of mine is compassionate; He shall not forever reject. The days of my grief have grown long and still my heart sighs. Return, God, to my tent; do not abandon Your place. Close the days of my grief. Bring my recompense.

LORD who is the portion allotted me, come to me quickly, help me, and loosen my sackcloth, wrap me around in joy, and dazzle my darkness with Your light – light up the twilight I once longed for, for it is You who are my lamp.

Redeem my soul from anguish and sighing, grant Your people remission, my King and my Holy One. And turn into relief the fast of Av; into gladness and joy, the fast of Tammuz and the fast of Tevet.