09 Jan MAY WE DAVEN FOR IDF SOLDIERS ON SHABBOS?

In 1438, a great meeting
of German rabbis was
convened in Nuremberg
during which the rabbis
issued a number of
communal enactments.
During Shabbos
davening, R. Nosson of
Eiger, a senior rabbi who
had taught many of the rabbis in attendance,
wished to say a tefilah for someone who
was sick. His student, R. Ya’akov (Mahari)
Weil, objected that it is not appropriate to
daven for the sick on Shabbos. The great
rabbis in attendance, including R. Nosson,
were convinced by Mahari Weil’s argument
(Responsa Mahari Weil, no. 115; R. Bernard
Rosensweig, Ashkenazic Jewry in Transition,
pp. 22, 50). If this is the case, how do we
regularly recite the Mi She-Beirach tefialh
for sick people on Shabbos? Are we allowed
to recite a tefilah or Tehillim for the safety of
IDF soldiers?
I. Crying Out On Shabbos
The Mishnah (Ta’anis 19a) says: “For these
things we cry out even on Shabbos: For a
city that is surrounded by gentile troops, a
[flooding] river, a ship tossed about at sea.
R. Yossi said: [Cry out] for help, but not for
tefilah.” According to the Sages, the first
opinion, we daven on Shabbos for salvation
only from imminent danger. Otherwise, we
leave our this-worldly problems aside on
Shabbos. According to R. Yossi, even when

there is imminent danger, we do not daven
about them on Shabbos but only take action
to resolve them.
In order to convince the other rabbis gathered,
Mahari Weil brought a proof from Rambam’s
Mishneh Torah (Hilchos Shabbos 2:12,
30:12) that it is forbidden to daven about a
potential tragedy unless there is immediate
danger. Ramban rules like the Sages that we
may daven about a case of imminent danger.
Presumably, the sick man under discussion,
even if he was deathly ill, was not fighting for
his life that Shabbos. However, the Tur (Orach
Chaim 288) follows R. Yossi and does not
allow tefilah even for someone sick fighting
for his life on Shabbos. We can and must take
any action that will help him, but not tefilah.
Mahari Weil’s older contemporary, Rav
Yitzchak Ben Sheishes Perfet (Rivash, d.
1408, Spain and Algeria) addressed a related
question (Responsa, no. 512). Between Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the custom is to
recite Avinu Malkeinu during the morning
and afternoon tefilahs. This additional tefilah
allows us to repeatedly beg for our lives during
this auspicious season. Should we recite
Avinu Malkeinu on the Shabbos between
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? Rivash says
that there are different customs about this. In
Saragossa, where he served as rabbi for over a
decade, they said Avinu Malkeinu on Shabbos.
In Barcelona, Gerona and Germany, they did
not say it on Shabbos. Rivash prefers the latter
custom to omit it but, he points out, everyone

includes the additions of Zachreinu Le-Chaim
(remember us for life), etc., in the text of
the Amidah tefilahs. Why do we allow these
additions on Shabbos but not Avinu Malkeinu?
II. Personal Needs
Rivash quotes the Talmud Yerushalmi
(Shabbos 15:3) which says that it is forbidden
to daven for your personal needs on Shabbos.
R. Ze’ira asks whether we can say the part of
the grace after meals that consists of requests
for this-worldly needs. R. Chiya Bar Abba
answers that we may recite the text of the
blessings. Similarly, explains Rivash, we may
say any seasonal additions or poems that are
part of the text of the standard Amidah. Even
the piyutim, the long liturgical poems we add
on the high holidays, become part of the text
of the blessings. However, Avinu Malkeinu
is not added to the tefilahs but a new tefilah.
We are allowed to say the standard tefilahs
on Shabbos, even if they include requests for
our needs, but we may not add tefilahs. With
this, Rivash seems to support Mahari Weil’s
ruling that we may not daven for the sick on
Shabbos.
Significantly, Rav Yosef Karo (16th cen.,
Israel) rules likewise, that we only daven for
those who are in immediate danger (Shulchan
Aruch, Orach Chaim 288:9-10). Rav Moshe
Isserles (16th cen., Poland) adds that for this
reason we only say a Mi She-Beirach tefilah
for someone who is deathly ill and faces
specific danger on that Shabbos (ad loc., 10)
Rav Ya’akov Emden (18th cen., Germany;
She’eilas Ya’abetz 1:64) explains that we
should not daven for this-worldly needs
on Shabbos. Our words, discussions and
tefilahs on Shabbos should not be like those
during the week. On Shabbos we focus on
the sacred, the other-worldly. However, if
someone is dying, we have to help because of
the imperative of piku’ach nefesh. Believing
Jews accept that tefilah can help someone
who is sick. Therefore, if someone is dying,
we do whatever we can to heal him including
davening for him.
A similar discussion arose in the nineteenth
century. Rav Shalom Schwadron (Responsa
Maharsham, vol. 3 no. 224) tells the
following story: One time, the first Belzer
Rebbe, Rav Shalom Rokeach (d. 1855),
was away in Brody. On Shabbos, someone
in Belz became deathly ill so the dayan
permitted a gentile to write down the sick
man’s name and send a telegram to Brody
for the Belzer Rebbe to daven for the man’s
recovery. The dayan’s logic is clear. Because
he believed the Rebbe’s tefilahs could save
the dying man, he should be allowed to
violate a biblical prohibition. In this case,
he merely permitted a rabbinic prohibition.
However, the rabbi of Brody, Rav Shlomo
Kluger, was furious about this and insisted
the dayan could not longer rule on halachic
matters. First of all, we only violate Shabbos
for this-worldly cures. Additionally, that type
of action could lead to widespread disregard
for Shabbos observance. Interestingly, many
decades later, Rav Chaim Soloveitchik
(d. 1918) reportedly permitted sending a
telegram for a righteous person to daven on

behalf of someone deathly ill (Rav Hershel
Schachter, Nefesh Ha-Rav, p. 167).
III. Endless Mi She-Beirach’s
Despite all this, the custom has spread to say
a Mi She-Beirach even for someone who is not
in immediate danger. Rav Avraham Gombiner
(17th cen., Poland; Magen Avraham 288:14)
suggests that we are allowed to say that G-d
should consider this sick individual among all
the other sick Jews, thereby turning it into a
tefilah for the community’s needs rather the
individual’s. He also suggests say “Shabbos hi
mi-lizok u-refu’ah kerovah lavo, On Shabbos
we may not cry out but the healing will come
soon.” This phrase is supposed to turn our
tefilah into a non-tefilah, which is more than a
little questionable.
Rav Ya’akov Emden (ibid.) asks how we can
say Yekum Purkan Mi-Shmaya on Shabbos,
which is an extended tefilah for the material
success of our communal leaders, teachers and
volunteers. He suggests that this is a tefilah for
communal needs, which is allowed on Shabbos.
This seems similar to Magen Avraham’s first
answer that we turn the Mi She-Beirach into
a communal tefilah. However, Rav Emden
complains about the ridiculous amount of time

spent allowing everyone to make a Mi She-
Beirach for whomever they want even if not

deathly ill, which becomes a burden on the
community. Rav Moshe Feinstein (Iggeros
Moshe, Orach Chaim 1:105) says that you

normally are not allowed to say a Mi She-
Beirach except for some in immediate danger.

However, if someone deathly ill but not in

immediate danger asks you to say a Mi She-
Beirach for him, you should because failing to

do so may harm his spirits, which is physically
dangerous. But if he does not ask, you may
not say a Mi She-Beirach for him on Shabbos.
And yet, the custom is very lenient on this
issue, sometimes to the point of greatly
aggravating many of the people in attendance.
Some communities place limits on the Mi
She-Beirach or find a communal method to
reduce the time. Perhaps if the Mi She-Beirach
is a standard part of the service, it is allowed
to be said.
Returning to the question of soldiers, certainly
during wartime but even during times of
peace, some soldiers are in immediate danger.
For this reason alone, it should be permissible
to say a tefilah for IDF soldiers. Additionally,
the IDF as a whole protects a large Jewish
community. Therefore, a tefilah for the IDF
constitutes a communal need, not a personal.
Just like Yekum Purkan is allowed on Shabbos
because the community needs its leaders
and teachers, so too the Mi She-Beirach or
Tehillim for IDF soldiers ar allowed because
the community needs its soldiers.