Here is the 2008 revised English text of the prayer:
With my vote today I am ready and intending
to seek peace for this country, as it is written:
“Seek the peace of the city where I cause you to roam
and pray for her sake to Yah Hashem, for in her peace you all will have peace.”
May it be Your will that votes will be counted faithfully
and may You count 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 [for primaries: whomever we support] today
and may You erect 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 you help me to do good deeds and repair the world
with all my work, and with the deed which I pledge today [fill in your pledge]
on behalf of all creatures and in remembrance of the covenant of Noah’s waters
to protect and not destroy the earth and her plenitude.
May you give to us, to all the peoples of this country the strength and will
to pursue righteousness and to seek peace as one unity
to cause to flourish, throughout the world good life and peace
and fulfill for us the verse:
“May the pleasure of Adonai our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands for us, make the work of our hands endure.”
| Download the prayer (w/ full Hebrew)
If you can't pray in a voting booth, where can you pray? And where would you need more to pray?
This prayer is not only a plea to create a better future, and it's not about casting a winning vote. It also incorporates a pledge to do one thing to fix the world. The synchonicity between the end date of Noah's flood and the fall 2006 election inspired me to focus this prayer (which I first drafted in 1995) on tikun olam for the sake of all creation. This new version asks each person to make a pledge to do one act to protect the world for the sake of all life.
We need both to vote and to take action. What can you personally commit to doing that will move us toward a just and sustainable future? In the spirit of "Stop the Flood!", what can you start doing by the time we reach Passover (or equinox any spring holiday you observe) that can move us away from creating a tide of global warming and a flood of extinctions?
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