Yekum Purkan – Ask the Rabbi

Q. Why does the Yekum Purkan prayer (found in the Siddur before the prayer for the congregation) pray for the sages of Babylon? Are there any?

The version of Yekum Purkan in the Singer Siddur
A. For many centuries Babylon (modern Iraq) was a great and impressive centre of Jewish learning. The Babylonian Talmud is the most famous of its productions. The whole Jewish world gloried in the quality of the sages that were synonymous with that centre. Eventually it waned, but its traditions were transplanted as a result of migration to other places.

To pray for the sages of Babylon these days is a mark of respect for a great tradition and its exponents, but since the Singer prayerbook adds (as suggested by the German liturgical scholar, Seligmann Baer) a reference to sages wherever they are, it enables us to pray for the wellbeing of learning, teaching and spiritual leadership throughout the Jewish people.

This entry is filed under Ask The Rabbi, Prayer.

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