השיבה שופטינו כבראשונה
BRING BACK OUR JUDGES AS AT FIRST
‘כבראשונה’, ‘as at first’, connotes not only ‘first’ in time, but ‘first’ in importance as well (see Esther 1:14). The judges of old, our teachers and our leaders, were the ideal personalities to whom we look back with longing. Moshe, Aharon, Miriam, they are our models forever, and in their ways we will always walk. We thus beseech Hashem, “Please bring back our judges כבראשונה, as we had at first, at our best, for this is how we truly wish to be today as well.”