Tefillah Summary: Week 23

וקבצנו יחד
AND GATHER US TOGETHER

We add in the word “together”. We are asking Hashem to help us succeed in the great test of living with each other harmoniously, so that the ingathering could be forever, with perfect and enduring unity.
 
מארבע כנפות הארץ
FROM THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH
Hashem will gather us together from even the most remote corners of the earth. And despite our many differences that we acquired there, we will yet succeed in living together as one, in perfect concord.
 
ברוך אתה ה’ מקבץ נדחי עמו ישראל
BLESSED ARE YOU HASHEM THAT GATHERS THE DISPERSED OF HIS PEOPLE YISROEL
Even the ‘dispersed’, those who have become lost (unwilfully) among the nations and don’t even realize that they are in exile – even they You will gather in, for they too are עמך ישראל, “Your people Yisroel”.

השיבה שופטינו כבראשונה
BRING BACK OUR JUDGES AS AT FIRST
‘כבראשונה’ connotes not only ‘first’ in time, but ‘first’ in importance as well. Thus we ask, “Please bring back our judges` as we had at first, at our best, for this is how we truly wish to be today as well.”