Tefilah: Waking Up Jewish

The Fourteenth Blessing: Jerusalem and Redemption

“And to Jerusalem, Your city, may You return in compassion, and may You rest within it, as You have spoken. May You rebuild it soon in our days as an eternal structure, and may You speedily establish the throne of David within it. Blessed are You, Hashem, the builder of Jerusalem.”

The fourteenth blessing of Shemoneh Esrei asks Hashem to rebuild Jerusalem. It follows the blessing for the reward of the righteous, for when Jerusalem returns to its original splendor the righteous will once again be raised to their rightful status (Megilla 17b).

As a general rule, every long blessing mentions something related to the theme of the blessing before its conclusion. In this blessing, we finish with a request that King David’s throne should be speedily established. How does this request fit into the above rule?

In our own era, we have been privileged to see the physical rebuilding and resettling of Jerusalem. Unfortunately, it is still a far cry from the Torah’s vision of the Holy City. The wording of this blessing stresses the undying connection between the return of the kingship of David and the true rebuilding of Jerusalem (Bach 118,2).

Text Copyright © 2010 by Rabbi Daniel Travis and Torah.org