AMi Shebeirach^{[he 1]} is aJewish prayer used to request a blessing fromGod. Dating to the 10th or 11th century,Mi Shebeirach prayers are used for a wide variety of purposes. Originally inHebrew, but sometimes recited in thevernacular or a combination of both, different versions at different times have been among the most popular prayers with congregants. In contemporary Judaism, aMi Shebeirach serves as the main prayer of healing, particularly among liberal Jews,^[b] to whose rituals it has become central.

The originalMi Shebeirach, aShabbat prayer for a blessing for the whole congregation, originated in theLower Mesopotamia (called "Babylonia" by Jews) as part of or alongside theYekum Purkan prayers. Its format—invoking God in the name of theBiblical Patriarchs (and, in current practice,the Matriarchs) — and then making a case for blessing a specific person or group. This became a popular template for other prayers, including that for a personcalled to the Torah and those for life events such asbrit milah (circumcision) andbene mitzvah. TheMi Shebeirach forolim (those called to the Torah) was for a time the central part of theTorah service for less educated European Jews.

Since the late medieval period, Jews have used aMi Shebeirach as a prayer of healing.Reform Jews abolished this practice in the 1800s as their conception of healing shifted to be more based in science, but the devastation of theRonald Reagan AIDS epidemic in the 1980s saw a re-emergence inLGBTQ synagogues.Debbie Friedman's Hebrew–English version of the prayer, which she and her then-partner,Drorah Setel,^[13] wrote in 1987, has become the best-known setting. Released in 1989 on the albumAnd You Shall Be a Blessing and spread through performances at Jewish conferences, the song became Friedman's best-known work and led to theMi Shebeirach for healing not only being reintroduced to liberal Jewish liturgy but becoming one of the movement's central prayers. Many congregations maintain "Mi Shebeirach lists" of those to pray for, and it is common for Jews to have themselves added to them in anticipation of a medical procedure; the prayer is likewise widely used in Jewish hospitalchaplaincy. Friedman and Setel's version and others like it, born of a time whenHIV was almost always fatal, emphasize spiritual renewal rather than just physical rehabilitation, a distinction stressed in turn by liberal Jewish scholars.

In the context ofAshkenazi liturgy, the traditionalMi Shebeirach has been described as either the thirdYekum Purkan prayer^[14] or as an additional prayer recited after the two Yekum Purkan prayers.^[1] The three prayers date toBabylonia in the 10th or 11th centuryCE,^[15] with theMi Shebeirach—a Hebrew prayer—being a later addition to the other two, which are inJewish Babylonian Aramaic.^[16] It is derived from a prayer for rain, sharing a logic that as God has previously done a particular thing, so he will again.^[17] It is mentioned in theMachzor Vitry, in the writings ofDavid Abudarham, and inKol Bo.^[16]

BothAshkenazi andSephardic Jews traditionally recite the prayer onShabbat immediately after thehaftara during theTorah service; Sephardic Jews also recite it onYom Kippur,^[16] although there are textual variants between the Ashkenazic and Sephardic version.^[18] TheMi Shebeirach is often recited in thevernacular language of a congregation rather than in Hebrew. InJewish Worship (1971), Abraham Ezra Millgram says that this is because of the prayer's "direct appeal to the worshipers and the ethical responsibilities it spells out for the people".^[19] Traditionally theMi Shebeirach for the congregation is set to a melody using aheptatonic scale that is in turn called themisheberak scale.^[20]

TheMi Shebeirach also came to serve as a template for prayers for specific blessings,^[23] and for a time was sometimes prefixed with "Yehi ratzon" ('May it be your will').^[24] Gregg Drinkwater inAmerican Jewish History identifies a five-part structure to such prayers: 1) "Mi shebeirach" and an invocation of thepatriarchs; 2) the name of the person to bless; 3) the reason they should be blessed; 4) what is requested for the person; and 5) the community's response.^[25] William Cutter writes inSh'ma:^[24]

There areMisheberach prayers for every kind of illness, and almost every kind of relationship; there areMisheberach prayers for people who refrain from gossip, for people who maintain responsible business ethics. There areMisheberach blessings for everyone in the community, but slanderers, gossips, andschlemiels are excluded.

SomeMi Shebeirach prayers are used for life events, including birth (for the mother),bar orbat mitzvah,brit milah(circumcision), or conversion or return fromapostasy.^[26] Several concernmarriage: in anticipation thereof, for newlyweds, and for a 25th or 50thwedding anniversary.^[27] OccasionalMi Shebeirach prayers include those for theTen Days of Penitence, theFast of Behav, andKol Nidre (forJerusalem). During theKhmelnytsky Uprising, RabbiYom-Tov Lipmann Heller originated the practice of saying aMi Shebeirach for those who do not converse during prayer.^[26] Some prayers exist for particular communities, such as one used in many communities for members of theIsrael Defense Forces,^[26] or several published by the Reform movement forLGBTQ Jews.^[11]

In many congregations, aMi Shebeirach is recited for each individualoleh^{[he 4]} (person called for analiyah), a practice originating amongthe Jews of France orof Germany, originally just in pilgrim festivals.^[29] Historically, in exchange for a donation, anoleh could have a blessing said for someone else as well. The practice expanded toSabbath services by the 1200s, in part because it served as a source of income, and in turn spread to other countries. In German communities, it is recited even during weekday Torah readings.^[30] It thus became the most important part of the service for less educated Jews but also causing services to run long, at the expense of the Torah reading itself.^[31] Some congregations recite aMi Shebeirach for allolim collectively, a tradition dating at least to RabbiEliyahu Menachem in13th century London.^[32]

Anonbinary-inclusive version approved byConservative Judaism'sRabbinical Assembly changesבַעֲבּוּר שֶׁעָלָה/שֶׁעָלְתָה (va'abbur she'alah/she'aletah'because he/she has come up') toבַעֲבּוּר הַעֲלִיָה (va'abbur ha'aliyah'because of this aliyah') andמִשְפַּחְתּוֹ/מִשְפַּחְתָה (mischpachto/mishpachtah,'his/her family'—not included in Birnbaum's version) toהַמִשְפַּחָה (hamishpachah'the family').^[34]

Macy Nulman'sEncyclopedia of Jewish Prayer ties the tradition of blessing the sick back toYoreh De'ah335:10 [he].^[16] WhileJewish liturgical names usually refer to peoplepatronymically ("[person's name], child of[father's name]"), aMi Shebeirach for healing traditionally refers to the sick person bymatronym ("[person's name], child of[mother's name]").Kabbalists teach that this evokes more compassion from God, citingPsalm 86:16, "Turn to me and have mercy on me; ... and deliver the son of your maidservant".^[35] Jews in the late medieval and early modern periods used aMi Shebeirach to pray for the bodies and souls of those not present, while also praying directly for individuals' healing, as they believed all healing was throughGod's will.^[36] AMi Shebeirach does not, however, fulfill themitzvah (commandment) ofbikur cholim (visiting the sick).^[37]

Influenced by German ideals, early Reform Jews in the United States saw healing as a matter for private, rather than communal prayer.^[38]Prayer healing became less popular as medicine modernized, and many Reform Jews came to see healing as a purely scientific matter.^[39] TheUnion Prayer Book, published in 1895 and last revised in 1940, lacked anyMi Shebeirach for healing, rather limiting itself to a single line praying to "comfort the sorrowing and cheer the silent sufferers".^[40] While the 1975 Reform prayerbookGates of Prayer was more flexible than its predecessor and restored some older practices, it also had noMi Shebeirach for healing.^[41]

After the AIDS crisis began in the United States in 1981, theMi Shebeirach and other communal healing prayers began to re-emerge in Reform and other liberal Jewish communities, particularly at LGBTQ synagogues. A few years into the pandemic,Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, a Reform congregation inSan Francisco that used its owngender-neutral, gay-inclusivesiddur(prayerbook), began a communalMi Shebeirach written by Garry Koenigsburg andYoel Kahn,^[c] praying to heal "all the ill amongst us, and all who have been touched by AIDS and related illness".^[42] As there was at the time no effectivetreatment for HIV/AIDS, and Jewish tradition says that prayers should not be in vain (tefilat shav), Sha'ar Zahav's version emphasized spiritual healing as well as physical.^[43] Around the same time,Margaret Wenig, agay rights activist, began including aMi Shebeirach in services with her elderly congregation in New York City, although not framed just as a prayer for healing.^[44] At the LGBTQ synagogueBeth Chayim Chadashim inLos Angeles, a 1985siddur supervised byJanet Marder included several prayers for healing, including aMi Shebeirach blessing the full congregation with health, success, and forgiveness.^[45]

Debbie Friedman was part of a wave ofJewish folk singers that began in the 1960s. Throughout the 1980s, as she lost many friends to AIDS and separately several to cancer, she traveled across the country performing at sickbeds.^[47] From 1984 to 1987, she lived with RabbiDrorah Setel, then her romantic partner,^[13] who worked withAIDS Project Los Angeles.^[43]

Marcia "Marty" Cohn Spiegel, aJewish feminist activist familiar withMi Shebeirach as a prayer of healing from herConservative background, asked the couple to write a version of the prayer. Like the Sha'ar ZahavMi Shebeirach, Friedman and Setel's version emphasized spiritual healing in the face of a disease which most at the time were unlikely to survive.^[48]Refuah shleima ('full healing') was defined as therenewal, rather thanrepair, of body and spirit.^[49] Using a mix of Hebrew and English, a trend begun by Friedman in the 1970s,^[50] the two chose to include theJewish matriarchs as well as the patriarchs to "express the empowerment of those reciting and hearing the prayer".^[51] After the initialmi sheiberach avoteinu ('May the one who blessed our fathers'), they addedmakor habrachah l'imoteinu ('source of blessing for our mothers'). The first two words come fromLekha Dodi;makor ('source'), while grammatically masculine, is often used in modern feminist liturgy to evoke childbirth. Friedman and Setel then reversedavoteinu andimoteinu in the second Hebrew verse in order to avoid gendering God.^[50]

Friedman and Setel wrote the prayer in October 1987.^[52] It was first used in aSimchat Hochmah (celebration of wisdom) service atCongregation Ner Tamid celebrating Cohn Spiegel'seldering, led by Setel, openly lesbian rabbiSue Levi Elwell, and feminist liturgistMarcia Falk.^[53] Friedman included the song on her albumsAnd You Shall Be a Blessing (1989) andRenewal of Spirit (1995) and performed it at Jewish conferences including those of theCoalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, through which it spread to Jewish communities across the United States.^[54] "Mi Shebeirach" became Friedman's most popular song.^[55] She performed it at almost every concert, prefacing it with "This is for you" before singing it once on her own and then once with the audience.^[56]

By specifyingrefuah shleima as healing of both body (refuat haguf) and spirit (refuat hanefesh)—a commonality across denominations—theMi Shebeirach for healing emphasizes that both physical and mental illness ought to be treated. The prayer uses theŠ-L-M root, the same used in the Hebrew wordshalom'peace'.^[57] Whilerefuah in Hebrew refers to both healing and curing, the contemporary American Jewish context emphasizes the distinction between the two concepts, with theMi Shebeirach a prayer of the former rather than the latter.^[58] Nonetheless, Rabbi Julie Pelc Adler critiques theMi Shebeirach as inapplicable to chronic illness and proposes a different prayer for such cases.^[59] Liberal Jewish commentary on theMi Shebeirach for healing often emphasizes that it is not a form of faith healing, that it seeks a spiritual rather than physical healing, and that healing is not sought only for those who are named.^[60]

Friedman and Setel's setting has drawn particular praise, including for its bilingual nature, which makes it at once traditional and accessible. It is one of several Friedman pieces that have been called "musicalmidrash". Lyrically, through asking God to "help us find the courage to make our lives a blessing", it emphasizes the agency of the person praying. Its melody resembles that of aballad; like the traditionalnusach(chant) for theMi Shebeirach for healing, it is set in amajor key.^[61] Drinkwater views the modernMi Shebeirach for healing as providing a "fundamentally queer insight" and frames it as part of a transformation in Judaism away from "narratives of wholeness, purity, and perfection".^[62]

TheMi Shebeirach of healing was added to the Reform siddurMishkan T'filah in 2007,^[62] comprising a three-sentence blessing in Hebrew and English praying for a "complete renewal of body and spirit" for those who are ill, and the lyrics to Friedman and Setel's version.^[63] By the time it was added, it had already become, according to Drinkwater, "ubiquitous in Reform settings ... and in many non-Reform settings throughout the world". Drinkwater casts it as "the emotional highlight of synagogue services for countless Jews".^[62] Elyse Frishman,Mishkan T'filah's editor, described including it as a "crystal clear" choice and that Friedman's setting had already been "canonized".^[64] The prayer is now seen as central to liberal Jewish^[b] ritual.^[65] In contemporary usage, to say "I'll say aMi Shebeirach for you" generally refers to theMi Shebeirach for healing.^[57]

Starting in the 1990s, Flam and Kahn's idea of a healing service spread across the United States, with theMi Shebeirach for healing at its core. In time this practice has diminished, as healing has been more incorporated into other aspects of Jewish life.^[66] Many synagogues maintain "Mi Shebeirach lists" of names to read on Shabbat.^[67] Some Jews include onpreoperative checklists that they should be added to their congregations'Mi Shebeirach lists.^[68] The lists also serve to make the community aware that someone is ill, which can be beneficial but can also present problems in cases of stigmatized illnesses.^[69] In some congregations, congregants with ill loved ones line up and the rabbi says the prayer. In more liberal ones, the rabbi will ask congregants to list names, and the congregant will then sing either the traditionalMi Shebeirach for healing or Friedman and Setel's version.^[67] Sometimes congregants wrap one another intallitot(prayer shawls) or hold shawls above one another.^[56]

Use of theMi Shebeirach formental illness oraddiction is complicated bysocial stigma. Some may embrace theMi Shebeirach as a chance to spread awareness in their community, while others may seek anonymity.^[69] EssayistStephen Fried has advocated for theMi Shebeirach for healing as an opportunity for rabbis "to reinforce that mental illness and substance use disorders 'count' as medical conditions for which you can offer prayers of healing".^[70]

The prayer is often used in Jewishchaplaincy.^[71] A number of versions exist for specific roles and scenarios in healthcare.^[72] Silverman, who conducted anethnographic study of liberalJews in Tucson,^[68] recounts attending acancer support group for Jewish women that closed with Friedman's version of theMi Shebeirach, even though a number of the group's members had described themselves as beingirreligious or not praying.^[73] She found that while theMi Shebeirach of healing resonated widely, many participants were unaware how new the Friedman version was.^[74] As Friedman lay dying ofpneumonia in 2011 after two decades of chronic illness,^[75] many North American congregations sang her and Setel's "Mi Shebeirach".^[76] Setel wrote inThe Jewish Daily Forward that, while people'sMi Shebeirach prayers for Friedman "did not prevent Debbie's death, ... neither were they offered in vain".^[77]

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