Why we pray for the Queen

Further references to a prayer for the ruler and state are also found in Megillat Ta’anit, a classic rabbinical work, with reference to Alexander the Great, as well as pre-expulsion siddurim. By the mid 14th century, the timing for the prayer’s recitation was fixed although there were variations in its wording.

“It is the custom to ask for a blessing on the King,” expressed Abudarham in his work on Jewish liturgy in 14th-century Spain. While he links it to Jeremiah’s advice to pray for the peace of the city, he also relates it to a request that “God enables the King to vanquish one’s enemies”.

With specific regard to a prayer for the English royal household, it is interesting to note that in 1642 at the Amsterdam Synagogue, although Jews still remain officially barred from England, a prayer was recited but was also preceded by a prayer for the Dutch rulers.

In the History of the Rites, Customs and Manner of Life of the Present Jews throughout the World, printed in 1650, Leon Modena mentions the first English version of the prayer, whose wording is similar to today’s prayer. “They pray to God that He would preserve him in peace and quietness, and that He would prosper him and make him great and powerful and that He would also make him favourable and kind to their nation.”

When in 1655, Manasseh ben Israel issued The Humble Addresses to his Highnesses, the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, for the re-admission of the Jews to Britain, he argued that they would be both profitable and faithful to King and country.

He described how “the Jews from all places come together to the synagogue, after the benediction of the Holy Law, before the minister of the synagogue blesses the people of the Jews; with a loud voice, he blesses the prince of the country under who they live, that all the Jews may hear it and say Amen.”

When the printing of siddurim become commonplace in 1801 for the newly arrived German and Polish populations, the current version of the prayer was finally fixed.

In the same year as King George III’s Jubilee and in the presence of the Dukes of Cambridge, Cumberland and Sussex at their visit to the Great Synagogue in London, the newly published edition of the siddur contained the words calling for the “blessing, preserving, guarding, assisting, exalting and highly aggrandising of King George the Third, Queen Charlotte and their children”. Being one of the only prayers to be recited in English, it would been particularly distinctive and understandable.

This memorable format and the wording have been maintained as a weekly feature within Shabbat morning services in most British Jewish denominations ever since, with the current royal family having witnessed its recitation on several occasions.

The only time students have exposure to the Prayer for the Royal Family in school time is during a school Shabbaton. Yet if we are to ensure our pupils understand the uniqueness of the monarchy in Judaism, perhaps schools should include it on Rosh Chodesh or at special tefillah gatherings.

Nic Abery works on primary projects and leadership development for PaJeS. She has just begun a year-long fellowship with M², the Institute for Experiential Jewish Education