In honor of Presidents’ Day, Stuart Halpern considers a prayer uttered on George Washington’s behalf in 1784 at a New York City synagogue. Two key paragraphs of the Hebrew benediction, composed by Hendla Jochanan van Oettingen, read:
We cried unto God from our straits and from our troubles He brought us forth. And for us, a weak people, inhabiting the land, He in His goodness prospered our warfare. You have restored us our inheritance from the hands of aliens and strangers and given us back the joy of our heart. . . .
Hear the prayer of your firstborn son, your chosen people, who trust in your thirteen attributes of mercy, that they return not empty from before you, faithful sons of faithful believers in the thirteen principles of your Law. As you gave of your honor to David son of Jesse and to Solomon his son [whom] you gave wisdom greater than that of all men, so may you grant intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge to our lords, the rulers of these thirteen states.
Halpern observes:
It is a remarkable collection of allusions. Eight decades before President Abraham Lincoln would refer to Americans as God’s “almost-chosen people,” van Oettingen tied ancient Israel to the future of the United States, and invoked its two greatest kings, David and Solomon, as models of leadership for “our lords, the rulers of these thirteen states,” whom, the community prays, God will similarly support.
Read more on Jewish Review of Books: https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/american-jewry/15776/washingtons-saving-shield/