Jewish Prayers for the Welfare of Non-Jews and All Humanity

Jewish liturgical practice extends well beyond petitions for the Jewish community itself. For centuries, it has been standard synagogue practice to recite a formal prayer for the welfare of the local government and country — whichever nation the congregation happens to live in — asking God to grant its leaders and inhabitants peace, wisdom, and prosperity, regardless of whether that country's population is Jewish.

A Principle Rooted in Rabbinic Teaching

This practice traces back to a foundational teaching in the Mishna:

"Pray for the welfare of the government, for without fear of it, people would swallow each other alive." (Mishna, Avoth 3:2)

This teaching recognizes civil order itself — regardless of who governs — as a good worth actively praying for, because its absence brings suffering to everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike. Over the centuries, this developed into a formal, recurring feature of synagogue liturgy across the Jewish world: a dedicated prayer for the government and people of whatever country a Jewish community called home.

Beyond the Local Government: Prayers for the World

Jewish liturgy does not stop at the borders of the country a community lives in. Many communities incorporate broader prayers seeking peace, prosperity, and an end to war and suffering for all of humanity — an expression of the same principle, known in Jewish law as “ways of peace”, that also motivates the specific acts of kindness toward non-Jews codified elsewhere in Jewish law. The same universal concern was demonstrated ritually each year in the ancient Temple offerings made on behalf of the nations of the world during Sukkoth.