Tefillah liRefuat Petzuei haMilchamah — Prayer for the Healing of Soldiers and Civilians Wounded in War
This prayer calls upon God — described as the faithful Healer — to grant full recovery of body and soul to soldiers and civilians wounded in war. It draws on ancient biblical verses associated with healing and weaves them into a sustained plea for restoration and renewed life. The prayer is suited for recitation in synagogue, at home, or at any moment when one seeks to lift up the wounded before God. Whatever your faith or background, you are welcome to add your voice to this prayer.
A prayer for the healing of soldiers and civilians wounded in war
May it be Your will, Adonai our God and God of our forefathers,
Father of Compassion, faithful God,
Who heals all the afflictions of Your people Israel,
Who binds up cure and remedy,
Who redeems Your faithful ones from the pit
and saves the souls of Your servants from death —
You, the faithful Healer,
send forth in Your abundant mercy and kindness
a complete healing and full restoration
to our brothers and sisters wounded in war
who lie upon a bed of suffering.
Heal them with a complete healing,
healing of the body and healing of the soul,
and fill them with compassion —
to restore them and heal them,
to strengthen them and sustain them,
and renew their youth like the eagle.
Heal them, Adonai, and they shall be healed;
save them and they shall be saved;
and bring full restoration and healing
to all their pains and all their wounds,
for You are God, King, faithful and merciful Healer.
O God, please heal them,
together with all the sick of Your people Israel,
and fulfill in them the verse that is written:
"You shall serve Adonai your God, and He will bless your bread and your water,
and I will remove sickness from your midst,"
and the verse that is written:
"Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up swiftly."
Grant them long life,
a life of peace,
a life of health,
as it is written: Length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.
Amen and amen.
Tefillah lirefuat hachayalim veha-ezrachim petzuei hamilchamah
Yehi ratzon milfanecha, Adonai Eloheinu vEilohei avoteinu,
Av haRachamim, ha-El haNe-eman,
haRofeh lechol tachalui amecha Yisrael,
haMechabesh mazor uteualah
ugoel mishachat chasidav
umatzil mimavet nafshot avadav —
Atah haRofeh haNe-eman,
shlach berov rachamecha vachasadecha
refuah shlemah veha-aleh aruchah
le-acheinu ve-achyoteinu petzuei hamilchamah
hashechavim al eresh devai.
Refa-em birefuah shlemah,
refuat haguf verefuat hanefesh,
utmaleh rachamim aleihem
lehachlimam ulrefotam,
lehachazikam ulhachayotam,
vitechadesh kenesher ne-ureihem.
Refa-em Adonai veyeraphe-u,
hoshi-em veyivash-eu,
vehe-aleh aruchah urefuah
lechol mach-oveihem umakoteihem,
ki El Melech rofeh ne-eman verachaman Atah.
El na refa na lahem
yachad im kol cholei amecha Yisrael,
vekayem bahem mikra shekatuv:
"Va-avadtem et Adonai Eloheichem
uverach et lachmecha ve-et meimecha
vehaseirati machalah mikirbekha,"
umikra shekatuv:
"Az yibaka kashachar orecha
ve-aruchatecha meherah titzmach."
Veten lahem chayyim aruchim,
chayyim shel shalom,
chayyim shel bri-ut,
kakatuv: orech yamim veshnot chayyim veshalom yosifu lach.
Amen ve-amen.
Common Questions
'Refuah shlemah' (רְפוּאָה שְׁלֵמָה) means 'complete healing' or 'full recovery.' The repetition is deliberate and liturgical — it functions like a drumbeat of hope, pressing the request before God with urgency and persistence. Jewish prayer often uses repetition not as redundancy but as intensification, the way a person in genuine distress might say the same thing again and again until heard.
The prayer cites three biblical passages. 'You shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst' comes from Exodus 23:25. 'Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up swiftly' is from Isaiah 58:8. 'Length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you' echoes Proverbs 3:2. Each verse carries a long history of use in Jewish healing contexts.
'El na refa na lahem' — 'O God, please heal them' — is one of the oldest healing cries in the Torah. Moses spoke almost these exact words when his sister Miriam was stricken with illness: 'El na refa na lah' ('O God, please heal her,' Numbers 12:13). By echoing Moses's five-word prayer, the author of this petition places the wounded within the same story of divine compassion that has run through Jewish experience for millennia.
Jewish tradition understands the human person as an inseparable unity of body and soul, and war inflicts wounds on both. A soldier or civilian who survives physical injury may carry trauma, grief, and spiritual rupture that linger long after wounds close. The phrase 'refuat haguf verefuat hanefesh' — healing of the body and healing of the soul — reflects this holistic understanding, and asks God to address the whole person, not only the visible damage.
Yes. The prayer is addressed to God as the universal Healer, and its longing — that the wounded be restored, that suffering be answered with compassion — belongs to no single faith. Non-Jewish readers will notice that the prayer explicitly names 'Your people Israel' and asks for healing 'together with all the sick of Your people Israel.' These are authentic expressions of Jewish faith and have not been altered. A non-Jewish reader may recite this prayer as an act of solidarity, holding those words as a window into the particular story of a people while adding their own heart's intention for all who suffer in war.
The phrase 'yechadesh ke-nesher ne'ureihem' — 'renew their youth like the eagle' — comes from Psalm 103:5, a psalm suffused with themes of healing, forgiveness, and divine compassion. In biblical imagery the eagle represented vitality and soaring strength. The verse envisions not merely survival but genuine renewal: the wounded returning not to a diminished life but to the full energy and possibility of youth. It is a radical, generous hope, and its inclusion here signals that the prayer asks for more than bare recovery.