Guide
Early Communal Penitential Prayers
2nd Century BCE–1st Century CE
Restricted
By Carol Bakhos
Like personal penitential prayers, communal penitential prayers are characterized by self-abasement and pleas for God’s mercy. Recited by or on behalf of the community, they share a theme of collective guilt and punishment.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
Prayer of Confession
When Israel was taken into exile to a foreign country,
when they neglected the Lord, who had redeemed them,
they were expelled…
Primary Source
Divrei ha-me’orot (Words of the Luminaries)
Words of the Luminaries