A Prayer for Israel

Shabbat Chazon- The Sabbath of Vision

Parashat Devarim · Deuteronomy 1:1–3:22 · Isaiah 1:1–27
Tuesday, July 14, 2026 · 29 Tammuz 5786

This coming Saturday is Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision — named for Isaiah’s vision that we read as the Haftarah, and the last and most solemn Shabbat before Tisha b’Av, which begins at sundown on Wednesday, July 22. It is a heavy week. Yet both of our readings end in hope: Moses tells Israel, “Do not fear — Adonai your God fights for you,” and Isaiah promises that Zion shall be redeemed. We share this prayer as we come to Shabbat together, lifting up Israel and looking to Yeshua our Messiah, in whom mourning is turned to comfort.

Avinu Malkeinu, our Father and our King — on this Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision, we gather beneath the shadow of the Ninth of Av, and we lift our eyes to You, the Holy One of Israel.

Moses set before Israel the words he had carried forty years, and reminded her how You bore her through the wilderness as a man carries his son, all the way until she came to this place. Carry Your people still, Adonai. Do not let go of Israel.

He charged the judges of Israel to hear small and great alike, to show no partiality, and to fear no man, for judgment belongs to God. Raise up such leaders in our day — men and women of clean hands and honest hearts — and grant them wisdom, discernment, and humility before You.

Through Your prophet Isaiah You cried, Eichah — how the faithful city has become unfaithful, and we hear in that word the lament of Jerusalem’s ruin. Yet in the same breath You promised: though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Wash us, Adonai. Cleanse Your people. Restore what is broken.

Be a shield about Israel in this hour. Where the peace of nations is signed and then shaken, where alarms sound, and families take shelter, and the wounded cry out, guard the Land and her people, comfort the grieving, bring the captive and the scattered safely home, and set Your peace over Jerusalem, the city of Your delight.

For You have said: Do not fear them, for Adonai your God — He is the One who fights for you. And You have promised: Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and she shall be called the faithful city once again.

So on this Sabbath of Vision, give us eyes to see: Yeshua our Messiah, the Righteous Judge and the Prince of Peace, who wept over Jerusalem and longed to gather her children; whose blood makes the scarlet white as snow. Reveal Him to Your people Israel, and to all the nations, and hasten the day when He returns to reign from Zion, when mourning is turned to comfort, and the ruined places sing.

*B’Shem Yeshua*