Jewish prayers of healing and memory
Mi Sheberach for the sick, and El Malei Rachamim for the dead.
The Mi Shebeirach asks blessing and strength for the sick, offered by name in many congregations during the Torah service and also usable at a bedside. Its counterpart in loss is El Malei Rachamim, a chant asking rest for the soul of someone who has died, heard at funerals, gravestone unveilings, and Yizkor memorial services held four times a year.
The Mi Sheberach asks blessing and strength for the sick, offered by name during the Torah reading in many congregations and equally usable at a bedside. It asks for refuah shleimah, a complete healing, understood to cover both body and soul.
Its counterpart in loss is El Malei Rachamim, a chant asking rest for the soul of someone who has died. It is heard at funerals, at gravestone unveilings, and at the Yizkor memorial services held four times a year.
Both name the person, which is what makes them land, and what makes them hard to hear.
Does it have a text?
Both have fixed texts that vary between prayer books and movements, and neither is printed here. Each has its own page setting out what stands in the way, and it is not what this page used to say. Neither is in the 1904 edition of Singer's prayer book, which was opened and searched, so for both there is simply no public-domain edition to cite yet.
When it comes up
Other forms of prayer in Judaism
- Nichum avelim: what Jews say when someone dies — The Jewish practice of comforting mourners, and the two fixed phrases that carry it: Baruch Dayan HaEmet on hearing of a death, and HaMakom yenachem etchem said to the bereaved.
- Shacharit, Mincha and Maariv — The three daily Jewish services, and the fixed liturgy each one follows.
- The Shema — Less a petition than a declaration, and the prayer that bookends a Jewish day and a Jewish life.
- The Amidah — The standing prayer at the centre of every Jewish service.
- Kaddish — An Aramaic praise of God's name that marks the joints of every service, and that mourners recite.
- Berakhot — The short fixed blessings said over food, drink and ordinary acts.
This page describes a practice. It does not tell you how to perform it, or whether you should. Practice varies by region, community and household far more than a page like this can carry, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed anything here. The full dossier names its sources.
Content last changed 15 October 2026. Dates come from this page’s own revision history, not from the last time the site was deployed.