Memorial Prayers 1 - אב הרחמים

Following the Prayer for the Congregation and/or the Prayer for the Government, there is a מנהג in Eastern אשכנזי congregations to say a prayer in memory of martyrs. (Western אשכנזי congregations do so after אשרי, and that only twice a year: שבת חזון and the שבת before שבועות, where public memorial prayers are considered seasonally appropriate.) This prayer was probably written in response to the Crusades [1] (which would easily explain why ספרדי congregations don't say it at all, as they, by contrast, were experiencing the Golden Age around that juncture in history).

There are also specific joyous שבתות of the year where אב הרחמים is not said. While strictly speaking every congregation is entitled to establish their own מנהג, as there are not really any חיובים or איסורים one way or the other, nonetheless there are some basic guidelines given by the פוסקים, which we will present here:

1) We don't say אב הרחמים:

⦁ Wherever we don't say צדקתך צדק (itself a subject for its own article) by מנחה on שבת 

    ⦁ except תשעה באב

⦁ where there is a חתן present

⦁ where there is a ברית in shul 

    ⦁ except during ספירה, because the Crusades took place in that part of the year

        ⦁ unless ר"ח אייר is on שבת

        ⦁ Where ר"ח אב is on שבת is a מחלוקת מנהגים

    ⦁ on שבת מברכים (except during ספירה, as above)

2) We do say אב הרחמים all other weeks of the year (i.e. by default), including:

⦁ שבת מברכים חודש אב

⦁ The part of חודש ניסן that overlaps with ספירה

References:

רמא או"ח רפד, מ"א שם ס"ק ח, לבושי שרד שם ס"ק ט

[1] Hertz, Rabbi Herman J., The Authorized Daily Prayer Book (Bloch, 1951), pg. 511

The Prayer for the Government

Following the הפטורה and the Prayer for the Congregation on שבת morning, there is a מנהג in some congregations to say a תפלה on behalf of the government of the country in which one lives.

The source of this מנהג is ירמיה [1] who exhorts his listeners to seek the peace of the city to which they have been exiled and daven for it to Hashem, "for with its peace will be your peace".

Based on the above, רבי חנינא סגן הכהנים teaches that one should daven for the peace of the government, because if not for fear of the law, people would simply swallow each other alive (whether literally or figuratively). [2]

This exhortation includes not just the monarch themselves, but rather even the government as a whole, as is implied by רבי חנינא's language of 'מלכות' rather than מלך [3].

The reason why we should daven for the government is (not because of loyalty or patriotism per se, or because we necessarily agree with their political policies etc. but rather) because stability in society has a positive effect on all. To that end, we should daven for the government to have peace, for if the government is at peace, then society as a whole is at peace, and everyone benefits. [4]

Now, within the standard traditional text of the Prayer is a phrase asking for the downfall of the enemies of the monarch (monarchy being the most common form of government up until about a century ago), nevertheless we do not specifically mean his enemies in other countries against whom he may be waging war, because there may be fellow Jews in that country as well; rather, we mean the king's enemies in his own country (which, it is assumed, would not include any of our coreligionists). [5]

[1] כט:ז

[2] אבות ג:ב

[3] תפא"י שם אות ז

[4] ע"פ שם ושם אות יא

[5] מ"א או"ח רפד ס"ק ז, לבושי שרד שם, מחצית השקל שם