When illness strikes, the Jewish tradition has never left its people without words.
For centuries, Jewish communities have gathered around the sick, around Torah scrolls, and around hospital beds, and they have prayed with precision: naming the person, invoking the ancestors, and asking God for what the tradition calls refuah shleimah, complete healing.
This post explains that tradition, unpacks what it means, and provides 12 powerful Jewish prayers and texts for healing and recovery that believers can carry into their own moments of need.
The Heart of the Tradition: What Healing Means in Judaism
Refuah Shleimah: Two Kinds of Healing in One Phrase
The Hebrew phrase refuah shleimah is the center of Jewish healing prayer.
It translates as “complete healing” or “full recovery,” but those English words flatten something the Hebrew is doing.
Refuah means healing, from a root connected to medicine and restoration.
Shleimah comes from shalom, the same root as Jerusalem, and carries the sense of wholeness, completeness, and peace.
When the tradition asks for refuah shleimah, it is not asking only for the body to recover. It is asking for the whole person to be restored.
The full phrase used in traditional prayer is refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf: healing of the soul and healing of the body.
Judaism recognizes what medicine still sometimes struggles to articulate: that illness wounds the person at more than one level, and that healing must address more than one wound.
The Word for Prayer Carries Its Own Theology
The Hebrew word for prayer, tefillah, comes from the root hitpallel, which originally meant to judge oneself or examine oneself.
Prayer in the Jewish tradition is not simply asking God for things. It is also the act of turning inward, reorienting yourself before the God who sees everything.
This is why healing prayer in Judaism is never merely transactional. It is an act of relationship, a return to the One who created the body being healed.
The Mi Sheberach: The Primary Jewish Prayer for Healing
What the Name Means
The best-known Jewish prayer for healing is called the Mi Sheberach, named for its opening words in Hebrew: Mi Sheberach avoteinu, “May the One who blessed our ancestors.”
The prayer invokes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, connecting the person in need of healing to the entire chain of covenant relationship stretching back to the beginning of the Jewish story.
It is not simply appealing to God. It is appealing to God within the framework of his ongoing faithfulness to his people.
When and How It Is Recited
The Mi Sheberach is traditionally recited during the Torah service on Shabbat and holidays, and on Mondays and Thursdays when the Torah is read publicly.
The connection to the Torah reading is intentional. The moment when the Torah is open is considered a moment of heightened divine presence and particular receptivity to blessing.
To request a Mi Sheberach, the person is identified by their Hebrew name combined with their mother’s Hebrew name, for example, “Miriam daughter of Devorah.”
The use of the mother’s name reflects the tradition that spiritual essence is conveyed through the mother, and that in seeking divine mercy, one identifies the person with the greatest possible precision before God.
The Text of the Mi Sheberach
The traditional text reads:
May the One who blessed our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah bless and heal the one who is ill: [name] son/daughter of [mother’s name]. May the Holy Blessed One be filled with compassion for their health to be restored and their strength to be revived. May God swiftly send them a complete recovery, healing of the soul and healing of the body, among all those who are ill, speedily and soon, and let us say: Amen.
The congregational “Amen” is essential. It makes the prayer communal.
The sick person is not prayed at from a distance. The entire community wraps its voice around the one who is suffering.
12 Powerful Jewish Prayers for Healing and Recovery
1. The Classical Mi Sheberach
The foundational text quoted above. It is the starting point for any Jewish healing practice, suitable for recitation in synagogue, at a hospital bedside, or in private.
2. Psalm 6: A Cry from the Sickbed
This psalm is one of the most direct expressions of illness and petition in all of Scripture.
“Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, LORD, how long? Turn, LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.” (Psalm 6:2–4)
It has been recited over the sick for millennia because it names the experience honestly before it asks for deliverance.
3. Psalm 23: The Valley That Has an Other Side
Psalm 23 is universally known, but its particular power for the sick lies in this verse:
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)
The valley is not the destination. The Lord is present within it, and the path leads through.
4. Psalm 103: The Healer of All Your Diseases
This psalm names God’s healing activity as a covenant characteristic, not a special exception.
“Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.” (Psalm 103:2–4)
5. Psalm 30: The Testimony of the One Who Was Healed
Psalm 30 is traditionally associated with recovery from serious illness and is a voice for those on the other side of the valley.
“LORD my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. You, LORD, brought me up from the realm of the dead; you spared me from going down to the pit.” (Psalm 30:2–3)
6. Psalm 91: The Protective Shelter
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'” (Psalm 91:1–2)
This psalm is recited specifically for protection during times of danger and for those whose lives are at risk through illness or crisis.
7. Psalm 121: The Keeper Who Does Not Sleep
“My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip; he who watches over you will not slumber.” (Psalm 121:2–3)
For those in long illness who fear being forgotten, this psalm insists that the divine attention does not flicker.
8. The Amidah Blessing for Healing
The weekday Amidah prayer contains a specific blessing for healing called Refaeinu, the eighth blessing:
“Heal us, LORD, and we shall be healed; save us and we shall be saved, for You are our praise. Grant complete recovery for all our ailments, for You, God and King, are a faithful and merciful healer. Blessed are You, LORD, the Healer of the sick of His people Israel.”
This prayer is recited three times daily in traditional Jewish practice.
9. Psalm 41: For Those Who Care for the Sick
“Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble. The LORD will protect him and preserve his life.” (Psalm 41:1–2)
This psalm is for those who sit beside the sick, the caregivers, the family members, the nurses, who need their own blessing.
10. Moses’s Prayer for Miriam (Numbers 12:13)
When Miriam was struck with illness, Moses prayed the shortest healing prayer in the Torah:
“Please, God, please heal her!” (Numbers 12:13)
Five Hebrew words. El na refa na la. The brevity is not poverty. It is desperation refined to its essence, and God heard it.
11. Psalm 147: God Who Heals the Brokenhearted
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3)
This verse holds together the physical and emotional dimensions of healing that refuah shleimah demands. The binding of wounds is gentle, attentive work.
12. A Prayer for Inner Healing
Jewish tradition also holds prayers for healing that are not about the body alone. This traditional meditation can be offered for one in spiritual distress:
“May it be Your will, LORD our God and God of our ancestors, that You send speedily a complete healing from the heavens, a healing of the soul and a healing of the body, to [name]. For You are a faithful and merciful physician. Blessed are You, who heals the sick.”
A Prayer of Healing Offered to the God of All Flesh
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah, you have always been a God who heals.
Moses cried out for Miriam in five words and you heard him.
The psalmists cried from their sickbeds and you met them there.
We bring before you now every person whose name we carry in our hearts, whose illness we have not been able to fix, whose pain we cannot reach.
Send them refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf: healing of the soul and healing of the body.
And where full physical healing is not given, grant the deeper healing that no illness can touch: the peace that the world cannot give, the presence that does not leave in the darkness, the love that endures past all ending.
You are the God who does not sleep, who watches, who binds up wounds.
We trust ourselves and those we love into those hands.
Amen.
What People Ask About Jewish Healing Prayers
What is the Mi Sheberach prayer?
It is the central Jewish prayer for healing, recited during the Torah service. Its name means “May the One who blessed.” It invokes the merit of the patriarchs and matriarchs and asks God to send complete healing of body and soul to a named person, with the congregation responding Amen.
What does Refuah Shleimah mean?
It means “complete healing” or “full recovery” in Hebrew. The phrase combines refuah (healing) with shleimah (whole or complete, from the root shalom). It refers to both physical cure and spiritual restoration, recognizing that illness affects the whole person, not only the body.
How do you request a Mi Sheberach in synagogue?
Contact the synagogue office or the gabbai (prayer leader) before the service with the Hebrew name of the ill person and their mother’s Hebrew name. The prayer is offered during the Torah reading. Many synagogues maintain a running list and some accept names submitted online or by phone.
Which Psalms are used for healing in Jewish tradition?
Psalms 6, 23, 30, 41, 91, 103, 121, and 147 are most commonly associated with healing in Jewish prayer. The full Book of Psalms is considered particularly powerful when recited for someone gravely ill, often divided among community members so the entire book is completed in a single day.
Is the Jewish prayer for healing only for Jewish people?
The refuah shleimah blessing is inclusive in scope. The traditional text prays for healing “among all who are ill,” without limiting the petition to Jews alone. Many communities interpret this universally. The God of Israel is also, in Jewish theology, the God of all flesh, who heals all who call on him.
Sources and Scholarship Behind This Post
Dosick, W. (2007). Living Judaism: The complete guide to Jewish belief, tradition, and practice. HarperOne.
Levine, S. (2005). Jewish values in health and medicine. University Press of America.
Staff writer. (n.d.). Mi Sheberach: Jewish prayer for healing. My Jewish Learning.
Staff writer. (n.d.). Prayers for healing. Judaism 101 (JewFAQ).
Staff writer. (2023). Mi Sheberach: The Jewish prayer for healing. Am HaZak.
Staff writer. (2025). What is Refuah Shleimah? The Blue Dove Foundation.
Siddur Sim Shalom. (2003). Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals. The Rabbinical Assembly.
Staff writer. (n.d.). What is a Mi Shebeirach? Chabad.org.
