Al Ha-Nissim

("For the Miracles"). Prayer of thanksgiving composed in the talmudic era and recited during the Amidah and Grace After Meals on the festivals of ḥanukkah and Purim. On both these holidays it is followed by an appropriate brief historical account of the reasons for the festival. It thanks God for a miraculous deliverance, whether "in the days of Mattathias the Hasmonean" (Ḥanukkah) or "in the days of Mordecai and Esther" (Purim). Some modern Orthodox Jews believe that Al ha-Nissim and a new paragraph should be recited (in Grace after Meals at least) on Israel's Independence Day. The Conservative prayer book's introductory formula gives thanks for miracles performed "in other days and in our time," also supplying an Independence Day passage that combines phrases from the Ḥanukkah text with allusions to Israel's 1948-49 War of Independence.

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