Yekum Purkan

("May salvation [from heaven] arise"). Opening words and name of two Aramaic prayers which, in the Ashkenazi rite, follow the prophetic reading on all Sabbath mornings apart from High Holidays. The first, invoking Divine protection of rabbis, students, and communal leaders, may be recited also by one praying alone, whereas the second---a prayer for the synagogue worshipers---may only be said with a quorum (Minyan). The first Yekum Purkan is the older: it refers to the heads of the Academies, scholars, and exilarchs of the Babylonian Diaspora, and to the sages and "holy community" of Erets Israel. Having entered the liturgy in Erets Israel, Yekum Purkan was adopted by the earliest Italian rite and then incorporated in the medieval French Maḥzor Vitry. The first paragraph is sometimes omitted on festivals coinciding with a Sabbath, and the Conservative prayer book includes only the second Yekum Purkan (with an abbreviated translation).

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