In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

26 ∂ rosh hAshAnAh Introduction to Un’taneh Tókef K’dushat Hayom: We Declare the Utter Sanctity of This Day “Un’taneh Tókef K’dushat Hayom: We Declare the Utter Sanctity of This Day”—a core passage of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in the Ashkenazic rite—has captured the Jewish imagination for centuries, despite being difficult to penetrate, structurally complex, and theologically challenging.* Lengthy and multi-sectioned, it reads more like a poetic collage than a unified composition. The frame of the collage is the theme of judgment: God is extolled as Judge and Ruler; we pass before His scrutinizing gaze like sheep; ourdestiny lies in His hands.† For many readers today, the theology of reward and punishment is not a helpful guide for living one’s life. Yet Un’taneh Tókef (it is most often referred to by its initial two words) compels and, some might say, haunts us: it has a mysterious, almost eerie, quality that makes it difficult to set aside. And so, centuryaftercentury, we continue to turn back to it—in the words of the rabbis, to “turn it and turn it.”‡ One “turning”—one more way to draw meaning from this ancient text—would be to set aside its frame and focus on the picture inside: the image ofdeath.Whowill live and who will die, who now and who later, when and by what *A fuller discussion of Un’taneh Tókef may be found in part 5, which begins on page 205. † Here and throughout, references to God as personified or gendered reflect the language and theology of the texts being quoted or paraphrased , not the perspective of this book. ‡ The talmudic dictum “Turn it and turn it” (Pirkey Avot 5:22) refers to the study of Torah, which the rabbis encourage one to do over and over again, in order to fully grasp its meaning. Opening the Heart ç 27 means will each of us come to our end? For the one certainty in life is that we will come to our end: all is ephemeral , all is fading, nothing that lives is unchanging. All religions grapple with the ultimate fact of our mortality and the mortalityofeveryone and everything we love. In Jewish liturgy, no other passage is as forthright as Un’taneh Tókef in laying this truth before us. Its unique combination of poignancy and bluntness accounts in good measure, I believe , for its power. And it is this power that makes Un’taneh Tókef so fitting to the turning of the year, the period in which we confront death and dying most pointedly. With the changing of the seasons and (in the Northern Hemisphere) the waning of daylight, we become especially aware of the passage of time in the natural world. So too, as we start a new year, with its promise of renewal and fresh beginnings, we become more alert to the workings of time in our personal lives. Un’taneh Tókef brings death and loss into the forefront ofourawareness, giving voice toour fears while placing our deaths in the largercontext ofall that lives.The re-creation offered here highlights those aspects of Un’tanehTókef that I believe are most useful for confronting our mortality. ...

Share